These guys followed us home from an art show in Indiana this weekend. They’ll make for a fun, playful surprise on the nature trail.
Fun, metal flowers by artist William F Colburn, Jr. of Birmingham, Alabama.
visit his website at http://www.williamcolburn.com
It was such a beautiful morning I had to take 15 minutes and sneak outside to snap a few photos. The combination of snow, rain, and snow (and no wind) means that all the trees are retaining their white snow covered branches.
The landscape around the house truly is a winter wonderland.
Day #5 of this artist chain mail challenge. The final day.
“Post three of your works for five days and nominate another person to do the same.”
The Cityscapes – These abstract cityscapes are the kind of paintings I’m doing now, when I do get into my studio. They’re a combination of all the other painting techniques I’ve played around with for the last ten years. I like to put paint direction the canvas from the paint tube or palette knife, using tape to mask areas off. I then spread the paint with a knife or paper towel, and sometimes remove it with those tools as well to leave a more translucent appearance to areas of the painting.
The wife always enjoys when I add in little “easter eggs” such as people and cars. I like the little last-minute details because the encourage the viewer to look up close. My paintings are about keeping your eye moving, and finding interest up close and from far away. I want the viewer physically moving when they explore my paintings: looking, feeling the textures and raw bright colors.
I’m inspired by geometry, asymmetry, balance and color.
#1 “Wish” – 2012 24″ x 48″ – (sold in 2012, I believe this painting has an unfinished painting underneath that was supposed to go over our fireplace. You can see my little yellow jeep crossing the bridge)
#2 “Washington DC – 2012 14″ x 18” – (a commissioned piece. Real cities are difficult to do because I feel like people will call you out if you get something wrong, even in an abstraction)
#3 “Yellow Line” – 2012 11″ x 14″ – (hangs proudly in my wife’s studio because she liked it. The guy talking about his “big fish” outside the bar in particular. He’s just below and to the left of the martini glass)
Wish
Washington DC
Yellow Line
Day #4 of this artist chain mail challenge.
“Post three of your works for five days and nominate another person to do the same.”
The Other Paintings – As a middle-aged artist I get to do whatever the hell I damn well please when it comes to my art. So here are some of the random paintings I’ve done that don’t necessarily fit into a category.
But you will see techniques that pull from my other paintings, and influence future paintings as well. Tomorrow, the last day of the challenge, I’ll show three works in my current technique or style.
#1) “Taste” 2007 18″ x 24″ – (after a visit to Times Square I took a stab at painting it. I learned two things 1) Painting real life can turn out pretty neat and 2) I abhor painting real life though. I don’t have the patience and I hate constraint. There were two other paintings in this series, neither of which is likely to ever see the light of day. One will go unfinished and the other is dismal)
#2) “Brazil Flag” November 2010 22″ x 28″ – (one of nine flags I painted on commission for the House of Praise in Lorain, Ohio. These were a challenge to do as not all flags fit nicely into a 22×28 aspect ratio. You can see I tried to stay true to my technique and to the flags themselves. I believe these are still hanging in their lobby along with a piece of my wife’s art as well)
#3) “First Snow” 2008 30″ x 48″ – (A commissioned piece featuring an abstract forest and the dogs of the family that commissioned the piece)
Taste
First Snow
Day #3 of this artist chain mail challenge
“Post three of your works for five days and nominate another person to do the same.”
The Stripe Paintings – what happens when you sit in front of the TV tracing out 1/4″ lines on a blank canvas, and then cover it all up with acrylic paint? These awesome stripe paintings of course. I’m not sure what got me started doing these but I’d never seen anything like them before. Oftentimes people think they are tape, wood or old magazines but alas they’re just paint. That being said, I’d love to experiment with creating wood and paper versions someday. Since I started making them I have seen wood versions on Etsy and Pinterest, so there’s something there.
These are probably my favorite paintings to do because I never know what they’ll look like until they are done. I limit myself to certain colors and use a palette knife to apply the paint. They are very textural. Often times there will be a painting underneath them that never got to see the light of day. Stripe paintings are a good, therapeutic way to cover up bad art.
They have not found much success commercially, but I think they’re awesome. Here are three of my favorites.
#1 – “Stripe #5″ – 2013 48″ x 72” (This huge painting lives in our foyer. It’s likely my favorite piece I’ve ever done)
#2 – “Strip #6″ – March 2014 36″ x 36” (Sits in storage in my studio. Another favorite of mine)
#3 – “Rainforest” – May 2009 ~16″ x ~20″ (one of my earliest stripe paintings)
Stripe #5
Stripes #6
Rainforest
On Facebook there’s a chain mail challenge going around for artists:
“Post three of your works for five days and nominate another person to do the same.”
So I accepted the challenge from a fellow artist and starting today will be sharing my artwork with everyone. I’m posting on this blog as well, in case you find it of interest.
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I’ll present my art over 5 days in the general order that is was created. The reason being, my hope is you’ll see how earlier works evolved into my current pieces, namely my cityscapes. When you look at a current piece, you can see techniques from early pieces being used.
The Originals – Many of my abstract pieces are inspired by the geometry of rural landscapes. I would look out a plane window and found the patchwork of farm fields to be an interesting pattern. I hope to come back to this subject matter and explore it further someday. These early pieces are about keeping my eye interested; constantly moving. Creating visual interest and balance. They are also about painting without any preconceived plan. This is a key to my work to this day. I prefer to have the painting “talk” to me and tell me when it’s done. Worst case scenario, it’s paint. I can always paint over it (and often have). Enjoy.
#1 – “Beginning” – 2004 30″ x 40″ (I still have this one, sitting in our dusty basement)
#2 – “Cityscape” – 2006 18″ x 24″ (One of the first paintings I ever sold, and certainly the first cityscape I ever did. It was a paint over of another painting gone awry underneath)
#3 – “Barn In The Woods” – 2005 22″ x 28″ (Sold in 2006, it’s one of the first geometric paintings where I attempted to have a real focal point, the “sun” is rising in the sky, with a “barn” and trees in the foreground.)
Beginning
Cityscape
Had to share my impromptu design for our honey jar labels. I want to get them labeled for this weekend. There’s a village peddler’s day this weekend and I’m going to whore my wares in the center of town; selling honey alongside my old lawn mower and any trash to treasure stuff I can find in the basement or garage.
“bee” is our brand 🙂 I don’t know if anyone else is using that, but I’ll keep using it until someone tries to stop me (I generally always get what I want).
I drew the wildflowers using a photo I took earlier this year of flowers on our land. I don’t know what they are but they are yellow with red centers. There’s a photo on the blog somewhere.
The copy font is avant grade which is one of my all-time favorite fonts. The font choice, along with my black and white trace drawing kind of gives the label a retro 70’s vibe which I like a lot as a child of that decade (and the one after). We grew up in a classic 70’s house and they type of architecture is prevalent throughout the valley in which we live if you know where to look.
You know what’s really cool? Just like wine I’ve labeled the honey with the season, year, type and even which hive it came from. Honey never spoils, which makes it even better than wine. (We’re having a honey tasting later this fall, as a random side note – just like wine tasting!)
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Available in 8oz and 4oz glass bottles, 100% of the proceeds from our honey sales go towards educating our kids, paying for our eco-friendly house, buying wildflowers and trees, and supporting our bees.
Seems legit, right?
Label for our “bee” brand honey – includes hive, season and type information.
nine apple trees 