That dream within a dream...

Hey guys! Here is my newest-ish finished painting, sort of. I said it was finished like two months ago but it wasn't finished, I was just being lazy. So I want ahead and finished it last night. It's colored pencil on paper 8in x 12in. Enjoy! 

Fruit and junk.

A still life of fruit and junk. Colored pencil on paper, 10x22

January,1984

Hello friends! Here's one of my latest pieces, January, 1984. It's 12inx16in colored pencil on paper, enjoy! 

Attack of the good-natured dinosaur!

   I love absurdity. I love reading books where it's completly plausable that a detective would be investigating the tragic murder of humpy dumpty. Or where a girl shares an apartment with monsters. For some time I have been contemplating how to Interduce this kind of craziness in to my work. I think I figured it out! 

   This is a pleine air and still life put in to one piece. The dinosaur is a stuffed animal. The city scape is the view of my neighborhood from my window. 

11x14
Colored pencil on paper

Pears

Pears
colored pencil on paper 11x14

Fruit

Fruit
Colored pencil and ink on paper 11x14

Stacked

I love to see repetitive things i.e. stacked cups, books, fence posts, power lines and what not. So when I saw these cups I just had to capture it on paper.

Stacked
12x16
Colored pencil on paper 

Nerd!

My husband loves Star Wars. LOVES it. So I've been trying to incorporate his love for Star Wars in my work (cause I like him a little bit). I tried a composition with c3po and Luke Skywalker but neither composition made it past the drawing stage. Then he got this alien figure and I immediately loved the color of it. So I set out to try another Star Wars piece, and success! I incorporated the fruit in the background to give it a more classic feel with the very 'modern' alien figure. Now I need to do a painting with Data from Star Trek...

What up gnomies!

About the gnomes.....Well,  I was window shopping with my husband when I came across a disheveled shelf of gnomes. I really like the repetitiveness of the figures. (I have a thing for repetitive things like stacked cups and such) I was captivated by the same 'model' of gnome but in different positions. I took a lot of photos and really liked this particular grouping because it seemed 'wrong' or not the traditional composition. It flowed really well starting with the standing gnome and ending with the lone gnome. Let's not forget the colors! I originally thought the green background wasn't going to work but I really like how it makes the figures pop.

Gnomes
12x16
Colored pencil on paper 

An apple?

    Yes an apple. I have a lot of paintings with apples. Let me explain, (of course your going to let me explain, your still reading this, aren't you?) starting with the non-artsy reason, I always have apples around the house, and they are super easy to paint. You know, cause they are roundish and stuff.
    Now let me get into the artsy reason for this apple in particular. Again I just happened to have an apple and a tiny metal Wolverine figure. I tried the composition with just the figure and it was boring. I also wanted to show the size of the figure. Thats when it hit me, an apple! (not literally) (hehehe) When I put the two together it was like magic. I loved everything about it. The figures colors are very complementary to the apple, making my eyes sing. The organic-ness of the apple vs the cool shiny metal is a juxtaposition of the elements. The very large and general apple vs the tiny details of the metal figure gives the composition interesting textures. Ok thats enough I'm boring myself.
    All this said I'm sure someone is going to come up with some weird phycological reason for the apple. They always do. It seems to me that when a viewer reads strange stuff in to a painting, they are usually seeing something in themselves and not the artist. Like a mirror. (and not just from the shiny glass)

Waiting
12x16
Colored pencil on paper