Katmai Art 2012

I was away all summer working at Brooks Lodge in Katmai National Park, AK for the second time. This year I took thousands more photos than last time, and with a better camera, too. I also put together a miniature oil painting kit with cheap paint (I had no way of keeping palettes so had to throw away anything I didn't use each session and didn't want to throw out good paint) and cheap brushes (I couldn't find short handled nice brushes for oils at short notice).

In all I did 9 small oil paintings, mostly of bears. I sold three of them before I could take photos of them so all I have to remember them by are mediocre photocopies that I scanned in to share here. Even so, it was a good experience. The cheap paint and brushes were VERY frustrating to work with and forced me to let go of my perfectionism for a little while. With the mindset of, "Well, I can't paint perfectly with substandard materials," I was able to simply let go, rock out to some European metal, and PAINT. 4 the first day, 3 the next time, and 2 the last session.

Below, the art appears in chronological order. All but one were painted on canvas paper, the one oddball was done on a mini 2x2" canvas panel. All but that mini panel and the squirrel are 6" x 9"; the squirrel is like 3.5" x 12" or something.

I plan on keeping up the theme for a while as an exercise. They're pretty quick for me to do, taking between 30min to 2 hours. I am planning on making prints of some kind of a few of them; squirrel and splashing bear are the most popular. What do you think?

UPDATE: Rosas in Vector

A long time ago (2006?) I made a LOT of desktop wallpapers themed after the characters of the anime Maria Sama ga Miteru. Many of those wallpapers are probably floating around the internet somewhere - I know most of them survive in my Photobucket. At the beginning of my Marimite art career, I was doing most of my work in Photoshop. One trio of wallpapers I created always stuck in my mind as something I should update by re-creating them in Illustrator. The idea for them was simple and elegant and it was a shame I'd only done them in 3:4 aspect ratio for small screens.

So at one point this summer I had some free time on my hands and so for fun I re-built those wallpapers! Here they are, in one size only (1920 x 1200) done in Adobe Illustrator, September 15, 2012:

Painting Haiku

Here's my 11-hour (into 2 minutes!) time lapse video of me painting "Haiku".



The song is "Solipsist" by Kaki King off her album Legs to Make Us Longer. Check out her music - she's fantastic.

(Disclaimer: song used without any kind of permission. I made absolutely no profit from this video, nor from the painting since it was a gift.)

Haiku

"Haiku" • oil on illustration board
15"x11" • approx. 11 hours

I'm always keeping my eyes open for striking photographs taken by friends and family that could be a great basis for a painting. Years ago my friend Rachel took this awesome photo of her cat, Haiku (a very awesome and charismatic cat), and I knew when I saw it that I just had to paint it. But I wanted to do it in secret for an occasion, like her birthday or Christmas.

I finally had the time and energy to do the Haiku painting this year. Unfortunately, Haiku passed away about a week before Christmas. That kind of lended extra sentimentality to creating the painting and giving it to my friend.

Below are the progress photos (click to see them larger) - they're more yellow than they should be, ah well. I also took a time-lapse video of myself painting it using Gawker that I will upload soon.

Painter's Thinner acquired!

I was honored this week to have my painting, "Painter's Thinner", chosen for purchase by the Palmer Museum of History and Art at their annual art acquisition! I am such a shy hermit I have no idea how others see my art. I paint what I do because *I* like it, and because it represents the place where I live and the memories of my colorful childhood. So the fact that a panel of fellow Valley people picked my painting means a great deal. Thank you! :)