Hot off the easel!

"Pistachio", acrylic & oil on 24" x 30" canvas

Long time, no posts! I know, I know… but I promise I was actually painting the entire time. With the daily project over, I decided to scale up in size and bust out the oil paints to complete a new set of nightscapes. This tested my patience much more than last year’s project tested my endurance…which is probably because I picked one of the most detailed reference images for the first piece, but heck- thought I’d get it out of the way.

I am still babysitting the final yellow-green glaze, and hell if I know how I’m going to manage to photograph this without some kind of reflection in several weeks when it’s tacky, but here it is for now. 🙂

This painting features some shops from somewhere within Little Italy in San Francisco. I was really drawn to this image because of my reverence for the inherent beauty of a transient moment. I love the feeling of being a passing voyeur with my camera, disappearing off into the night with a captured second on my memory card, cradling it and petting it and telling it I’m going to make it into a big pretty painting so it can live forever. Now that I’ve described it that way, it’s really more of a Golum-my-precious/I’ll-hug-him-and-call-him-George sort of mental image than I’d intended.

At any rate, I’ve started blocking in the next one, but I also began several small mixed media pieces to help flush the tedious-crankies out of my system, so stay tuned for those! I swear I will not make you wait three more weeks for new work. Scout’s honor.

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Dictionary Duo

Illustration detail on "Circumvent Clamor"

 

Hello folks! For the past week, I’ve been working on two large nightscapes that are probably going to take me a month or so. I also put up over 20 mixed media abstracts at DEEDA Salon for display/sale out here in Sacramento. In the interim, I’m mixing it up with some more small-format work. Working on these pieces, I discovered definitively that a year’s worth of daily art made my tiny brushstrokes steadier. 🙂

 

Illustration detail for "Bellman Benediction"

 

Here are two paintings on 5″x7″ canvii {I’m working on getting the plural of canvases changed to canvii in the common vernacular. Make a note of it.} utilizing vintage dictionary pages, ink and acrylic paint. These sleepy hillsides are based on San Francisco, but I did conjure them from memory as opposed to sitting down with photographic references.

“Bellman Benediction” features rows of townhouses next to a step street and tree-covered hill. It’s finished with a gold “frame”.

 

"Bellman Benediction", a mini painting

 

“Circumvent Clamor” shows the top of a house-covered hillside across the gray bay from what is Angel Island in my mind. Of course, if that’s the case, there should probably be a Golden Gate bridge in there somewhere, but you know how it is with the fog- you can’t always see the damn  bridge even when you’re on it. 😉 This one is finished off with a silver “frame”.

 

"Circumvent Clamor", a mini painting

It occurred to me as I was working on these that they are reminiscent of manuscript illustrations in a way. It’s funny how I could make so many of these and just now see that connection. I’ll be listing these in my online shop soon. Hope you’re having a great weekend!

 

Return of the Art Jedi

Hidey-ho, neighbors! It’s been 9 days or so since I posted new art, but I’ve got 6 new pieces to show you. So trust I haven’t been resting on my laurels. 😉 While I was enjoying a brief respite from the daily challenge, the years’ art making/blog posting had certainly become ingrained in me. I had a few mini panic attacks with my circadian-art-rhythm still kicking in. But I got the boost to actually get in the studio when I received a call last Wednesday night that someone wanted to purchase all 6 of the little landscapes I had on display at City Art.

As I was heading into San Francisco on Friday afternoon for the opening reception & my month’s only shift, I was compelled by the ratio of money in my bank account to the gas/toll/parking/food cost of additional SF trips to finish my replacements before leaving. (Art lovers & run-on sentences are equally welcome here at my art blog. Thanks. 🙂 )

Did I mention I got that call on Wednesday? From a year’s endurance race to a flurry of fastidious finishing! 4 of these 6 were finished within a span of about 5 hours. I printed out some photos I’d taken from the marshlands near my hometown back in October for these ones…

"Marsh Barn", acrylic on slice of reclaimed fence post, 3.5" x 3.5" x 1.5"

"Stick Trees", acrylic on slice of reclaimed fence post, 3.5" x 3.5" x 1.5"

"Wetlands", acrylic on slice of reclaimed fence post, 3.5" x 3.5" x 1.5" SOLD

…a scene from the Livermore/Fremont area for this one…

"Foothills", acrylic on slice of reclaimed fence post, 3.5" x 3.5" x 1.5"

…and two images from the day I helped photograph a wedding off the coast near Half Moon Bay for these two:

"Lighthouse", acrylic on slice of reclaimed fence post, 3.5" x 3.5" x 1.5"

"Black Rock Beach", acrylic on slice of reclaimed fence post, 3.5" x 3.5" x 1.5" SOLD

These 6 new landscape mini paintings on woodblock are on display for sale now at City Art Gallery through January 30. Well, the 4 of them that haven’t already sold, that is. 😉