Friday, June 7, 2013

Columbus Arts Festival!

Today is the start of the Columbus Arts Festival! It run through the weekend, 11am until 1030pm on Friday and Saturday, then 11am until 5pm on Sunday. There will be live music, food, and so many artists, including myself! I'll be in booth number 122, at the end of Rich St.

Here is just one of many of my pieces I'll have up in my booth. I can't wait for it to start, this will be the largest festival I have done to date, with the average attendance at over 400,000 people through the weekend! Thats a lotta folks!
Here is the site to festival with any other information you may need:

Monday, April 29, 2013

Framed Triptych

Here's the triptych after framing, they are three individual pieces hung together to make one final piece. It was a fun study, one of many I've been doing to get ready for some bigger pieces. I want to have a bunch for the upcoming festival here, the Columbus Arts festival is going to be a big one. Can't wait!


Monday, April 22, 2013

New Triptych Painting

I've been back in columbus a few weeks now, and have been really inspired by the dawn and dusk landscape colors i've been seeing. Plus I realized it's been awhile since I've done a triptych, so here is one of my favorite new pieces;


And I also wanted to share some info about the Columbus Arts Festival, check them out HERE.
I was lucky enough to get into the emerging artist program they have, which has been amazing! they have been so helpful and supportive, and I have been getting really excited for this show. It will be taking place June 7 - 9, so mark your calenders now!

>And as a total side note, I noticed this picture makes a slight optical illusion, because of the angle of the piece inside its frame it looks like the box is very slight rhombus, cool eh?

Saturday, April 13, 2013

CCAD Art Sale!

First off I would like to thank everyone who came out to the CCAD sale today. It was great to see a bunch of old friends again and it is always inspiring to see all of the amazing work coming out of that school.


I also was reminded that I should always have more big work! I focused on making the mini pieces almost all winter, so  now it's time to start thinking big again. It feels good to be inspired.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Back in Ohio!

Made it back safe and sound to Ohio! Now its time to get back to work and start painting up a storm again. Heres a little guy from the road.


I'm also going to be doing something new this year at the CCAD sale. I've decided to start selling the little ones unframed as well as framed. And after the sale I'll be opening the Etsy site again, with these little unframed guys as well. I like how the hand holding the piece helps to show how little it actually is, so I was thinking that I would include a picture like this with every entry, what do you folks think?

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Simple Blue-Green Sky

  So my winter trip is just about coming to an end, but its been everything I'd hoped for. We climbed, painted, made great friends, and most importantly avoided the worst of the northeast winter. 
  We'll be starting the drive back today, taking tons of photos along the way, and most likely doing some painting too. I thought I was starting to get ahead of the game, but I ended up selling 7 or 8 pieces  on the road, which was great but also put be behind again. Time to get into serious painting mode! This was a fun little painting I just finished up last night.

 4" x 4"
Acrylic

Oh yeah, mark your calenders for the CCAD Spring Art Sale! April 13th! Be there or be square.


Thursday, March 7, 2013

A little guy from Joshua Tree

Ive been having fun painting tons of different Joshua Trees out here. This one is more stylized and illustrative than most but the colors were what was driving it.
With only a few days left I have been taking more pictures than I'll know what to do with when I leave. It's off to the Grand Canyon after this though so this is just the start of picture taking time I suppose. Time to get back to painting!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Joshua Tree California!


   Joshua Tree might be one of the coolest, most interesting place I have ever been. Their slogan is the worlds greatest playground or something along the lines of that, and I whole heartedly agree. The actual rock climbing would be enough, but the hiking and local flora put it over the top.
   I have definitely found a new subject matter here, the trees are right out of a Dr. Seuss book and I've loved painting them. Here is one of the new paintings, keep in mind its only 2" x 3".


   This wonderful place has definitely helped me start painting a lot again. I'm hoping the folks back East will appreciate them too, with all my art festivals being out there.
  I have been working on two other projects as well, a commission for my friend and wildly talented singer Micah, check out his music here; http://www.myspace.com/micah-music. Also a greeting card for a rochester veterinary hospital, they send birthday cards to all their regular patients. So there's lots to keep busy with here on the road!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Greetings from Southern Arizona!



The landscape of southern Arizona is amazing. This photo is of the very top of what I think is called Kings Crest. I found a survey marker on top, but that was all the info I could find about it. The peak is right across from the climbing area near Queen Creek. It had no trail or markers other than the one on top, but there were herd paths most of the way, at least to the base of the peak. The vantage point from the top of the peak really showed the interesting waves in the land. This was the survey marker I found;


It had a rocks stacked around it and I almost missed it all together. I'm glad I found it though, it reminds me off the Adirondacks, where they have them on every high peak.
And so even though I havn't been painting as much as I'd like, the scenery and environment out here has inspired me, as well as the climbing. I will have updates soon of some of the paintings I have finished so far, and more panoramic landscape photos.

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!