Seven Deadly Sins

The Carousal of the Vices. Ink and paper on wood panel. Framed. 20” x 15.75”

For the Seven Deadly Sins group show at Rothick Art Haus. Opening 4.14.12

Rothick's website

Directions

A Moose, A Bear and an Assortment of Weapons

All  new pieces created for the group show 'Trash' that just ended last week. Each piece was originally part of a shelving unit found in a dumpster.  Each shelf was removed, stained, and paper was applied to the background before painting the image on the top.

More shows at Hold Up Art to be announced soon...

California Black Bear
.357 Magnum
North American Moose
A Grouping of Arrows
are all ink and paper on repurposed wood shelving, various sizes.

A New Map of North America

Based on maps made around the 1850s. 

Ink on found fence boards.  29.5" x 34"

Part of my new collection of art for Trash premiering tomorrow night. 

North Western Moose

One of eleven brand new pieces for Trash at Hold Up Art Starting this weekend. To follow the theme used for this show, I actually pulled apart and used a bunch of shelves found in the trash for this painting and the three others like it. The framing around each shelf was stained and the shelf tops were covered in old dictionary pages, which was then the surface I painted each picture on.

Only three more days!

Preview

One of my small acrylic transfers for the upcoming show Trash at Hold Up Art Gallery in Los Angeles. acrylic transfer on found wood. 2.25" x 1.75"

Russian Red

During the October Revolution the Winter Palace was raided of its wine cellars and made much of the Petrograd population quite drunk. It got to the point that a decree was issued that any stock of wine found would be blown up with dynamite... To celebrate the wine pogrom issued by the Regimental Committee, Lenin, and Trotsky, I give you Russian Red... almost good enough to be straight from the cellar of the Winter Palace.

Whole Lotta Rosas

Artwork done for the "Whole Lotta Rosas" show this past Friday at the Camp in Costa Mesa (photos of the event coming soon). The second photo is 15 parts that comprise the piece "Soldiers! Workers! Citizens!" There are still a few left if anyone wants them...

A Glimpse

Here is a few of the 15 individual parts that comprise the piece "Solders! Workers! Citizens!" that will be on display this Friday. Though it is one piece, I will be selling off the individual 'parts' starting at $20 each.

"A Whole Lotta Rosas" Group art show
at Ecco at the Camp in Costa Mesa
click here for more info
Directions

Portrait of Aleksandr

This is the finished portrait of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and I have to say, the photo does not do it justice. This thing is really big, like four feet tall big! If you have a chance, go check it out, as this is the last weekend it will be hanging in the gallery, or if your around during the week you can call and make an appointment (Rothick.com).

I created a page for all the steps in making this portrait of Aleksandr. The steps are in descending order so you can easily scroll through the entire process. Click the link below to see this process and read more about the meaning behind this portrait of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Creating the Portrait of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Portrait of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is ink, oil, and paper (pages from Cancer Ward) on wood panel. 32" x 48". Sold

The March to Tashkent

Here is another piece from my show at the Rothick Arthaus. Entitled The March to Tashkent, it is based on a time when Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, while still serving time in the labor camps (gulags), had to go to a hospital in Tashkent because of a tumor. His tumor was removed, but the cancer was not diagnosed for a few more years, almost killing him (I know what that feels like). This hospital in Tashkent was the inspiration for his novel Cancer Ward, a story where he used tumors as a metaphor for  the problems in Russia. The novel is also the basis for most of my artwork in this show.

The March to Tashkent is ink, acrylic, and newspaper on wood panel. 24" x 32"

Off for Framing... and Flowers!

I got the portrait of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to a good stopping point and gave it to my neighbor to build a frame for it. We have been trading work back and forth, I design print and website stuff for his carpentry business, and he builds me beautiful frames. It has been working out great. So while the portrait is across the street, I have been keeping myself busy with these flowers. I am making ten of these, plus the one in the portrait makes eleven. Eleven flowers for eleven years Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn spent in the labor camps.

The process for making these is quite simple. I tried to use mainly photos I took of the roses in my backyard. Once I ran out of those I turned to the internet. I didnt spend a lot of time on the actual details and getting everything perfect. I wanted to keep them a little sloppy. I painted each flower on the beginning of each chapter, 1-10, from Solzhenitsyn's book Cancer Ward (the same book I used for his portrait). I will be selling these flowers at the art show for pretty cheap. Like $20 a piece, cheap. So make sure you come get one before they are all gone!

Almost Finished...

After finishing up all the outlining, it was time to start filling in the body with black ink. I actually went back through and filled in all the smallest areas using that same fine point brush. I also used it to round out any detailed areas in preparation for a bigger brush. With artwork, I was always taught to use the biggest brush you can, and thats exactly what I did here. I used three different brush sizes to ink in all the areas. Below is as far as I got yesterday, that shoulder is responsible for most of my time...

My close friend and fellow world traveller has posted up Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's biography for this weeks Wikipedia Wednesday! Check it out here, and look at his site often. There is fresh and very entertaining posts daily and his music reviews are always right on. Thanks Brad!

And make sure you mark your calendars, call your friends, cancel your appointments, because Beneath the Broken Bottles and Cigarette Butts begins in 10 days!

Up close with the fine point brush.



Got the details in and even finished the flower. You can also see the pages I had to paste over for my late night shading mistakes. It all works out in the end... Now the body is ready for the big brush!

Inking in the Outline

My next step, once I got everything in its proper place, is to ink in the outline. I am doing the whole portrait in ink because 1. its not thick like black paint 2. it blends really smoothly 3. it dries flat and doesnt show brush strokes. So basically Im going over all the lines I already drew, but with a bottle of ink and a very fine tipped brush. This actually took me most of the day to finish because this picture is huge and there is a lot of detail to it. Eleven days until opening night at the Rothick Arthaus!

On this day in 2008, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn passed away. I hope this portrait will both honor his accomplishments and inform more people about who he was and the relentless stand he took against the Soviet Union.

Tools of the trade.



You can see there is an area I still have to do on his chest. Im adding a flower in there and I just haven't figured out how I want to do it...



Detail shot of the sleeve after inking in the outlines. Can you find a penguin, a polar bear, a whale, and a map?

A Complex Drawing

Now that I got all the pages pasted on a board, my next step is to start drawing Aleksandr. It was a full day just to get the outline and placement correct, and another half day for his shoulder. By the evening of the first day I was getting pretty tired and should've called it quits. Instead I got the idea to shade in the dark areas with a light ink wash so I could get a feel of how it will look. Afterward, I had to paste a few pages over the areas that should have stayed the page color...oops.

Penciled in the outline, and started to wash it with ink. Even there I had already painted over vital highlights. A few pages pasted over fixed it pretty easy though. You can also see the shoulder here is still pretty basic.



Finished shading the big areas. These will be black. Although it was a bad idea, at least you can see what it will kind of look like... its hard being patient.



His shoulder has so many little parts to it. It took me a long time and a lot of erasing to get it to look accurate and correctly shaped.

In Preparation

  

These three sketches are for an upcoming piece Im working on. Its gonna be pretty big and hopefully awesome. Actually I know its going to be awesome, and it will be revealed at the upcoming art show "Beneath the Broken Bottles and Cigarette Butts" at the Rothick Gallery in Anaheim, CA. I urge you all to come, its gonna be crazy! I will have my own room there and will be showing new stuff. I will also have a limited number of small sketches that will be sold for cheap! Make sure you get there on time so you can get one before they are all gone... Go to my events page for more information.

Reclaimed pt.7

One day while in Florence, my friends and I decided to jump on a train and see where it would take us. It sounded really exciting. First we stopped off at a small town to get some local wine, but the winery was closed. Then we got here. It was a big city with a big church built on the side of a hill. In fact most of this city was built on the side of the hill and had really steep streets going up it. We hiked up to see what we could see. I saw this and the rather large church. Afterward we thought the trip was kind of a waste, but I recently changed my mind because I just some art out of it...

In Italy is ink and acrylic on cardboard. 8.25" x 10.75"

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Somewhere in London... Reclaimed pt. 6

I took a photo of this while wandering around London. I believe I was on my way to St. Paul's Cathedral, but I could be wrong. It was an interesting place because among all these tall buildings was this pit where trains emerged from underground tunnels. I spent some time trying to find it on google maps, but i havent turned anything up just yet... if you happen to recognize this place let me know.

Somewhere in London is ink and acrylic on cardboard. 25" x 28"

part 6 of my "Reclaimed" series.

Steps:

Related Posts:

Torn Apart

This series will be going to Amsterdam on Monday. It is now in the hands of two art collectors from that city. They are really cool guys that come out every year for Coachellafest and I couldnt be happier that they were the ones to get it.

I cant say it was really easy for me to part from this series, as I created it shortly after going in to remission from cancer. It is the first of my artwork to get in a gallery and it is also my first 'real' sale (see the original post here). On Thursday I got to pack it all up and ready it for the flight to its new home. The photo below includes one of the guys, Robert, and I in front of my series...

Torn Apart is a 9 panel series. Each panel is ink, acrylic, and newspaper on wood. 12" x 18"

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