New Miniature Painting - The Hunter

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Hunter
9.5" X 7"

Another miniture portrait for you, kind reader, to view. Is it odd I am, in part, coping work from the past? I HATE actually copying works- like artists that hover before some masterpiece at the museum trying to emulate the work. how dull. Sure you can learn so much but, hello- yawn. These don't feel that way. Maybe the animal head makes it mine?
I want to do a whole family portrait of deer. At first I thought to borrow the figures from Las Mininas by Velasquez (I love the little girl but a dwarf deer?), but I want something less roomy. Any ideas?

Lady Squirrel, Show Canceled, and the End of Summer

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Lady Squirrel
I'm too lazy to go down to the studio but I think its about 7 inches high. One of the best pieces, I think of this silly series thus far. Sometimes even a size 0 brush isn't small enough. How rediculous. Its like buying jeans nowadays, where the marketers keep lowering what a size, say 12, is, so that someone can feel more petite. In old patterns I have to buy 12 sizes up from my current size. Ludicrous! Actually, no, brushes aren't that bad.. But still. A zero?


Sad news- I think the August 29th show is canceled. Either the gallery is being sold or under new management or some such tumultuous affair. I SO need to find a gallery that isn't in economic straights. If anyone can suggest one that would jib with my style I am all ears. If you hook me up with a good gallery I'll paint you a self portrait of myself with ten ears...all ears...get it. I think I need to go sketch that now in my book.


Summer nears an end and soon my oldest will enter the Totalitarian world of elementary school. No tears shall be shed at this cross-roads event, I can't WAIT to get more time to paint. But seeing him in this new identity I am so proud I might get a bit verklempt.And I have been painting less for these last couple weeks so I can spend time with these manic little men. It's odd I don't sketch or paint them more as I find them such lovely specimens of humanity. But I have been taking advantage of their willingness to pose for me.

Ibis, Another Miniature Painting, and the Possibility of Interviews

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Ibis 6"X 4"


Just a quick post today. I don't usually post on the weekend (you know, in the TWO big weeks I've been blogging so far!) but I am trying to write at least three week day posts a week and last week was a bit post slim.

All this blogging about myself feels so narcissistic, and anyway, how much can I personally write about being both parent and artist? So I am compiling a list of interview questions for parents who make art at home while they also don the mantle of parent. It may take some time to actually finish these lists and pin down interview times so please, kind reader, bear with me and all this me-me-me-writing until then. I promise the interviews will be worth waiting for!

My miniatures aren't all that miniature, just so you know. Ibis was actually the first one, and a bit rough, but also the smallest (by a couple inches). I added the curtain last night, which helped ground the bird. And Jackel is done as of last night as well, but too wet to photograph.

Noble Egret, A Foppish Bird and the Back of Art

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And also a whole other series I'm working on! Are my energies a bit spread out or am I in a creative typhoon? Whatever the case, I have already painted a couple of these miniatures. Clever clever me, I thought I ought to work smaller so as to make my art more affordable to the masses, so I came up with the most detailed little pieces I could conjure thereby making my time worth very little.

In Elizabethan times, lacking a camera, people carried about portraits of their loved ones. For some inexplicable reason taking these and painting them with animal (mostly bird) heads seemed a good idea. Tennie Tiny bits of lace done with negative 1 size brush? But I like them. They are so wonderfully odd with their human hands and fancy frippery. I should like to paint all the old Egyptian Gods this way. I already have Ibis done (soon to be shown here). Jackal will most likely be next. And then I'll paint all the Egyptian gods in punk clothes.

But Im not really showing you, kind reader, any integration am I. So here's a bit of a secret. Many of my paintings have a bonus drawing on their backside by little elves that sneak down into my studio and draw on the wood sitting about- just like Mommy! So I always face the less desirable side out, thus leaving the good grain for my painting and giving buyers a little surprise when they turn the painting around.