I'd rather be painting trees....

Reversed:


acrylic and oil on masonite
11 x 7 in.

Now I need to stop being distracted by them and finish paintings with deadlines :)

So it's been about 3 years, but I spent the other day revisiting the world of bookbinding. I made this mini accordion style book/portfolio of some of my paintings. I think sometimes I forget how much I enjoy making things other than oil paintings, though I do enjoy making those too :)

Tomorrow night is the opening reception of the Uarts Showcase at Elle-Bees in Manasquan NJ. Elle-Bees was started last year by two Uarts grads, its an awesome little shop with paintings, jewelry, clothing and other oddities. I will be showing a few paintings and there is sure to be tons of great work by many great Uarts students, almuni and faculty. So if you're in the jersey shore area it's definitely worth checking out.



And last but certainly not least, one of my favorite blogs gave me a nice shout out which can be seen here :)

a portrait, a coin & a necklace.

First off, here is a portrait I just finished of the actress Scarlett Johansson. I love her timeless look and had a fun time painting her.


Scarlett
8 x 16 in.
oil on wood

Next, a commission I recently completed of a coin designed by Augustus St Gaudens in 1907, considered to be one of the most beautiful American coins. It was adapted since then and a high relief edition was just issued by the U.S. mint this year. The most challenging part of this piece for me was the size (20 x 20 in.) and my reference photos. Although I had multiple images to work from, none of them were very large which made it challenging for the detail in certain areas. Overall though I am happy with the finish and enjoyed working on this piece.


Coin
20 x 20 in.
oil on wood

Lastly, some photos from the runway of the JIM show as part of the Snag Conference. We had a little mishap with our piece, and it went from a brooch to a necklace, but it worked out fine.

a VERY LARGE Brooch.

Here is the finished, oversized brooch that Monika and I collaborated on. It will be part of the Jewelry in Motion show (part of SNAG), this Thursday night at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I will be sure to post pictures of the event with our model wearing the piece.



Brooch
oil on masonite, plastic, sterling, magnets

Rainy day....

Tree study from my studio....



7 x 9 in.
oil on wood

Strega Nona - Magnetic Painting

Enough, enough, pasta pot,
I have my pasta, nice and hot,
So simmer down my pot of clay,
Until I’m hungry another day.
(Strega Nona)

16 x 20 in.
oil and magnets paint on wood (Magnets- oil on wood & magnet)


I'm really excited to be part of " Beyond the Page" at Gallery 1988 San Francisco. For this show, artists were asked to re-interpret favorite children's books. The book that stuck out to me from my childhood was "Strega Nona." At first I had a hard time coming up with an idea for this piece since these books already exist as illustrations. So I decided to reverse it and create a painting that went from illustration to reality. I liked how it played on the idea of a child's thoughts when reading a childrens book and how when you're young you imagine anything as being possible, even a land full of pasta.

Continuing with my series of magnetic paintings, I think of all shows this one seemed the most appropriate to make a "playful" piece for. One thing different about this magnetic painting as opposed to my previous ones, is that the magnets are more about revealing something underneath them. Previously the magnets served more as additional paintings that added something to the overall painting, where as here it's more about what's underneath them.


Framed with Magnets:





Some images from the original book by Tomie dePaola:





The show opens Friday, May 1st at Gallery 1988 San Francisco

In progress: collaboration

A little something, soon to be part of a bigger something...


More to come...

Poppies & Tv.

Most people who know me and my work, know that I can sometimes get a bit obsessed with different themes, subjects, objects, etc. and will repeat these things in my work until I move on to the next thing. My most recent obsession has been poppy flowers. It started with the poppy field I painted in my Wizard of Oz painting, and since it has been a lot of little paintings and poppy sketches. Since I am not over this phase yet, I wanted to do a piece using the poppy as it is often recognized today-a symbol for war veterans.



Veterans Day
12 x 18 in.
oil on board.

I spent a while on this piece trying to get it exactly how I envisioned it. I feel happy with the final painting, the poppies were really fun to paint and I enjoyed using the old wipe-out technique in the background as well.

Also, I will be part of the group show "Idiot box" at Gallery 1988 in LA, opening April 2nd. They wanted the work for this show to be fun and humorous, so I went with a Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City) dress up painting. It's a little bit of a different feel than most of my other work but I wanted to create another magnet painting for a bigger audience.



Carrie Bradshaw-magnetic dress up
13 x 16 in.
oil & magnetic paint on board



Dress Magnets
oil on board & magnet




-painting with magnets



-Carrie dressed up




-the magnets are fun to play with too :) (& I have no idea who this girl is)

update.collaboration.stenciling.

I've been slowing down with my posts lately, but here's some stuff I have in the works: I will be part of "Idiot Box" at Gallery 1988 in LA. The show opens April 1st and will be hosted by Mr. Belding (Saved by the Bell). I'm sure it will be another fun show with tons of great work! I will also have work in 1988's San Francisco gallery as part of the Children's Book Show which opens May 1st.

I'm currently working on a collaboration with Monika for the Jewelry in Motion event at the PMA which will be part of the Snag conference, more on this soon!

And here's a new piece that was a bit of a challenge, as most portraits usually are for me. This piece started as an experiment, the spray painted stenciling was something I was just playing around with on some board, I then decided to use it as the background for an oil demo I did at the University of the arts. I thought I might play with laying some more delicate stencils over the face, I decided against that and added the veil although it's something I definitely want to try in the future.



Adrianna
12.5 x 18.5 in.
oil on wood

Overdue.

I'm a bit overdue for a post, so here's some of the stuff I've been up to...

I'm excited to be part of the Jinxed 3rd Annual Alex Curtis Memorial Heart Show. The opening is this Friday, the 13th from 6-10 @ Jinxed, located at 620 S. 4th St. Philly. Below is my heart for the show, be sure to check it out if you're in the area.



Poppy Love
oil on wood.

I've been scheming for quite some time to create magnetic paintings. I came up with the idea a while back and thought it would be a really fun idea to make these paintings that were intended to be touched, something that is almost always forbidden. As a painter I guess I never seem to think my own work is too precious, I don't treat any of my paintings as delicate things (which maybe I need to work on). Anyway, with these magnetic paintings, the viewer is invited to lift the magnets, see what's underneath them and even rearrange them if they'd like. Also, the magnetic boards still work as a painting without the magnets, and the magnets are miniature paintings that will stick to your fridge :) or anything else magnetic.

For my first try at this I did interior spaces. They were really fun and I have a lot more ideas for magnets + paintings in the future.

Magnetic Bathroom painting all together:






Bathroom
10 x 13 in.
oil on wood - magnetic board.



Wallacavage Chandelier
3.5 x 2.5 in.
oil on wood - magnet



Bathtub
5 x 4 in.
oil on wood - magnet


Magnetic Living Room Painting all together:






Living Room
16 x 12 in.
oil on wood - magnetic board



Chair
5.25 x 4.25
oil on wood - magnet



Desk
5 x 6 in.
oil on wood - magnet



Framed Ship
4.25 x 3 in.
oil on wood - magnet



Magnets on a fridge.


I will be showing these magnetic paintings at Zuzu's of Beacon, in Beacon Ny. The show was put together by my friend Chris Whetzel who will also be showing work, as well as Doug LaRocca and Peter Wonsowski. The opening is this Saturday the 14th @ 7pm, 453 Main St. Beacon Ny

One last thing, in addition to my magnetic paintings, I had printed magnets of my chair painting made that I will be selling as well, they look like this: