Last week I had a couple of paintings call to me to paint. I had a vision in my head of these paintings the night before I painted them. Not the kind of angels singing vision, but a flash in my brain or imagination maybe of what they would look like.
Surprisingly, the next morning I was able to recall the details down to the paint that I would use that was currently in my studio. Unfortunately, when I was gathering my supplies to start painting, I discovered my red paint that I had planned to use was missing the spray nozzle. *que the wonn wonnnn sound effect*. Well shit, that totally changed my ideas. But, I had to go with the flow. My color palette was just changed by fate.
No worries, I’m a willow… I can bend. I don’t remember from what movie I heard that from but it was years ago and it stuck.
Watch as I create these new graffiti art style paintings.
I added some texture with some acrylic skins off my glass palette. That’s the dark spots you see on the bottom right of the canvas. Then I painted white gesso over the whole thing.
Next, I wanted them to look like a wall that you’d see in a grimy public gas station. I added more and more acrylic skins. Skins are just the dried paint on my palette that I sorta carefully scrape up and adhere to my canvas with medium (which is just paint without pigment).
After I got my grungy wall background painted, I broke out the spray paint that did have nozzles. And so, the pink, gray, black and white palette was birthed. Actually, I think this turned out better than my original colors I had picked out. Gotta love happy accidents.
Oh and it’s not lost on me that my studio painting wall resembles a nasty gas station bathroom. I can assure you though, it does smell better and is definitely more sanitary.
Below, I’m dabbing on paint with my fingers.
Next up, adding graffiti. That was super fun although using spray paint on my canvas was the most fun I think. I’d never done that before. Talk about freeing.
After some tweaking and adding dirty comments and little drawings in with my paint pens, I felt both were finished. I quite like them. The longer one on the left is titled Bathroom Wall Confessions (10″x20″) and the one on the right is titled Love Stinks (8″x8″). You can see video of me creating them on my Facebook Page.
Here’s a close up of the Love in cursive. I added iridescent paint and let it drip as far as it wanted. These two paintings look even better in person. They just pop!
So there you have it, my new graffiti art style paintings. They kinda give off a punk rock 80’s vibe. I had so much fun creating them, I’ve got plans for a series that will be titled Bathroom Confessional.
As of this writing, both originals are available for purchase here. Prints are available printed on paper, metal, acrylic, wood and canvas along with an endless array of merchandise the image can be printed on like pillows, tote bags, showers curtains(!) and that’s so fun. I think they look fantastic on some of the hoodies, t-shirts and other apparel too, click on style to see the different shirts and stuff.
Love Stinks – all kinds of prints here.
Bathroom Wall Confessions – all kinds of prints here.
You really have to look around on this site to see all of the cool stuff that’s available.
I hope you enjoyed the process photos. Let me know what you think of this new style painting. I’m not changing over to this by any means, but it’s a fun addition to my realistic, abstract and fantasy paintings.
In other news, the podcast I started with my friend Lori Rivera has launched! I’ll post all about that next time but in the meantime, you can find us on all the places you listen to podcasts as Creative Type Podcast. We’re even on YouTube with a video version. It’s been fun. We’ll have weekly episodes, right now there are three to start you off with.
←New Gallery Representation at Inman’s / The Creation of the Creative Type Podcast ⟶
A few paintings I’ve created
Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page under the additional links menu. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery and telling mystical stories.
If you would like to keep up with what I’m doing, I have a newsletter e-mailed about once a month that gives you special status for invitations, birthday greeting and more. I’d love for you to add your email to my Friends and Collectors list!
