Bottles

Lots of little bottles. From the sketchbook.

A sordid past emerges

I was thinking of doing this as a painting. Actually a series of various animal mugshots would be funny (and fun to do). Especially the giraffe.

Monkey business

I was just thinking how much better this image would be as a traditional prisoner mugshot. Lil' monkey holding up the placard with his info. Crime: poop flinging.

Smilin' doods

More scratches from the sketchbook.

Mugshot dood

Sketchy bugger.

Patina Squares

I just realized I never did post the end result of this little experiment with plaster.

I just listed this set in the shop along with The Great Stone Face (Buster Keaton) and King of the Hill paintings.

BTW, am I the only one that thinks Patina Squares sounds like a medieval game show?

Probably.


SOLD

Bukowski

Just watched the Bukowski documentary Born Into This. I think it's revived my interest in him. Read some of his poems and short stories 20 years ago. Didn't realize he'd written six novels. Must check them out. A gruff relic. But what a voice. Can't believe such a well-pickled man managed to stay alive so long.

So long and thanks for all the fish

This Douglas Adams portrait was based on one of his publicity shots and painted, by request, for a friend.

He's best known for his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series of books. I'm linking to the start of the most recent film adaptation which is not bad but the books are better. The books are always better.

Something I didn't know before was that Adams also contributed to some Monty Python sketches, including this one.

Douglas Adams

Oil on gessoed masonite

10" x 10”
Sold

Fossil folly 2

Okay, I think I've got these out of my system. Back to the oils this week.

This one is my 25th painting of the year which is the halfway point to my goal of 50 paintings this year.

Fossil Folly 2

Acrylic and caulking on gessoed masonite

24" x 18"

Fossil folly

I've been picking at this one since last week as time permitted.

Last year I did a cartoonish fish fossil that I really enjoyed making. Even though I'm doing a lot of oils this year, I thought I'd revisit acrylics and have another go at the fossils.

This time, instead of using expensive art mediums, I'm using caulking. (Yes, I've been installing our baseboards this week. No, they are still not finished.)

Fossil Folly 1
Acrylic and caulking on gessoed masonite
24" x 18"

Printsy interview

There's been little painting or printing these last few weeks.

I'm installing baseboards in our house. The baseboard work snowballed, of course, into replacing all the baseboard heaters at the same time. I would normally be inclined to pay someone to do these things for me (especially the electrical) but getting someone in for a quote, let alone do the job, seems next to impossible. And our last few contractors did very shoddy finishing work. So I'm all about the DIY these days. It's satisfying work but it eats up my free time.

There is a an art to baseboard installation but I don't think I'm at that level yet. Thank god for caulking. And YouTube.

Anyway, there's a few bits of news to report.

First of all, Printsy (Printmakers of Etsy) has an interview with me on their blog this week which I'm very excited about! Thanks Diane!

As well, I've got a painting in a show! The QE II Library at Memorial University has a show every summer  open to faculty and staff. "Salon Des Beaux Arts" opened a few weeks ago and runs until mid-August. Thank you to Joanne Costello and Stephanie Williams for curating a really wonderful and diverse collection. If you're in St. John's, it's definitely worth checking out... 60 pieces by 35 artists!

Also, my ego and pocketbook wish to say thanks to my friends Vanessa, Katherine and Mark who purchased some of my paintings in the last month.

There will be cake

Actually, there's no cake. Just a doodle of cake. Tastes like ink and pixels. Yuck.

Creature feature

Had a painting session with Nick Kokis a few days ago and this fellah was the end result. I may spend a bit more time with it.

To call it a still life would probably be wrong but we were using a plastic crow as a model. After a few beer,  I lost interest in the model and focused on colour. Nick made some suggestions along the way so this piece seems to have the flavour of his work.

As the painting progressed the crow seemed to evolve into something more like a baby elephant or one of those masks doctors wore during the plague. If I were to pin down this character with more detail, he'll either need more wing, big floppy ears or a large brim hat. Though I kind of like him as he is.


Creature Feature
Oil on gessoed masonite
10" x 10"


23/50

Saggy ears

In an effort to avoid still life saturation, I thought I'd just doodle with the paint tonight.

Saggy ears
Oil on masonite
10" x 10"
Sold

Daffodil still life

I think this is still in progress... I haven't decided yet.

It's a white daffodil. I used blue in the shadow areas of the flower and I think it might be a bit too blue. Also, if I had my time back, I would have positioned the flower slightly facing right. It was straight on which made it difficult to illustrate the depth of the centre of the flower.

I like the overall high contrast though. The background looks pitch black in this image but it's more of a deep blue (I mixed red and blue).

Daffodil
Oil on masonite
6" x 12"