Ever watch Breaking Bad?

So my bff Roger told me awhile ago that I should watch this show called "Breaking Bad". He thought it would totally be up my alley for programs. . . If you know nothing about the show, it is about a high school chemistry teacher who starts cooking crystal meth with a former student. What I have really noticed in the show, is that Jesse, the former student/ partner, is the one who is continuously beaten up on the show. I am not sure why he is always picked on... perhaps it is because he is not a big guy? Because he is young? Because if he gets beaten enough he will see the errors in his way and get out of the business?

Me don't know!

But I want to give props to the guy, so in honor of the character Jesse, I present my Jesse:

28"x32" mixed media

I can do landscapes!

So... I am a person who often makes brave bold statements about likes and dislikes. I have often been heard telling people "I don't like to paint flowers" or "I don't do landscapes". I think the reason I say things like this is because I think those subject matters have been done to the point of nausea. At least to the point of inducing my nausea. But every now and then, I get inspired to give it a go and do something in that genre which normally so displeases me.

When I was leaving New Mexico in January, on the way to the aeroport in Albuqueque, I was looking at distant mesas and it actually inspired me. But by saying that I was inspired, I should warn that I was inspired to do a landscape in my own terms. I quickly sketched something out at the aeroport in ink so as to not forget what I was thinking:

Then once I was home, I started to work in oils on the painting:


Until it now looks like this:


This painting is not finished by any means. I know that it still needs lots of work (plus a whole palette colour change for the red/pink boulders), but I wanted all to see that I am willing to try anything even if it means my foot will be crammed in my mouth!

While I was working on that painting, I thought to myself that it would be wonderful to even abstract the landscape even more. And to simplify the colours to make a impact on the viewer's eyes. This is what I came up with:

The great thing about this painting is that I believe it can work in all orientations for viewing and nothing will be taken away from the painting.

The moral of this story is that I am not afraid to eat my words and try something if I think I can get away with putting my own spin on it and turning it into something I would be proud to show others.

Back Again but only this time bringing my new boys

Not much of a blogger have I been. At first I was coming up with valid excuses... ranging from I was working on pieces that were going as gifts and didn't want to have the recipients know about it (if they were to ever happen upon this blog) to excuses of needing to find a new apartment and then move and settle in to going on a roadtrip to having house guests. Well... no more excuses. My creative juices have been flowing and I have in my absence, managed to produce a few paintings... unfortunately I forgot to document the finished products so I will have to wait for photos from the new owners before I reveal those pieces.

I have decided that I am going to do a series of male portraits since I was never able to properly paint a woman's portrait without making her look like a dude. A friend of mine used to call all those paintings of life models my "football transgendered" series. She was absolutely right in saying that... they all had a woman's body but the head was a guy... it definitely made for many laughs at the end of a painting class for she and I.

I now present my male portraits so far:

Syd

Sebastien

Luc

Jeremy

Fred

Ferdinand