Thai temples, part 1

Some of my best memories from my October Thailand trip were of the many beautiful Buddhist temples that we visited. The following four pictures were taken at That Phanom, in the northeastern part of Thailand.

Inside the perimeter walls there are numerous ornately decorated structures and golden Buddha statues.

One interesting this is that whenever I was feeling anxious or down in any way, a visit to a temple would inevitably cheer me up somehow. Perhaps it was the peaceful tranquility of the place, or the outstanding beauty of the art and architecture.

The picture below shows a giant drum in the temple at That Phanom, as well as several gongs.

The photo below was taken at a temple in Phuket. I have a few more temple photos to share, but I will save them for the next post!

Playing with Borders

I've started working on a new abstract... This one using a slightly different approach. I started it off by painting in a border element to "contain" the main lively rainbow section. I'm interested in exploring new ways to approach abstract painting, transmuting my style into various offshoots.

Freshly finished

The yellow-orange toy/candy still life is finished! I'm quite happy with it. I'd even go so far as to say it's the best photorealist still life I've ever done. I feel it works really well in terms of composition, content, and execution.

Yellow Orange - 5" x 7" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

I thought it would be interesting to include a side shot of the painting resting on a small black easel, because viewing it from an angle helps demonstrate the 3-dimensional rendering of the objects.

Here is an image of my current workspace, showing all the paintings I'm working on. This is what keeps me busy throughout the day!

Yellow - Orange

Here's an update on the still life from last week:

Work-in-progress - 5" x 7" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

The duck and marble are pretty much finished. The next step is to finish the orange candy, the Tootsie Pop, and the shadows! This has been a really fun piece to work on, and I'm quite confident that it will turn out well.

Fun Facts

I did a bit of cleaning and organizing today in my studio space. I learned that on my art table, I have:

• 68 paintbrushes. (Of these, I usually use only 2-4 during any one painting session.)
• 91 tubes/jars of acrylic paint.
• 17 jars/tubes of gels/mediums.
• 54 unorganized cds which are getting dusty and scratchy.

I saw The Nutcracker today for the first time. It was great! I loved the costumes and the dancing was fantastic. I really enjoy seeing live performances and I want to make an effort to get out more to the theatre and symphony.

Short post today - I'm tired! Will post more art and ramblings soon.

Finished Tootsie

I started a new photorealist still life today. This one I'm quite happy with, and will definitely finish! Here is the underpainting:

Work-in-progress - 5" x 7" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

I realized what I really like in photorealist still lifes is strong color with ample detail, both of which were lacking in the Smarties still life I started a couple days ago. The actual Smarties are so pale, and the wrappers are clear except for the bold colors in the label. I liked the contrast of the pale candy with the vibrant wrapper, but still didn't feel it was enough to sustain my interest in the piece. Perhaps in the future I will be in the mood to capture such subtlety, but for now I'm on a brightly colored toy-and-candy kick!

I also finished the Tootsie painting from yesterday:

Tootsie No. 1 - approx. 4" x 5" - Acrylic on Book Page and Canvas

Moving On

So I decided not to continue with the Smarties painting that I started yesterday, at least not for now. Something about it just doesn't inspire me at the moment. I think perhaps I am not thrilled with the composition. I decided to set it aside for now and maybe I'll come back to it at a later date. I do that sometimes. It can be hard to let go of a piece of art, after I've spent several hours working on it. But if it doesn't feel right, I've learned there's no point in forcing it (a concept which can be applied to most things in life).

Here's another painting that I started several weeks ago that I set aside after a few hours. I'm not sure if I'll finish it; it's in my "maybe" pile. The reason I stopped working on this one was because I realized that what I really like in photorealist painting is to paint extremely tiny detail. This painting had too much "open space", too much broad sweeping color transitions. So when I set paintings aside, it's usually because something within the painting doesn't "click" with me, and it allows me the opportunity to further learn what it is about certain compositions or subject matter that causes me to enjoy creating certain paintings.

Unfinished - 6" x 6" - Acrylic on Wood Panel

I worked on a small 4" x 5" painting today. This was painted over a page from an old French book titled Existentialisme. The painting is mostly finished except for the Tootsie roll, which still needs a bit of work. I like the idea of combining text, abstraction, and photorealism, so this is an idea I hope to explore more in the near future. I also like the juxtaposition of the aged French text with the modern pop icon of the candy, and the modernist circles underneath the photorealist object.

Untitled (for now) - 4" x 5" - Acrylic on Paper & Canvas

Smarties

Goodness, it seems I've been so busy lately with art business stuff that I haven't had as much time for painting or updating my blog! Hopefully I'll have more time for painting now that things have settled down for the time being. A couple weeks ago I took a bunch of photos of different candy and toy still life set-ups, and I received the prints today. They look great and I can't wait to dive in. I'm going to try something new, a series of small still lifes painted over vintage text, so stay tuned for that!

I worked on a Smarties still life today. I finished the underpainting, so tomorrow I'll try to finish the painting.

I wasn't too sure about the composition though. I like the bottom pack of Smarties, but the angle of the top one seems a bit wonky. So I tried Photoshopping it out, but it seems a bit too empty. I guess I'll leave it in and see what happens!

Food for Thought

from Art & Soul: Notes on Creating by Audrey Flack:

"A work of art is the energy manifestation of the one who created it. It holds the spirit of the artist within its shapes, forms, and colors."

And therein lies its worth. I often think that the value in art is not so much the final product, but rather in the intent involved, effort exerted, and overall process of creation. This process affects changes within the artist that are either obviously or imperceptibly reflected in the way that the artwork changes over time. Since no two moments are the same and it's impossible to step into the same river twice, it stands to reason that the artist is a different person upon the completion of an artwork than they were at the start. The artwork becomes a record of the process.

Bunny Update & New Abstract

Today I worked more on the photorealist chocolate bunny. I focused on the head and ears, blending in the colors of the wrinkled foil. I thought it might be interesting to show the size of the brush I used - it's tiny! I love tiny brushes, because I love capturing as much detail as possible. You could say I'm addicted to detail, a characteristic evidenced in both my photorealist works and my abstract works.

I enjoy challenging myself, and I can say that this painting is a challenge based on the amount of detail involved in capturing all the minute lights and shadows created by the folds of the colored foil. It can seem daunting at first, when I stare at the photo and look at all the work involved. But once I start doing it, I always realize that the painting process really just involves breaking things down to tiny components and piling them on top of each other and next to each other until they look right.

I also started a new 12" x 12" abstract (above).

Candy and Flowers

My latest photorealist still life is a chocolate Easter bunny in its wrapper. I love the challenge of all the little wrinkles and reflections in this piece! Here is how it looks so far:




Today I finished the floral abstract commission that I started a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow I'll photograph the final pieces, but in the meantime here is how they looked in-progress. These are 12" x 12".

How to See

I suspect that all the time I spend on art has had an impact on the way I literally view the world. I was thinking about this the other day as I took a walk along the beach. Making art is really time spent seeing and observing. With abstracts, it's a matter of making color, composition and design choices - looking at what's there and thinking of what to do next to create a balanced and interesting image. With photorealism, it's a matter of looking closely at an image, remembering what is there, and transferring the remembered image to the surface plane. Either way, it's a matter of looking and seeing what is actually there, cutting through such obstacles as mental clutter and preconceived notions of what one thinks should be there or wishes was there. So I was walking alone along the beach, immenesely enjoying the company of my surroundings... just looking at the different people - each person's unique appearance and mannerisms, the way they dress and hold themselves, what they were doing. The waves, the wind, the seagulls, boats and islands in the distance, fishermen, pelicans and herons. The variety of clouds, the color of the sky. I think spending so much time on art has increased my sensitivity to my surroundings, although that can also be attributed to inner growth and experiences, etc. a combination of things that are all inter-related. Anyway, just a thought I had one afternoon.

Back from Thailand!

Hello! I have just returned from a wonderful 3 week vacation in Thailand. It was a truly enriching experience on so many levels. I'm still processing the experience, so I'm sure I will be writing more about it and sharing more pictures in the weeks to come. For now, my mind is still blown, I'm adjusting to the time difference, and recovering from reverse culture shock. So until I get my head back on straight with some semblance of coherence, here are a few pictures!

Here is a page from the sketchbook/journal I kept during my trip:

Me, my cousin and my second cousin at a sticker photo booth in MBK (one of the biggest malls in Asia):


Illuminated Boat Festival in Nakhon Phanom. Here you can see the Mekong River, and Laos in the background.


I like the mood of this shot, taken overlooking the Mekong River with a storm approaching.

On Vacation

Hey folks,

For the next 3 weeks I'll be travelling through Thailand - visiting family and seeing the sights. It'll be my first time visiting Thailand as an adult, so it should be pretty interesting! It is also a topical time to go, given the recent peaceful coup, so I look forward to getting a sense of how it is on the ground.

The last time I was in Thailand I was just a wee little child, and my only memory involves walking barefoot across a wooden bridge, staring intently at my feet to make sure my little toes didn't slip through the spaces between the wooden boards.

I'll be sure to post some pictures upon my return!

Two paintings

Here's an update on the Spanish casino abstract painting!


I've started a new painting in my Synchronal Variety series.

Both of these paintings are 16" x 20", acrylic on canvas.

Buildings

Here's one of my newest paintings, shown at the very beginning stage. The image is a Spanish casino, and I will be painting it in my usual funky abstract style. With this painting, I'm further pushing my abstract sensibilities into a representational form, in order to create something that is both identifiable yet writhing with color and energy.

Resurrection

I've started a new Rejoicing Quietus piece. So far the skull is done, so the next step is to fill in the background.


This image is already available on a variety of products in my Cafepress store, two of which are sampled below.

You can see all available products at http://www.cafepress.com/thaneeya/1851425!

I'd like to do at least one of these pieces each year. They are fun to do! I'd also like to try some in pen and ink, but I don't know when I'll get around to that.

Completion

For the longest time I've been working on about 8-10 paintings at once. I've been so happy that these paintings are starting to be finished! Sometimes I like working on a thousand things at once, and other times I prefer to focus my attention on just one or two pieces. I'm getting in to the mode now where I'll be happy to work on just one or two (or three) pieces at a time. Here are some of my recently finished paintings:

Road trip!

Today I worked on the iguana commission. I finished the iguana's right front leg, and the flap of skin beneath his neck.

Last week I went on a road trip to Asheville, North Carolina, where I lived for 2 years while attending Warren Wilson College. It was great to reconnect with this area of great natural beauty. Here are some pictures from our trip! All of these pictures were taken on the college property.

Latest Abstracts

Here are some abstracts I've been working on lately:

This one is 16" x 20", acrylic on wood panels mounted on canvas. The surface is comprised of four 8" x 10" wooden panels which were glued onto stretched canvas. Each square is going to be treated as an individual painting, with it's own composition and color scheme.

This one is 8" x 10" acrylic on textured canvas.

Iguana Commission

One of the pieces I've been working on lately is a commissioned iguana piece. This piece is 8" x 8" and is comprised of a background of book pages, taken from an old I Ching book and an old physics book. It's kind of a cross between this painting and this painting, both of which have been sold.

Creating artwork on top of book pages is quite fun; it adds an interesting layer both conceptually and aesthetically.

Here the background is pretty much finished, with a textured maroon on the bottom with a silver art nouveau design, and a red-orange wash over the text highlighted with a gold wavy design. This pic shows how the colors are starting to be painted in the iguana.

This is how the painting looks tonight. The basic underpainting of the iguana is finished, so the next step is to go in bit by bit and tighten it up and make everything come together.

More Sheep Updates

I had a relatively productive day today, which made me quite happy. I've spent the past few days splitting my time between 5 paintings and 1 drawing, moving from one to the next as the mood strikes. Here's how the sheep painting is coming along -





My next step is to make the middle green section look grass-like in some parts, then I should be done. This is one of those pieces that just looks so much better in real-life than on this screen.

Right now I'm listening to the Tori Amos version of A Case of You. The first time I heard this version was in France a few months ago, listening to newly-burned mixed mp3s while painting the annex walls. It's funny how with certain songs, you can remember exactly where you were or what you were doing at specific times... or how you felt, what you were thinking, where you were at in life. The same thing happens with most of my art - I can look at a painting, drawing, or doodle and usually remember the moods, feelings, and general atmosphere at the time that I was creating the work. I suppose it's nice to be essentially leaving visual imprints of these temporal occurences. Every brushstroke marks a moment in time, moments which may otherwise slip by.

Inspiration

I was recently asked "Where do you get your ideas for your art works from?"

It was hard to supply a succinct answer in one paragraph, especially since I work in a variety of styles encompassing a variety of themes. (Multiplicity, I love it.) I thought I'd share my response:

I’m inspired by everything, really. I suppose my main driving force is a desire to convey a message relating to the hidden things of life, which are always there underneath the surface… ideas such as spirituality, interconnectedness, chaos & order, and the unexpected. I am obsessed with painting detail, whether it’s photorealist or abstract… I think I like to dive deep into the essence of what I’m painting to pull out an intricate sense of reality. I like to paint things that people can get lost in. I am currently exploring the use of color and design in a meditative, tribal sense. For the past year I have begun working on a few different series combining abstraction with photorealism, in an attempt to marry my two favorite styles of painting in some kind of holistic form that embodies both the spiritual essence of abstraction with the more object-oriented materialism of photorealism. Other than all these philosophical ideas, I also get ideas from everyday life – from looking at folk art of various cultures, from my travel experiences, from random doodles in my sketchbook, from books I read and conversations with friends.

Trampin'

Today I took a friend out for a birthday lunch at a local Thai restaurant, where I indulged in my perennial favorites; Pad Thai with tofu and Thai iced tea. After that we hit some thrift stores and a library, where I checked out a few cds, one of them being Patti Smith’s 2004 recording, Trampin’. I listened to it tonight while painting, my head embroiled with various thoughts, quandaries, queries. As the last song rolled on, Trampin’, I was attracted to its quiet simplicity – Patti’s soft but soulful delivery punctuated with piano. The main chorus goes “I’m trampin’… trampin’… tryin a make heaven my home…” The song is a “negro spiritual” from 1931 and carries the beauty and weight of its time. The song actually made me stop and think, a cliché occurrence on one level but nonetheless a much-needed reminder of what gives life meaning. As I’m sitting there, painting, absorbed in color and texture, being vigilant of the movement of my hand and the information transmitted to my eyes… where is my mind? Tonight it was running around in circles. And getting nowhere. And I was getting mentally exhausted just listening to my own mind-chatter. But I didn’t stop perpetuating those annoying thoughts until this song came on and gave me pause. What did it make me think of? Well, the obvious first things were heaven, and home. I was thinking about heaven not in a far-off Christian sense, but in a more universal and concrete “Bangles” sense (“They say in heaven, love comes first - we’ll make heaven a place on earth...”). I’d like to think of “heaven” and “home” as the same thing. That’s the ideal, isn’t it? But sometimes (often?) so hard to internalize, let alone materialize. Spending 3 months at the Dharmahouse this summer gave me a glimpse of what life could be like if people of varying nationalities, ages, and interests came together for a common purpose. Beautiful at times, stressful at times, wonderful at times, claustrophobic at times… but still a microcosm held together by the commonality of positive intention. It’s this concept of intention that I find to be so important. One recurring thought I’ve been having for the past few weeks has centered around the concept of intention and its relation to mindfulness. They seem so intertwined – to be mindful you must have the intention to be mindful, but where does the intention come from exactly…? Is it something that can be pin-pointed? I suppose the answer to that is different for each person, but I imagine that the intention to be mindful is related to the intention to manifest “heaven on earth”... in other words, to live in community, which all stems from a fundamental sense of goodwill and benevolence. I think that fundamental sense is what lies at the core of all of us, underneath all these whirlwind thoughts that so easily captivate our attention and carry us along from moment to moment. How easily we lose touch with that core! But when you wipe it all away, when you have a Patti Smith moment, when you peer through the dross, it’s still there – familiar and welcoming.

The next time I paint, I’m curious to see where my mind will be.

Sheep - Vamoose

A quick update on the sheep-Vamoose painting. The sheep is finished! I've come up with some ideas for the background, so I'll be working on that next.

Scattered Energies

It seems like I always have a to-do list that is ten miles long! Perhaps that is the Gemini in me - I love keeping busy and having many different projects going on at once. It keeps my mind active and my creative pulse flowing. Right now I've got several paintings, drawings, digital work, and commissions all in varying states of progress. Not to mention the long list of art admin stuff I have lined up...

I finished an intricate ink drawing that I started in France:

close-ups:

This piece is 8" x 10", ink on paper. The abstract designs are so detailed and tiny that I had to blow them up in the above two close-ups in order to show the detail. The idea behind this piece was to create a fun, whimsical abstract composed of many separate, delicate designs. The designs are playful, doodle-like creations that resemble microscopic organisms.

I also worked on the first in my long-awaited ZenPop series. The surface is a giclee of my painting Vamoose. I am in the process of painting a photorealistic sheep over top:

This series is going to rely heavily on a stream-of-consciousness method of allowing images to arise and suggest themselves. I may consider the piece finished after the sheep is finished, or I may decide to add more... who knows! That's part of the fun of this series.