Happy Thanksgiving

I was able to crank out these paintings this past holiday weekend. My idea is to give these to my relatives for Christmas and think that these will be good and dry to ship my mid December.
I was digging through my wood pile and need to figure something out for the frames.
The main reason is to share something with my family who have been so supportive over the years. I love them and wish I could afford to buy them nice gifts or take them on trips to Hawaii. Alas, I am quite broke these days and so the second main reason that I am making the paintings is that they are inexpensive for me to create.
These are all smaller paintings, done on scrap MDF board. The rectangular ones are 7" x 9" and the square are 10" x 10".
I have been using a tripod to photograph my work and have been having better results with the same camera. This is good because I don't think that I will be able to afford a new camera any time soon.
It is funny, I am feeling like a starving artist, especially with Christmas coming. I may have to start using paintings as currency, or as trade for services. Do you think that the City of Portland will take a painting as payment for my out-of-control (what is it like $4500 this year!) property tax?

Children Have the Stuff

I seriously don't know. My daughter is showing some talent in the art area and I will encourage her, but I am torn.
I set her up with some acrylic paints the other day and she jammed out some paintings.




























Natasha has a nice balance going on in her paintings.









She killed me with this one. I am really getting inspired by her.

Ahhh, more room

So, I am still painting in my basement, but I now have a little more room.
I had been working out here next to my painting set-up and it was always crowded.
The washing machines used to be right at my back and when we did laundry, I was in the way.
I think it was a blessing in disguise when my seven year old elliptical trainer broke. Initially, I was determined to fix the thing, even thinking that I could weld it. I struggled with the machine for a while, but could not even get at the broken steel tube that had broken and decided that enough was enough (I had just welded another piece on it about two months ago).
I sat there, defeated and decided that it would be a good time to get the exercise routine out of the basement. As it turned out, a gym membership is cheap at a place down the street from my office
downtown and I had been thinking that I would like to get back to a gym.
I think that this will be a good change.

I worked down in my "new" studio today and was happy with the set up. I still need to work on my lighting, but having more space to stand back and look at the painting from a distance is good.

The blue painting is just the start of a fourth painting in my holiday gift collection. The color of the background is quite the opposite of the brick color of the wall and it will be cool to see how it works out. Again, the perspective on these is very important so I did take a lot of time to lay out the scene.
The photo that I am working from has a tree top in the lower right hand of the scene as well as some rainbow flags. I decided to not paint these in.
Jen says the flags represent the gay folks and this is one of the gay districts of Portland. I am certainly not excluding the flags from the scene for any anti-gay reason, only aesthetic reasons.

Paint Faster!

It is going to be a challenge to get these paintings done for Christmas, but I think I can do it.
The FedEx truck is 7 x 9 and the street corner is 10 x 10. It takes a fair amount of time to lay them out, but I wanted to get the proportions correct.
The sign in the street corner painting is off a bit and may need some adjusting.
I should be painting in the evening, but I am so wiped from the day. I can push myself to do it...

Happiness is a Warm Gun

The AA12 is a fully automatic 12 gauge shotgun that is capable of firing 300 rounds per minute. The weapon is designed so that all of the energy is absorbed by the auto loading mechanism, so there is virtually no recoil. In addition to standard 12 gauge shells, the AA12 is designed to fire explosive rounds.

This post is the most political post that I have made yet. The cartoon that I made represents the stupidity of these kinds of weapons. I am not anti-gun or anti-war or a peace loving tree hugger, but at some point enough is enough. A weapon like this in the wrong hands (what are the right hands?) could unleash deadly havoc on a crowd of innocent people. The weapon is supposedly designed for close range urban combat, where it would have a ridiculous advantage.

I came across this weapon while watching a TV show. The bad guys were smuggling these dangerous weapons into Miami. I was curious if there was such a thing as an automatic shotgun, so I Googled it.

The AA12 came up with a number of videos demonstrating the weapon. I came to the realization that as grown men, we are really just little boys inside who like to blow stuff up.

I am a fan of shoot-em-up video games and have shot actual shotguns and hand guns so I too have this innate curiosity. My son runs around fighting imaginary battles using imaginary weapons of all types and I am both horrified and intrigued by this behavior. As we get older, there is some understanding that these weapons are designed to actually kill real people, not just imaginary evil creatures. What is disturbing about the videos is the child like thrill that the shooters seem to be getting from firing the weapon at unsuspecting plastic canisters. Again, I am not without guilt here as I would probably not turn down the opportunity to shoot-em-up.

Our desire, some say need, to create ever more vicious ways to kill each other is never ending.

To create the cartoon, I traced an actual soldier firing the weapon and then created another overlay that made the soldier into a clown shooting a bubble gun. I then scanned these sketches into the computer and added color and texture in Photoshop. The result is what you see.

The Dark Tower Returns

I can't seem to get enough of this water tower. I have painted it for the third time now and I still find it interesting.
The opposite side of the tank has been tagged by some obsessed water tower tagger, which is unfortunate. The dark tank appeals to me as a simple form and the way it is placed on the roof top.
It is funny that these utilitarian objects take on such prominence in the skyline.
This tower reminds me of some kind of silent robot, waiting for it's time to unleash terror on the city below.

Anyway, I am starting a series of small paintings (the one above is 7" x 9"), mainly as Christmas presents for my family.
They will be painted on MDF panels, which I salvaged from home projects.