A Kick Ass Art Show!

Wooooooooooow it's been a hectic past few weeks. Christmas and New Years is over, day job has resumed now that school is back in session, and lots of painting done and preparation to be done for the upcoming show. Here's a video we all did for it, done by the awesome Mike Falzone!

I've been chronicling some of my latest pieces here, but am going to wait to upload them until after the opening, which is January 26th. If you are in the area, or are able to take a train in Forest to Shore Gallery is located just steps away from the Stratford, Connecticut train station! Hope to see you there!

Start of Nut

Started another small 4"x4" painting tonight. This one I am actually recording while I paint it so I can speed it up for a time lapse. This is my depiction of the Egyptian goddess Nut, goddess of the sky. GALAXY HAIR.

Third Eye Revisited

Wasn't too happy with how the third eye in this piece was rendered, so I revisited it. Added in the wings, made the eye more graphic.

I finished Morrigan tonight. However, I do need to do another coat of cadmium red on the arrows I added in to make them more opaque. Red is so finicky...

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek at a teeny-weeny (4"x4") painting of The Morrigan. Felt like taking an artsy shot, so I did!

Beep beep make way for headway!

Howdy, been doing a lot of painting lately, but not much updating. Here's a new piece I started this week I have yet to properly name. Flotsam? I dunno... It's 18"x24", my usual acrylic/oil combo. It's very minimalist, but I'm loving the hell out of this piece so far!

And here's a closeup of the face:

Hurricane Follow-up

I am absolutely thrilled to have power back! When Sandy hit on Monday, John and I were comfortably watching movies together while I painted when the power went out. I cursed, washed my brushes, and hoped for the best. Four days later while waiting for John to come save me from my heavy case of cabin fever, the lights went back on! Since then I jumped back into painting, the only thing I really missed. Except maybe the heat and use of the percolator...

I waaant to say she's done? It's up for critique, for sure! I love how the hair turned out, but the leaves and flower were tricky. I'm still giving those an inquisitive glare.

Haha, oh man, this looks awful at this stage, but, here it is. There will be glowing magical symbols in this one, a halo around her head. It is so far from being done...

Working on some smaller, 4"x4" pieces for my upcoming gallery show at Forest to Shore. Need to do a beastly sized piece as a focal point as well... Gotta brainstorm!

Rapunzel Again

Finished the face! It's been forever, but hey. The hair will be drawn in, need to render the leaves and the flower and add in more color and glazes into the white to make it more interesting.

Need to do a lot of work in the next 2.5 months for an upcoming gallery show I will be doing with 3 other artists. I'm so excited!

Rapunzel

Had a marathon painting day today! Started a small painting of Rapunzel. I'm all over the place with paintings right now...

Back in the Game

Hey! Been a little while... August was a month full of trial and error, and experimentation. I've reconnected with a few books, stories, and characters I've always--or recently--loved. This painting in particular is revisiting one of my favorite short stories: Kaleidoscope by Ray Bradbury. As my favorite author of all time, I find it very appropriate to illustrate a work of his in the midst of his passing.

This is my first time painting space; very exciting! I've utilized NASA's wonderful archive of photographs to supply reference for this piece. If you have yet to take a look, you should!

Painted Sleds

The opening for the Painted Sleds show at Forest to Shore Gallery was tonight! None short of fun, and packed with surprises! About all the people in this photo are mine or John's family. I loved seeing everyone!

There was a wall everyone was welcome to paint on throughout the course of the night. I left my mark with some random lady. Amanda painted Patchy (pink hat) and John did Groose.

As I said, the night was hella fun. I'm exhausted after being there for a good 4 hours, but it was totally worth being asked to take part in a three-man show later this year! So soon, I'll have to work my ass off to get enough work ready for then, but I'm excited!

Third Eye Complete

MacGyvered a lighting set up a few minutes ago and finally "properly" photographed this. Hooray! Enjoy!

Deck Progression

About time I post how progress is going with this piece! I can't exactly say how much longer it will be before this is done, but considering I have a week-ish more to work on it I'm going to make sure not much goes overlooked. I'm pleased with how it's coming along. It's difficult to maintain the wood grain around the figure. There are like, three spots I wish I could take some sandpaper to, but they're really only noticeable to me.

In the middle of painting this evening, something just popped out at me about this piece that just was... WOAH. She looked like Zooey Deschanel. Completely unintentional, I swear!

Estate Haul

Went to an estate sale after hearing from John's mother that it was at a house of a former artist. This always gets me excited because I have no idea what they have or what I can find. I was pleasantly surprised!

In total I got eight frames, an old aluminum watercolor pan, and two tubes of Rembrandt oil paints. Two of the frames I picked up were a little worse for wear, and all were terribly dusty and were clearly homes to spiders at some point in time... But, after a few hours dusting them off, wiping them off with watered down bleach to to kill any mold, they look awesome!

 

John also picked up this band saw, which we're both psyched about because now I can easily cut masonite without risking exacto injuries to my hands, and he can saw through branches in a fraction of the time it takes for him to take a hand saw to one! Fantastic haul, we're such happy campers! :)

Hooray!

I think she's done! Ready for critique, at least. Need to varnish it once it's dry to unify everything, then photograph it. I also got a decent amount of work in on the skateboard, in spite of being debilitated a majority of the day by a massive migraine...

Bought a frame today for Third Eye as well. It's always the cherry on top to see a painting framed!

Doin' Thangs

Man, what a long day... Started off by driving with John to Danbury to get Brazillian food at Mina's Carne. Ooooh, plantains are works of art in of themselves... Anyway, after getting back I jumped into painting. First threw down the first layer of oils on the skateboard, then a few hours back with this babe. Afterwards, I worked on Katniss for some time as well. Just jumped from painting to painting all day long. Totally worth it, got iced coffee after I called it a night ;)

Deck Progress

Here is how I spent my Fourth of July: painting all day, watching Red vs. Blue while John finished playing Metroid Prime. Heard the fireworks outside that the neighbors were setting off. Good enough for me!

Funny how the curvature of the board distorts her face and foot and makes it look all terrible in the photograph. Trust me, it doesn't actually look that anatomically weird in person.

Plans from here is to render the skin, the folds on the cloth, and once it's done being painted to add in a gold leaf halo around her head and into the yellow areas of the roses.

What the Deck: Resolved!

And here is what I came up with! Black dress, red roses, gold leaf. Surrounding the figure I will let the wood grain show through. Waiting on this for a few more hours, it looks so weird to me now because it's such a curved, long shape...

Third Eye WIP

Coming along. Blocked in stuff, mushed stuff up... Gonna do, gonna do.

What the Deck?!

Picked this up today from Forest to Shore to paint for their upcoming skateboard deck show in August. Ah, yeah... no true idea what to really paint on this! I have some idea; naked ladies, flowers... stuff. Any ideas?

The format is what's really messing with me, it's way longer than what I remember skate decks to be, it's about 3' long by 10" wide looking at it right now ('cause, it could totally change shape while I'm not looking). I'll fiddle around with it in my head, but if anyone has anything to suggest I'm all ears :)

Third Eye

Taking a brief recess from my Katniss painting. Had to get this image out of my head, first. Underpainting is a little derp, but I'll whip it into shape ;)