Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend – I know I am! This week was one of those non-stop-isn’t-it-over-yet-how-can-I-have-so-much-to-do sort of weeks, and I am feeling quite grateful for the weekend. I have promised my fiance that I will most definitely clean the house and catch up on the laundry tomorrow– I’ve been holed up in my studio all week long preparing to hang some new work in a fantastic new restaurant space in Media, PA (House on Jackson Street, if you’re in the area!). So before I commit myself to domestic duties, I wanted to make sure to add a new page to the site I’ve been planning on adding – a page dedicated solely to sketchbook images and drawings. These are the pieces I do in preparation for a painting, just to blow off creative frustration, or sometimes, just because I love drawing with ink. It contains images like this one:
Be sure to check it out here, and I hope you enjoy!
This is by far the largest painting I have undertaken in quite some time. I’m genuinely enjoying the space, and the progress on this particular painting, so I thought I’d share a few shots of the work in progress with you. Enjoy!
Some new work. All acrylic on canvas – see the full details on the current work page.
As always, contact me with questions, queries, or interest! Enjoy!
“Awk Fox” – 24″x24″ Acrylic on canvas
Just a quick post tonight – it’s Sunday evening and I was thrilled to spend most of the day locked away in my studio sketching in a brand new sketchbook. As a rule, I don’t usually change sketchbooks in the middle of the year unless the initial one is full (not the case with the moleskine I posted about a while back), but I couldn’t resist a couple of little 5.5″x8″ Strathmore mixed media sketchbooks I stumbled across in Michael’s clearance section the other day (only $3.00 each!) The paper is much heavier than my other sketch books and suitable for all kinds of wet and dry media. Below are a few of today’s finished products! Enjoy and let me know what you think!
When I first saw the work of Michael Mapes, I was immediately fascinated. A mix of photography, sculpture, and science fair project – albeit a really, really, beautiful science project, Michael Mapes dissects his already-stunning photos and then reassembles the pieces using specimen pins, plastic bags, vials, magnifying glasses, gelatin capsules, and the like. The results are beautiful, compartmentalized sculptures that appear endlessly complex and function as portraits, collage, and intriguing forays into organization and disorganization.
You can see more of his work at Parlor Gallery.
My latest typography paintings, though labeled mixed media because I tend to use whatever is within reaching distance in my studio, have consisted largely of watercolor (yes, the very same watercolors that I purchased on my Artist’s Date in Lake Placid, NY). Since, in all of my artistic dabbling, I had never used watercolors before, I spent a good amount of time researching other artists who were using the medium well, watercolor techniques, and watercolor paintings I liked so that I could get an idea of how I would try and make my own watercolors work. It helped – and I am always an advocate of taking in inspiration and learning from what other great artists are doing. In my search for content to aid in my watercolor learning curve, I came across Italian artist Silvia Pelissero.
Her waterc0lor portraits are simply stunning. She uses the medium in a way that is bold and unexpected, with as much emphasis on the intense splashes of color as the white space and water lines. The images are striking and complex – I almost feel like I need to keep looking at them to figure out all of each painting’s nuances and not miss any of the important little details that make up each image.
You can view more of her work here.
