Monday, July 2, 2012

Nazareth Piece

Last week was very fun; setting up for my show and getting to relax and hang out with my family and old friends for bit was great. The opening went very well too, the crowd was nice and I got to see some faces I havn't seen in quite a while, like my highschool art teacher Bill Stephens! 
Here was the piece all together before any pieces had been bought and taken down yet:


Since the idea of the show was for people to take the art right when they bought it, instead of waiting for the show to be over then getting it, I really wanted to play off it. That was the main reason for creating a large mosaic, I wanted to see the main shape get dwindled away until (fingers crossed) there's nothing left. I was lucky enough to have a couple sales the opening night, so here is the beginning of the piece getting smaller:


Hopefully I can get a few more pictures as the month goes on, until then it's time to paint like mad again so I can be ready for my busy month of September. Three art festivals, three weekends in a row! Can't wait!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Nazareth Art Opening!




Had a blast today setting up my mosaic piece for the show at Nazareth College. It has over 60 pieces total, all of them different kinds. Some framed, some unframed, some of my more traditional landscapes mixed in with the newer text pieces, something for everyone! I don't want to give away too much of the  final piece until after the opening, so here is one shot right at the beginning of set up.


I planned it out first on the floor, then slowly put up one at a time making sure they were all set up just right. Surprisingly enough it only took about three hours to put them all up, I thought I would be in for the long haul for sure.


Here is a little close up of one of my more favorite sections after I had it almost finished. This trio is definitely one piece that stands out from the group. The bright orange pieces stay towards the center of the mosaic and make it look like a vague sun setting over a thin strip of land. I will have more pictures after the opening! If you want to see it finished though, all of the info is on the poster. Friday from 5 to 7! Hope to see some familiar faces! Weeee

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Easton Art Affair!

This friday is the start of the Easton Art Affair! I will be showing my work along with about 100 other artists all weekend long. If you are in the Columbus area this weekend be sure to stop by, say hello, and check out all the cool stuff!
Here is a little teaser of some new stuff that will be up at the show!

4" x 12"
Yellow Ocean
Acrylic

4" x 12"
Happy Thoughts
Acrylic

Sunday, May 27, 2012

New Text Pieces


I recently had a commission for a whole bunch of the mini text pieces, here are two of my favorites.


Have fun every day!


And don't forget to play more.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mothers Day!

I hope everyone has a great mothers day today!


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

There's Always Hope!

Whenever you're down and out, don't forget to cherish the little happy moments that happen every day:)

I did this little piece for a Relay for Life event in New York, they help fund cancer research. Some friends of the family are on the committee and they have an auction table. The theme of the event is paint the town purple, it's going to take place June 1st in the Spencerport school district. It's always a good feeling to finish a piece that you know will go to a good cause, and even better when their fun to make!
These little word or inspiration pieces have been a very welcome change of pace lately. I have been lucky enough to have several commissions and a gallery interested in them. I will put up some pictures soon of some of the new ones. My favorite so far has to be one that says "Have Fun Every Day." Weee

Monday, April 30, 2012

OSU EcoCar Project!

I cant believe March was the last time I posted, it's not for lack of work though. Here is one piece I had a particularly fun time making the past month or so.
I was lucky enough to be chosen, along with about eight other local artists, to partner up with the OSU Eco Car Program (check out some more info about them here) and 83 Gallery here in columbus to make a pretty unique piece. The long and short of it is we took old junk yard car hoods, and turned them into art! This is what the hood looked like after I got it and cleaned it off. I kind of wish I had a picture of it when it was all covered in rust and dirt, but I was too eager to start working to think of it.

I chose one with a hole in the center because I knew it would be fun to try and do something with. So step one was getting it clean and prettied up, then came the gesso. It was interesting to see it go through the next couple of stages as it went from black to white to bright orange/red, then ended up mostly blue.
 The gesso layer helped me start the planning process better, at this point I really didn't even know what it was I wanted to paint on here yet. I had so many different ideas, I think the hardest part of the whole thing was just deciding. The next step was what I usually do with my paintings, I put a wash on it to make the base color. I also took out the center piece covering the hole.
 The intensity of the orange was something new though, I usually use a burnt sienna or something close to it that is more of an earth tone. The recent pieces I was doing with the lettering probably influenced this step the most. After this one it was time to start actually committing to a painting.
I recently did a piece entitled "Think Happy Thoughts" that had a lone island. I really enjoyed how that piece turned out and was excited to try and tweak it and bring it to a much bigger scale, I think the hood was close to 4 feet on both sides. Thats quite a step up from the 3" or 2" paintings I usually do. I did want to bring a more graffiti influenced feel to it as well, so I added in the arrows and stylized clouds to bring attention to that tiny spot in the middle of the hood. I wonder what that is?
 After I had the sky and Island blocked in and laid out it was just a matter of painting in the entire thing. I started by finishing up most of the clouds and water, then trying to paint the island as loosely and undefined as possible. I really didn't want it to look like I was painting a specific island or even a realistic one. I wanted it to have more of a dream like feel, something you would catch a glimpse of real quick in your mind then it would disappear.
So this is how it turned out! Now for what is through that little dot in the center; I made a box with a small hole on top so I could put a light hanging in. I then made new cover for the front and put a peep hole in it so you would have to get right up close to see what's inside. Then I covered the inside with chalkboard paint and scribbled thoughts and ideas all over the inside. Most of them had to do with environmental and societal problems, that I think could be easily changed if more people knew about them and cared enough to actually make changes in their lives. I have been trying to incorporate things like this into my work lately mostly because I think many environmental problems can be easily solved if more people start to take a part in the change, so even if one person saw this and was influenced then it was worth it to me.

Friday, March 23, 2012

New Stuff

So ive been wanting to do something different lately, but not too different. So I came up with these ideas of words written in the sky of the landscapes I paint. Here are a couple of the first ones!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

New Stuff on Etsy

The past few days I have been working on getting my Etsy site back up and full of new stuff, here is one of my new paintings, the most recent to go up.

Lately I have been doing a lot with these bright blue skies. I think its because I got a new big tube of this manganese blue, which is such a sweet color. I cant help but want to use it on every painting. So anywho, check out all my new stuff here.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Two new pieces on Etsy.

Just recently finished up two more mini landscapes. This first one is from a picture I took driving down to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. I think the landscape surrounding route 71, in between Columbus and Cincinnati, is always amazing. The farm land is so flat and you can see for miles.

This next one is from a picture as well. I was missing the warm western landscape a few days ago when the weather was cold again here, so I was looking back through my pictures from Arizona and found one with this great mesa in it. I completely forgot about this picture so it was fun to paint and pretend to be back in the sun and warmth.
Both paintings are 2" x 3" and are done in acrylic paint.

Monday, February 13, 2012

New Landscape Painting

I have finally had a few days without too much work and Ive been able to crank out a whole bunch of new paintings. I still find myself making things less and less realistic, and things have been leaning almost towards a more illustrated look. Maybe all those years of illustration classes at CCAD are finally showing through in my work. This is the biggest new piece..

Seascape
15" x 30"
Acrylic
Stay tuned for a bunch more paintings!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

New Painting!

I finally finished this piece! I started this so long ago, maybe 2 years ago now? I forgot about it for awhile, then found it again and had intentions of finishing it, until I forgot about it again.. Then a few days ago I found it once again, and so I decided it was finally time to get it done.
It is my own version of one of my favorite paintings, a piece by Gregory Manchess. In my book he is one of the best painters and illustrators alive today and I have always wanted a version of this painting for my studio wall.
And once again, it was cold yesterday and I started this last night, and it was so nice out today I was doing yard work in a t-shirt.. and it's the last day of January! I love controlling the weather with my paintings.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Spring Painting

Here is a new little 3" x 3" painting!

I really think I am controlling the weather with my paintings now though, I did that last big orange oceanscape and it was beautiful that day and the next. Then It got cold for a few days again, and then I started working on this little guy and today is so nice out, and its supposed to be like 45 or 50 all week, in January! I havn't decided how I will use my new found abilities yet.. but I think Ohio could use more palm trees.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

New Painting

So we have only had about two or three cold days this winter I feel like, but I am still not a happy camper about it. I needed a big warm painting session to get over the idea of winter actually being here, and for some reason this orange ocean scene never gets old to me. I like tweaking it a little bit every time and changing or adding little things. This time I added some jet trails criss-crossing the sky. The oranges got a little blown out by my camera but this gives you the idea. I have been back in the mood to paint a bunch again so hopefully I'll have a string of new stuff up soon!
24" x 24"
Acrylic

Friday, January 6, 2012

83 Gallery Tomorrow

So tomorrow is gallery hop here in Columbus, and weather dot com told me that it's supposed to actually not be too cold and miserable out! I am going to be heading to 83 gallery to see all the new stuff, here are two of my new pieces that will be up there.

With both of these new pieces I was getting away from only have that really low horizon line and breaking it up into a few basic colors. Making the landscape a little more realistic is fun sometimes, especially in winter when I am cooped up inside all the time.
With this one I just took what I usually do, and reversed it; I put the horizon line near the top and had the waves gently lapping in over a much bigger distance of the canvas.
So these two will be up at 83 Gallery plus a few new triptych paintings and one big still life I did at CCAD. Hope to see some familiar faces there!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

New Stuff on Etsy, and Gallery Hop this saturday!

So I finally have some new stuff up on etsy again, two new miniatures and two new mini triptychs! Check those out here.

Also I will have a few pieces up at 83 Gallery this saturday for gallery hop here in columbus! They will have live bands all night and tons of new work up, so come check it out if you can. Wee

Monday, January 2, 2012

Oops it's been awhile..

Man, December went by fast! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and happy new years. I was lucky enough to get a bunch of commissions recently, so I had an extra busy few weeks before Christmas. Things have slowed down a bit now though, so I can finally show everyone what I've been up to!

This was a piece I did for a climbing friend of mine from New York. Her family has a cabin on a beautiful lake where they have always fished, kayaked, and done all sorts of fun stuff. It is much looser and quicker than most of my paintings which I enjoyed doing. Lately I have been moving more and more towards impressionism and a less realistic painting style. One more commission to finish up now, which I will post once it's done, then I can start working on new paintings! weee