Hot Cars and Vintage Toys - Updated

Dianna, you were right. That bright area on the bottom right did not work. See the second picture and THANK YOU!!!
I finally got some free time to paint today and I think I'm almost finished with the Porsche Panamera painting. I might go back and add a little more bright white sea spray but I'm pretty happy with the way it is now. Now I need a name for it - any ideas?


The last update (also a better picture showing the actual colors) -->



I also decided to finish a painting I started last week with a jack-in-the-box. I wanted to give the painting a creepy vintage feeling and I think I was really successful because the darn thing creeps me out!



Now that I'm finished with it I can honestly say I DON'T LIKE IT. Seriously, I'd give it away before I'd keep it in my house. It gives me the "hee-bee jee-bees"; if that's even a word. Oh well, at least it's finished.

Now I'm sitting here staring a 3 blank canvases... No more vintage toys for a while! I'm thinking cats, birds, or maybe something funny with both?

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My First Art Show!

It has been a really long week; lots of meetings to get our new Feral cat Volunteer group efforts off the ground and a little trapping thrown in for good measure. I was really looking forward to Friday, the opening night of a new Juried Art Show, "Inspired by Kadinsky", where I have two paintings on display. We left early to run some errands...


No, I'm not that tired - We're just shopping for a new mattress...

We arrived at the gallery around 5:30.


Two of my good friends also have paintings there so I began looking for Erika. We were both so excited to see the amazing art on display and to see our own pieces hanging there as well.


We found Chuck and Erika near Carol's painting "Bottled Up People". Here are some other shots of us posing with our paintings:

Robin's "Kitty Kitty"

Erika's "Jazz Festival Series - Red Piano"

Robin's "Maestro"

Carol's "Crucifixion/Resurrection on blue and green"

Erika's "Jazz Festival Series - Red Saxophone"

Now it's time to get ready for another Gallery show at the beginning of October. I really should be painting right now...

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My dream car...

OK, it's not exactly in my price range but I can dream, right? The Porsche "Panamera" is the hot new model that has just come out and I have a chance to paint a really cool picture of it for a silent auction we'll have during the local car show in October.

Oh the dilemma... How to show the coolness of such a car. You can't just paint it sitting still and the road hardly seems deserving of such a fine ride. But wait, what if we put it in another context? One that is both forever young and cool?



Have you guessed yet? Here's my first night's work...



This is going to be a fun one!

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Time Square Revisited

OK, I said I was finished with that painting but after some really good feedback I realized I really wasn't. Some people say you're never finished with a painting until someone wants it (or buys it) so I guess I'll just keep looking at it to see what pops into my head.

What was missing in the last version of the Ape in Time Square painting (titled "Evolution") were a few more detailed people. After all, when is Time Square NOT crowded?

So here's the updated painting with a few carefully placed human beings. Click on the image for a closer look.



Now I think I'm finally finished with this one. Maybe.

Also did another under water picture yesterday with the little seahorse. This one is called "Hitchhiker":

8x10 Acrylic on Canvas panel

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Finish One, Start Another...

I finally finished my Time Square painting. The colors are a bit brighter in person but you get the general idea. I'm calling it "Evolution", do you think that works for a title? Click on the image for a closer look.



This morning I started on a series of smaller paintings (8x10). I saw a photo of a leafy sea horse and it sounded like something fun to paint. I'm not sure how that frog got into the Jellyfish but I'm pretty sure he's not dinner, he's just there for the ride - LOL!

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Caution - Illustration Friday

Scooter showed great caution and care as
he juggled for the audience for the first time.
Acrylic and mixed media 8x10

Super busy this week so I found one of my favorite cat paintings that fit the week's theme. I've been working hard all week as a volunteer for our Feral cat group where I live so I guess I have kitties on the brain!

EEEEKK!

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Time Square Updated

Yesterday I posted a painting in progress and asked you to guess the identify of the unpainted character in the middle of the canvas. I got a few great (and funny) guesses: a ghost and an almost naked, guitar playing cowboy. Both guesses were wrong but I got a good chuckle out of them.

I worked on the background more and am finally ready to fill in the blank space. Here's an updated photo in case you want to try another guess. Hint - the character is leaping into the air. Click on the photo to zoom in for a closer look.

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A Visit to Time Square

I'm working on a new painting with a familiar background - Time Square, New York City. What makes this illustration different from most Times Square paintings is the main character in the center of the of the painting. Here's how it started...



And here is where I'm at now. I've got a few more layers of color to put down on the background before I start on the character in the foreground. Can you tell who (or possibly "what") this character is?



Stay tuned, more pictures coming soon...

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The Lion and the Lion Tamer

I'm still having a lot of fun messing around with playful abstract painting ideas. The other night I decided to try a circus scene with a lion tamer and roaring lion.
I tried to keep the image simple with the two subjects taking up most of the canvas. Here's my first stage with background done, the beginnings of a lion and the lion tamer sketched in:



It took me a while to decide how much detail to put into the lion, I wanted it to keep an abstract feeling about it so there would not be a great contrast between the lion and the very abstract looking lion tamer. I decided to focus on the area around the lion's nose and keep the shapes simple.



After getting in more details for the two subjects I finished up the background by adding more shades of color and some pennants. I think I'm finished, what do you think?

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Wrapped - Illustration Friday

Kids take things so literally sometimes...

Illustration Friday: WRAPPED
Pen and pencil

Also finished another Kadinsky inspired painting last night. This one is called Replication.

"Replication"
11 x 14 Acrylic

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Comically Abstract

A friend called the other day and suggested I study up on an artist in the hope I might get something done for a show in a few weeks. "Wassily Kandinsky" she said. "Look him up, his work is all over the internet."

Wow, she wasn't kidding. Kadinsky is the founder of modern abstract art and has had a huge influence on almost anyone who has picked up a brush since then. I'm especially fond of his work from 1922 until 1944 (his death) so I studied that period to get some ideas. Here's a sample of his amazing work:

I wanted to use some of the elements that are popular in his paintings and I love his use of color but I also wanted to make the piece my own. Since I try to work a bit of humor into the things I make, I decided to go in that direction. After drawing a dozen sketches, I picked out a few to try. My favorite was a sketch I called "Konductor Kadinsky".


I first painted the background (much darker than I should have) and let it sit to dry for an hour.


After messing with the painting for a few hours I had this:


A little frustrated, I decided to post the unfinished picture online as a "work in progress". I complained that the dark background had caused the elements of the piece to lose their "pop". My young friend Elise came back and said "It needs some purple". She was right! I added a shadow and brightened the colors a little bit more. I think I'm done!


Once I was over that hurdle, I tried one more painting. This one is titled "Kiddy Kiddy". Also in the style of Kadinsky.



Check out Kadinsky yourself. He was an amazing artist and is still a great inspiration!

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What to do?

What does a person do when she's overwhelmed with unpacking and settling in after 4 months away from home?



If that someone is me, you waste a few hours making a "how-to" video on a better way to peel a banana!





It's for a contest over on Instructables.com and 6 people will win a Flip MinoHD camcorder. Do you think I have a chance?

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Illustration Friday - Impatience

Now we know why they're called "Impatiens"...

Something silly for Illustration Friday - ink and colored pencil.

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Monday Free-For-All

A few days late but worth the wait...

A free wallpaper and desktop calendar for the month of August. That's right FREE!

Lenny and Lester join the Circus

Click on the (Download Now) button to get the image (size is 1024 x 768 - use 'stretch to fit' if your desktop is another size).

Giclee prints of this painting coming soon to my ArtFire shop. This print is available in my Imagekind store RIGHT NOW, click here for more information.

I'm taking suggestions for the September calendar. Look through my online gallery and FLICKR library for ideas and leave a suggestion here!

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Wrapping things up!

In a few short days we'll leave the boat and head back to our house in Florida for a while. We'll come back to the boat in late October when the temperatures are milder and the afternoon thunderstorms are not quite as fierce!

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Illustration Friday - MODIFY

This week's Illustration Friday was lots of fun! The word MODIFY has so many creative possibilities, I hope you enjoy this one:

If only the real world were this easy to modify...

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