I love color! Love, love, love it! Bold, saturated, luscious color! It can have such a positive impact on people. Combine color with design and contrast and that’s the essence of my artwork. Even as a child, I was fascinated by optical art and the hippy-dippy flower power art of the 1960s. As I grew older, I learned about fractals and mathematical designs that had a major impact on the type of art I am known for now. Most people are surprised to learn that I started out as a portrait painter. Even though I had all this color and design stuff running around in my head, I was urged to paint realistically and led to believe that my abstract creations were too colorful and whimsical to be considered serious or fine art. Isn’t that crazy? Well, I think so. And I’m on a mission to prove otherwise. It started about eight years ago when I was going through some personal struggles. Life seemed to have lost its meaning. Finally, one day I just decided to paint what needed to be expressed and my artwork just blossomed. I had no idea how wonderful my life as an artist would become.
Awakening was the first painting I created in my current style. It is a very abstract and expressive work. When it was accepted into a prestigious juried exhibition, I knew I needed to continue. Several months later I painted The Big Spin, which was my first work with the spiral effect. As time went by, I began to refine my style and technique. My paintings became smoother, both to look at and to touch. As I started to experiment more with color, I had a pastel phase and Vibe was the result. It’s one of the very few works I created using so much white! But this painting sparked the interest of one of my clients. He loved the ripple effect and said it looked like a droplet hitting the water. Then he asked if I could turn it sideways and put a fish in it! He wanted to celebrate his big catch by commissioning artwork and that’s how my demonstration, Shiira, painting began.
I started Shiira by placing the focal point (center of the ripples) and then positioning the fish (mahi-mahi) as if it were swimming toward the focal point. I use a watercolor pencil in a neutral color, such as raw sienna, to sketch as it is easy to cover and won’t smear while I’m painting. After sketching the fish, I then set up the design pattern for the ripples by making concentric circles around the focal point. In this painting, the circles are fairly evenly spaced apart. I draw them freehand rather than using a compass. I think it has a more natural feel that way. I don’t get too particular with the design sketch as it’s just a general guide for when I start painting.
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
Shared Joy
Claudia Hartley chats with Scottsdale Artists' School about her roots as an artist and instructor
Agile & Precise
Sandra Bartels moves swiftly between pastels and pastel pencils, focusing separately on each area of her subject
Social Realism
Warren Chang breaks down his recent paintings capturing elements of life in California during the past two years
Tactile Response
Anastasia Trusova utilizes gels, palette knives and scrapers to create multiple textures in her paintings
Painting an Intimate Self Portrait
Like most self-portraits, this painting is an personal paintings often arise from rather mundane circumstances.
The Drama of Nature
From plein air studies to final studio paintings, Kim Casebeer distills the intensity and vibrance of the landscape
FIVE PROBLEMS WITH GOUACHE (AND HOW TO SOLVE THEM)
James Gurney tackles challenges specific to the medium of gouache
Not an Easy Task
My teacher, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Loften said that when he looked at a painting, he was looking for three things: feeling, imagination, and the ability to communicate those first two.
Louis Carr — Intimate Spaces and Youthful Portraits
Louis Carr is an artist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, who is well-known for his intimate and delicately rendered portrait and landscape paintings.
Young at Art
Harley Brown's fascinating things no one else will tell you
Wilderness Wonder
Deep Woods Survival Pack
A Home With a Heart
Designed with family in mind
Discover your TRUE NATURE
SAMUEL EISZELE explores the depths of happiness, reminding us that happiness and suffering coexist, and that true happiness is about intentions, integrity and innateness.
Top 4 Best Cardio Exercises For Pregnant Women
Here are five of the best cardio exercises for pregnant women.
Secretly Seeking Springtime
Spring is just around the corner; we can almost taste it. Gather your loved ones and take a trip to a colorful wonderland.
This iOS game was made for a cat and reviewed by a cat
Meow
THE TALE OF TWO AGES: A Plan for Your Healthspan
For the longest time our age has been defined by the day we were born and the number of times we are fortunate enough to circle the sun.
WARP-SPEED SHATNER HEADED FOR CRACK-UP!
DYNAMIC “Star Trek” legend William Shatner still has plenty of get up and go at age 90. But sources dished the space case thinks he’s invincible and loved ones are begging him to slow down before he hurts himself!
SEXY AT 63!
Sharon’s Summer Bod
American Dipper: a swimming and singing songbird
If you walk along a mountain stream almost anywhere in the western United States, you may see a uniformly gray bird standing on a rock near a riffle or rapid in the middle of the river.