All Ten Plagues

Although this is mostly a blog of painting work, I also do illustration and design. I appreciate all three very much, and am continually inspired by artists in all these fields. In my work the three have remained very different and separate, and over the past few years I have tried to come up with ways to meld them all, but have kind of let them remain separated. I guess they all show up in one another in subtle ways. I was cleaning up some computer files and came across these illustrations. A year or two ago I had a job to illustrate the ten plagues of Egypt. At one point I had posted a few on here. Since then I have had a few people ask me to see them in their entirety, so here they are. As a whole I am pretty happy with them given the constraints of the project, one of which was a ridiculously short timeline. Coming up with fresh and individual ideas quickly for ten very dramatic scenes is tough, especially differentiating between flies, gnats, and locusts. I took a lot of shortcuts, and definitely like a few better than others. They were intended to be in a storybook style, almost children's book illustration, with a simplified "cutout" feel.

Leyendecker Book

I wish I had more money to spend on art books, there are a lot that I pass up that I wish I could buy. This is a Leyendecker book I bought a few weeks back, really nice, great prints, high quality, some of the best reproductions of his work I have seen. If you have an extra $40 it is worth the purchase.

Painting update: I have 13 of about 20 paintings done for my May show in Portland. I sent 2 paintings down to Wells Gallery in Charleston this week. Looks like I may be having another show at Wells Gallery with Evan Harrington in Charleston late this summer, which will be awesome. Our show together last year was a lot of fun, he is a really young guy, still finishing up school, doing amazing traditional work. Also, on another front, I am trying to figure out what to paint for an invitational in Tulsa this summer called "Masters of Influence" put on by the Lovetts Gallery. They pick a famous artist each year and ask artists to create a piece based on, or inspired by, the chosen artist. This year they chose Frank Lloyd Wright, which will be fun because he is an interesting character himself, I am a fan of his architectural work, his sketches are great...there are a lot of ideas to pull from!

Mid-Struggle

This is a painting I am currently working on for my show in May. I am sure I will regret posting it, but that is the beauty of the delete button. At this point I think it is about 50% of the way there. Part of me wishes I had the guts to take a painting about this far, or a bit more, and leave it. It is still fun and abstract and it is more about the paint, marks, and mood than about "what it's supposed to be". Painting is fun, but at the same time it is PURE AGONY, on so many levels. Robert Henri said, "A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle." That is the truth, that guy knew what he was talking about.

Stephen Hayes = Awesome

I am hammering away at about a painting a week right now to get ready for a one-man show this May/June in Portland Oregon. I hope to have 25 paintings at the show with a few trickling into the galleries leading up to that. I have not decided yet when to start posting the work here or on my site, but when I get time I will try and get some up. I am looking at doing a mix of urban interior stuff, cityscape stuff, and some portrait work. I feel like the paint has been a bit more expressive and confident in the pieces thus far, I am excited to get them out there.

In the meantime, here is another guy that I like to keep an eye on, Stephen Hayes. I fell in love with his work in 2003 when I first saw it in Portland at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. A lot of his stuff is pretty large, 5'+, this one I think is 40"x40". If I ever break some of my barriers and get past some artistic and mental blocks I hope to approach my work this fresh one day.

Banditos (2006)

I ran across these a couple weeks back as I was going through a bunch of my old stuff. I was pleasantly surprised, it is rare I like my work, especially OLD work. I did these back in 2006 when I was experimenting with some different supplies and approaches. These are oil and charcoal on vellum. They are at the framers right now and they may show up at one of the galleries in a couple weeks if I don't hang them on my own walls.

Green Apples

I guess I am bored, and in the mood to share today. I thought these were two great variations on the same subject by two of my favorite artists, two of the best, Alex Kanevsky and Quang Ho (Image from Gallery1261). Quite a bit more abstract than what I am used to seeing from Quang Ho, but still VERY nice.

Waxing Frida

While surfing for Ann Gale paintings I found this blog post. The elephant in the room has now been addressed.

Concorde

This is a painting I finished this week for some very dear friends of mine. I titled it "Concorde" and It measures 30" x 30". I like painting for friends, family, or people I know, but it is FAR more stressful than painting for myself or galleries. I guess I just want to make sure they really like it, and that it meets all their expectations. Plus I know I will see them and the painting again, so I have to try my best. This way I don't hate it in a couple years when I see it, rip it off their wall, and attempt to re-work it. I am sure most artists would understand that feeling or urge. I had a string of commissions and paintings for friends to get done, that was the last one scheduled, back to painting for the galleries.

A bit of news...it sounds like I may have a one-man show scheduled for mid 2010. I will post more on that later when I have final word.

Two and WP

Here is a clear shot of the painting "Two" from the previous post. I also added "WP" which is basically a redo of a boxcar painting I did earlier this year. Intrinsic Design wanted the original boxcar painting for their vendor space on the Street of Dreams, but it was unavailable so I painted a new one. I do not like painting the same painting twice, and have only done that one other time. This is pretty similar to the first, but I changed the graffiti, the train logo, and the birds.

Blog Resuscitation

So, I am hoping to bring this thing back to life a bit. I am not sure anyone is even looking at this anymore. But if you are, awesome, thanks! I am not really sure what it will become, mostly painting work I would guess, since that is what I am working on the most. However, some drawing, design, process work, illustration, or other artist's work I appreciate, may appear now and again.

I must have an image for a post, so here is a shot of a painting I did for Intrinsic Design to display in their 937 Condo space for Portland's 2009 Street of Dreams. It may have been the most fun I have had painting in awhile. It allowed me to work larger than I have in the last couple years, and loosen up on some slightly different subject matter than most are used to seeing from me.

This painting will be hanging at the 937 Condos for the next year. If no one buys it directly from me it will make its way to one of the galleries I suppose.