Gearing up for California spring weddings!

Even though this year the groundhog said that it would be a long winter, California never listens. The days are warming and I know that Spring is right around the corner.

I’m finishing up a few paintings from this winter in studio before sending this off. I love taking this extra time to add as much details as possible.

I am also still in the process of moving, but my housing did not work out, so I’m back to square one. No worries, I’m used to the chaos by now! I am also, in between illustrating another children’s book, writing a children’s book myself. I’m just getting stuck, and most likely being too hard on myself.

I still have some availability for the spring for Live Wedding Paintings or Guest Illustrations!

Painting Love across California: New Live Wedding Portraits, updates to my Live Guest Illustrations and Life Update

I’ve been quietly painting through a time where everything has been chaotic. There’s been plenty of new weddings, celebrations and a whole lot of life happening in the background. I wanted to share a small update and a recent painting I’ve completed. I do most of my Live Wedding Paintings and Guest Portraits in Napa, California, The Bay Area, California and Solono County, California but I do travel sometimes.

Live Wedding Painting and Guest Portraits will always have my heart. What I have been experimenting with through the year and a half that I’ve been doing this, is playing with softening the background and focusing on the couple. I used to get so lost in getting the background as detailed as possible, that it would overpower the entire painting. The same thing for my guest portraits. I would add a lot of details that I wouldn’t get through the amount of guests that I wanted to— sometimes they had up to 250 guests and of course that is impossible to finish on site. I am simplifying my designs and hopefully that will allow a bigger window to get as many people included! I am working on my samples as it worked well with my last wedding (but I’m really bad at getting videos and photos. Something I hope to do better this year! I see so many live artists and their beautiful videos and one day, I’ll get my act together. I just get nervous recording people, you know??

I am moving n a few days, and my schedule will be little hectic. It is strange to have a weekend and not be at a wedding…

• Kirsten Elizabeth Art

Starting Fresh in the New Year: New Year, More Bay Area California Weddings!

After experiencing a little car accident last Fall, and getting illnesses back, to back, to BACK, I am finally on the mend and ready to jump back into Live Wedding Paintings. Thankfully, I had studio paintings until this year.

Studio Wedding Painting of a Wedding in Lake Tahoe, California.

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things and adding onto my schedule for 2026! If I could explain one word for last year it would be CHAOS. But 2026 is proving to be a lot better than last year already, and it had just began. I hope to add more Live Wedding Paintings and Live Guest Illustrations in the calendar!

Live Wedding Painting

I hope that I can add just a little bit of magic to your day!

-Kirsten Elizabeth Art

Finishing up a mural for a little girls room in Bay Area

I have been working on a mural for a little girls room who loved turtles and the ocean, but also loved bright colors like pinks and purples. I’m always a little bit surprised when people reach out to me from out of my area for me to do murals, like WHO ME? LITTLE OL ME? But don’t worry, it was a short drive from the North Bay Area to my hometown in the East Bay.

It was a 15x10 wall, and had low texture and a large window across from it. Perfect place to paint a detailed mural!

This thing took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to even just sketch out. I’m going to be honest, most of the work was a blur! Once I get into the zone, I HAVE to finish. But alas, this took me three days.

I always get a little disappointed when I have to leave a project and it’s not done, even though it’s completely normal and expected. We are humans by the way, and not machines.

In the end, this mural was loved and that’s all that matters! Reminds me of when I was growing up and was obsessed with Orcas, because what 90’s kid wasn’t? I would have loved this mural!

Lake Tahoe Wedding Live Wedding Painting

Just finished up this Lake Tahoe, California Wedding Painting, and already want to go back to Tahoe. There’s nothing like that magic or that crisp air.

Take me back already!

If anyone has a wedding in Lake Tahoe, hit me up (I’m literally begging).

Cheers!

East Bay California Children’s Book Illustration: Getting my Romance Novel Illustration feet wet…

I have disappeared for quite some time, and now that I have reached the surface, I can share what I have been working on! I celebrated my birthday on the 11th, and took some time enjoying my family. I am a single mom, so it was just me and my t here children and I enjoyed that so much!

I have been working on my current project, which has been multiple children’s books and poetry book covers. It has been fast paced and a little overwhelming, but we are pushing through.

I started this project at the end of June, and illustrated two children’s books, and two poetry covers. To say that I have been BUSY was an understatement. The children’s books were not fully illustrated, and had two to three illustrations per book. So it was not that intense.

I am also working on a contemporary romance novel cover and I have been very excited to start that as well! I love learning new things and enjoying working in that space.

I think that I may need to update my services and include these on the regular, because I enjoy them so much! Being able to create something that enhances someone else’s imagination has been so amazing! The only issue is that I’m on the West Coast and they have been on the East Coast so communication is sometimes a little off.

Do you read romance or poetry? Let me know!

San Francisco City Hall Painting

I was contacted to recreate their Wedding photos from the San Francisco Bay Area City Hall Wedding. I have never done a wedding there before, and I’m not sure if Live Wedding Painters would be allowed to even set up there because of all of the rules. This reminds me that I need to look it up so I know what to tell future brides.

But starting this painting, I fell in love with the detail of he door and the bright colors. They had their dog with them as well, and he was such a cute little guy to paint with them. The golden details really spoke out to me, and I decided towards the end to add gold leafing.

Let me tell you, that was so hard! Gold leafing went everywhere and I quickly learned that the oil wasn’t completely dry yet. But at the very end, everything worked out and the piece was one of my favorites EVER.

Fathers Day Portrait and Reflecting

This year I had to rush to finish a very special Fathers Day Portrait in under two weeks. But this wasn’t just any Fathers Day Portrait, it was for the fathers best friend. She wanted a portrait of her husbands late best friend and his daughter, because he passed before seeing her grow.

As a professional Bay Area portrait artist, I’ve painted hundreds of portraits for different occasions, but this pulled at my heartstrings. Because while I was painting this, I was reminded of my own loss of my father.

My dad passed away ten years ago, and yet it feels like yesterday I heard him tell me not to worry about him. He was what inspired me to become an artist in the first place. He wanted to become a professional artist, and he was so talented. He would stay up late drawing cartoon characters on out paper bags every day, and saved every drawing I ever did (which included a Wanted Poster with his face when I was 11).

During the entire painting process, I jut kept thinking of my dad and how I hoped that he was proud of me. I don’t normally accept rush orders because I’m usually booked for Live Wedding Paintings all over the Bay Area, and have a hard time adding extra pantings using this time. But I’m so glad that I said yes, because it turned out so beautiful.

If you are looking for a custom gift, whether its for Fathers Day, a Live Wedding Painting, or another special portrait, I would be honored to create something that means the world to you.

I’ve served clients all across the San Francisco Bay Area, Napa, Sonoma and Beyond and offer:

• Live Wedding Painting

• Custom Wedding in studio Portraits

• Family and Memorial Portraits

• Pet Portraits

• Custom Illustrations

• Children’s Book Illustration

Bay Area Backyard Wedding Live Painting- Solono County California

Back in April I had the pleasure of going to one of my first backyard weddings as a professional Live Wedding Painter. Some things I found were much easier while other things were definitely not.

Usually before a wedding, I will go to the location website and research places to set up, where I would like to take reference photos, where the flow of the day would be. Fro this wedding, I did not have any of that information. Set up would be the day of, and I had no idea what I would be walking into on the day of. This gave me a lot of anxiety, but I knew that I would be able to do it.

Once arriving to the home in Northern California, I quickly realized that it would be HOT. More than hot, it would be dry and have no wind at all. There was limited parking , and so I parked a couple of streets away and began the walk to the house, already starting to sweat. But once the front door opened and I saw. the family and the bride, things started happening quickly. I knew I needed to set up fast, and out of the way, which is harder to do with such an intimate wedding.

The rough rough layout which I also changed later that night.

Back in the corner, I began laying down the first layer of where I was going to place the background and the couple. They had a beautiful simple wedding tent and florals on the table. It was just so sweet and intimate. I could hear the family cracking jokes as we waited for everyone to line up for the walk down aisle.

Once the wedding ended, I quickly got a reference photo as stealthy as I could. I felt more exposed in this wedding, and I didn’t want to make myself stand out too much. Now, starting the painting was really easy, and I quickly filled in the trees, the tent and outlining the couple. I was really excited, until I turned and rolled my ankle on a rouge tree stump, or roots. I really couldn’t tell because it was dark by then. And my main light wasn’t working (go figure), so I could only see the painting and nothing around me. That was probably why I tripped. But while I was doing so, I knocked over my spirits and I did not have more.

I ended up able to finish the painting (as much as I usually do before touch ups in the studio) and tried my best to not hobble to the bride and groom after they did their money dance. They were so happy, and I left the wedding forgetting that my ankle hurt until I got home.

Things that I learned:

-Make sure to learn as much as you can beforehand, that way you are prepared for your surroundings.

-Bring extra supplies for in case things spill/accidents happen. I haven’t had much experience with accidents, and since I am holding a lot of equipment, I like to keep things light so I can carry it all in one go-ish.

-Don’t stress too much! When I started to panic is when things felt like they were going downhill. But you know what? People came up to me and kept saying how much they loved the painting and at the end of the night the bride and groom were happy.