Flower Garden - new little video with original soundtrack

My sister Susan recorded some little jigs with her cello.  I wanted to use some of the music, so I put together a little video of recent flower photos with older insect drawings and computer-generated fractals to go with the music.  I added a few Cubase loops as well.

When Painting Ideas Go Astray!

I was mocking up a few photo composites as reference for some new oil paintings I was planning, using old family photos.  Having learned the hard way that some people are sensitive about memories associated with certain images, I thought to ask permission.  Permission was denied!  One alternative suggested, by my entomology specialized sister, was to replace human heads with insect heads, as I had been doing with bird heads.   I tried a few versions, but they all looked quite unattractive.  The best was this photo composite with a few pen & ink insects drawings covering the faces.  I kind of like it for what it is, but it will not be the basis for any future oil paintings.  

Strange Journey II and Back to Nature Collages

Top to Bottom:

1.  2nd in a series of Strange Journey Mixed Media Collage:  This one "Making Choices"  16"w x 12"h x 1" cradled board with illustrator Cadillac, die cut paper, fabric 3D photoshop bird and hand painted and die cut Cherry Tree.

2.  Back to Nature I:  Drawing/Photograph digital collage flowers with die cut insects on paper on board 10" x 8".

3.  Back to Nature II:  Digital collage of 3 Autrey Sisters with die cut flowers and bugs on paper on board 10" x 8"

Insect Ecology - Mixed Media on Claybord

Oil, acrylic, watercolor, silver point on 12x16 claybord.

Bugs, Birds and Flowers - Marin Open Studios

As I am gathering artworks together for my Marin Open Studio, the first two weekends in May, a nature theme is coming together:  Bugs, birds and flowers.  The Bug Art is highlighted in this post, to be followed by birds and flowers in subsequent blog posts.   There are also some interesting people portrait collages to come.

I love painting Insects.  They come in all sizes and colors so make great models.  They are also essential to make the natural world function.  Here is a preview of some of my insect art which will be on display in May.

Digital Prints

Insects A to Z pen & ink & marker drawn insects, digitized with original insect font done in 2006.  One of my bestselling alphabets for many years on Art.com.  Available as a 13x19 print

Bugs in Bottle on Table digital composite of mixed media ‘Bottle of Bugs’ art done in 2015, with line art from a series of pen & ink and watercolors done in La Jolla in 2002, bird silhouettes from drawings done after a trip to India in 2015, and polka dot fabric designed in 2014.  Available as an 8 ½ x 11 print.

Spiders and Spider Webs Photographs shot in the Galapagos in 2017.  Available as 11x8.5  and 19x13 prints.

Art Quilts

Space Garden 45.5” w x 63” h with silk, cotton, digital fractal insect designs printed on silk organza and applique.  Done in 2014.  No longer available

Bee World 30” w x 47” h, including silk and cotton with fabrics of my own design.  Done in 2014.  Available

Mixed Media

Bottle of Bugs 9” w x 12” h paper on board with 1 ½” cradle.  R&F oil sticks, cold wax, digital print and Gum Arabic transfer on paper backed panel.

Cicada Mixed Media 6” x 6” paper on board with 1 ½” cradle.  R&F oil sticks, oil and ink on Arches watercolor paper.

Digger Wasp 6” x 6” paper on board with 1 ½” cradle.  R&F oil sticks, oil and ink on Arches watercolor paper

Oil Paintings

Dragonfly 5” w x 4” h stretched canvas block with 1 3/8” cradle.  Oil painting, black and gold ink.

Bugs in the Garden

Testing a new lens and I discovered some bugs having fun in the Helleborus.  The world is full of big and little creatures living life, and we are probably only aware of .0005% of it at any time.

Bugs in a Bottle on a Table

Not sure why I just spent almost all day drawing some new insects (cicada, digger wasp and grasshopper) just to put them in a digital bottle on a table in a fantasy room.  But I did!  The new bugs should also make their appearance in my cold wax and oil paint picture of a "Bottle Waiting for Bugs" once I transfer them into that painting in process.

Space Garden

Latest cotton and silk quilt masterpiece: 45 1/2" wide x 63" high, including digital fractal & original insect art printed on silk organza, applique on a central quilted silk panel, cotton polka dots, and some cool Jone Hallmark commercial bugs fabric

Circles With Bugs

It's raining tears.  The alarms are going off.  Bugs, (and unseen here) birds and bees are dying.  Hence my abstract attempt to depict global warming & other human induced earthly disasters.