The leaves are on the fruit and the fruit are on the leaves, what is it?

A pineapple.

In Puerto rico I saw these growing in pots in El Yunque and on peoples stoops in Old San Juan.
Here are some of the steps I took in creating one of my pieces for the exhibition I had at the New Edward Gallery this past week-end.

Going B-A-N-A-N-A-S ! ! !

Meanwhile........
(while I build up my studio/Atelier Artista I am preparing for a solo show at the New Edward Gallery)
...........and I'm going

B-A-N-A-N-A-S ! ! !

Here is a visual breakdown of all the steps.

Update from Japan

It's been awfully quiet on my blog posts due to the fact that I have been overseas in Japan.  Im running around putting on an extra zero onto my steps everyday and taking in the sights, sounds and tastes during my travels. I managed to squeeze off this video from Naoshima, don't worry there will be more good stuff to follow, check this out!

Acrylic Studio finishes up at ACAD

My ACAD Acrylic Studio course winds down and comes to completion at the end of the week. Its sad to see the group go but I am so proud at how far they have come and all the advancements they have made, especially those who cam in with zero experience and walked out with finished/ near finishes pieces.

The striped taping effect offers different levels of shine, shimmer and knocks back the background bringing the figure forward once more into predominance.

Daisy begins detailing the foreground elements on her landscape painting.

Sue keeps at it by painting more and more details on her very ambitions bus painting.

The boat piece gets the same sort of treatment in the grass details as she nears completion of her painting, she is always smiling too!!!

I lend out my secrets and teach others how to easily make flower of life designs to experiment and paint with.

It is one of my favorite design making techniques because it has endless potential.

Finalizing the silhouette tree and lamp posts in her first acrylic painting ever.

Once its done the final signing.

Daisy's finished landscape and studio work space with colour study.

Whitney's gem painting after the taping is removed.

The all important final displaying.

We drag over our easels and set up a display gallery in the studio for final critique.

Bam. My girls, their works, a skull named Stan and me.

Bare Cares Stare!

Last night and all of this week-ed I have a new piece showing alongside an orchestra of amazing artists and their works at the VHS(ex) show. FB EVENT INFO PAGE HERE.

There is a little TV spot about the show in the link below.
http://globalnews.ca/video/531865/gil-tucker-vhs-tribute

It was a super busy night jam packed full of art goers. I already got four bids for my piece. = AWESOME!

I had originally been working on a Rob Boss piece but at the end I didn't like the product so I sanded it off and re-coated the entire surface with titanium white and started all over again. I did a blended sky backdrop with drips and splashes. I was feeling the pressure, watching paint dry. I sanded the surface to get rid of the angst.

I blocked in some puffy clouds with a dry brushing technique and let some of the background show thru.

I made a pinkish blend with Alizarin Crimson and Titanium White to block in the bear body doing a cute little head stand on the puffy cloud.

I blocked in the rainbow coming out of the bears backside. I threw in some golden falling stars and a lightning bolt. I put in the details on the bear and then added some pink sparkles to the fur. Then I began outlining the clouds with sharpie marker.

I used Copic markers to quickly get the rainbows blocked in as time had completely disappeared. I clear coated it with varnish and printed out a "Be Kind Please Rewind" mock up on pink paper. I scrunched it up and colored the happy face in with a yellow high-lighter like they used to back in the days of VHS video rentals.

Here is an iphone shot of it on the gallery wall. I think it turned out better than expected once I hung it on the wall. You have until Monday to see all the work at this special group show and make bids on the well crafted works available. Do it!

FB EVENT INFO PAGE HERE.

Moving in to the window box

 I was awarded a Calgary Cultural Capital of Canada 2012 Artist in Residency.  It is part of the Calgary Animated Objects Society (CAOS) festival line up. I am in the Untitled Arts Society +15 Gallery window space in the Epcor Centre for Performing Arts in a make shift animation studio working on a new piece.

Here is the fish bowl as I just start moving my gear in.

And more stuff still. Lots of wood going into the window display.

I hung a big black out drape to control the light from spilling in. As well, I put up some Tibetan flags for cheer and a bit of diffusion.

Here are some of the wooden mannikins I intend on bringing to life using stop motion animation techniques.

Here is the shot from my Grandpa chair inside the box setting a focal length on my elephant.
More to come as the residency progresses :)

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Epcor show installation

Window Galleries - A View Through the Glass

EPCOR CENTRE Window Galleries (across from Max Bell Theatre)
January 10, 2013 – March 31, 2013
Reception: Thursday, February 7, 5 - 8 pm, Upper Centre Court

Today I installed a new exhibition of my sacred images in the main hallway at the Epcor Centre of Performing Arts.

They already had up these placards that they made for me, super rad! I'm definitely keeping this for my records after the show.

I brought a bunch but not all of the pieces from my collection. Some are too graphic and sexual in nature to display in a city run public space. I wasn't sure with the layout and size of the space how the hanging would go. I bought extra wall hangers for way too much money at the frame ship but they were necessary since the art supply store I hit on the way was out.

The difficult thing about the space is hanging the work so that the metal strips down the center of the windows does not hinder the view.  I had odd sizes and the lighting can't be controlled, but you do the best you can with what you've been given. The nice part is the walls are black which really helps to set off my bright colored paintings.

It was a fair bit more challenging than expected to hang the work. The walls were plywood, bending my nails. It was hard to measure off but with a little trial and error I nailed it. No pun intended. Who am I kidding, puns are usually intended. There is still a bit more work to do in terms of adding some writing to help contextualize the work for viewers but other than that the show looks really good.

Here is a link for more info:

http://www.epcorcentre.org/WhatsOn/ShowDetails.aspx?show_id=E442E2DB-8F9C-4DA0-B6B3-414F7410299B

Window Galleries - A View Through the Glass

EPCOR CENTRE Window Galleries (across from Max Bell Theatre)
January 10, 2013 – March 31, 2013
Reception: Thursday, February 7, 5 - 8 pm, Upper Centre Court

We are the Champions

my friends.....

 I had to make myself wait until after the Versus show to share the piece on this blog. I started with a little bit a month ago but then stopped just to be fair. Hopefully you got out to the exhibit if you could. There were over 40 artists involved in the project and some amazing collaborations. The Gentlemen Destroyers made some cool walls in the front space to hang all the work and there was a good turn out while I was there.

A quick review. I ended up cutting out two different stencils back in may of the champ Batista, also a means to sign my piece since we share the same last name.

I had drawn out my anatomical heart which eventually became completely covered by my ballistic gel inspired victim figure. I started in pencil and painted in with acrylic on the re-stretched canvas.

Here is an early process shot after Ray got his Rich stencil cut and applied to the surface.

 So jumping ahead, I added the beam out of the characters mouth as an integration challenge to bring the two sides together. I have eyeballs popping out of the skull, they still need irises at this point. The blood is red but still too transparent. I splatter painted in the Batista Stencil and rubbed iridescent silver into the negative space then gave it a light sand.

I allowed a variety of browns to drip down the canvas to create more layers and depth. I cut a second negative stencil of Batista and splatter painted blues over the silver. I applied a thick pink to cover the blood and I was going to stain it red afterward but liked the interplay of pinks and blue so much I left it.  I painted in the irises in the eyes and blocked in the lower jaw.

A little further along and now there is a bit more back and forth between my collaborative partner. He added the laser rays to the piece. I decided to add a background of stars and rework the depth and shading on the skeletal elements. I created some star stencils and some tear drop stencils. I sprayed in some reflective gold spray paint and worked out some finer details.

Here you can get an idea of the detail and layering that went into the piece, this is after it is frames and varnished.

This is an angled shot taken the day Derek picked up the piece to bring to the gallery. You can see the frame job and the interplay of light on the reflective surface. ray stayed up for 2 nights working on a party binge to get the piece together with BONUS framing = sweet surprise to wake up to!

Here is the final piece to be delivered. I hand wrote the pieces title with my favorite gold paint pen. we gave it a healthy coating of outdoor vehicle clear coat. The piece has a nifty little write up explaining our process making it. Hopefully you get a chance to see our handy work in person =;)