More set pieces and decor

My second iphone theater set piece. From an Insagram group selfie.

Decorations for my daughters graduation dance.

These photos show some of the other decor. Just imagine low light, music and 80 kids in formal attire!

I have been too busy messing around with set paintings and graduation dance decorations to do any "serious painting" these last two weeks. It's been fun to work big again, especially for an assignment that has very little "fine art" expectations. All of these were done as fast as possible, without time for hesitation, without time to shade or even mix extra colors. It is fun also to be thinking in terms of decoration vs. focusing on reproducing a realistic reproduction from life. Probably ideas I need to spend more time with. Years back I had pictured painting more imaginative imagery, but when I switched to oil, I couldn't help but want to go paint landscapes again. This was a chance to feel some of the potential in that direction of exploration.

Painting Theater Sets this week

Phew! It's been a whirlwind few weeks! The last couple weeks I had been prepping for Open Studios, then as soon as that was over, I had to get right onto the next deadline! I'm painting two of these giant Iphones for my daughters dance recital with No Limits Tap and Jazz Academy. The theme is time travel, so a few weeks ago I was doing disco dancers and this week I'm doing modern times, hence the Iphones... My daughter took a couple work in progress photos to share. I finished this with just minutes to spare before going to work. Tomorrow I start a different project, designing a fantasy environment for my daughter's middle school graduation dance. It's top secret though. Maybe next week I can share some photos of it! Once these are done, I promised myself I would read a book! I picked up a couple from the library and they are taunting me!

Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" by Andrew Daniel

9" x 12" oil on canvas

I knew that in this painting, the thing I wanted to express was the beauty of the combination of brilliant green of the floating plants against the rich periwinkle of the water, so I leaned on that first before it could change. Then I just built the rest of the scene around it!

North Coast Open Studios started off slow this weekend, but then turned into my best yet! Many people came to take advantage of the over one hundred pieces in my "Make Me An Offer Room". Where I have pieces marked down and am open to haggling. There is still a tone of work left in there if you want to come check it out next Sat. And Sun. 11:00 to 5:00pm at 1885 Zehndner Ave. Arcata, Ca. 

Some people even bought pieces through Facebook just seeing stuff they liked in the photos!