Divine Intervention

This was the other entry in the BWAC Black and White show. "Divine Intervention is a Bitch" is the caption at the top. Meaning....leave well enough alone.
Oh, by the way, neither piece got into the show. Boo Hoo.

Mystery Play

This is a not very good photo of a new painting, Mystery Play. As in medieval mystery plays.
I'm submitting it to the BWAC Black and White show which will run this summer at the Pier in Red Hook.

Moment of Truth

The final version of Moment of Truth. It's at the BWAC Spring 2011 Pier Show. And it's part of a fun 'group' display which includes works by my sister Andrea Fagin and my brother in law, Warren Alexander.
The Bull and the figures were inspired by my trip to Soria last year.

sketch for Bullfightingpainting

For the next BWAC show: the Spring Pier show, I'm doing a bullfighting painting to go with my sister and brother in law's themes: all bullfighting. Here's the outline. A lot of the drawing was inspired by my trip to Soria last Sept.

Wide Open Show at BWAC

I was selected to be in the juried show at BWAC which opens on March 12, 2011 and runs every weekend till March 27th.
It's a big honor and I'm submitting two other pieces to the show.
http://www.bwac.org/future_exhibition.html

Bull Inspired by Sorian Trip

After a hiatus, this is my new painting: Sorian Bull. Maybe I'll get a better name for it. But it was inspired by my trip to Soria with a great tour called Spanish Footsteps: http://www.spanishfootsteps.com/

I saw imagery like this at the Numancia Museum in Soria. It's from a Celt-Iberian Design. I added design elements and color. The funny thing was that I spent hours at this museum, sketching the designs. I ran out of steam near the end, where these bull images were. I thought to myself: I'll find them in a book or I'll Google them. But really: there was very little to see online and no books that I could find with the images. Guess I'll just have to go back to Soria.

Portrait of Uncle Miley

Finished this small portrait yesterday. It's oil, 9"X12".

Weighing Souls: work in progress

Just adding the final details to Weighing souls. Heard about Uncle Miley this morning. So I added him on the lower right, hiding behind the column.

Uncle Loo's Famous New Year Dinner...For One

I decided to try to make Uncle Loo's famous New Year's Dinner...but just for me. During the winter there was the holy trinity of meals: First Mama's Thanksgiving Dinner, then Mrs. Frances's Christmas File Gumbo and finally , on New Years, this wonderful two part meal: soup followed by all the meats and vegetables that made up the stock. I started with the meats. I used one chorizo, two chicken thighs (I bought the organic kind) and a slice of ham, about 10 oz. I boiled these for 1 1/2 hours in 32 oz chicken broth (4 cups) and another 6 cups of water. A little salt (the broth wasn't low sodium) and some pepper.

Here's the other ingredients. Yes, I added some carrots and a couple of parsnips I had in the fridge. No big deal. And I used canned garbanzos, including the liquid. I only cut the onion in half and quartered the cabbage. I left the carrots and parsnips whole.

I added the veggies to the pot and a tiny pinch of saffron. I bought my saffron at Despanya and I noticed it was much better quality. I really only needed a pinch. The pot needed a cup or two more of water to cover the vegetables enough.

After less then an hour all the veggies were cooked , so I put the meat and veggies in a large shallow pot with some broth to keep it moist and kept it warm in the oven (250 degrees) while I made the soup.

I just added another small pinch of saffron and some thin thin noodles and cooked for about 20 minutes till the noodles were soft.

Here's the finished soup. Ok, because I didn't use as much meat, it didn't have the extra layer of fat on the top to keep it scalding hot...but it was plenty hot enough...and DELICIOUS!!!

Here's the final plate of meat and veggies. Oh yeah, guys, I left out the potatoes...but you can add them in. I gave myself the same amount I remember getting as a kid: one slice of chorizo (I think there might have been a slice of morcilla too), a little bit of chicken, a small slice of the ham and lots of veggies.
It came out great, it was very filling and it was really easy to make. I think it's more like Dinner for three but you get the idea.

Too many Angels

After almost a whole year, I finally finished Too Many Angels. Having taken so long and kind of lost my way with it, I changed the color schemes several times. I finally settled on this palette.
I would have liked to have called it Poking Angels, in honor of my new interest in Facebook (I still don't know what poking is) but I'm sticking to my first choice for title.
A sad song by the same name, sung by Jackson Browne:
Too Many Angels

Before and After Wallpaper

Last week I had another Wallpaper job. I thought I'd show you what before and after look like. The two panels don't line up on the left and here's my corrections on the right. This was an easy job because the design was blobby to begin with. I call it a mamogram design. It wasn't all just black and white though. I had to mix in some raw umber to get a warm grey and in some places (not shown) add a dark thalo blue.
I love my job...WHEN it goes well.

Some Wil pictures

I decided to do some drawings of Wil is his last week. Here's a 'realistic' one, done using a graph from a photo.
But I think I like the rougher painting sketch that I did. Here I've given him a centerpiece as if he was a medieval statue with a relic in his chest.

Too many angels, part one

I finally have gotten back to work. This is something I started earlier this year "Too Man Angels". Right now, there really aren't enough angels but I'd like to complete the idea anyway. I got off to a bad start...see ugly grey winged beasties, but I think I'm back on track with this color scheme.

Under Siege....Complete

It's finished. I'll have more to say...but have to run now!
Photo is imperfect.

More Under Siege

I had planned to show the various and tormented stages I go thru when painting a large piece, but I got distracted and...well, here it is, practically finished. Maybe next time.

Under Siege: Part 2

I've added some figures into the building, some creatures and started the background color, a mixture of Azo deep and cadmium medium yellow. I may stay with that color, or change it later.
I chose a whole color palette, using the color aide papers. But that doesn't mean I'll stick with them. And I'm still toying with the figures, adding subtracting, refining.

Under Siege-Part one

Ok, after months of procrastination, I've finally started a new painting. The working title is Under Siege. It's 36X48 inches. I KNOW the economy stinks and I should be working small but I needed something to inspire me and get me going. I've been putting off painting for quite a while. I'll have to check in with Dr. Freud on that.
I start out picking the size of my canvas, then I look at lots of pictures and start making small drawings in proportion. When I have one I like, I transfer it, in a not-very-scientific way, to the canvas. It doesn't need to be a perfect transfer cause I've found that what looks good small sometimes doesn't look as good big. Plus, maybe having something to do with my brain, no matter how many grids I draw, I can never get my left and right side to match.
So here's the beginning of inking in the basic drawing. As I transferred it, I did change it. And what makes the whole thing so labor intensive is that I feel the need to outline everything in black. Then I 'erase' parts with white paint. Later, after I add color, I'll have to reapply the black lines. But that's just how it has to be for me.
Also, the story is now unfolding for me. I'm seeing who the protagonists are in this world. So I'll be adding those also. Once I add color, the story may change yet again.
Stay tuned.

Life Roaches

Had a conversation with Lia, and the phrase 'Life Roaches' was born. You are familiar with Life Coaches I'm sure. But who coaches us on all the really bad stuff that life has in store?
This doodle was done a few days ago.

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.