New Year's Eve Potato

I spent my New Year's Eve drawing a potato...whoa.

Creatures of the Deep

Glasshead Grenadier

Spookfish

Common Mora

Black-snout Seasnail

Black-devil Anglerfish

Here is another set of 5x7” pieces for Learning to Draw in Fives series. I am considering calling it Learning to Draint in Fives because I don’t know what category of media these would fall under. I am definitely not the first artist to encounter this confusion. Does wikipedia already have an entry for draintings? If not, I am ready to submit my definition.

draint’ing n. a piece of artwork so equally a painting and a drawing that it cannot be defined as either but a combination of both

These particular draintings are of magnificent creatures only found in the darkest depths of the world’s oceans. Did you know that the oceans offer 99% of the space where life can develop on Earth? These organisms have amazing adaptations to live in this enormous environment. I really enjoyed working on these critters!

Newbies

Here are a couple of newbies. The top image is of a Red-Tailed Hawk's feet and the bottom image is of a simple little egg that was in my fridge.

M-E-A-T...MEAT!

T-Bone

Bacon

Veal Chop

Beef Sirloin Roast

Ribeye

Please do not think less of me my vegetarian and vegan friends but I love to paint meat. If I am ever feeling burnt out on birds or facing a wicked case of artist block I paint meat. These specimens belong to the Learning to Draw in Five series. I put each 5x7" panel in a delightful but slightly gaudy gold frame. For a finishing touch...they will be covered in a delicious layer of resin. Yum.

Grand Canyon Inspiration

These are part of my Learning to Draw in Fives project. My inspiration for these mixed media pieces came from photos that we took on our Grand Canyon adventure. I took a 15x20" sheet of watercolor paper and segmented 5 5x7" rectangles. I first worked on it as one large drawing, then cut out the rectangles and worked on them individually.

Adios 2009!

"Chloe & Carissa"

"Igor"

"Lani's Owl"

2009 has been a year stocked to the maximum capacity with learning new things and collecting experiences. It was my first year out of school which was an odd feeling but to have actual "free time" has been amazing. I pretty much traded the time I spent on school for time in the studio.

Drawing has been my main focus this year which is something I never thought I would enjoy as much as I have. I see the 30 Sketches Project continuing throughout my future.

Putting together Suits and Aviary allowed me to make many mistakes to learn from and through those two shows, I met some really solid people that I now call friends.

One of the most inspiring and fulfilling things I began doing this year is volunteering at Liberty Wildlife. I feel that myself and my work are more welcomed in the animal conservation world than in the art scene here in Phoenix which is fine by me.

I wrapped up the year with several commissions which my bank account was grateful for. Chole & Carissa (top image) was done for a fellow museum co-worker. She gave me lots of photos and total artistic freedom and it melted into another ridiculous painting.

Igor was commissioned by a wonderful woman who works at the Tucson Wildlife Center. She came to my booth at the Indie Chic art fair and we had a long conversation about black vultures. Apparently the center has a black vulture named Igor that is quite something. She'll present this sketch to the center as a Christmas gift. Yay Igor!!

The last image is an owl sketch I did for my friend Lani. It is a wee little sketch just perfect for gift giving. I tried to keep the museum staff stocked with sketches this holiday season. Thanks co-workers, I can keep the lights on for another month!

I am exhausted from 2009 but I've got alot of fight left in me. 2010 watch out, I have a blank sketchbook with your name all over it!!

Abstract?

Sandra, the best librarian in the land, gave me these fantastic "paper-board-scrap?" pieces to play with. I am so glad too because I was just thinking that I needed another addiction. For some reason or another abstract graphite mark-making was called from the art realm. I am not going to argue...so I am rollin' with it.