Painting at Morris Graves Property then/now

Northcoast Open Studios is June 1,2,3,9,10 link below. This piece was also painted at the Representational Art Leagues retreat. It was a really windy day, so I tried to let the kinetic energy in the air influence my brushwork. It was a bit of a chaotic dance that had and goal of depicting the scene! I tried this same angle 3 years earlier at a painting workshop with Jim McVicker, where he helped me out a bunch. Every time he passed by, I would hand him my brush to see how he would solve that stage of the painting. It was super helpful! Wanted to see how much of that information got internalized over time, and wanted to see what it would look like with just me behind the brush. I’ll post a pic of our collaborated piece below.

Northcoast Open Studios guide is right here:

http://humboldt.northcoastopenstudios.com

Dark Reflected Forest

Northcoast Open Studios is coming up June 1,2,3,9 & 10. This piece was painted during the Representational Art League’s annual retreat out at the Morris Graves property. I worked fast and loose and atmospheric. Was surprised at how much can be said painting in this manner.

Find the directory to Open Studios here:

http://humboldt.northcoastopenstudios.com/

#ncos2018

Pigeons on Green #2

 

This is another one of my series of 100 pigeon paintings. In this one I broke up the forms of the pigeons to work more fluidly with the abstract background and used some blue and green pearlescent inks in response to the way the pigeons feathers shine.

"Pigeons on Green #2" 

Casein paint and ink on paper

12" x 9" 

Available here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/513819289/pigeons-on-green-2

The Portrait Project

 

 

 

For the last three weeks I have been painting a portrait a day in watercolor and casein paint, with the goal of setting up a series of daily commissions at 70$ a piece. Each painting is posted on Facebook, Instagram and Sktchy. So far I have received 4 commissions and sold two of my "practice paintings'! This has been really exciting to see that things are already coming together! If you would like to commission a portrait contact me through andrewdanielcomissions@yahoo.com

I have included some process pics this week to show how this piece evolved. I chose this photo from the Sktchy App, because I admired how the models face looked like a classical sculpture. In the painting I wanted to accentuate the geometry and flow of the shapes. So, initially I drew out the planes of the face in pencil. Next I put in a few layers of watercolor wash. Once this was done I decided to put some opaque casein paint on top to see if I could explore the form further. The process took about three hours.

Stream with Alders

Stream With Alders by Andrew Daniel

Oil on canvas 12" x 12"

This was an interesting experiment for me. I wanted to try using a Japanese composition technique called Notan. This is where the painting is devided into shadow shapes and light shapes, both need to be interesting compositionally. Then I built up the shadow and the light while being conscious of retaining their opposing identities.

The stream had looked overwhelmingly complex, but this device helped me to break it down and maintain some drama. 

Sunny Morning at Hurdygurdy Creek

I just put the final touches on the piece from our trip to the South Fork of the Smith River. I was standing on a bluff overlooking Hurdygurdy Creek with Rick Tolley, Antoinette Toni Magyar, and John Crater. The sun was blazing hot at 10:00 in the morning. We painted until we were about to drop from heat stroke both mornings, then went down to swim in the cool water!

"Sunny morning on Hurdygurdy Creek"

Oil on canvas 

20" x 16"

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!

Apples and Pears on Green

Andrew Daniel

"Apples and Pears on Green"

Oil on canvas

12" x 12"

400$

Northcoast Open Studios is June 4,5,11,12. Come hang out!

This is a still life I did about a year ago. I always fantasize about doing still lives. When I do them I really enjoy it too. The problem is, whenever I'm in the studio to paint vs. out on location I get overwhelmed with the stacks of unfinished paintings and end up grabbing one with the hopes of closure.