Riki Nelson's Los Gatos Bar Paintings

After Los Gatos Patch published a , artist Riki R. Nelson shared with us on Facebook one of her amazing oil paintings of a scene at one of the local watering holes. She then gave us permission to begin publishing some of her pieces.

These five paintings have their stories and a brief synopsis for each is found in their captions. Nelson said the work is based on her own photo shoots, and on what was actually going on in the bar, at the time.

Nelson, a Los Gatos native, is a contemporary oil painter. She combines classical realism and modernism to depict the contemporary world.

Her subjects include bars and night clubs, which yield rich and detailed portrait paintings.

She has also painted jazz musicians, concerts, in-depth character portraits, night town scapes, street scenes, seasonal plein air local street scenes, seascapes and unusual alla-prima style still-life paintings subjects such as doughnuts, liquor and candy.

"My bar paintings are very much a labor of love, I know Los Gatos so well, and the upscale nightlife is such a wonderful artistic metaphor for the many things in life, I can only express through paint," she said.