...owls emerge from no where...

Sometimes when I'm feeling a little stuck on a painting, I'll start making another on the side, something that doesn't matter just to loosen up. I started this one right before I completed the paintings for Emma Berg. Owls were one of the themes that I tried to fit into her paintings but it never worked. They push their way in and take over a space.

I put this painting away not knowing what I was going to do with it. I thought I might paint over it. Yesterday, I decided to finish it before starting my next tiny painting.
 So here it is! It was commissioned by no one!
...But I put it up because I like it.

Beth told me I should paint Emma's face on the center owl. I considered it ... but thought that it sounded funnier that it would look. It would either come off too cute or too disturbing. Children's book or genetic engineering gone wrong!?

I initially had a dark blue sky as the background but thought the owls were getting lost in the dark. I then painted it flat yellow, liked the graphic quality, but thought it all looked to knit-pickily finished. So, I sanded off the top layer and outlined the owls with a Chinese brush and black ink. It's more alive now.

So what am I going to do with this painting? ...I'll  give it to Emma. It's really a companion to what she commissioned. We'll call it a late birthday present.

I'm working on two new paintings starting today... going to light a fire under myself to get them done quickly!
...but I never skimp.
I have a short line of paintings waiting but would love add more to the line up. So, email me with you commission at: panda@johnmegas.com
Love to hear from you!

Kate, Emma and Jahna, part 2

 

Here is painting number two of these three lovely ladies commissioned by Emma and given to Kate and Jahna as birthday presents. It's similar to the last, but this time it's night and it appears that the moth infestation has chased away the birds.

Let me tell you what I know about Jahna and Kate.  Jahna Peloquin is a freelance fashion writer and stylist. Kate Iverson is the editor for L'etoile magazine and arts editor for Secrets of the City. I've never met either of them, but look forward to it.

I started these two paintings with different background colors, the first one yellow and this one dark blue. On this painting I put the lights in on top of the dark. This is a technique usually reserved for iconographers and trippy black velvet artists. I did some sanding, used some black ink. When I was done, I wiped a cloth covered with phalo blue over the image to darken it and a give it a liquidy quality. (...and, yes, I made up the word liquidy but you know what I mean, right? ...Merriam-Webster can sue me if they need to.)

It was hard to get a good image of this painting because it is very dark. When I adjusted the colors on this digital image it always pulled out too much yellow when the blue was right. So too much yellow it is... and the softness gets lost here.

My intention with both paintings was to make them expressive rather than photographic. I thought it would be disappointing if I took the out and didn't make them literally representational of the subjects. Tricky stuff to make tiny... but all painting is tricky.

As I mentioned earlier, I will be writing a regular monthly review about artists exhibiting in the Minneapolis area for www.mplsart.com . The first will be up in mid-August. It will be similar to my writing here but about other artists. It's going to be fun!

...and check back here next week. I have another painting up my sleeve...

Emma, Kate and Jahna... part 1

This is the first of two paintings commissioned by Emma Berg who is a fashion designer, curator, and founder of the best visual arts calender in the Minneapolis area mplsart.com. (I will begin writing monthly reviews for mplsart starting in August... but more about that later).

I've known Emma for many years but not very well. We often will end up at the same openings and we usually just wave to one another. She is always so fashionable...  it's a little intimidating. I do try to look good and current but it doesn't always work for me. My look ends up being more like a Eastern European who still thinks Leif Garrett is cool. But that can be hot! Right?

Emma asked for two portraits of her and her close friends Kate and Jahna as birthday presents for them. When I asked Emma about her friends, her first response was that they all like to be in control. I wasn't sure what to make of this. (Another arm wrestling painting?) I asked if she wanted an actual portrait or if she had something less literal in mind. It was up to me...

It's tricky to paint people small. Details have to be sparse and accurate. If you are one millimeter off on an eyebrow or mouth, a face goes from cutely smiling to crazed with rabies. It's also tricky to paint people you've never met. You can look at as many photographs of a person as you want and never really understand what they look like. Photographs play tricks and two pictures of the same person can look very different. Ask anyone who does online dating.

My first concern was to make a reasonable resemblance of the three ladies, and I instinctively worked the rest out from there. I decided not to go too refined with the figures, but leave them slightly rough. I didn't want to over paint and make it feel stagnant and inactive.

I also decided to add the flying animal motifs to give the paintings another poetic layer.
(In retrospect, I think this was subconsciously under the influence of my friend Scott West's newest paintings which all have people with animals. (He recently did a fantastic painting of my son Theo with an owl). So, consider this a form of flattery, Scott.)

This post is a cliff hanger. I'll put up the second painting, which is darker and softer, later this week with more chitchat. And we'll talk about Jahna and Kate.

... feel free to leave comments and go to the Panda Facebook page for more updates...

Goodbye Moldy Pallet... Hello New Paintings!

It's time to start fresh for a couple of tiny new paintings. I've taken about a month away from the Panda to work on some larger paintings in my Signals series, but now I am beginning two new commissions which will be variations on the same subject matter.They will be a two portraits of three friends. I'm excited to be starting this today!

As I've written before, I use a Sta Wet pallet to extend the time my paint stays usable.With it's strange spongy technology, the pallet makes my paint stay wet (or Sta Wet) for what appears to be an eternity. But there are drawbacks. The pallet surface feels suspiciously like damp Twinkies and the paint becomes furry after about 2 weeks. Then you have to either feed it or throw it away. This one I was was using while it was moldy... and it still worked fine... but it's gross.

For the last year and a half I've been studying which color molds first and certainly burnt umber always wins! This is followed by alizarin crimson and then ultramarine blue. Mars black hold strong to the end.


So here is my new pallet all set up and ready to go:

You can see the tiny boards prepared to the side of it. The size ratio between pallet and painting is ridiculous! But that's how I roll...

I'll post my progress very soon.

Shakespeare and Vonnegut Finally Arm Wrestle.

Greg Bauhof asked for a painting of Kurt Vonnegut and William Shakespeare arm wrestling with Albert Einstein as the referee. Here is the final painting.
Strangely enough, when I was researching the three figures here, I found some historical accuracy to this scene.

Here's the story:
The year is 1969 and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is spending his summer heading a writer's workshop at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. He is riding the success of his recently released Slaughter House Five and things are going great. He had become a much sought after celebrity.
One morning, Vonnegut gets a call from the then young director Robert Altman inquiring about the possibility of turning his novel The Sirens of Titan into a film. Vonnegut is skeptical but agrees to meet him. Vonnegut inexplicably suggests that they meet Monday, July 4th at the Baroque Music Festival held in the commons of  the University.  
It is important to note that Kurt Vonnegut was a very tall man and to remember that in those days, the people of Iowa were eight inches shorter than the national average. All of the doorways in the faculty housing where Vonnegut was staying were very low, causing frequent bangings. He had visited the emergency room three times in his first month due to head injuries.  
On the day of his meeting with Altman, Vonnegut chose to wear roller skates in an attempt to intimidate the director with his physical agility. However, this made him a dangerous 4" taller than usual. Being very cognisant of this fact, Vonnegut carefully ducked under every ridiculously low entry way. But how careful can one be the first time on roller skates when fireworks are going off in the distance?
Similarly, Altman tried to impress the author. However, being notoriously bad with history, Robert Altman decided to dress as William Shakespeare to pay tribute to the Baroque era that he assumed Vonnegut loved. Young Altman was a dead ringer. It was confusing and ridiculous to see Altman as Shakespeare prancing across campus humming Bach Cantatas. Robert Altman was only 5'1" so he didn't need to duck.
(I forgot to mention that Albert Einstein was co-teaching the writer's workshop. Einstein notoriously liked to stick his nose in everyone elses business where it didn't belong.)
The main roads on the University campus were blocked off for the festival and all traffic was rerouted to the roller stating path. All traffic!

I'm not going to bore you with the obvious conclusion to this scenario. I think we all know where this is going...

...still arm wresting....

I decided to take some pictures while working on this tiny painting.

If you missed my last post, this is a painting request from Greg Bauhof who asked for Kurt Vonnegut and William Shakespeare arm wrestling with Einstein as the referee. And here is where I am so far. As you can see in the second picture, I'm getting close. Everything is in place, I just need to refine it.  I'll darken the background and pull some more light out in the foreground. Mixing in a little gloss medium will help here.

As for the figures, Einstein needs to be fleshed out more, Shakespeare is still looking a little drunk and incomplete, but I think Vonnegut is a good resemblance. I tried to give him that "already defeated and waiting for doomsday" look that he is famous for. However, his wrestling arm is at a weird angle and maybe too short... but I kind of like the awkwardness. I might choose not to fix it. It's not ridiculous and adds a tension... maybe?

It you look closely, you will see that the colors in the second image are warmer than the first. This is because I did a light wash of yellow over the surface of the painting to warm it up. Then I went back in and painted over it.
I'll work over the weekend and post the completed Arm Wrestling painting Monday.

Preparing for William Shakespeare and Kurt Vonnegut to Arm Wrestle...

Here is a preliminary ink sketch for a painting request from Greg Bauhof. Greg asked for a painting of William Shakespeare and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr arm wrestling... with Einstein as the referee. I'm probably one of the few people on Earth who would respond to this with a simple "sure". After doing this project for more than a year now, I feel like I've been around the unusual request block more than a few times.

I'm approaching this painting as a novelty piece, like dogs playing cards or Teddy Roosevelt Goat Charging up San Juan Hill ... or a Panda Licking on a Light Bulb. I have no problem making novelty pieces (obviously). There's nothing wrong with getting pleasure from something absurd. But as a challenge, I still try to put some kind of beauty into them, add an extra layer.

As you can see, I haven't figured out the background yet. Greg suggested blackness with light coming from a single hanging light source. I may go that way. It would certainly add a baroque sense of drama. That kind of theatrical lighting worked for Caravaggio on more than one occasion. (Not to mention numerous panthers on velvet.)

I also feel like I need to come up with a narrative for this... and I don't buy the arm wrestling in the after life thing. Too easy. There must be a historical context that would make sense here. I'll have to put my "revisionist historian" cap on and investigate.

... and I'll post the painting with the story in the next few days...