Tuesday 27 September 2011

over twenty thousand page views

Below is an image from my stats page as of yesterday.  I thought I'd celebrate and say thanks to you for visiting my blog.
In a little over a year twenty thousand page views.





Monday 26 September 2011

132 Haribo Dragibus



Haribo Dragibus
oil on gessoboard
15x15cm (6x6 inches)

will be for sale at the Grand Marché d'Arte Contemporain 28 October-1 November 2011 - Bastille, Paris.
STAND 54 under the tent.  If you need tickets let me know.

Thursday 22 September 2011

131 Haribo Floppy



Haribo Floppy
oil on gessoboard
15x15cm (6x6 inches)

will be for sale at the Grand Marché d'Arte Contemporain 28 October-1 November 2011 - Bastille, Paris.
STAND 54 under the tent.  If you need tickets let me know.

I never ate candy in my life, until recently.  That's a lie, right.  Well this stuff just beckons to you then when you open the sack they all careen to the floor and because of the five second rule your mouth is full before you know it.  Melting sugar attacks your teeth and tastebuds.  You have to have more because whoever designed these made them taste like brandy.  Yes that's right Brandy!

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Times Square Taxi Nite

Times Square Taxi Nite
60x120 cm
oil on canvas

Here is my progress since Friday, whew.  This small it looks hyperreal but it's not.  Most of the light is very thick brushstrokes.  I'm very happy with this so far. 
  The light comes from inside the painting.  Though it looks finished there is still lots of work; mostly, the upper right hand side is unfinished and details of the middle ground taxi need to be added.  What every one of my clients has said who have bought a night scene is how the painting changes in different lighting.  With a light shining directly on the painting it is one thing, with the lights in the room turned off,  the painting seems to give off light.  No one mentioned what they look like in TV light.
  It's a trick I've been working on for about two years.  This one epitomizes my night scenes.

Monday 19 September 2011

Times Square in the works


This is what it looked like friday evening.  
Today I should be nearly finished.  
What I learned years ago when riding my vespa to the Tuscan country side and painting watercolors from life is the importance of starting a painting with the brightest most prominent colors.  Jeanne Dobie, in her book, Making Color Sing taught me this.  How many times did you wait to add that brilliant red to the very last and when you laid down the color it killed the entire painting?  The reason why is that the surrounding colors make the color sing.  Start with the most important color, the rest is a piece of cake.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Fleet Street Fire Escape


Fleet Street Fire Escape
80x80 cm (aprox 32x32cm) 
oil on canvas

I really like this one.  After painting Paris, finding New York was refreshing.  It is absolutely full of color.  Paris is beige, grey, white and black.  Many people dress their kids in beige and blue, no dashing colors.  I love New York, I heart NY.

I just put all the paintings of 2011 on my website, check it out...

Monday 12 September 2011

Like Butter on Toast


I am auctioning this painting here
To help Carol Marine, a fellow artist, whose studio burned down in the Austin, Texas fires.

Beurre
15x15 cm (6x6 inches)
oil on Gesso board 

All proceeds from sale will be donated to her so that she can build a new studio.  The link where I will donate the funds can be found on  the blog:
Where you can read about what happened and find the link.

I cannot fathom what it may feel to be totally wiped out and have my entire house burn to ashes, lose all the belongings collected and inherited.  Including all those paintings that she kept for herself.

On the left is a link to Carol's blog.

Carol and her husband have received over 700 emails from their fans, plus many, many more messages on Facebook an other platforms.  They are real heros from before this tragic event.  They created and run the Daily Paint Works site where hundreds of talented and new artists post their daily paintings.  Where they donated to Japan Tsunami surrivors and to poor African children.  It is a website that has brought a fresh place for artists that were enslaved by Ebay's huge commissions. 

This painting is not a new one, because I don't have much time right now to make small daily paintings in lieu of the Grand Marché d'Arte Contemporain I am painting towards.  

I hope the painting sells.
I chose this one because I hope their transition will be like spreading butter on warm toast.

Friday 9 September 2011

Fire Escape Shadows NYC cityscape

The first week back in the studio has been very busy.  Here is one of the three paintings I projected.  And the gobs of color I mixed.
I was worried because I am painting over an old painting and thought the paint wouldn't stick well.  When I mixed my medium the varnish bottle seemed to control itself — too much went in.  
I also thought that the painting underneath would make my eyes criss-cross.  It did but the paint went on so well, it made applying the paint almost better than sex. 
Here is as far as I got.  Next week it will be ready to hang.

Thursday 8 September 2011

Wednesday 7 September 2011

130 Haribo Schtroumpf

Haribo Schtroumpf
oil on gessoboard
15x15cm

In most corner stores in Paris there is an entire selection of Haribo sachets.  There must be about 20 different kinds.  This is the smurfs.  Recently I realized that the smurfs were already sixty years old. Peyo, alias Pierre Culliford created them in 1958. 
This Haribo painting along with the other Haribo sachets will be for sale —as a collection—at the GMAC (Grand Marché d'Art Contemporain) - more on that later.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

The catalogue of New York Streets

After a long summer school started, yipee!   I'm free again and back to painting.  In preparation for the Grand Marché d'Art Contemporain at the Bastille in a few months I've prepared a catalogue of New York cityscapes.  It's available on Blurb.  The next winner of the "Name The Painting" contest will get a copy.  And this time it will be delivered quickly.

Here is a sample:
clic the link to see view in a new page: New York Streets, by Angie Brooksby