Hanging today at Grateful Head.

I'm getting everything ready for my show on Wednesday at Grateful Head. Paintings go up today and will be until at least next months. Come have a glass of wine with me beween 7-10 on the 10h.

my first time using oil.

When I was home in Saskatoon I took the opportunity to purchase some oil paint as I had nothing to work with acrylics wise. I bought five colours; black, white, light yellow, blue and crimson. I really enjoyed being able to work the paints and create more texture. I wished at the time I had a few more colours to choose from, but having a limited pallet helped with making the results more interesting and took the pressure off of me trying to make something too true to life.

500 days of bummer.

I sat around this evening and tried to get over my fear of sketching. Here are a few terrible Iphone pictures of my pencil party. Maybe I'll take real pictures of them in better light... someday.
James. Pika. Tyler (and some girl). David. Myself.

Can't take pictures of paint drying.

I have nothing to paint on. why does everything look flat and dull?



why does everything look flat and dull?

Sadies.

Last Tuesday I had an opening show at Sadie's Diner. I'm very happy with how the opening went thanks to Katie, Al and everyone who helped run the bar. Here are a few shots of the art in the Sadie's space, believe it or not, it was pretty busy and I felt odd taking pictures of the ones in the front room. I suppose I'll shoot them when I go to take them down. I'm satisfied with this series and am trying to take a little break before I start working on my paintings for Grateful Head in the late summer (Jesse Crowe is still serious). I have a couple of paintings for that show so far, but I think I want to add a few drawings, illustrations/water colours (maybe?!) to fill things out and capture the fashion side of what I'm working on with my hair photos. After that there is Talk of a Halloween show with Joey Dammit... so I have a few things on my plate. I'm hoping to be able to adjust to the different styles I'm facing in the near future.

This is what I'm working on for the Sadies show. The painting of Jen, the girl with the wine glass I love and I'm really into. The other one I made into something I like but was more of a struggle and had to charge styles halfway through. I'm excited to work on some bigger pieces and shoot some of the subjects for the soul purpose of painting them. I need some ideas though! Excuse the super bad photos. yikes.
Also, a bit of the process.

No camera, no updates.

Hi. I realize it's been a long time since I've updated anything on here. This time it's not really my fault as my camera has been sick and had to go away for a while. In the time since I've posted last I've had a few successes and a few failures in my work. The painting below I was working on didn't turn out as planned and I'm not sure if I'll use it for anything. I learned a good lesson about trying to add too much detail to something that should have remained soft and simple. I was right off of painting the highly layered DDay Lewis painting and couldn't switch styles to adjust. I had one more great fail after that one which was never photographed and is now in the garbage. Seriously, how does a sexy woman end up looking like Peter Sellers?
After that hilarious discouragement I went on to paint a very cute and simple painting of Takara and myself for the Valentines day show at Sadies Diner. Which brings me to the subject of Sadies and how the lovely Katie has offered my a show for April and May! I'm very excited as I think my work lends itself best to salons and diners as it tends to have a certain sweetness which is often not found in galleries. My show is going to be called "You're the cream in my coffee" after the wonderful Ruth Etting song of the same name. I want the show to mostly showcase people in the morning or enjoying their favorite drinks. I'm trying to keep it soft but not as illustrative. I've finished one painting so far of Jen Kim and a glass of wine. I've started the drawings for Michelle sipping a soda and Diana
After the Sadies show I'll continue to work on my 2008/09 hair paintings for my show at Grateful Head which seems to be turning into a yearly BBQ. "Jesse Crowe stays serious" will be the sequel to last years "Jesse Crowe gets serious". As for next year I'm hoping to maybe show off my hair photos from 2010 if I can?!
These are pictures from my phone, they are terrible.