Tag Archives: acrylic painting

09/16/11

Art for Artists and Art Crawl

Art for Artists Exhibit at US Bank and September Art Crawl!

When: Sep 16 – Oct 14, 2011 —  Opens Fri, September 16, 5pm – 9pm

Where: 1015 W Saint Germain St, Saint Cloud Minnesota (map)

Visual Arts Minnesota and US Bank will be presenting Art for Artists Community Art Show, featuring artists from Central Minnesota. Awards will be given for both 2D and 3D work.  I did not win an award, which doesn’t bother me at all since I wasn’t even aware there would be awards given out).  A reception will be held on September 16, from 5-9pm during the St. Cloud Art Crawl.  ”Windmakers” is my entry in this show, and will be displayed for the duration of the show.  I have a photo of it that will be posted this weekend.

During this art crawl I will have a colorful and partially jungle-themed display of my other artwork in the hallways on the 2nd floor, 701 building, where you can also see StudioJeff (a well known gallery).  I am not in that display but you will not be able to miss my display at the end of the 2nd floor hallway!  Photos to come of course.

Some photos of the 701 West St. Germain building hallway on the second floor, where my studio is, are above and below. These are my paintings. You’ll have to visit US Bank in St. Cloud to see the Windmakers painting I did for Art for Artists, because I don’t seem to have a photo of it yet! This painting and four others are now on display in Elk River, for the ERAA member show, which lasts until November 3rd. Have a look at that show at the Sherburne County Government Center. It’s free, of course.

09/12/11

New Work About Costa Rica

This is so new it was just finished on Saturday. It’s a view of Punta Uva, considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, and I was there last November. It is like another world. Nearly free of litter and tourists too, but not quite! I have hundreds of photos of Costa Rica and I’m sure I could spend years painting scenes from Central America.  It’s a gorgeous place and I hope it’s not ruined by development.  Keep it wild!

This is an acrylic painting, 28″ x 22″ and I intend to get it up on Artspan soon.

 

 

09/1/11

Black Eye and Cypher

Presenting one old and one new abstract. Both are acrylic paint on watercolor paper, a habit I just can’t break. Cypher is probably my favorite painting of mine of all time. Seriously, it cheers me up. It’s funny that I completely forgot about it and just found it a couple of weeks ago. I propped it up on the wall and thought, If I didn’t already have this, I would really need to own it. I hardly ever feel that way about my own paintings.

Cypher

“Cypher” actually feels cheerful to me, unlike “Black Eye”, which you can see below. It’s a new painting and I could write a story about it, and maybe some day I will.
Continue reading “Black Eye and Cypher” »

08/2/11

Progression of Holding on to Happiness

Lots of artists make drawings and studies before they start to paint, but because of the ease of using acrylics I’ve developed a style that usually allows me an abbreviated way of working. I just read today about an artist who does detailed drawings and composition before they begin to paint, and for some people I suppose that is the ideal way of working.

I usually just start with a sketch on canvas and build up from there. This method usually works great but for some reason on this particular painting it didn’t work well at all and I ended up with a composition that is a bit off kilter from what I wanted originally. I started this painting, (which will probably end up at the Hopkins Salon show later this month), with a photo I took at a local outdoor concert.

From there, I sketched it on canvas and did a preliminary painting. The mother and daughter were the “stars” of the photo so they were in a prominent position. I thought after the preliminary painting that they were too small. So then (not pictured here) I made them fill most of a 24″ x 30″ space on the canvas. That painting was nearly done before I second guessed the whole thing and thought they were too large. So I painted white over the whole thing and started over! I ended up with a crowd scene sketch done in paint. As you can see it was quite messy at first.

Continue reading “Progression of Holding on to Happiness” »

06/30/11

Costa Rica Sentinels

This painting was done using several photos I took in Costa Rica last November. It’s meant to evoke the beauty and exotic mood of the location. This river, which originates with a beautiful waterfall, was overseen by these mysterious rock “sculptures” that were just sitting on large rocks, like sentinels of the river. This particular location is near the volcano Arenal in northern Costa Rica.

I don’t usually paint scenic/river scenes, but I find myself doing more of this type of work lately because I have so many photos of Central America. I’ve gone there a few times since 2005 and hope to go next year with my DSLR, so I’ll have even more photos to paint from.

This painting was just accepted into the Rivers show in St. Cloud, Minnesota, juried by artist Ron Merchant. The reception will be July 11th from 6-8pm, upstairs in the Paramount lobby.

Original NFS, but prints are available at Artspan. I’m starting to like doing paintings like this more and more so I’ll be doing more of them.

06/24/11

River City

A river on a city, or a city on a river; sort of abstract, and very wild. It’s inspired by this spring’s overflowing rivers and storms.

Lots of motion and texture. This is an acrylic on watercolor paper; about 31″ x 25 (approximate). This painting is matted because it’s on paper, but it does not need a cover like glass. You can see this painting and its companion “Heat Island Effect” in downtown Little Falls, MN, until the end of July.

06/4/11

Heat Island Effect

This started out like this (the yellow one) in City Abstracts.

I meant for it to be more abstract. This started out as a watercolor and is now an acrylic on watercolor paper, about 22″ x 26″. This one took a long time for me to “get”. In any case, it’s finished and larger than this, but I ended up matting it, which cut quite a bit of it off, including my signature!
Eventually, this will go on Artspan and prints will be available. The blue one turned out hugely different too. It must be the heat.

04/14/11

Isle of Elsewhere

Formerly quasi-named “Garden of Decisions” this is finished (as of today) and is now “Isle of Elsewhere”. This is another not so great photo, this time of the finished version.

(This would be an excellent, sharp photo if it wasn’t a windy day and I had a tripod on even ground and my battery hadn’t just given out.) This is going into an art show in Hopkins MN this weekend, along with Pumpkin Beach, which I am renaming to Citrus Sky. See it at Artspan.org.

All I have left to do on Isle of Elsewhere is knock it into the frame — with a hammer. I got a new bamboo frame for this one and it’s just the tiniest bit too small, so I’m having to gradually force the painting into the frame.

02/13/11

Small and Experimental

These two paintings are approximately half finished.  They are already so glazed that they feel like smooth plastic.  My intention is to put many layers on both of them (especially the portrait) so that they get a 3D effect. I’m also using some metallic paint for a glowy effect.

By the way,  I don’t include everything I am working on here. I am doing a lot of things at once (so I’m guaranteed to never get bored) and I put my artwork on several different websites, some specifically for sale, including photographs. I’m working on an anti-war painting right now too, and it contains a head image that is the stuff of nightmares, so I don’t believe I’ll be including it here.  When it’s finished, I’ll probably post a link to it.  (It’ll probably end up on Deviant Art.)  I’m also going to start more larger and organic paintings as soon as I finish some of these smaller things.

Continue reading “Small and Experimental” »

02/4/11

Biológico Primario

From these two details you can get a feeling for how the “organic” painting I just finished turned out.

These are two details of one painting, believe it or not.  The colors are not exactly representational in either photo because of some weird lighting in my “studio” right now.

The painting is called Biológico Primario Border Walls and it’s 36″ x 24″.  It will be available on my Leitworks site as soon as I can get a great photo of it.  I will also put it on my Artspan gallery.

Continue reading “Biológico Primario” »