Art Killa

There is a saying that "art is never finished, only abandoned", but occasionally it is also taken out back and shot in the head Old Yeller style.

Basically, I've been working on a bunch of stuff for an upcoming show at Benjamin Benjamin and one of these paintings was to be a lovely pastoral scene inspired by the Murakami book "Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". After stressing over the composition for weeks, I finally drew something I was moderately happy with, and figured I'd fix what I didn't like with paint. Unfortunately, it became clear to me after about 10 hours of work that there was a glaring and unforgivable perspective problem that no amount of cleverly placed reeds could cover. I made the hard choice to break the board in two to prevent myself from working on what was essentially an imploding shit show. Sad but necessary.

Here is the digital color comp:


And here is a moving photo of its lifeless body on my floor:

The End

Face off show recap

Here are some pics from last nights show at Benjamin Benjamin. It was great turn out and a ton of fun. I was really impressed with the diversity and quality of the work . If you couldn't make it last night, the show will be up through the end of the month.

Dustin's and my work side by side:

Some pics of the other artists stuff:

Super Awesome owners Myah and Scott:And finally a picture that sums up how feel about my work as I am painting it:Good times indeed.

Face Off!

Guess what! Its almost First Thursday! And Guess What! This First Thursday I'll have a painting in the Benjamin Benjamin "Face Off" show! (Oh my gosh, four exclamatory sentences in a row?! How exciting!!!!) The premise of the show is pretty cool. B&B took a bunch of artists and paired them off to do portraits of each other. My victim was illustrator phenom Dustin Hostetler, better known as UPSO. This was a really fun project and it was great to work with such a well known artist. Here are the results:

Dustin's Portrait of ME:And my portrait of him:

I made a few edits to the painting after I scanned this one, but you get the idea. And speaking of ideas, I had close to a billion for this project, so here is a drawing that may or may not ever get painted (but definitely not in time for the opening):

If you know UPSO's work, you'll get the diamonds reference. Anyway, I hope you like and I hope to see you at Benjamin Benjamin this coming Thursday (5/5) for the fun. Stone Brewing and Canvas Art Bar will be there, so its gonna be a straight up PAR-TAY.

Figure paint'n

Every so often I get some down time in between projects and I've started doing some figure painting to keep the ol' paint'n skills sharp and steady. Here are a couple of the most recent, done from poses taken from the Art Models book series.

The first was an attempt at using a very limited color palette (burnt umber, burnt sienna, a tiny bit of Naples yellow Italian, white and I think gold orche) with a more traditional pose, and the second was with anything color I felt like and a more pin up style pose. Both were done on a 14x20 Aqvarelle Arches water color block (cold pressed) after a light gesso and wash. I limited the time I could spend on them to around 1-2 hours, to keep them loose and more spontaneous. Minimal computer color correction. Hope you like!

Mermazing...

This one is a bit late in going up. I did it as a Christmas present for my aunt who is a big time surfer and loves mermaids, hence the, um, mermaid. I'm not sure if it'll make it to the site, but I was thinking of popping on some sweet retro lettering and making it look like an old time-y surf ad. That's kinda what I was going for when I was painting it...

A funny note: I put that graphic on the board just thinking it'd look neato, but it turns out it is actually pretty close to a real board company's logo. Coincidence or the result of an insidious surfboard makers subliminal marketing? You be the Judge!!!!!

First Thusday Awesomeness: Mary Ellen Mark and Eric Joyner

For those who aren't from Portland, we have a magical monthly event known as "First Thursday". Basically, it's when all the galleries have their openings, and the gallery district become one big party. I try to go every month, for inspiration and free wine (or free Pabst at the Lofts), but this month I was so excited by two shows in particular I felt the need to BLARG about them.

The First was the Short Circuit show at Benjamin Benjamin. For avid readers of this blog (all two of them-"Hi Mom") you'll know this is a gallery I recently showed at, but I promise this isn't biased. This month they were showcasing one of my favorite artists, Eric Joyner. He paints robots and doughnuts pretty much exclusively, so you can understand why I love him so. Needless to say I was psyched to see some of his work in person, and the other artists were also super kick ass. If you like robots at all, or fun retro stuff, you have to check this show out.

Eric Joyner “Too Many Choices”

The Second show was a huge, but incredibly welcomed, surprise. Blue Sky, a photography gallery near the north park blocks, was showing three series by Mary Ellen Mark. The series (Falkland Road, Indian Circus, an Ward 81) are shocking, moving and beautiful. You very rarely come across photo journalism exhibits in the first place, and even more rarely ones of this caliber. If you have even a passing interest in photography, you'd be nuts to miss it.

Gloria and Ravi, a Trainer, with His Bear Gemini. Gemini Circus, Perintalmanna

1989

platinum print

19" X 19"

Image © Mary Ellen Mark

Anyway, I just wanted to put it out there that if ever there was a month you should be visiting P-towns galleries, this would be the month. If you want company, give me a jingle.

Share Some Candy likes me!

Check it out:

http://www.sharesomecandy.com/2011/01/johnny-acurso.html