Politics and Wasps

Thanks to one of the U.S. Government's tax incentives this year I'm replacing the single pane windows in my house with double pane.  This will be the first winter in Northern California I'm actually at home during the day (ie not in a warm office) so I needed to do something to retain heat better.  Pulling out old windows that have been in place since the 1940s has been interesting.  I've found well established carpenter ant colonies and this paper wasp nest (my left foot indicates the nest size).  This nest is the biggest one I've ever seen but when I googled to find out exactly what it was, I found even bigger wasp nests - many in the hands of collector Terry Prouty.  His big wasp nest collection can be seen at the very interesting BugGuide.net website.

Glenn Beck on Monkeys

Just discovered something new on my Windows 7 ThinkPad - which is an image collage feature.  When I read the latest proof Glenn Beck never studied biology on HuffPost I figured out I could combine the Mono Lisa picture I drew a few years ago on the Saatchi website with some garden photos and a downloaded picture of Beck to create a new collage.  Maybe if Beck wants to see a half man half monkey he should simply look in the mirror.

Hamburgers and Star Wars

In 1976, while they were shooting Star Wars in Tunisia, I had very little to do at work in California, so I set up my easel and painted some wax food from American Graffiti that was in George Lucas's office.  Thus was born my appreciation of the great American hamburger in art (see oil painting below + postcard from the Tunisia location from George and Marcia).  After Star Wars opened in 1977 work got a lot busier and I stopped painting for many years.   Now that my entertainment industry years are behind me, in 2010 I've repainted the all- American hamburger.

Paros Weeds

Two weeds loom tall high up on the island of Paros looking down at the view of Anti Paros.

I did a Paros Weeds sketch June 2010 then this oil painting which has gone through various forms from just the two weeds with a plain background, to two weeds against a pen & ink background to this final view with some of the background painted in.

Alphabets for Christmas Anyone?

My latest alphabet is called the "Scribble Alphabet."  See if you can figure out the image for each letter (hint P = pigs).  Alphabet posters make great gifts for young children (and others) who need to learn their a,b,c's!

More alphabets are on my website at Redcrowartworks.  Any image found there can be purchased directly from me.  I'll print, sign and mail a museum quality poster OR a cheaper version can be purchased from my account at artistrising.

Additional alphabet product is available at Zazzle

Sister Susan

Another portrait in the style of Alice Neel, this time using her portrait of Andy Warhol as reference (view the New York Times linked slide show to see the image referenced).

My biggest critic says of this 12x16 oil painting "That doesn't look like your sister.  I think you should give up on portraiture."

I agree Susan is better looking than this painting (as can be seen from the photo below) and she was never in this hotel room in Paris (I was, in 2003) but I kind of like this painting!

Running Boy With Dog - Anatomy of a Painting

This new 12"x16" oil painting has a unique history.

I first scanned a painting done by my mother in the 1960s or 1970s of a beach in Santa Barbara (see below), then digitally added the following:
1.  A cut-out of a boat also painted by J.L. Autrey
(see further below)
2.  A cut-out of Newfe the dog running (a rare event) photographed in Portland this year (see below)
3.  A cut-out of one of the neighbor Smith kids I played with in the 1950s (see polaroid photo below taken in our El Sueno yard  in Santa Barbara). 

I put all the pieces together and printed out a digital composite to use as reference.  But when I tried to paint my digital composite, I hated it so I painted over most of the background and then added some houses and smoking stacks from a painting by Hungarian artist Tivadar Csontvary Kosztka of Castellammare Di Stabia

Without the computer, it would surely have been harder to combine paintings and photographs of Santa Barbara, Portland and Hungary to come up with a new painting in the old medium of oil on canvas.