Self portrait - sort of...

I've been watching the show "Work of Art" on Bravo (Wed 10pm Est) and it really has me hooked. Not only do I enjoy the shenanigans of the artists and the crazy things they try to accomplish in a short of amount of time, I am also really loving the challenges. I like them so well that I'm going to try and complete them myself!

The first challenge was to paint a picture of another person that reflects who they are and their personality. For this challenge, I decided to do a self portrait instead. Not so much a picture of me as a picture of me surrounded by the the things that interest me.

I'm not sure this piece stands on it's own without explanation but it does include me (painted from a photo and very abstracted) as well as the ideas and experiences that I'm involved in (at the moment any way). I used some mixed media (sailing charts & maps with the words of the countries on them) and I tried to bring the viewer into the painting from the lower left corner and take them through the painting before sending them out at the upper right.

Still working on my composition skills so let me know if it works for you!

"Robin Dreams" 16 x 20 on canvas

Now it's your turn - send me a link to your self portrait and I'll include it in a future post!

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget

Free Art Supplies?

Playing around with some oil markers the other day, I realized I didn't have any scrap canvas or heavy stock paper I could afford to experiment with.

I went to my garage to snoop around for something to decorate and stumbled on these paint swatches I had picked up at Lowes. At around 3 inches by 3 inches, they make a perfect tiny canvas for testing out ideas for illustrations.

Here's an example of what I created with some textured blue and gray samples:


Next time you're at the hardware store, grab a few tiny canvases for yourself!

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget

People are just talking Dogs, Right?

For the longest time I've had a real aversion to painting people. I'm not talking about the mushy background people you put in a street scene, I'm talking about real live faces with skin tone and lips and eyelashes and... my palms are starting to sweat just typing this.

Anyway, I was afraid to paint people. Lately I've been painting a lot of dogs and animals and I'm feeling pretty good about those subjects. During the "Bill Dowdle" fishing rodeo here in Sandestin a few weeks ago, Charles took hundreds of pictures of kids. Many of the photos were really good. One was amazing.



I named him "worm boy" and I printed the photo and kept it on my desk. Last night I grabbed a prepped canvas and decided to capture worm boy on canvas.

I really wish I had photographed the evolution of this one - we'd all be laughing this morning. I spent 45 minutes just trying to mix some reasonable skin tones, then I spent another 15 staring at the sketch trying to get up the nerve to lay down some paint.

Half way in to the project I was convinced that I did not possess the skills to paint people. I took a bathroom break and on my way back to the table I saw worm boy from a distance. The painting was actually starting to look like a person. It even looked a lot like worm boy! In my eagerness to get things right, I had forgotten to step back from the painting occasionally and look at it from a proper distance. Had it not been for my bathroom break I might have over painted, over corrected and wrecked my first attempt at a portrait!

So, here's worm boy - mostly finished. Please be kind but honest with your comments and if you're a painter as well, don't forget to drink a lot of liquids while you paint so you'll be forced to walk away from your work occasionally and gain some perspective on your way back from the bathroom.

"Worm Boy" - Acrylic on 10 x 10 inch canvas

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget

Black Swan updated

Last night I watched the CEO of BP give us a long apology for the events in the Gulf. It's easy to be angry at this man who represents an organization who is in charge of the company that is responsible but aren't we all a little to blame?

I drive my car when and where I like, I try to recycle but it's often easy to toss things away and let the landfill deal with it. I'm a good steward of my local community and environment but do I go out of my way to convince others to do the right thing? Our need for fossil fuels drives the demand for oil which drives companies like BP to drill even deeper to give us all what we say we need.

Don't let the oil spill event come and go without asking yourself what part you had to play in it. We are all a little guilty and we should all, in some small way, do our part to make it right.

"Black Swan II"

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget

The Black Swan

I've just learned of a book, published in 2007, that tries to explain and put into context some of the strange events of the last few years. It does a good job of explaining, if not the reason then at least the human reaction to events like the financial melt down and the recent oil spill in the Gulf.

The title of the book is "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable."

A bit of explanation - Black swans were discovered in Australia. Before that, any reasonable person could assume the all-swans-are-white theory was unassailable. But the sight of just one black swan detonated that theory. Every theory we have about the human world and about the future is vulnerable to the black swan, the unexpected event.

As human beings, Nassim Taleb thinks we are over burdened with the desire to 'understand' things. We are also willing to take as little information as is necessary to support an opinion that fits within our narrow framework of understanding. Confused? Consider the idea of 'Experts'.

Experts in every field tell us what just happened and why it happened. They also try to give us a good feeling about knowing the implications and future outcomes of the event. The trouble with experts (and the media that relies on them) is that they are very good at telling you about 'black swan' events after they happen but very bad at predicting them. To the human mind it just does not matter; we need to know. We need to put this strange, improbable event in a box. Explain it, label it, and put it away on a shelf.

My knowledge of this author and his writing came about accidentally when I posted a picture of a painting on Facebook and asked friends to help me title it. Given the event this painting is based on, I can't think of a better title...

The Black Swan - 16x20 acrylic on canvas

Follow this link to read more about Nassim Taleb and his writings: http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget

72 Percent Water

Do you ever hear something that sticks in your head? You just keep thinking about it and it takes your imagination to strange and interesting places.

A few days ago I heard a bit of trivia. Did you know that the human body is about 72% water? Maybe we're tied to water even more than we even imagined? No quantum physics or string theory here but what if you looked at a water droplet closely and it looked back at you?

Any way, here's the start of a mixed media painting that's all about that idea. It's covered with paint, layers of cut and painted canvas, and polymer clay. Not sure where I'm going with it so I'll set it aside for a while until I get another bit of inspiration.


What strange story or bit of trivia has inspired you lately?

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget

Hooray! I won a prize!

I enter online giveaways occasionally, especially when the prize is something good. I hardly ever win anything so imagine my surprise when I found out I won a really cool set of prints from the adorable ETSY shop Mint Buttercup.

Here's what they look like:




I'll be stalking the mailman for the next few days waiting for these to show up... You can see these prints and other adorable illustrations at Mint Buttercup's shop!

share

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget

Abby and Amy

This painting project is for a friend. She has two Westies that rule her house and she wanted a portrait of them. A painting can never capture the energy or mischievousness of these dogs but I got a bunch of photos together and found the best one - then I set out to capture them on canvas.



She has not seen it yet so I hope she likes it. The actual painting is a little less blue, funny how that color dominates when you scan it.

Abby and Amy - Acrylic on 11 x 14 canvas

Share this post:Bloggerwidgets Social Bookmarking Blogger Widget