Bad Santa come early (or so late he's early)

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I actually painted this last year and meant to have it mounted and ready to post before Christmas. Sadly, right about that time my grandmother had a whole big medical to-do, and I got pretty side tracked.

Still, better late than never. And really, if you want to post anything remotely Santa-related, I suppose you have to do it in summer these days ^^

At any rate, I love, love, love this guy :D I'm not sure exactly where he falls in Buddhist traditions, but I'm assuming you don't want to mess with him too seriously.

See more at http://www.etsy.com/listing/55173770/bad-santa

The politics of painting

Wednesday, August 25, 2010


This piece is a little bit different, and I like that. It marks a change in direction for me because I have spent such a long time studying how to use the Chinese brush and various Chinese and Japanese painting techniques. Here, after all that work, I am able to depart from traditional subjects and lessons and begin to develop my own style with these exotic materials.

I think the Western art community has ignored the potential of this medium. Oil paints and canvases stretched on wood are still king in Western painting. There is an attitude that a painting is not real art if it's not oil and canvas, and I think that's a shame because there's a lot to be learned from Asian art practices that are every bit as impressive and important to art.

For me, a big one is learning to be in balance with the materials themselves in order to create more direct expression. Every brush stroke carries more meaning.

In current Western art practices, so much attention is focused on the new, on proving that one is a unique individual. But new for the sake of new is empty. Trying to make things look edgy and avant-garde in ways that are irreducable to some underlying concept, philosophy, feeling, or worthwhile intention, is empty.

I would rather try to be one with my art, and someday maybe I will achieve that.

To see full views of this painting and learn more about it follow the link to etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/54683272/fruits-of-nature

Musings (can there be too many?)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Welcome to my world - a place of magic, wonder, and... magic ;)

I have been experimenting recently with mounting my rice paper paintings to colored paper, and I'm really pleased with the results so far. You can just see a bit of the blue paper that this piece is mounted to peeking through.

See more of this piece on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/54052495/musings-1

The moon-winged butterfly has landed!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Well, I almost thought it wouldn't happen, but I have finished this painting, mounted it, and listed it. This painting has been a nice experience. I got to do a goof bit of experimenting with layering color, painting clouds, and doing that most difficult of artistic feats: painting a nightscape.

One of the experiments in this piece was mounting the translucent rice paper painting to a colored paper. Usually it's all just white paper I use for mounting, but this time I used a blue-brown paper. It really enhances the night atmosphere and I'm really pleased it didn't ruin the whole thing, which was a risk.

If you want to see the entire painting, it is right here for sale on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/53846993/moon-winged-butterfly-original-painting

The dancing elephant takes shape

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I am having some fun with this painting, being messy and whatnot. Is it too messy? I guess only time will tell. When I add the fine linework, that will probably change the appearance significantly. I hope it forms a pleasing contrast.

I accidentally pokes a hole in the paper, but hopefully I can fix it during mounting.

Dancing Elephant? Why not!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010
















Ok, here's one of my current projects in progress. I am working on a dancing elephant figure in what I hope is going to end up a fresh and modern style. YOu can see above what I have completed and on the right I have used the Gimp to plan out how I want to continue.
So far so good. I could still screw it up, but I have a good feeling about this one so far, from the sense of movement, to the texture of the loose brushwork.

Visit me on Etsy

 
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