Saturday, May 29, 2010

New Piece - A Rustle In The Brush

 A new tiger piece I started on Wednesday.  This piece will have a moderate amount of folliage and environment to go with it.


Thursday, May 27, 2010

Sometimes when you open the box...

...you find good things!  Today I finally got around to opening my box that I got back from LSU Animals In art Show a couple of weeks ago.  As I am  unpack my piece,  "Shaking It Up", out comes an envelope as well.  Inside the envelop are two articles printed in local newspapers during the show (one that my piece is mentioned in) and also a People's Choice Award ribbon!  Woo Hoo!  It turned around a day that started out not very good and put me in a much better mood. 

My list of awards still astounds me; that my work can win awards so consistently under so many different judges is well... amazing.  With this win, this year I have won awards in every show I have entered.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

To Black and White

I feel like I should write an ode to black and white art with that title, but in this case I actually mean completed to black and white. My bear that I have titled "Patience Is A Virtue" has been completed to black and white.  It will be colored at a scratchboard symposium in Indianapolis in July as part of a demonstration I will be giving.


Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Bear-ling along

I have spent several hours for the past few days working on my bear.  She is about 2/3 done to the black and white version (have to finish her muzzle, the rock in the lower corner and the leg that is resting on the rock).  I will be taking her along with me to a scratchboard workshop on July and using the piece as a demonstration on coloring black boards.

For now I am calling it Bear Prayer, but she looks more contemplative than praying to me.


Friday, May 21, 2010

Bear

I started this grizzly bear sow on Wednesday.  Size is 12"x12"


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Arabian Night completed

Simple and effective, at least that is my goal :)  I like it when I can let the black do some of the work for me and let the viewers eye fill in details in the shadow.











Detail look at the scratchwork on the piece

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Scratch by scratch

I got a couple more hours of work in on the Arabian horse last night. 


Thursday, May 13, 2010

Arabian Night

I started a new piece about 3 days ago that I am tentatively calling "Arabian Night"  It is from a photo that I took a couple of weeks ago during a photo shoot of two Arabian Stallions.  The photo in and of itself is not really all that spectacular, but I liked the light in his eye.  With a bit of photoshop to add drama and contrast I decided it would make a nice board.  Size will be 18"x36" which ends up being pretty close to life size with this crop.  It has been progressing quite quickly so far.



Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Spraying - ARG!

If there are two things I hate doing in my art one is framing (I always get dog hair in it!) and the other is spraying my work with fixative (I always seem to get dog hair in it!!)  Spraying for me is far more nerve racking than actually creating the work.  I know of many disasters from spray fixative that has gone bad, drips, runs, crystallizes, turns cloudy, ink sluffs off, etc. either during the spraying of as it dries.  Sometimes it has been with brand new cans and other times with cans that have been used with no problems before.  I have had some issues myself when I sprayed a piece outside in winter - the spray literally froze before it hit the artwork and it looked like my cheetah was in a snowstorm!  Fortunately I was able to fix the piece by spraying again in a warmer environment.  So when it comes to spraying big works like "Walking The Line" I have to hold my breath and cross my fingers and toes that everything goes well.  Then I ALWAYS get dust and tiny particulates in it.  It seems inevitable!  If I only did 8"x10" pieces I would breath a lot easier, but the larger the work, the more stuff gets into it.

Anyways I sprayed "Walking the Line" and "Tailwind" today and knock on wood everything seems to have gone ok (except the dust issue, which I have yet to ever avoid).  Both of these pieces will be going to the framers tomorrow in preparation for Greeley Stampede.



















I can't seem to get my camera to pick up the background elements when it exposes the image, so by overexposing a shot just to show how much of the background isn't showing up (excuse the glare on the right side too)

Small donation to Greeley Stampede

My little bear that was posted below will be donated to the Greeley Stampede Western Art Show's quick auction.  The funds that are raised will go to thier scholarship funds.  The auction will be on June 23 at the opening for their art show.  I did add some minor changes since this image including a signature, but didn't take a photo.

Monday, May 10, 2010

after a bit of a break

I had a nice visit with my friend Lee in Salt Lake City last week, so no update on the blog, but now I am home and have 5 million photos to review (of dogs).  I am happy to say that I got a reply from F&W telling me they will look into rewording the contest contracts in future years, as other artists have also complained. 

Here are some pictures of my girls from the trip - and even a photo of me with them taken by Lee. 



































In more related art news I am excited to say that my piece "The Interrupted Drink" has been selected by the Society of Animal Artists for their 2010 show "Art and the Animal".  This is the 50th aniversary show and the competition was very stiff, so it is quite an honor to have a piece selected.  The show opening will be at the San Diego Natural History Museum in September.  I will be attending the opening weekend.  On the flip side my piece was not selected for Birds In Art this year.  Oh well I will certainly try again next year.  I have seen quite a few accepted AND rejected works from BIA and there are some amazing works that did not make the show this year, the level of competition and work is astoundingly high!  I do not envy the jurors for these shows.  Here is "The Interrupted Drink"



Before I left on my trip I also had to decide which pieces I was sending to the Greeley Stampede Western Art Show.  The final selections ended up being 5 scratchboards and one pencil piece; 4 are horses and 2 are wildlife.  Sizes range from an 8"x10" piece up to the large cougar (24"x36") Now I am spending a fortune framing everything so hopefully some of them will sell.