painting as gifts - for kc

I want to get back to painting. I have a few things coming up for which I need to give some paintings, so I thought I would post about some paintings I created for friends.

First up, a Dixit card turned painting.

Dixit is this fun German-style board / card game that I have played many times with my friends.  The game has includes these beautifully designed cards that are a bit wacky. They are specific, but not at all specific at the same time. The card below inspired me for a painting for my friends.

I liked the ballerina and the record, so I started the painting leaving room for those items.

I wanted to finish the background first because I knew the ballerina and painting would be "on top" of everything else.

I liked the "stand" portion of the first card, but I decided to change it to be a painting on a painting. The painting I painted is a black and white version of a photograph my friends, kc, took on their travels. The train was red - it was a direct copy of a picture they had.  Finally, I made everything happen in space - hence the stars.

It's quite a big piece - perhaps too big. But I kind of like it.

sometimes it works out, sometimes not.

i started documenting my paintings a bit ago, and i'd like to restart doing that.  you can check out some of my work here.

so going back to my painting history.  i took an acrylic painting class and loved it.  i painted a few things in black and white and then we were told to do a homework assignment using just two complimentary colors (e.g. red and green, blue and orange, or purple and yellow).  i chose purple and yellow.  i painted the below chandon wine bottle in my hotel room in phoenix arizona, when i was there for a work conference.  it took me a few hours and is on a flat canvas board.  it is about the size of a piece of paper (maybe slightly larger - 9" by 12" probably).  i used only yellow and purple.  and maybe white.  i can't remember.  i must have.  i quite like it, although this isn't the best picture of it.  i did not paint this from a photo, it is painted from something that was in front of me.

in class around that same time, we were given an assignment to paint fruit.  and i didn't get the assignment, honestly.  it was so confusing to me.  everyone ended up with fruit that was different colors. and i wasn't really able to see all the different shades of the fruit.  so i did this in class on my canvas book.  it sucks, but i'm posting it here anyway.  i might have painted over this, it's so bad.  the teacher had the fruit in class for us.  bleh. i hate this so much.

lawyered.

haven't posted in a bit, but I recently spent some time painting.  I love to paint, even if I'm not any good at it.  I enjoy giving the paintings away (if people like them).  I painted this one for a friend in nola.  I call it "lawyered."

acrylic on cavas.  created June 2014.  I think it's 10x10inches.

more black and white

so after my first art class, we got homework.  the assignment was to find a painting we liked, print a copy in black and white and then recreate it.

i went back to my favorite, as described before, charles dwyer, and found a painting i hadn't seen before.

here it is (from gallery m, the gallery in denver i love), bella's call:

isn't that just beautiful??

here is the black and white printed version on 8 1/2 by 11 paper (the lines i drew, which is a painting technique to get sizing and whatnot):

and then here is my painted version:

i quite like how it turned out.  i should try practicing some more.

the greats weren't great...

there is a macklemore lyric that says:

the greats weren't great because they were good at art
the greats were great because they painted a lot

LOVE those lines.

not sure if i've shared this before or not, but a few years ago, i was sitting in the rinse chair at my hair salon and my stylist was giving me a facial while something happened with my hair (color setting or something...?  idk).  he put a warm wash cloth over my eyes and all of a sudden, i started seeing this really really cool pattern of colors - it was this really dark blue mixed with dark purple and black.  it was so pretty.  then he put a different wash cloth on my eyes and it was this bright red color with oranges.  and i thought "remember, remember, remember this!" and i have.  and i thought "i'm gonna learn to paint, so i can paint those some day."  a few months later, i enrolled in some nighttime acrylic painting classes.  i've loved painting ever since.  i'm not fantastic, but i love doing it!

as such, i'll share some of my work on this site.

i walked in to the class not even one minute late and the other six artists were sitting at easels, looking at the front of the class and a grouping of uninteresting white objects.  they were all sketching the drawing to later it paint it in black and white.  i was not prepared to become a drawer.  had no clue that might be involved in painting.  alas, it was.  and is.  i started drawing the shapes and soon realized i didn't like them.  so i drew the light fixture instead.  i felt very pretentious doing it, and i didn't want to!  i wasn't TRYING to be different - most times, i just am.  and this time, i was just different.  i figured this would be art i would put up in my house someday and i didn't want a collage of bowls, shells, and cups.  so i drew the light.  here it is.

and here is how the painting turned out.

my first painting!  i LOVE it!  it's gonna be a collector's item for my nephew someday.  :)  ha!

apparently my painting style is similar to graphic artists.  bold.  but, really, i think it's just that i'm not good at seeing the subtlety.  so i go for it.

anyway, more paintings to come...

anything artistic in your day today??