Some of my artwork

I have basically been a creative person since I could use my hands. I had vision problems as a child and once remedied I became unusually curious of the world, quiet and looking at every detail I could see. I drew most of the time instead of studying other things. It wasn't until hormones kicked in that I became the social person I am today.

My first drawings were of germ warfare, violent and biological. Tons of dragons and reptiles and dinosaurs. I am blessed with parents who saved ALL of my creations from childhood and sometimes I allow it to re-inspire new work. They also always encouraged my interests thankfully, and still do.

I took some instruction from a very nutty but brilliant impressionistic local painter about 25 years ago and have painting on and off ever since. I also took as much art history as my community college could offer, I loved ever minute of it.

I tend to shy from the art scene because I just want to create, its not a money making decision for me, but at times I try to nudge myself back in that direction. So Ive tried abstracts, romantic, impressionistic, cubism, figurative and modern, and I'm still moving and changing, and visiting museums and reading and allowing the world to evolve my creations. All I know is I enjoy doing this and I hope it's something you might enjoy seeing.

Good stuff !


I really like the rocket ship one , but whats gonna happen when it smashes into those giant spikes !! its gonna blow up into a million peices ! oh no!


The panda messed up that rabbit , and gave the afro samurai stare lool , awesome ! eat that rabbit.

reply to post by Aliquandro


Awesome! All of your pictures are just beautiful, with vivid colors and great imagination. I hope you continue with your artwork and do well, maybe with exhibitions. You've learned a lot from your instructor.

My father was an artist but, unfortunately, I didn't inherit ANY of his talent. Anyways, good work!

reply to post by Aliquandro

A very nice use of colour, perspective and form. Kudos. I like the dark humour of the dead bunny Bushido (?) scene too.

reply to post by Aliquandro


I really like the first one. The kung fu panda makes me laugh.


Here is an idea..mostly because I have become fascinated with world maps...but maybe you should try an impressionist or pointillism old world map. I think it would be awesome!

My favorite style of art is Pre-Raphaelite, but I really like these! Especially the last four... The way the colors are very saturated and kinda swirl, skewed perspective, and distinct outlines... they remind me very much of Van Gogh's work.
What medium do you use? Also, do you have a page on deviantart.com? They have a pretty active community, and I bet your art would be popular there.

Thanks everyone! Yes I love and am inspired by Van Gogh, and yes I love to use very bright color and twisted angles (like Kirchner).

The spaceship piece is part of a triptych where man destroys one enviro just to move on and vacation on others. I love weird, smart or goofy satire. The pandas vs bunnies (yes Bushido!) idea came to me while watching the 7 Samurai, and the scene where the yeilding sword move proves deadly. I started with a huge BLOODY battlescene, and it evolved into a very strange, slightly symbolic, esoteric fight of good vs evil, light vs dark.

I use almost exclusively oil on canvas (or wood or road turtle or stone), and I'm sure I'll be doing this to the grave. Oils are a very patient art and balances well with my manic personality. I was also very influenced by Byzantine (the definite outlines) and christian romantic (even tho I like to twist it hard with satire). My instructor told me NEVER to use black paint: he said black was just a collection of other colors. Well after I was done with instructions the first thing I did was get a huge tube of black and never looked back. Sometimes you need to only use what works for YOU.

I like the idea of an oldworld map. I do some really weird 2D fictional solar systems and galaxies too. 2D is kinda cool since i can wrap and twist the perspective. In fact I welcome any ideas or suggestions, I'm always looking for twists on typical historical/religious perspectives.

The stuff I'm currently working on is a Laxsmi, a lord Gabesha, and a Saraswadi. The Saraswadi is so much fun to paint, she is gorgeous and divine and is ironically the goddess of art, music and writing.

Thank you humbly again, the encouragement is well received on this end.

And yes I have a deviantart.com account, I love that place. It's such a large and talented forum I don't nearly see much response to my work there, but I use that place mostly to be inspired by others. Like a giant museum of artists that are still alive

I love the pre-raphaelites too, lol.

AMAZING WORK! Very impressive. Excellent use of color, your perspectives in your figurative works is genius - Picasso would be jealous. Your abstracts are very well done too but I think the first and last pictures are what sets you apart. I think you have what it takes to make some big money if the right people promoted your work. Really exciting stuff and I don't say that often. Thanks for sharing your work - I love it.

My suggestion is keep doing whatever it is that inspires you now. It works.

Dig it. Perspective on that first one is a visual stunner! I'd buy it. I'd usually give more input, but most everyone above nailed the specifics of your talent.

Enjoyed this, thanks.

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
I love the pre-raphaelites too, lol.

AMAZING WORK! Very impressive. Excellent use of color, your perspectives in your figurative works is genius - Picasso would be jealous. Your abstracts are very well done too but I think the first and last pictures are what sets you apart. I think you have what it takes to make some big money if the right people promoted your work. Really exciting stuff and I don't say that often. Thanks for sharing your work - I love it.

My suggestion is keep doing whatever it is that inspires you now. It works.

edit on 18-2-2012 by Asktheanimals because: (no reason given)

Your words touch and inspire me... thank you! Do you know how long some artists live and keep going at it JUST to hear those words? Wow, you just made my year.

But I bet a more appropriate thank you would be just share a few more?


Magician's Assistant - one of my older female studies

Honey Gatherers - based on a story i found interesting, but let my mind paint the details without researching it, i want to add fantasy sometimes, its more fun to paint

Sampson and Delilah - two of my favorite paintings are Picasso's "Weeping Woman" and deKooning's violent green and pink rendition, I thought Delilah must have been terribly remorse for betraying Sampson and therefor is the ultimate Weeping Woman from history.

reply to post by Aliquandro


Holy crap, man. These are truly excellent. The color scheme is one rarely seen in contemporary art and I totally dig the perspectives. I could very much imagine your art as supplemental pieces for spiritual journey fictions like The Alchemist.

I would also love to see a Tarot deck from you.

Originally posted by cuervo
reply to post by Aliquandro

 

Holy crap, man. These are truly excellent. The color scheme is one rarely seen in contemporary art and I totally dig the perspectives. I could very much imagine your art as supplemental pieces for spiritual journey fictions like The Alchemist.

I would also love to see a Tarot deck from you.

A few people have asked me what my approach to color is and my answer is always reply "yes!" I approach color to the point of saturation i guess. Every color wants to be up there every time and they are my dear friends

I've actually been thinking of doing a tarot deck, and I just started an Alchemy symbol last night but honestly some historical ancient Alchemist in action sounds much more interesting (mostly since its more symbolic than it is literal, which is challenging!). Good suggestion!

Thank you for the wonderful words

That's it. I give in! I thought my paintings were sort of getting there, but you go and plonk this down on ATS! The vivid pounding blocks of colour, bordered perfectly to suck in the eyes... GAH! How could you!!!
/me throws paintbrushes into the dust, kicks an empty can....

Man, there is a whole gaggle of naughty words which ATS forbids me to use, but imagine all of them preceding words like, awesome, staggering, brilliant and gorgeous.


Just... wow...

OK, I have a question. My paintings (of which I'll probably set fire to wearing a black mini skirt mumbling satanic words) that I've done are all in acrylic. I tend to put it on thick in some places which gets problematic when the time comes to photograph them. What I end up with are lots of highlights on paint edges that I dont want there. I've tried photographing them with a flash (tends to make it worse), with artificial light, out in the sun-shine, then out on a cloudy day, but I keep getting white highlights on the edges of my paint... My question is, how did you photograph these????

/me bows down awaiting an answer.

Originally posted by Qumulys
That's it. I give in! I thought my paintings were sort of getting there, but you go and plonk this down on ATS! The vivid pounding blocks of colour, bordered perfectly to suck in the eyes... GAH! How could you!!!
/me throws paintbrushes into the dust, kicks an empty can....

Man, there is a whole gaggle of naughty words which ATS forbids me to use, but imagine all of them preceding words like, awesome, staggering, brilliant and gorgeous.


Just... wow...

OK, I have a question. My paintings (of which I'll probably set fire to wearing a black mini skirt mumbling satanic words) that I've done are all in acrylic. I tend to put it on thick in some places which gets problematic when the time comes to photograph them. What I end up with are lots of highlights on paint edges that I dont want there. I've tried photographing them with a flash (tends to make it worse), with artificial light, out in the sun-shine, then out on a cloudy day, but I keep getting white highlights on the edges of my paint... My question is, how did you photograph these????

/me bows down awaiting an answer.

I had that problem for the longest time too, then I got an SLR, and politely asked for help like you just did.

Here's what you do, NEVER use flash, use a tripod and the guy on deviantart told me this: set up you shoot on the North side of your house, during midday, and if your stuff is real shiny you can do several things: shoot during overcast days, shoot your work at a slight angle on the plane your facing it (maybe wedge a book of matches under one side?), invest in a matte UV varnish and just varnish them first since acrylics dry fast. Also if you got the funds, invest in a good SLR and buy the extra lens filters, specifically the polarizing one that gets rid of some reflections, and the UV to save your purty new camera lens.

If you ever want advice as to how to feel good about your painting, keep trying different things! Maybe more specifically try oils for a while. They offer more vivid deep color, more time to mix and blend, colors stay truer thru more layers meaning more realistic effects, and colors MIX better, they don't get muddied is most important like acrylics. It's why I don't acrylics. They dry fast, get dull quick and look like @a$s if you don't mix them properly. They honestly depress me, lol!

There are some people with a gift and know tricks how to make acrylics phenomenal, but its hard I think. I just think there's a reason all the greats worked in oils. But something about the smell of linseed oil makes you inspired (you're working with a millenium old media that's changed very little), makes you serious about creating with these electric colors that have LIFE, they dry, dry so slow because they don't want to die, they are crying out to you to create beautiful things and try to become them! Paint what you feel good about, and what you like to look at, not what you don't.

There was a great quote once that always inspired me: "artists have a social responsibility not only to show how ugly it really is, but how beautiful it truly can become"

Love all your artwork no matter what you think of it, it's where you came from

Never stop going to museums, places like NY, LA and Chicago have some amazing collections worth seeing, and and if you can't make it far find out what's near you. Think outside the box so often you realize there was no box to begin with. Someone very bad told you boxes existed once and that was a lie my friend.

Thank you so very much for your kind words, I wish you the best with your art and discovering even more talents I'm sure you have.

reply to post by Aliquandro


Sorry, I should have mentioned I already have the SLR! I think the trying at noon at north might help! Thanks heaps mate! I'm only starting out, but since I didn't know a thing about oils, I just tried acrylics. I know what you mean about them getting muddy, also, its a pain to get right as it dries so fast. I won't embed my pic in here, but here's a link to paintings. My Painting 1 and My Painting 2 . I tried my best using photoshop to knock out some of the highlights, but the lacking vibrancy gets robbed even more. Anyways, thanks for the tips, and again, what awesome work you have!

Originally posted by Qumulys
reply to post by Aliquandro

 

Sorry, I should have mentioned I already have the SLR! I think the trying at noon at north might help! Thanks heaps mate! I'm only starting out, but since I didn't know a thing about oils, I just tried acrylics. I know what you mean about them getting muddy, also, its a pain to get right as it dries so fast. I won't embed my pic in here, but here's a link to paintings. My Painting 1 and My Painting 2 . I tried my best using photoshop to knock out some of the highlights, but the lacking vibrancy gets robbed even more. Anyways, thanks for the tips, and again, what awesome work you have!

Awesome, just set it to 'no flash' mode. Nice work by the way! I especially like the violet sunset. You got a rich palette. Are these actual places or fictional 'Bob Ross' landscapes? I love Bob Ross BTW, he was a maverick, the real deal and it would be awesome to see him honored in the louvre someday. They almost look like they could go fantasy (Entmoot) or a bit surreal (i like red trees they just work i think).

There's a traditional technique that's worked for me as well as Leonardo and others. Work very fast at first with a lighter undertone (light umber or blue) and sketch out real fast some action lines (squiggles, big snakey lines, your first couple may not look nice, just repeat til you have one you like), and a few obtuse angle hatch marks. Guys like cezanne broke it down into a few circles and cubes and maybe a triangle so that they fit nice and take up the space and move your eye across the painting and never lets it stop. Nows the tricky but fun part: make those angles/lines and/or cube/circle/triangles into something, make it tell a story in your own unique way using everything at your disposal. And soon you realize one secret is you can be really REALLY subtle with some of the elements that represent that balanced underpainting structure, that fundamental element that makes that painting good to look at.

Basically what I'm saying is this: you can have a turd in a box, as long as it's the right color turd occupying the most interesting space in that box someone will pay you $1,000,000 and write your name in the paper for it, heck they might even call you a visionary, genius, prophet or god almighty!

Happy painting and thanks for sharing.

reply to post by Aliquandro


I'm glad if any of us here can give you positive pressure to create more. I meant every word and comes from someone who spent years studying art history and sold their work through galleries in NY and Tokyo. I've seen work of far less quality than yours selling for big money and I can honestly say I don't think I've seen any work that was better than yours.

Your depth of knowledge in art history is something that really adds to what you do - it gives you a flexibility in how you present the subject. I can readily see the influences of impressionism, mannerism, roccoco, cubism, etc but that doesn't matter because your work incorporates the elements from them that add to what you are doing without being confined by them. That's to say you don't allow yourself to be limited by stylistic convention. Bravo!

I'm sure you are aware of this but maybe it's nice if someone else notices too, eh?

Thanks for posting more of your work. It's great to see an artist so free and who enjoys the process so much - sometimes doing things for a living can take the inspiration out of it. I think that happened to me. I don't love to do artwork like I did once. Don't know if other interests became more important or if I just burned out on it.

One last thing; there will always be critics of your work. People who will trash it to make themselves feel better. Forget them and forget people like me who will tell you what you do is great. It's what YOU think and what YOU feel about that's important. If you can satisfy yourself then that is good enough.