Todo

This is a smallish painting which I did to enter in a show. It didn't get in. But I still enjoyed doing it. It's totally decorative.

Doodling

I used to draw everyday...sketching or just doodling in my art book. Now a days I only draw when I'm planning a painting. So I decided to take a break everyday and just DRAW...no purpose in mind, no goal, no judgement. Here's my first new doodle in a long time.

7 Headed Beast...incomplete

Here's the new painting I'm working on for Il Melone Gallery. Meaning, I'm painting on unstretched canvas. What a bother! But forget all that. This is a compliment to the Scorpion Beast, same color background and it will have the same border colors.
When I get stuck for what color scheme to paint, I pull out my color aide papers. They used to be in order but now, as you can see, they are a mess. From the pack I'll put together a color scenario that I like. I guess you could say, I'm not subtle about color.

Scorpion Beast

A new painting done on unstretched canvas. I did bitch a lot about painting this way but really it wasn't much different. EXCEPT, and this is a big except, I do hope my corners are 90 degrees. The photo was a little off but it might have been the angle I was holding the camera.
Anyway, the scorpion beast is complete and it was a lot of my usual back and forth painting it: first one color , then another. This combo is very satisfying and...energized.
You are probably thinking it doesn't look much like a scorpion. But it's based, as I've mentioned a hundred times before, on Spanish illuminations and they seemed to favor the "Horse as Scorpion" look. As for the messy hair....that's in the bible! You can look it up for yourself.

Il Melone: the Italian Connection

Amazing story to tell you all: about a month ago, a guy named Gianni Cagnoni, from Rovigo, Italy, contacted me. He and his lovely wife, Donatella, run a gallery there, Il Melone
http://www.galleriailmelone.com/
He is interested in my work, not sure how it will be received. So he wants some work on commission. No problema!!! Except, due to shipping costs, he asks that I send the work, unstretched. So here, Feeding the Beast, is my first work that COULD be sent unstretched...even though I actually painted it by stretching it first. It's a smallish piece, 10 inches by 20 inches.
The key to all this is my borders. I made the border so that if he stretches on a slightly bigger stretcher, then the red will show. Otherwise, I was aiming just for the goldish colored border. What is loss...is my side borders. Oh well, Can't have everything. There will always be Rovigo!
Wait, wait, I didn't tell you about Tony, who has a blog right here on blogspot, all about Brooklyn. OK, that will have to wait to next time.

Snakebeast, complete..For Linder

I finished the snake beast and I'm posting this less then perfect photo because Linder, my sister liked it and I'm a sucker for flattery of any kind. So here it is Linder, I wanted you to see the details and comment.

Snake beast, the other one

I finished my snake/horse beast. And I like him so much that I've started on another. Here's the finished painting and the beginning of the next one.

Snake Demon in progress

OK, this is a nameless and incomplete snake demon. He's (or she's) 18X36 inches. I went thru several changes with this one. Originally I painted the background red, but then realized it was way too bright, especially with the funny yellow design I had added (now all gone). I had the idea to base the painting on paisley color patterns. But I gave it up for more harmonious colors. It's not done yet, but it's now in the final phase.
Oh, and I apologize for the very very bad photo.

Hola Noelia

I just received an email from a young woman from Galicia. Thank God she can write in English because my Gallego is pretty bad. No, I admit, my gallego is at the level of a 6 month old baby. And my Castilian is about the level of a 6 YEAR old child. But forgive me, I've only been studying Spanish for 20 years!
I have finished...and sold...the painting called Fishing. Here it is. It's a small painting, 6 inches by 18 inches. So my theory that painting small did pan out.
Noelia, pan out means that it was a good idea, that it worked.

Fishing..the beginning

YES,YES, I know, I'm a very bad blogger. But I've actually been doing work for money and getting ready for the BWAC summer show at the same time.
This is a little piece I've started. I'm going to try smaller pieces, due to the economy being in the pits.

Freefall- retouched

Thanks to a comment by Mai-Liis, I decided to redo this painting. I wanted stronger color. Perhaps it was the heat wave we are having in NYC, but I picked hot colors for this newer version of Freefall

1Against3, Finished

OK, I've inked in the dark lines and now the painting comes alive. Here's the version. It's 8X10 inches.

1Against3, almost done

I've been extremely lax about posting. I apologize to my thousands, perhaps millions, of readers.
I've decided to try some smaller pieces and here I've used a detail from one of my biggest pieces, 3against1, and done a tiny 8"X10" version in different colors.
Today I'll add the black line, always one of my favorite steps.
Why am I working tiny you ask? Well, someone bought by auction piece at the BWAC pier show...as in bought it out right for a hundred bucks. It inspired me with the idea of a wall of little jewel colors paintings. I hate to admit it..but money CAN be inspiring.

FreeFall-finished

Wow, I cannot believe I haven't written since April. BAD BAD ME. But a lot has been going on, getting ready for the BWAC Pier show. Two sisters leaving for the Camino, Feeling sorry for myself (that takes up a lot of time).
Here is FreeFall. I hope the color is not too off; it was a spur of the moment photo.
I find that if I work TOO slowly on a piece, I lose momentum. Had to push myself to the finish line and for awhile I was really un-nerved by the colors. But now, I like them...I REALLY like them.
If you want to interpret it as related to the real estate problems going on right now, be my guest.

FreeFall-middle phase

It took a lot of repainting to get FreeFall where I liked it...or at least could stand it. Part of the evolution of this piece was my going to see an exhibit of Takashi Murakami at the Brooklyn museum
OK, I gather it's not to everyone's taste...NO, they hate it. But I loved it and the whole Superflat world. It inspired me to think more about my coloring and this is the resulting current permutation of FreeFall.
Thanks Warren for providing the title.

Seven Heads

This is a small piece that I made for the BWAC Pier show auction:
http://www.bwac.org/
It's the Spring Ahead show, on the Redhook Pier.

Harpy Complete

Harpy is all done. Here she is.
And I gessoed over the elaborate border painting I was going to do. I wasn't enjoying it at all and didn't like the images I had added. So I started over and now I'm having fun. Working title: Subprime......something or other.

Harpy- almost done

Thanks to some bleak days, I worked on Harpy this week and now it's almost finished. I tried to harmonize the colors and in order to do that, I had to change the colors of different objects several times. Now for the fun, and yes, tedious, time of making the borders.

Harpy Under Construction

Yesterday was rainy...VERY rainy...so I worked a lot on my harpy painting. She's coming along nicely and I'm figuring out the color combos as I go.

Harpy-the ugly stage

Here is Harpy in all it's ugliness. But of course, if I stick with it, it will eventually come around. I've been so busy with other 'stuff': setting up my new website, making new cards for the upcoming Pier Show in May. Harpy just sits there, looking nasty.
Oh, and here's the address for the new website:
http://www.imeldafagin.com

Slowly but Surely

In the between time of starting that long painting and now, I actually had a paying job!!! Well, that seems to have dried up for the present, so I'm back in the saddle. I hate returning to something after the original energy has cooled, but I'm trying to fill in the little bits. It's rather complex and slow going so to give myself a break, I also started a smaller painting of a harpy. This is the first version. More later.

Back in the Saddle

After being out of the saddle for weeks...maybe more, I've finally started another painting. It's 24 X 48 and more border than painting. I'm planning to put a lot of figures in the border and a scene of angels fighting a dragon in the center part.

The American Antique Fair

I went to the American Antique Fair yesterday. I went specifically to see these Memory jugs, which were glass jugs covered with some sort of putty with objects embedded in it. Very interesting although the effect was sort of muddy. From the 1920's.

Also there were lots of nice examples of Tramp art. Here's several frames.

Also, this strange diorama of dolls, about the size of hope chest. The sales person offered it to be at the bargain price of $18,000. What a deal!

Here and There

I've finally finished this 'small' painting of 12X24. I named it 'Here and There'. Can you figure out why?

Beastly improvements

I've been working on this little painting SO slowly. But here it is almost complete...at least stage one of complete. Now I'll think about what to add to make it more lively. What? You think it is lively? No, it seems to need something, or someone else.

The Gift of Vegetation

Still lollagagging over finishing my painting and in the mean time, I did another pen and ink. This one, The Gift of Vegetation, is 8X10 on Stratford Bristol Board, the good kind. I'm using a Hunt's 512 nib. It's actually not for drawing but I like the thick line and that it holds a lot of ink before I need to dip again.
As with my other pen and ink, I'm not preparing any image; I just start on the paper and see what happens. I still have that Horror vacuae thing going: I like to fill up the spaces.
Oh yes, Happy New Year 2008. Remember, whatever you do today, you'll do for the rest of the year.