Go Figure!

So although I love painting, drawing people is not my strong point. Actually I’d hardly even consider it a point at all, that’s how bad my aversion to drawing people is. As you might have noticed, hardly any of my paintings have people in them. So, it was time to get OVER it! I started taking classes at Fleisher Art Memorial in South Philly, and to my elation I’m getting better! For our first class, the teacher had the model stand in the middle of the room and began drawing his shape with tons of messy triangles, circles and ovals. So I’m thinking to myself.. ok, this guy is suppose to teach art class? But in the blink of an eye, all those triangles and circles turned into a perfectly shaded person. This guy was good. He let us off on our own, and by using his technique; it really wasn’t that hard drawing the people! The following week he taught us how to divide the body up into 8 equal parts, that should all equal the size of the person’s head. By measuring with our thumbs and pencils, this system helped put body parts where they belong. Here are some sketchbook pictures of my progression of not being able to draw people, to not being too bad at it! And here’s a cool Youtube video that breaks down the fundamentals of figure drawing!

Also remember that this Oct. 3rd is FIRST FRIDAY again! Hurray! My art is still on display at The Big Green Earth Store AND Pinot (both on Market Street between 2nd and 3rd). There will be a few new pieces at each place so be sure to stop by! I’ll be in the Old City area early and then heading off to Manayunk for a friend’s birthday, so I hope I see you there!

Interstellar Philly

New paintings done! Finished another skyline; it’s made up of two 12×16’’ canvases stacked on top of each other. There’s a bright yellow background, with royal blue Philly skyscrapers shooting up out of abstract building patterns. And on the topic of skylines, I have good news! While moseying around in Olde City the other day, I came across a gallery named The Streets of Philadelphia, right on 3rd street. It just opened, and is already full of great, local art that is Philly-themed. We’re talking skylines, Philly photographs, huge replicas of buildings made of out Legos – it’s great! If everything works out, I’ll be doing an upcoming First Friday there, with all Philly-themed paintings; I’m so excited! In the meantime, go check it out and keep your eyes out for more art that they’ll be adding to the gallery!

I just finished one called “Interstellar”. This one was on the larger side, 2 feet by 3 feet, and was so much fun to work on. It’s of a Nebula – which is a cloud of gas, dust, and plasma in space. That combination sounds like something growing in the area under my sink.. but trust me, these things are beautiful! It was really interesting to paint something so un-tangible. It let me be completely free with colors and movement, because there was no true form that had to be maintained.

I also completed a flower piece for Community Housing Services, in Lansdale, PA. This organization provides resources for the homeless and less fortunate in the area, from housing to counseling. This year, they’re celebrating their 25th year anniversary of service to the community with a huge benefit dinner. I donated a pretty yellow flower piece named Garden Light, because I think the cheery yellow and growth of the flowers represents the prosperity and hope of this great organization, and how much of a difference it makes in hundreds of people lives. Great job on your 25 years guys!

In other news, I went to the Penn State vs. Temple game this weekend, and we whomped them. GO PSU! And everyone’s happy about our Eagles victory against the Steelers yesterday; you know how I love Philly pride!

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Creative trip to New York City!

Last week the Creative Team I work with at GPTMC took a day trip to NYC! Although I live just two hours away in Philly, I’ve never been to the awesome museums up there, like the MoMA and they Whitney. We started out at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. They had rooms full of watercolor paintings so detailed and intricate that I had to stand an inch away just to see if it wasn’t a photo! They also had an exhibit of old fabric, wallpaper and china patterns. One of the coolest things was china test-plates with all the different colors smeared on them in a color-wheel pattern to see how the colors would dry.

Our next stop was the Whitney. Right in the lobby there was the car designed by Buckminster Fuller, called the Dymaxion. Designed in the 1930’s, it was a revolutionary new design of the automobile. It had three wheels, got 30 mpg, could carry 11 people, and was built to eventually fly when the right technology came along. Buckminster Fuller also designed Dymaxion houses and communities, which were designed to be extremely energy efficient. His work was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. We also saw some crazy things there from artist Paul McCarthy (no, not the beetle). He’s a contemporary artist who works with space, perception and breaking the molds of our traditional reality, just check out this site to see what I mean! There was a huge spinning box with a desk chair inside that spun by itself from the force, even after the box stopped spinning, and a crazy setup of projectors and camera that showed distorted projections of everyone in the room.

The MoMA was the highlight of my day. I finally got to see several paintings that I had studied in college. There was Picasso, Cezanne, Monet, Pollock, Klimpt, Warhol, Rothko, Dali.. just to name a few. It was like walking through a textbook of artists who all had major impacts on society. I was in awe. My favorites, and this surprised me, were the Pollock works. The images online haven’t done these humongous, incredible works justice. They move and flow; just looking at them DOES something to you, and hooks you in. I was transfixed by One: Number 31 for at least 15 minutes, just from the amazing movement the painting had.
I have a “thing” against taking photos of art in museums with a camera, because no image of these paintings does them justice, and if I want to remember any image of it, I want it to be the original. However, I made an exception and took a bunch of mini-pics on my camera phone so I could have a rotation of backgrounds from the best artists in the world!
I can’t wait to go back to NYC soon and catch the exhibits at the Guggenheim.

I’m currently working on a handful of pieces. One, a skyline for one of my Philly friends. Skylines are a popular choice for locals, way to have pride! Two, a huge painting of a nebula which is turning out quite well. This is one of my favorite things about being commissioned for work, is that I get to paint things I never would have if someone hadn’t asked. Third, a pro-bono piece for my friend who works for Community Housing Services in Lansdale, PA. They’re celebrating their 25th anniversary in mid-October and having a live-auction to raise awareness and funds for the organization. I’ll be donating a piece to be auctioned off there; hopefully it will bring in a lot for them!

Winner of the Free Painting!

Congrats Karen Lupis, you’ve won!  Karen entered her name into a drawing at Pinot on First Friday, and will now be getting a painting from Acha Gallery!

First Friday success!

This weekend was a huge success! There was a great turn out on Friday night at both Pinot and The Big Green Earth Store. People mingled all night at Pinot while enjoying the art, wine, and cheese. The line was out the door at the Big Green Earth store because of their grand opening! There were even ‘bag monsters’ (guys dressed up head-to-toe in plastic bags) there, showing how many plastic bags the average American wastes in a year (over 500!). To everyone who attended, thank you for making it such a fun night!

*The winner of the FREE painting drawing will be announced on this site later today, and will be emailed directly. Check your inboxes!*

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Some pictures from the night:

Philly memories for a friend

I just finished up with this painting for one of my good friends from Penn State. As a born and raised Philly native, he obviously has a huge passion and connection to the city. His job upon graduating college took him out to Michigan to work for GE, where he undoubtedly is engineering the next new flying car that will run on pancake syrup, or something of the sort. His request for a painting was one of the most heartfelt things I have ever read. He really needed something in his Michigan apartment that connected him back to the city he grew up in and loves. I came up with this for him. It’s bright, fun.. almost cartoonish.. full of energy! Hopefully this brings back great Philly memories for him whenever he looks at it.

I also want to remind everyone that FIRST FRIDAY is in two days! I’ll be featured at Pinot and the Big Green Earth Store, from 5 to 9pm. Both stores are located on Market Street between 2nd and 3rd. Come by, enjoy some wine and cheese, and experience First Friday!