Oil painting on wood panel

oil painting on wood panel

oil painting on wood panel

Oil painting on wood panel

Oil painting on wood panel

Oil Painting on wood panel

I just finished this painting as a commission to be used as a CD graphic. (Afternoon of the Soul by Fred Hamilton, yes there is a relation)

I’ll post the finished CD images/graphics when I’m finished and it’s sent off to be printed.

This is an acrylic painting on wood I recently finished illustrating the parallel between frog and human health specifically the fungus “chytridiomycosis”‘ threatening a third of the worlds frog species with extinction and “Staphylococcus Aureus” (staph); infecting people with increasingly more virulent, antibiotic resistant strains. It’s a play on the necessity and contribution of antibiotics as it is the thing that can cure the fungus in frogs and staph in people, but also breeds more fierce versions of what it “cures”.

(I’m such a goof, I checked like 3 times, but still spelled staph wrong in the painting; I just noticed it. ugh. ha ha. get out the brushes again)

These two watercolors are meant to illustrate parts of Oscar Wilde’s childrens’ story “The Selfish Giant”. One image shows the giant kicking the children out of his garden, then winter sets in for a few years in his garden until the children return, melting his icy heart and he learns that it’s nice to share and feel love. Awwww. It was an assignment for a watercolor class taught by an incredible painter and instructor Steven Player at the Academy of Art.

This is a detail of the Rembrandt Oil Study I completed for a head drawing class at the Academy of Art; it was done with a limited palette of white, black and burnt umber. Rembrandt frequently chose or was commissioned to paint Mennonites for his subject matter and I believe this is the reason for her style choice of the large white collar.

It’s been a month since I’ve done a new post. It’s not for lack of work, just a lack of updating. I finished my second semester in graduate school at the academy of art, am preparing to move in a month to a new house, and am also planning a summer of landscaping, will be working on my first childrens’ book project with a friend who is a stellar writer and will also find time to submerge myself in the rivers of northern california. Ahhhh, it’s good to be alive. I just wanted to remember that out loud, it’s good to be here, it’s a pleasure to make art, to have the up’s and down’s of life teaching me some kind of balance (it’s in there somewhere), to have good friends, to eat and share good food courtesy of the fresh farmer’s markets of the bay area and to remember to smile, cultivate a warm heart, and feel some love for life already!! Sometimes I just need to announce and practice my gratitude especially after a rough ass moment or two, and what better place to do it than in this journal/blog forum.

Always: practice, practice, practice (right now it’s anatomy, composition, lighting, botanical studies, character sketches, animals; I’m determined to become a really really really versatile artist and am going to practice my heart out this summer on school break).

These sketches were done in the Oakland Museum Natural History Room. I went there a couple of weeks ago with my friend and fellow artist Forest Stearns.  The museum has a pretty good collection of animals, birds, habitat, and even eggs to draw from and a constant sound scape of environments to give it some life.

birds and ears

These are 3 of the better drawings I’ve done in class this semester. We spend about 5 1/2  hours in class drawing one pose. I feel sorry for the model and hope to one day be able to finish a really really really good drawing. These still feel like warm ups to maybe becoming a good artist someday.

This is a Rembrandt study for class. Notice how much she unfortuneately resembles the Quaker oats man. I chose this not knowing I have to now do an oil painting of it. It’s good practice?