Hazel Danger

Hi everyone,
Below is a painting I did for my sweet little niece, Hazel. This painting started off looking completely different than the finished product. But I have to say, this is one of my favorite paintings I have ever done. For some reason the colors blended fantastically together. If you look closely, you can see that some of the strokes contain more than 5 colors in them. The only problem with the internet is that you can't really capture things like that in the photo.

I chose the teal color as the background because I think it represents Hazel well. She is a pretty calm child but she still has a pop of energy in her, which in my mind screams teal. She is always rolling around, trying to hang upside down, and likes to make herself known. So I kept most of the colors cool to represent her chillness, but I added the flashes of bright colors to show off her fire. I can't wait to give it to her.

The Beatles

Hello!
I painted this for our friends, Kristin and Steve. Kristin had a bunch of old Beatles albums that her Mom had given her and she wanted them incorporated into a painting somehow. At first I was very reluctant to chop up some wonderful albums, but after a while I figured, what the hell?

The first picture below is the "before shot" of the media that I pasted onto the canvas. The second photo is the final product. I wanted to make sure that the media was subtle but still had parts that popped out at you, ie. the faces. In my opinion, this will draw people in to take a closer look at the other media in the background. This painting was extra challenging because I was not allowed to use red, my favorite color! All in all, I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

I apologize for the poor quality of the picture.

Rock 'n Roll

Something about this painting screams "Rock 'n Roll!" to me. You can't quite tell from the picture, but there are a couple of fluorescent colors in here (the orange and pink). I painted this using a canvas label. I haven't used a paintbrush in months!

Art Show #1

Hello!
I finally finished the first painting for the art show in September and I am very happy with how it turned out. It is pictured below. It looks a lot smaller than it actually is (it is 30" x 40"). Sorry about the glare from the flash in this photo. Flash + gold paint = glare city.

I will post the second painting once it is finished!

The McCloskey's

Hello!
Below is a painting I did for my friends John and Jackie. I have to say, it is one of my favorites. It will be hard to part with this one! You can't see it very well in this picture, but I painted the background orange before adding the other colors. So there are bits of orange that pop out across the painting. That is my favorite part.

Also, thanks to my Dad, I sold my first painting! I am officially a paid artist. Weird...and awesome! It is about time I bring in some bacon for this family.

Color explosion

Anyone else get uncomfortable during Viagra/KY commercials?

The lighting on this picture is terrible. If the lighting were correct, you'd see more red and orange than pink. Regardless, you get the idea. Enjoy!

Also, if you'd like to buy a painting, they all cost exactly 1 million dollars.

Rocky Mountain High

Greetings!

I just spent 2 wonderful weeks in Buena Vista, CO with my family- it was incredible! We spent time hiking, reading, playing cornhole, painting, and drinking copious amounts of wine. Naturally we also found the only bar in town with karaoke. Leaving was very hard but it is nice to be home and back to normalcy with Ruby D. Speaking of, we put her in the crib for the first time last night and she slept for 8 hours straight. BAM!

I painted this using pieces of a cardboard box. Sometimes I find that using materials other than paintbrushes creates a better final product. Sometimes I even use my hands- finger paints! Anyway, this is Mark's favorite painting. Enjoy.