Mural for the Garrison

Recently completed mural for the Garrison in Piedmont - the mandate was "foliage with three framed beetles." 

Here is the preliminary sketch I did, which astonishingly was enough for them to give me the go ahead to just start painting on their enormous dining room wall:

Lessons learned: standing on ladders to paint is hard. Buy a massive tube of green oxide paint ahead of time. It is possible to tie yourself in extensive knots over how to paint a lit lightbulb against a white wall. 

Closeups of the finished beetles: a stag beetle, a crimson beetle, and a tansy beetle. 

Announcing new official website!

Hello shiny information superhighway! I am now set up with a slightly more formal, definitely more organized website, where I will post any new completed artwork. I will still (I think) post here from time to time stuff that it is in process, but completed work will now go .... drumroll.... HERE!

     Lion, giraffe, bird, mosquitoes, and termites

     Coloured pencil on Bristol paper

     12" x 16"

     with co-artist Keo B.-P. (2nd grade)

Recent stained glass efforts

Badger and red squirrel leaded glass windows, 30 cm x 60 cm

Mother and daughter mermaids leaded glass window (design by P. Stanton-Hsiao)

26" x 30"

Octopus leaded glass window 20" x 30"

More combination animal pictures! These ones were done in collaboration with students from my daughter's school as a charity benefit for the school (several kids chose to draw their family pet). So much fun, and great results I think regardless of the age of the kid - youngest was 6, oldest was 14.

 

Dougal, water colour, pen & ink, collage 9x12"

 Tabitha, water colour, pen & ink, collage. 9x12"

Puppy, water colour, pen & ink, and collage paper, 9x12"

 Lion and lion cub, water colour, pen & ink, and collage paper, 9"x 12"

 Tiger, water colour and pen & ink. 9" x 12". 

(My co-collaborator couldn't be convinced to draw any background, but I think I like the minimalism.)

Narwhal, water colour and marbled paper (yup, we had to learn how to marble paper), 9 x 12"

Plus a portrait of my boyfriend as a juggling mermaid, because, well, juggling mermaids. Please note bonus vampire squid, angler fish, hydrothermal vent, submarine racing car, and a pair of eels. Boo-yah, Leonardo.

Jeffy mermaid, coloured pencil, water colour, and graphite pencil, 9x12".

Inspired by artist Mica Hendricks and her daughter, a collaborative series of mum'n'pip drawings

 Cheetah in a forest

Pen and ink, watercolour, coloured pencil on paper, 9"x12"

 Mother and baby octopi

Pen & watercolour on paper, 9"x12"

 Bearded dragon

Watercolour on paper, 9"x12"

 Swan with peacock head feathers

Pen, ink, acrylic, and watercolour, 9"x12"

 Koala with blue and red chickenpox, climbing a eucalyptus tree while flying a rainbow kite; fireworks overhead and nearby rabbit balancing on icecream cone while playing with a yoyo.

Pen, ink, and coloured pencil on paper, 9" x 12"

 Fish

Watercolour and coloured pencil on paper, 9" x 12"

 Lizard and dragonfly with butterfly wings

Watercolour, pen, and coloured pencil on paper, 9" x 12"

 Giraffe wearing necklace, fur scarf, and pink belt, with nesting duck

Pen, ink, and watercolour on paper, 9" x 12"

 Sea turtle and two fishes holding hands

Pen, ink, watercolour, and coloured pencil on paper, 9" x 12"

Coyote in wintertime next to a campfire ring

Pen, ink, and watercolour on paper, 9" x 12"

Victorian dollhouse

So, not strictly an art project, but just because I am proud of it, here is the dollhouse I built from a kit for my daughter for Christmas, going up in stages. Please ignore the horrific mess that is my worktable. It looks (a bit)  better now. I was tempted to spend hundreds of dollars furnishing it with reproduction period furniture made in China, but, you know, not.

Great horned owl

Great horned owl

Acrylic on canvas 4"x4"

View of Ullswater

Oil paint on MDF board, approx 5' x 8' 

December 2010

painting workshop!

I just took a class at Gage Academy of Art called Portrait Painting in the Renaissance Tradition, optional subtitle of How to Paint Portraits the Extremely Tedious Way, with a million layers of charcoal drawing, underpainting, "dead colour" layers, glazes, etc. etc. It looks better if you, um, do it right (viz van Eyck, Leonardo, Raphael, Rembrandt, etc.), but here for the edification of the masses is the evolution of my painting:

charcoal underdrawing

monochromatic underpainting

"dead colour" layer (red oxide/yellow ochre/white/black)

after ten thousand layers (approximately) of glaze

ironically I don't have a picture of the finished thing on its own, but here is everyone's all lined up together:

and here is a green monochromatic underpainting of a model we just had for one afternoon: