Gotham Mural

My mural painting partner, Kate Gennelly and I, just finished this mural of a customized Gotham City for a young boy's bedroom.  Requested were certain favorite buildings and super heroes.  The wall was painted in a lovely blue gray that was a great base color for this painting.  We incorporated glow in the dark paints that look quite magical under black light,  a dramatic scene for day, and also as a big special night light, what fun!

Rough , day one, day two, and finished mural...

Jungle mural

This is a continuation of mural work I have been doing in a private residence three days a week since March.
Certainly the most interesting and larger scale painting I have done in some time, rendered in acrylics.  Each floor has a theme, or series of  environments, painted from  baseboard to ceiling.  I work with artist
Kate Gennelly, so I have good company, sometimes working together on different parts of the same room, and sometimes separately.  It's excellent to have another set of eyes for instant feedback.

With some illustration back ground, I think of them as rectangular picture books, pushing out the interior spaces,  with a cast of characters that might lead the viewer to create their own stories. 

Here is corner of a small dressing room of the third floor, featuring all veldt and jungle themes.  The wall was primed in a deep Chinese red, rolled with gold, which although was a little strong to cover,
resonated beautifully with the applied colors.

Monhegan

I spent another week on Monhegan island off the Coast of Maine recently;  It's a truly unique place, that I find both centering, and breathtakingly beautiful.  This is a study in acrylic of a large sailing vessel coming about, to anchor just outside the harbor.  The masts were so tall you could see them over Manana before it even came into view.

Murals

These paintings were done in a tiny bathroom that was primed with silver paint.  I loved the idea of creating the illusion of limitless space in such a small area.  I draw and glaze with many transparent layers of acrylic paint, so the silver was a perfect base to create a shimmering coral reef fantasy.

Ignition

This is my slightly belated challenge painting for this month's girlsjustwannapaint.blogspot.com, and the theme was "Magic".  The fairy spirit is an hommage to a favorite illustration on an old card, who is inspired out of two dimensions to re-ignite a candle of hope in my studio during this cold and snowy New England Winter....   You GO Girl!!!

This piece was started in colored pencil, on a very textured panel of gray pastelboard,  and finished with acrylics;  The camera interestingly saw through some of the top layers of pigments, but the "gist" of the thing is still there, stay warm folks.

I'm looking forward to starting a new project, helping to finish a series of fantasy murals on location in a condo in a nearby town...  My first task will be undersea, based on the reefs of the Caribbean, fun stuff!

Ascension

This evolved out of my efforts towards a monthly challenge  piece, for girlsjustwannapaint.blogspot.com-
Our theme was "Intentions" this December,  and mine is simply to move upward in all human endeavors, and as an artist, to just keep on getting better....

 

Happy New Year,  and may your "brushes of choice"  take wing!