Finally a Finalist

I think I forgot to mention this, but I was a finalist in the Artists Magazines 26th Annual Competition. I entered my Peanut Butter and Jelly painting and was chosen as one of the finalists. It is a nice honor, and while I was not one of the six winners in the Still Life category. I was in some very good company in the finalist group. It even says on the cover- The Years Best Art!

Since I was only a finalist (still, I am the "Years Best"), they do not show my work or talk about me- but my name is in there! So rush out and buy a copy. If you want, I will even sign your copy, writing my name under my name. Then you will have my name twice. How can you pass that up?
It is the December issue, and my name is on page 51, in the flesh colored finalist box, at the bottom of the middle column. They even spelled my name correctly. Great stuff.

If you read this blog you know that I don't read books or look at much art that wasn't written or painted by some long dead artist. So, it generally is not a magazine I read or look at. It is geared more toward the hobby painter. Most of the articles are not really written by masters of the craft, so they are not 'grand' articles on how to paint in the larger sense, but discussions of tricks, like "How to Paint the Shimmer on Water Droplets On A Duck's Mustache". If you actually learn how to paint, you don't need a fancy trick or a suggestion to buy the newest water droplet shaped brush. Basically, you just have to know how to see.
The magazine is getting better, and occasionally they do have a good painter offering some good information. Speaking of which, I should write an article for them.

The Peanut Butter and Jelly Painting is still hanging in the Manifest show and will be till Dec. 4th.

Bronze Medal Winner!

It was a pretty big weekend for me with two art openings. I had still life paintings selected for two shows, and both were very nice shows.

We stopped in to see a great show at Manifest gallery. My work was hanging in a new room they have just added to their gallery. The highlight was winning third prize at the 41st ViewPoint show at the Cincinnati Art Club. Not to mention that it was one of the best Viewpoint shows I have been to, so it was even sweeter to win with such good competition.


This is me accepting the award.
I was very disappointed that it was not a gigantic check like you see in some awards ceremonies. I am not talking about the amount of money, I mean the physical size of the check. I have always wanted to walk into the bank to cash one of those huge over-sized checks, but I will just have to keep dreaming.

I entered a diptych which is my best work yet. The two pictures were painted as a pair, and I have not yet had the chance to show them together. Strangely only the Son version was accepted into the Butler Institute show this summer, so was happy to finally show them side by side.
The paintings hang in a nice spot in the gallery, on a corner wall all by themselves, and it really features them well.
Here I am on the medal stand with my bronze medal.
As you can see in the photo, the first and second place winners seem a bit too pleased with themselves. They did look better than me despite the odd choice of attire. I really should have studied a mirror a bit better before leaving the house- I'm looking a bit frumpy by comparison. I will say that most of my outfits are going to look a lot better with a big medal on my chest. I am not sure if I am required by the Art Club to wear it at all times, but I may have to plan my wardrobe around such a possibility.

Both shows are up for a few weeks, so stop in if you are interested. If you would like to purchase these paintings I will give a small discount to anyone that pays me with an giant over-sized check.

On top of all that good news, we had gorgeous weather this weekend. Saturday I went out to paint with some friends (Clem Robins and Sue Gutzwiller).
They had scouted out a great spot on the river where a guy was working on an old sail boat. It was a lovely scene and we had a great time. Everyone was doing some good painting. My wife and I went back today to continue work on the paintings. 70 degrees in November is something you have to take advantage of- and if you can come up with a good reason to get out of raking leaves you have to take it.
Here is my wife and reluctant student doing one of the best landscape paintings she has ever done. She claimed it was because I left her alone.
Here is the study I did. I may work on it a bit more and post a better photo at a later date. As you can see there were these ugly blue boxes along the boat for him to stand on while working. I had initially had them in, but when I got there today I figured it would look a lot better without them, so I painted them out. That is the kind of expert decision making you expect from a 3rd place medal winner.

Two Art Events

I was lucky enough to be juried into two shows locally, and both open this Friday. It would be nice to see some of you there.
I will try to get to both shows, but I will definitely be at the Art Club before 7:00, as I have be told that I have won an award so I need to be there to pick up the check. I am hoping I will be handed one of those gigantic checks like they give lottery winners. I may insist that my prize money be written out on a giant check. Anyway, have a look at my work. If you are not interested in art, there will be cheese and wine.

Here is the info for these shows if you would like to stop by:


Cincinnati Art Club's Wessel Gallery
2009 Viewpoint 41st National Juried Art Competition
Join us Friday, November 6, 2009.....6:00 - 8:00 p.m. for the Opening Reception to meet the artists. Awards presentation will be at 7:00 p.m.
Show continues weekends Sat. & Sun. 11/7, 8, 15, 16, 21, 22, 2009
Hours: 2 - 5 p.m.
Cincinnati Art Club's Wessel Gallery
1021 Parkside Place
Cincinnati, OH 45202

The Manifest Gallery

PAUSE
Contemporary Still-Life

For this exhibit 208 artists submitted 480 works for consideration. Twenty-five works by the following 19 artists from 11 states and Ontario Canada were selected by our two-part jury/curatorial process for presentation in the gallery and catalog.

2727 Woodburn Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45206

Sickness and Illustration

I have not been well. I have been trying to fight this head cold/allergies on my own with the nettie pot, resting, eating healthy- including downing a few cloves of raw garlic a day. Other making it very unpleasant for my wife, it has not been doing much toward my healing. I finally decided to go to the doctor.
So I am on antibiotics and cake. Hopefully I will mend soon. It has been 3 weeks of not being too productive on the painting front. I am looking forward to being healthy so I can get some real work done, not to mention, if you are out in public and you sneeze or have the sniffles, everyone runs screaming from you like you have the plague. Especially since my sneezes have a very 'swine-like' sound to them. It takes too much time to explain to everyone that I don't have a fever and am not contagious- plus, I like it when people run screaming from me. It feels very powerful.
In addition to being a bit under the weather, I have tons of illustration work to do. Last count, I have about 145 to do by the first of the year. Many are small, and if I am cooking I should be able to do up to 5 a day. It will be close, but I am doing my best to wade in and draw as well and as fast as I can. I have gotten a few done lately that I like, so in order to prove to you that even when I am on death's door I can do good work I will post them below.

I mostly do illustrations for roleplaying games that are either played online or as pen and paper games with nerds sitting around a table throwing dice. The illustrations are usually going off a bit of text in an article or very specific requested instructions.

One of my clients in in the process of writing a new game and has requested all black and white silhouette art for his products. It is called Roguish-Fantasy Adventure Game. Doing these silhouettes is both fun and a challenge. It is good practice for making sure your work reads strongly. Even in fully rendered work I try to make sure I have a strong silhouette.

The first is a good Halloweeny kind of scene. A wizard commanding pumpkin headed scarecrows to attach a band of adventurers. This is not based on real events.

A Hill Giant and goblin army on the march.

A scary view into a tunnel- I really like this one.

These next two are for the Harn Game I do the most of my illustrations for. The first is an exorcism scene (this is sort of what I look like now, with my raw garlic breath).
This next one is your typical knife throwing, skinny, goat headed demon with four elbows. I know it is kind of a tired subject, but I think this is an original interpretation.
I have two art openings this Friday, I will be posting information about them so you can all attend, have free wine and cheese, and see some of my paintings.