Alabama Shakes, Lilly Ledbetter and The Incognito Project

The Incognito Project seems to have sparked people's imagination much as it has mine. I'm honored that this month it is written about in B Metro : The Magazine of Metro Birmingham Living.

The article, written by Phillip Ratliff, is about the painting project, the show and the book. It is in their January 2013 feature, The A-List.

From the magazine:
Our annual list of people who fascinate, inspire, and make this city a great place to live.

Each year we put together a list of people (and this year we added an event) that we think have had really exceptional years and are poised or equally great things in the year to come. This year our list includes a comedian, a potter, rock and roll stars, equal-pay advocate, two artists, a convention center executive, a marine general turned college president, and the Dia de los Muertos festival. It’s a compendium of achievement we are proud to have associated with our magazine and our city.

Other people on the list this year are the amazing musical group Alabama Shakes, (their debut album is my new favorite music), Roam Project visionary-Greg Wingo, and Equal Pay Advocate-Lilly Ledbetter.

I had a total fan girl moment and got a secret thrill to see Lilly and President Obama on the page before The Incognito Project since I'm such a huge fan of both!

The magazine is in bookstores and news stands locally till mid-February and you may read it online here.

Steampunk Rats and Blue Ribbons

I'm pleased to announce that Professor Rattus and Her Royal Court, The Incognito Project has won 1st Place in The Portrait Society of America's, 2013 Member's Only Competition, Outside the Box category.

Professor Rattus and Her Royal Court, The Incognito Project,  24x18, oil on panel

The painting is of my daughter, Carly, and her pet fancy rats, Queenie and Dutchess.

Here's Carly's "Witness Statement" from the book: 

I find that my ability to converse intelligently is inversely proportional to my proximity to a furry mammal. If it’s furry and friendly, I want to hold it and talk to it to the exclusion of the humans around me. My conversation, that may have started as, “Why, yes, I did hear that the Large Hadron Collider created an event that was a hundred thousand times hotter than the sun,” devolves into, “My goodness! Who’s a furry critter? You’re a furry thing. Yes, you are.” Take equal parts Asimov and Conan Doyle, two writers I’m passionate about, and add a dash of furry minions, and I can wallow in a mystical land tailored just for me. ~Carly

The painting is included in my book about the project, pages 94-99.

You may see a big post about the painting here, that covers the Steampunk aesthetic and more close-up details.

The painting is now at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. The books are available through my website, or in the sidebar to the right or at the gallery. In Santa Fe you may also purchase the book at Sugarman Peterson Gallery.

Amy Strickland has done a series of posts about how she ran our successful Kickstarter to fund publishing of the book. You may find the first one here. Just follow the link at the bottom of each of her posts to see all six. 

7 Steps to Plaster Cast Painting For Artists

Step 1- Beg, borrow or steal some cool casts. One of my students happened to have them so she has generously loaned them to my class for a few weeks. If you're not so lucky, you may have to buy them like she did here.

Step 2- Set each of them up and add some funky lighting.

Hint: To arrange them up I set up a table easel, used S hooks to attach them to a sheet of masonite that had been covered in a black drape, and lit it with a clamp-on light. The bulbs are Phillips, Director, 60W, 120V.

Step 3- Do a pencil drawing on a canvas or panel.

Hint #1: Get in a comfortable position and plant your feet. Choose to stand or sit but remain at the same eye level. Try to move only your eyes to keep your view of the still life the same.
Hint #2: Check proportions, how wide is it compared to how tall? Start in general, straight lines, loose shapes and move to more specific. 

Welcome Home, a New Commissioned Painting

Welcome Home, 37x42, oil on canvas over panel

This is a painting commissioned to commemorate a marriage of 43 years, and a home built by the couple. It was such a pleasure to get to know them better.

I'd love to say more, share insights and technical stuff but Christmas is nigh, and deadlines are looming so for now just...

Some Like it Hot

Here is a recently finished commissioned painting. My model channels Marilyn Monroe. She is a huge fan so that's where we looked for inspiration when choosing poses.

Some Like it Hot, 30x30, oil on panel

This was a fun piece to design, with all the triangles, diagonals and interesting negative space.

Nataliya was an inspiring model. She is originally from Ukraine. When asked about why she related to Marilyn Monroe. She told me: "She was a surviver, I'm too. She has to fight for her life, me too. She was betrayed in love, me too. Always on the public, always play role, always feel lonely. She has some magic."

Painting a model wearing red lipstick is difficult since you want lips to look natural. Luckily, with The Incognito Project I've had plenty of practice painting people wearing make-up.

I like the way this arm pit came out, ya don't get to say that very often, huh?

I had fun with the hair, painting the brush strokes in the direction of the hair, along the length of the strands and painting it loosely to give the painting movement.

I painted brush strokes across the form to create the illusion of volume and mass in the figure. Those french manicured nails were tricky since I had to make them read right without having them just jump off the canvas. I was expecting the fur to be difficult but it turns out- just use the nastiest, most worn-out brush and it does half the work for you. 

The main focus of this part of the painting was to have the legs recede in space. To help create the illusion, I made the edges SUPER soft and cooled the color down and made it slightly darker to push it back and away from us.

The polka dots were a challenge to say the least, since I wanted to have soft edges.  I painted the slip first with a burnt umber rub out, pulling out the dots. Let it dry. Then glazed a transparent black mixture on top, painting in each white dot as I went in varying shades of white and gray so I could soften the edges of each dot. Let it dry.  Then I added another layer of black glaze where the form turns around the body to create the feeling that the slip was slightly transparent.

This is an awesome kind of commission to do. One where you get to know someone really cool, and they are willing to do something out of the ordinary portrait box.

Incognito Project Books Have Arrived!

They are finally in our hands and they are beautiful. Thank you Global, PSD for the wonderful work!

That's why we had to pay for a truck with lift gate and pallet jack. It's all becoming clear to me now. 

Ok, so it took Dan and Carly and the burly delivery guy to get the pallet up our driveway.

So pretty!

So exciting!

Converge, Where Classical and Contemporary Collide

There is a very exciting fine-art exhibition and sale happening this month in NYC at 25CPW Gallery, November 15-27, 2012. Our family business, Matter Deep Publishing had the privilege of publishing the catalog for the show, which is available at the gallery or online.

There is an Opening Reception on Thursday, November 15 from 6 pm to 9 pm that is open to the public, and many of the exhibiting artists will be in attendance. More info is available on the website for the show.


Through their unique skill and vision, these 30 exhibiting artists—and others like them—are breaking barriers between classical and contemporary art, redefining the rules of those respective worlds, and pointing the way toward the art of tomorrow.

~Allison Malafronte, curator

Allison is the former senior editor of American Artist magazine—is an arts writer, editor, columnist, and curator based in New York City and creator of the show.

You may see all the images on the Converge website but I wanted to share a few of my favorites here.

 I'm loving the fantastical quality of this Daniel Bilmes painting.

What's not to love about this Rachel Constantine self portrait. I've seen this painting in person and it is captivating.

 One of my favorite Alia El-Bermani paintings. I'm captured by the symbolic gesture of standing bare in a threshold

Beautiful and mysterious Diane Feissel. There is a soft and delicate quality to Diane's brushwork that makes me sigh.

Wonderful color and composition in this painting by Sandra Flood.

Super graphic quality to this Geoffrey Johnson piece.

Karen Kaapcke using a zinger spot of red in all these neutrals makes for a sparkling composition.

Michael Klein, wow.

Maria Kreyn's painting has it all, dynamic composition, juicy color, captured emotion.

When I found out Jeremy Mann used palette knives and brayers in his work, that explained much about the delectable paint surface. It looks good enough to eat

Adam Miller does the swirling drapery thing so well.

Oh so subtle palette from Gregory Mortensen.

Cool and warm color and pushed values make this piece from Tibor Nagy vibrant.

These shelves and Jordan Sokol are telling a story and I want to listen.

 You may find more about the show at Artists on Art.

Or in the November issue of American Artist Magazine.

Oh, how I wish I could be there in person, but alas, I will simply peruse my catalog, sip a glass of Pinot Grigio and imagine!