The Latest Works

I have been slammed. Sorry. Real life stuff, one thing after another, and best of all, most of them dealing with art. So I have quite a few new pieces to share with the class. I’ve been busy. BUSY PAINTING.

First up is the turbine trifecta:

We have “Blue Turbines,” “Purple Turbines,” and “Night Turbines.” You guessed it! One’s blue-tinted, the other is purple-tinted, and the third is my rendering of the turbines at night. I’ve never seen the turbines at night, but I’ve been told they pulsate in unison, like an alien landing pad. Now THAT would be cool to see.

All of the reference pictures were taken in the same location as the previous windmill series (through research, I found out they’re actually called turbines, but hey) except I got MUCH closer: Right alongside the highway. These were on my drive home for Thanksgiving, again in Illinois, and, if you’re curious, just drive north on Highway 40, from Peoria, and they’re near Bradford, Illinois. Mesmerizing.

This next set is from my Middletown Series.

(From left to right: “Using Leisure,” “Training The Young,” “Getting A Living,” and “Engaging in Religious Activities.”)

It’s funny to me to even HAVE a series, given the whole short attention span thing. For me, I guess, a series encompasses 3 media (in this case, watercolor, acrylic, and photography, although those two aren’t pictured here) that all have a general theme: The Middletown Studies.

The Middletown Studies were originally done in the 1920’s in the most scientifically “average” town in America: Muncie, Indiana. Middletown was the city’s codename for the study. There were six categories for the study, with fun vintage titles like “Using Leisure” (having fun, I guess), “Training The Young” (education) and “Getting A Living” (employment). I loved those titles, so I did a piece for each category and titled it correspondingly. Both these and the windmills were part of my first Featured Artist show in Muncie, at The Artist Within (gallery and pottery shop).

This last little one is already sold. Sorry. It was a commission, a birthday present for a friend’s wife. It’s titled, “Just Try To Take It.”

The little toughie in the painting is Velcro Whisner, a yorkie with a lot of attitude. The photo was emailed to me by his “dad” and the Double Bubble is a squeakie toy, not the real thing. I loved his li’l “I’m soooo gonna bite you now” look on his face. It made for a nice challenge. Yorkies are tough to paint, given their coloring and their long hairs. I had to be careful to work backwards, 3-D-wise, to make sure I did the ears before the forehead and such. And, with anyone’s pet, I wanted to capture that ‘look’ that makes this Velcro and not just some random yorkie. I know every spot on my dogs’ faces, and I’m sure other owners know their pets that well too!

hehe, Also, word is, a tear was formed when this lil pressie was given. Win!