What Happened To July?

So, where did I go for the entire month of July? What was I up to, out of the country? I'll give you a few hints - travel, art, research, reference, family.

Numerous photographs were taken, various studies and sketches taken down, plenty of notes, and some plans.

Here is a small sampling of the aforementioned imagery from July - a mix of art and photography - all from Canada:

Lake Country, Ontario, CA - Ten Minute Speed Plein Air, Watercolor, 2014

Westport, Ontario, CA - Three Minute Speed Plein Air, Watercolor, 2014

'Water Gore'

Canals and Rivers, Ontario, CA - Five Minute Speed Plein Air, Watercolor, 2014

'Eyes'

'In the Name of Hogan' (My Irish Clan)

 

 (Where my sires walked, tending the land, as they did on the Old Sod, before)

 

Irish Family Farm, Ontario, CA - Roughly 15 Minute Speed Plein Air, Watercolor 2014

 

Happy adventuring!

'Ghost Love' - The Warning Dream

'Ghost Love' crystallized under a different title, but it was a title that served as a foundation for the true identity of the concept - ghost love - which was a phrase used between myself and the participant of the life experience alluded to. I decided that using the phrase we had favored in conversation for the final title was most descriptively succinct. I will keep the original title to myself.

There was also a dream, a very vivid dream, that I afterwards referred to as 'The Warning Dream', which featured exactly the scene of (what will be more colorfully apparent in the painted version) the Mediterranean coast, a patch of Van Gogh-like emotionally garish sky, and otherwise swiftly moving, realistic sea-storm clouds and rain beyond a small cliff edge, merging into the torrential space of the accosted figure somewhat disengaged from the geography below.

But the rest of the intricacies and small, significant moments will wait until the painting is finished. Until further elaboration, here is the final preliminary graphite drawing for 'Ghost Love':

'Ghost Love', Pre-Painting, Graphite, Rough, 2014

'Ghost Love', Detail One, Graphite, 2014

'Ghost Love', Detail Two, Graphite, 2014

'Ghost Love', Detail Three, Graphite, 2014

Process Photo One, 2014

Process Photo Two, 2014

The drawing is set up for transfer to the painting stage and will maintain it's dimensions of 13.5x18".

In the next installment of this piece, I will address the gesture, the hands in their color form, and the quality of drowning.

Hypnos & Pasithea Part III

For both initial sketches, background, content explanation, and the 'Hypnos' piece component of this project, visit Part I and Part II, respectively.

Now, 'Pasithea' - one of the youngest of the Graces, or 'Kharites', representing relaxation and visions.  Poppy blooms tumble about her, for her association with hallucination and Hypnos, whose symbol is the poppy.
Pasithea's name in Greek is at the bottom, with the English version reflected back at the top.

'Pasithea', Watercolor & white acrylic, 2014.

'Pasithea', Detail, Watercolor & white acrylic, 2014.

'Hypnos & Pasithea', Watercolor & white acrylic, 2014.

These dual portraits do not require paired representation. They can be separate in showing and in purchase, but I thought I'd show what they look like next to one another, as an option.

To purchase quality Art Prints - Shop Here

My First Film Poster & Premiere - Shop MFTOH Film Posters & Products

Thanks to Joe Fleischman for the quick shot of me!

Premiere Day! May 18th & Recap - Scroll Down for more to Purchase the Poster, T-Shirts, and the DVD!

In the Spring of 2013 I got started on the painting for the film poster commission I received at the end of 2012 - 'My Father, the Old Horse', a short film by director/writer Max Einhorn and producer/writer Cara Trabucco.

This May 18th it was at long last premiered in the second oldest, continuously operating theater in the country, the characteristically charming Elks Theater in Middletown, PA, which is currently fighting for preservation and shows movies weekly.
Elks Theater Official Website

There were many posters up that day, small and large, in the original format as well as a modified promotional purposes version, as seen in the picture above, outside the Theater.

And here are a few shots, one of the director Max Einhorn by the same entrance piece:

Director Max Einhorn by the entrance poster.

Me and the unfailingly supportive, handsome Joe Fleischman.

 *Photography courtesy of Chevi Chevalier - www.middletownpadauphincounty.com

Purchase the Poster!
Want some memorabilia of the day, the poster, or the film itself? You can purchase small and large prints of my MFTOH poster, the t-shirts, and regular or blue-ray DVD copies HERE.

Also! For a bargain price you can purchase a framed 11x17" autographed poster by yours truly and the cast and crew HERE - But hurry, there are only seven left in stock!

'My Father, the Old Horse' Official Film Poster - Mairin-Taj Caya, 2014.

***Special gratitude to Thomas Roy, Ruth Roy, and most fondly - always - Michael Roy, for everything, including this work experience. I will never forget.

Mairin-Taj

New Portfolio Update - 'The Garden' - Part IV

I've finalized the preliminaries as much as I need them to be done, in the graphite form, and while I have a few additional notes for the painting stage reserved, this stage is done.

Transfer has commenced - From the compilation scan that you will see following here, I will print out an 18x28" copy of the same-sized original and transfer that to the hot press watercolor paper, formatted accordingly, via light table method.
In the process of transering, I will add in the 'additional notes' that I have set aside to make on the painted version, and these you will NOT see in the drawing compilation below.

The drawing compilation is essentially a merging of the sketchbook-drawn figures and the sketchbook-drawn background environment using Photoshop:

'The Garden' Final Compilation Preliminary, Graphite, 2014.

To recap the content from previous Part posts -

The Garden is, philosophically, that place where the psyche is when we fall in love, when we cultivate a relationship with Love. To love is an act of environmentalism, no? Learning to tend to the growth of oneself, another, and the geography of the relationship created by your two, ever merging worlds. When we leave a love, we leave the Garden, we drop our sheers, trowels, and watering cans, we neglect the landscape, and it turns wild, away from our nurtured intimacy with it, which gave it light and color.

These two figures are in a garden of sorts, after all, surrounded by the flora and fauna of their courtship, as it were.

Like the Fool, he stands confidently, naively bare-skinned to the world and his own actions, disarmed and offering a red rose, the symbol of passionate love. Possibly also the foreshadowing of his own careless haste; he's willing so long as the moment is on him.

Gently holding the purple lilac, the beginning inkling of love, and with fingers only just tentatively removing from her friend of a blade, she steps forward, amused, interested, watchful, hopeful. She's torn and undone from journeys through the landscape, but ready for this.

They are both barefoot in their woodlands, entering the clearing...like children.

And between them, where they meet in the circle of the garden, the oak sapling playing the role of whatever measure of strength young lovers plant and tend together, so long as they are together.

For more background on the concept of this portfolio piece #5, visit 'The Garden' - Part I , 'The Garden - Part II, & 'The Garden' - Part III. 

'The Garden' Background Environment *Edited Photograph of 18x28" Graphite Drawing, 2014.

'The Garden', Detail on Sword, Graphite, 2014.

Scan of Figures, Graphite, 2014.

Painting!