Paul and Marbles Dream...

Here is the final painting for Paul Garbis. As you can see, Paul and his buddy Marbles are drifting off to sleep. As reality fades, images of the friends favorite things slowly materialize...

Paul is biking across an open field with Marbles riding on the handlebars. It is a bright, sunny day with no wind at all. The boys are very pleased and surprised to stumble upon a brand new electric oven sitting in the middle of the field. This is perfect because they are both hungry for cake and Paul is a good baker.

Paul scavenges though the field and finds some wheat stalks, sugar cane and the pods from a baking soda plant. He harvests them and refines these ingredients in a make shift mill that Marbles had ingeniously patched together from an old tuna can, an ancient sparkly white stone, and a broken black comb. Some spit is added to lubricate the parts.

The refined dry ingredients are mixed together. A blue egg is dropped to them by a friendly sparrow flying over head and a lost woolly goat allows them to squeeze some milk. 

Upon opening the oven, Marbles finds a cake pan,  frosting and blue birthday candles.

Since there is nothing to plug the oven into, it is only logical that Paul and Marbles have to create electricity themselves. The friends each hold one prong of the oven's plug and run around in circles flapping their arms and dragging their feet to get static going. They can't stop until the oven reaches 400 degrees. It is exhausting.

Paul is so tired by the time the cake is done, he falls to the ground to rest. Marbles frosts the cake, lights the candles and sings "Happy Birthday". Then, Marbles cuts the cake and gives Paul the biggest piece. It is delicious! 

The friends stretch out on the ground and laugh and eat the cake as they watch the clouds slowly move across the sky...

 

 Ssssshhhhhh......... Let's not interrupt this dream.

Preliminary Sketches Before Baking...

Paul and Marbles Dream.

Here are a couple of preliminary ink drawings for a painting commissioned by Nick and Sarah Garbis as a birthday present for their son Paul. The drawings are of Paul surrounded by some of his favorite things.

Here is the list I was sent to work from:
 Most important......in order: Marbles, book(s), cake (Paul bakes solo now), bike, Paul, piano.

Quality time with an enormous stuffed panda bear.

And here is "Marbles":  

Marbles

As you can see, I got everything in but the piano which, in my defense, was ranked least important. Five out of six is not bad.

In my mind, the top sketch of Paul and Marbles collectively dreaming of a cake is the stronger of the two. It has a soft, ethereal feel. Plus, the cake and candles suggest a birthday. (But maybe I'll replace the oven with a piano. ...and use bright colors.)


I'll post the painting as soon as it's completed, probably early next week.
... and I promise, I'll resist the urge to have Marbles "licking on a light bulb" ...even if Beth pushes it!

Cornell University... and no one loses a limb!

This is a gift for Avery from her mother, Jaime Johnson, who is very proud of her daughter's achievements and entrance into Cornell University this fall.

Here is part of what Jaime wrote me:

 My oldest daughter recently graduated from high school.  This was a child born in considerable adversity.  I was young, single, and completely uneasy about raising a baby.  Her birth really sent me into a tailspin and I considered adoption, but then ultimately stepped to the plate and embraced what was before me.

I set aside many dreams and goals and maybe, in a sense, placed them on her.  Money was tight and life could get lonely, but she excelled beyond my wildest dreams!  Who knew I would have an AP Scholar, a National Merit finalist, et al.?

Jaime also told me that her daughter loves the Big Red Cornell thing (the school's bear mascot)! I placed a bear on the lawn in front of Myron Taylor Hall at Cornell's Law School. This could be a fear inducing scene but it didn't go that way. The bear is not tearing anything limb from limb or attacking any other Ivy League school students. He wonders at peace.
A blood-lust painting may be more popular... but I thought this was more to the point. Could be intimidating and scary, but it doesn't have to be. Just like college. Right?

In the sky, I added an landing airplane to commemorate Avery's arrival to this beautiful school.
I love watching airplanes. Every time I see a plane, I can't help but get a little dreamy in the head. I think about where it is going and who is on it. (I live on a flight path, so, you can imagine how time consuming this is). This is the first time I've had a chance I've had to use a plane in a Panda painting without it seeming gratuitous. (Or is it?).

Anyway, thank you Jaime for the opportunity to paint for you and Congrats to Avery!!!

...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.