It's about time...

The new year has started with some serious lack of attention to the internet
but I decided I couldn't let January pass completely by without at least a little update.

Since the holidays I've been busy preparing for an upcoming show at the Hyaena Gallery.
I've had lots of prep work to do to get my game plan down but its about time to get up to my elbows in some serious painting. I'll be leaving for a month to Florence to do some studying so that takes away a good chunk of my painting time before the big show. That means I'll be spending the next two months deep in the painting cave to make sure I get some good work turned out while I can.

On top of that I've got a couple of paintings due for some Valentine's Day group shows, the SEAF submissions in 2 days, and a mural to get painted at a new bar opening up soon. So I'll have to prioritize hardcore these next few weeks. Goodbye social life, and sleep. Hello 2am coffees and cigarettes.

This new year is starting off with a bang. I can't complain. It feels great to be busy. If I can get through  the next few months with some good paintings and without gouging my eyes out with the business end of a paintbrush it'll be a good start to a good year.

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.