Juxtapoz article...

Its been a very busy week. Hung most of the paintings for the Bauhaus show. Its a giant space so I need to make a couple more paintings to fill up the area a little more. The reception isn't until the 10th, so I should have enough time to get together a good piece or two. 
Got an
article in juxtapoz,
on their website.Very excited about that. There's been some great response so far.



We Are All Animals: The Artwork of Crystal Barbre

Tuesday, 01 December 2009

“We are all animals, and don’t you forget it,” writes Andrew Michael Ford. “While we may still exist in a male dominated world, Crystal Barbre wants to remind you that sexuality is not solely a man’s game.” [Warning: these images are explicit and not safe for work or young eyes.]

Show at Bauhaus in December...

chris peters workshop this weekend...

I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to a workshop at Gage this weekend. This will be perfect for helping with some of the color/value issues I've been discovering I don't have answers to. I'm excited going to soak up as much information as I can. Here's the info for the workshop if you're interested...

Chris Peters workshop at Gage Academy of Art

Chris Peters11/21-11/22, Sat-Sun, 9:30am-4:30pm [2 days]


“Chiaroscuro”, the painter’s use of dramatic lighting, was developed by the Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio in the 16th century, and provides the core focus of this weekend workshop.

Peters begins by discussing how to light your subject to maximize the description of its three dimensional forms. He then helps you to compose the planes within your picture into large light and dark sections with an unambiguous focus on your main subject matter. Peters pushes you to maximize the dramatic reading of your painting by going beyond a narrow range of middle values so that your intermediary areas of half-light and half-shadow areas play second fiddle to the creation of a strong overall effect. He also shows you how to use a mirror as you develop your painting to help distinguish general values from local values.

During the workshop, you create one small painting each day, working quickly and simply to "cover the canvas" by making value/color choices everywhere. Your artistic goal is to grab people’s attention from a distance and then reward them with beautiful details as they come closer to inspect your artwork, just like a Caravaggio or a Rembrandt.

lovely accidents...

Up late last night trying to work - couldn't. Just stared at my tools for awhile. Noticed they were quite pretty. Its easy to be so focused on improving on what you know - trying to develop your technical skill, or developing whatever concept you're trying to get across - its easy to forget to listen to the accidents that happen in art. Especially in realist art accidents are considered mistakes, not blessings. I love realism and want to develop my technical skill as much as I can - but I don't want to forget to bend a bit to the chaos that makes art so exciting. I don't want to get so busy trying to master the craft that I lose touch with the small voice that made me love art in the first place. Its a voice I don't think can ever be mastered or explained. I have to remember to allow my art to have enough room to breathe and to allow life to influence my work instead of spending so much time "mastering" it I end up smothering it. 

december show fast approaching...

I've been so busy trying to get this show pumped out by December 1st I haven't had much time for anything else. I only have a little over a week to go so hopefully it all turns out well. It can be very satisfying to have to work quickly on a series - it keeps me from being too precious about the work. At the same time i can tend to call parts of a painting done when it really isn't to par and needs to be worked on more. I should be able to go back over a piece later - after the show and they are back in the studio - but it never works that way. I get so sick of them after they're hung I just never want to see them again usually. Its like going back to an ex boyfriend - ugh. just doesn't work out. Usually it just gets more fucked up then it was before. So, its hard to not have the time to really work through a piece to my satisfaction.

Coming along on the second sara piece. Getting at that frustrating point when things seem to be getting worse the more paint I put on. There are so many aspects of painting I still have to learn. Sometimes its hard not to focus just on what's not working in the painting. It's difficult because you have to be your own worst critic to be able to be honest about how you need to improve as a painter, while at the same time not getting frozen up by a sense of failure. Walking the line between honest criticism and self deprecation is a tough one. It's funny since its also necessary to keep a healthy show of confidence. Its like dating, if you don't at least put on a front of confidence no one is going to take you home. Same with painters, no one is going to have faith in you as a valuable artist if you don't at least act like you are the bees knees.
   Well, keeping my fingers crossed this piece works out.

Second Sara piece.

Starting the new Sara piece. So far just the burnt umber underpainting. I'll be sticking to roughly the same  palette as the first fish girl painting. 

My girl with fish painting is at its new home at the Hideout.

I've been spending most of my time this last week focusing on drawing and painting exercises. We made some casts today from a moulage material. Its a bit boring to be working on so many cast and anatomy exercises but it's helpful to get some good practice in before I get to finishing the series this fish girl painting goes with.

observational work and excersizes

It certainly feels like the cold season has begun. We had our first fire today in the fireplace upstairs from my studio. Makes it a little more cozy. I haven't been doing any new paintings lately. Instead I'm focusing on working on different excersizes in our atelier. Anatomy studies, Barque copies, color studies, and lifedrawing. I'll be starting a new series that I know will take up a lot of my time, so I need to make sure to get in the habit of keeping up with my observational work now while I have the chance.

week one in the new studio

I'm very happy with the new studio. Its as big as my apartment. Which isn't saying much considering my apartment is the size of a large jail cell. The new studio is just starting to get set up but its nice to have enough room to be able to step back and look at my work as it goes along. Its bare bones right now, but it won't take long before it gets that lived in artist pack rat feel.
I will need to set up a better ventilation system, as a couple of open windows won't really do it. Look forward to seeing the disaster that will be my attempt at constructing some kind of useful air current situation. I could probably save myself time and money by taking out a comparable amount of toxic chemicals in my system by quitting smoking. but that just isn't going to happen anytime soon.

some earlier work...

Lucky Cat?

The house  my  studio is in has cats.  They seem to enjoy  coming to  visit and helping me paint. The next gallery showing I have I'm bringing these cats. Bums with cats get more change. maybe it works for artists too.

Finishing up the Animal series...first layer of piece 12

Getting started with the first paintings of the season. Decided to  finish off  the last of the animal series before I get started with anything else. It's a good way to get myself back into the swing of things after taking a bit of a break over the summer. Just going to have some fun with the next couple pieces. Here are the underpaintings and first layer finished for the one I'm working on right now...

Good summer, time to get to work for fall...

What a glorious summer! I had a wonderfully well received show at Babeland and got a new and improved studio for this fall's nose to the grindstone painting extravaganza. My collegues and I have an exciting plan for the atelier we are putting together for ourselves for the oncoming year. And on top of it all I had the best experience with a ping pong ball this side of a dingy dimlit stage...

Crystal Barbre Wins the Arbitrary Art Grant in Writing

Monday, August 10th, 2009

So how does one pick a winner for an arbitrary art grant in writing with 154 contestants? Ping Pong Balls seemed rather appropriate, and we wanted to go swimming. So Jed, Perla, Ben and I packed up the car and headed north to the prestine wilderness that is Smoke Farm. We strung a finish line across the lazy river. We walked upstream and Jed threw the balls straight up. It was fair. It was kind of exciting, in a really slow, quiet way. And as the balls crossed the finish line, it was Crystal Barbre in the lead. Congratulations! It’s just been that kind of summer. Thank you all for playing.

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Arbitrary Art Grant in Writing

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Ok hotel group show on July 2nd.

The end of the year group show for Mark Kang O'Higgins class of 2009. The show is at the Ok Hotel Gallery through August 1st.

Magnetisme Animal show July 9th at Babeland