Announcing the Winner!!!

Atelier Artista is very proud to award this years People's Portrait Prize 2018

Emerging Artist Award to

Diana Shen Peng

Diana was given sketchbooks and a voucher worth $400 to take any of the classes offered at Atelier Artista or for our regular uninstructed Wednesday evening figure drawing sessions.

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Speaking of classes at the Atelier, the next semester is coming up quickly, classes begin the first week of April check out the intensives we have on offer visit http://atelierartista.com

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NEW!!!

We  have camps and classes in the summer for kids and youth, registration is open:
SUMMER CAMPS!!

Elephant WIP

Now that I have a tidy space in which to work, I immediately get going on an elephant painting for my Cousin Joe.He and his wife Lisa sent me an example of a piece they saw that they were considering picking up for the room of the daughter they are expecting. I figured I could do better, but as I got working it changed a lot.

 I added a baby elephant since its for a little girls room, I thought that would be a cute addition. I went for more realist style wanting this grand creature to feel physically powerful. When the lights are off there will be a little secret bonus, the tusks and eyes have glow paint.

Here it is as a Work in Progress, I am adding more here and there after sitting with it for more time, if you'd like to see how it came together in sped up time, check out the video below, I time lapsed the process.

Acrylic Sampler at Swinton's

Sunday Sampler at Swinton's Art Supply. 

What a lovely way to spend a Sunday.
I wish I got to do this every Sunday.
My kind of church, the "Church of Creativity." 

Here is my quick demo piece for this weeks class.

No experience necessary!!!!
If you have always wanted to try painting, but don't want to drop hundreds getting the supplies before you try them out, Come down to Swinton's for on of their samplers. I will help you get your paint on.

This class is for people who have never painted before or a re beginners who have been hit by the creative bug. Its a great way to try out a new medium and to learn to mix different colours.

We work on fundamentals then everybody gets a bit of time to make their very first acrylic painting that they take home after they are finished.

I love the colours on this piece as it gets blocked in, a little more time and thick application of pigment......

And presto, nice work Lisa!

this mushroop piece was started on a bright yellow underpainting which gave the mushrooms a luminous quality, I'm totally stealing that idea. Even the instructor learns stuff on sampler days.

This participant had a wonderful sense of lighting on this snowy mountain.

Think you might want to try acrylic or oil out with me? go to Swinton's website (here) and look up when the next sampler is scheduled.

Acrylic Sampler at Swinton's April 26, 2015

I've been a very very busy bunny. Got big projects on the go and stuff I can't quite show and tell about yet so stay tuned, it is going to be very informative here in the next little bit. I have a mural I've been working on being unveiled this Thursday, a show pice I've been working on coming up soon and 10 new pain tined commissions and their process to share. But for now I have my Swinton's Sunday Sampler to share.

It was the smallest size class I've had here so I gave them extra supplies and assigned a value cart and colour wheel on canvas board for them to experiment with and have something they can take home to refer to before getting onto their more creative try out.  I showed how to make black using a limited palette as well as how to use just the primaries to get all the colours they may need.

I did the speediest loosest laying down and blocking in of colour so that they could see how easy and fun it can be. So quick that the intimidation level should have gone way way down plus I shoed them how to make a basic skin tone and how to lay out and plan their work after rubbing in a tone to knock back the white of the gessoed canvas.

 This participant used a round 2 brush in his first time using acrylic. He did a wheel showing how he mixed certain colours for what he wanted to paint and practiced a face above, I felt like it looked like she had a monster mouth when looked at together so I snapped this shot for inspiration and prosperity sake.

Here he is giving it another go on the provided 7 X 9 Fredrix canvas board. He struggled with having wetted the paint a little too much, having had prior watercolour experience, but I taught him that acrylic is a different beast. It likes to be more like oil and it is best to add mediums when wanting to alter the consistency of the pigments as water weakens the overall structural bond of the polymer based paint.

Another first timer went the portrait route based off a pic of her nephew on her blackberry. Portraits are difficult subject matter as it is but for a first time painter, and in the time given she has made a really nice start. I like the tones being developed. It feels reminiscent of early picasso works to me.

Her mom also participated and made this lovely painting based on an image found in Doug Swinton's collection. There are so many great references up for grabs but maybe in the future I'll list that students are welcome to bring stuff with them if they like.

Here is it after the short hour they have to sample the materials and give painting a quick go. I'd say excellent but the students are most often the most critical of their own work.

Bright bold colours and simplified shapes represent this landscape scene so beautifully. Needless to say I am very happy with how everybody did with me this gloriously sunny Sunday after a successful Stanley cup win for the Flames after an exhilarating game. I heard there was quite the Red Mile debauchery the evening before. No wonder a few people signed up didn't show. lol.

Before leaving I was able to pick up the custom frame job they did for me down there. So excellent! Frames really help make the window to the painting and elevate the work. I shelled out a good amount picking the top of the line and heaviest frame I could find………..but then got a great deal due to a Groupon Swinton's is offering for custom framing. Hurry up, it is still on if you need anything frames, Its way better, higher quality, quicker and cheaper than anywhere else including the dreaded Micheals.  I can't recommend it enough!

Harmony and Connectivity

This Wednesday evening, after work I was fortunate to be asked to join two other awesome artists (Mandy Stobo and IronbrushYYC) in creating pieces for Chatterson Drive Strategic Real Estate Solutions. We were given a subject and we were filmed by their motion department creating original pieces for a project they are pitching. They were a really awesome group and the four or so hours I worked I had a lot of fun.

They gave us an example pitch of what they hoped to achieve with the work and then they gave us each a 2 X 2 canvas to get to work. I decided to find the centre and begin with some sacred geometry. I began with drawing a flower of life using a scrap CD I had laying around. I don't know why I didn't think of this before!

I ran the fine liner I had right into the ground. I then turned to my trusty bottle of ink and dipped the pen nib in and used it like that. I then squirted some clear medium and smudged it over obliterating the surface. I water for it to dry before applying some paint.

I started by doing the touter part and edges of the canvas with some copper. I just let the brush tell me what to do and where to go and then I applied the cat pee (ammonia solution) to the surface allowing it to drip and chemically react with the copper surface.

I painted in the centre circle and allowed the chemical process to take place. Then went in with some fluorescent pink. I kinda wish I had the nerve to call it done at this point. Alas I like layers too much.

I followed suit with bright yellow and a neutral grey. I began picking out shapes and enhancing the circles. I don't know which direction will be up yet, i'll figure it out when it is done. Painting for me is a discovery. It is a challenge of push and pull in order to create harmony. In fact, often it creates itself and I'm just doing the work but am along for the ride.

I went in with some orange as time began to run out and I needed to clean up my make shift studio space.I thought I would be able to finish the piece, but my perfectionism wouldn't let me leave it as is, so I brought it home to put in a few more hours of work on it. More to come when it is done!

Painted Elephants

I created these two new pieces for the Inshala festival while on my Cypress Hills residency.

I started with brush drawing with black Gesso on the primed support. I like this method, it's fast!

I added the brightest paint colours to the surface. It killed back all the wrinkles which I will revisit.

I used a plastic bag and really watery paint to texture over the skin surface to take back a bit of the colour and make the piece more homogenous.

I went in with the white and highlights, right out of the tube.

I went in with some line and neutral gray and began with some bright green in the eye.

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I started another on the same size canvas.

I threw down some texture before starting in on the second elephant head.

I drew in the elephant face quickly. I'm a bit attached to the plain black and white drawing, it looks kinda like an ink drawing.

I add the punchy neon acrylic colour as the elephant paint, it sits far on top visually so I will have to take it down like before.

Here is is after I apply a bluish grey and revisit some of the wrinkle lines. I went into the eyes with some sparkles.

 I am really happy with how these two new pieces turned out and how quickly they came together.

Studio party and new furniture!

Studio Party Tonight!!


I will be joined by a few friends and anyone else who want to pop in for an impromptu Studio Party.  DJ Cosmic Lurk N Bang will be spinning sweet tracks. I have some students from my November Canvas Building Workshop coming in to pick up their supports,  while Jesse Gouchey and Myself work on our respective commissions. Al Chu and Ej Negre will be in the house and maybe a special guest appearance or two.

Got some new furniture for the studio. Here it is stacked in the freight elevator on its way up to my studio on the 5th floor. I'm bringing in my pine book shelf from home so I can have all my art books and reference material close at hand. I also purchased this custom "easy - fit" Animation table from the Quickdraw animation society for  a steal $75, it used to be from the Alberta College of Art and Design's previous Animation program. It even came with x-tra light bulbs.

I can't believe how the furniture blends in to my floor. Here are all the components, laid out ready to assemble.  I started putting the shelf together but once I decided where things were going to go I realized there was a lot of stuff that I had to move. What is that old saying, "you've got to make a mess to clean a mess"?! So I changed out my table to create room by the plug for the animation stand and book shelf.  I began putting together the animation table, had it 98% complete, then it came crashing down on my head. It's a two person job, even when it is together its still pretty wobbly. I will have to add some structural support to the "easy assembly- fit together" design because it doesn't quite cut it.

The wheels on the bus go round and round.......

Still cracking, on the Wheel of Deluded Existence.  Had a big day and some more visitors to the studio. Had a quick break while working to do an interview with Hannah Kost from the Calgary Journal. She asked about my recent an upcoming Canvas Building Workshop for Aboriginal Youth program put on by USAY, he Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth. Here is a photo I just love of two of the participants from my last session.

It was a big day, I spent most of it reworking my course notes for After Effects to better suit the animators in the class.  It was kinda fun=, for a total review and jump into the past;) My class is about Text and Sound in regards to animation of visual information conveyed in words and how to sync sounds to the visual.  Afterward I headed straight to the studio. I knew it was going to be a long one, and the sooner I could get finished, the sooner I could run over to the Scrillex show at the Hi Fi club.

I worked my way through most of the remaining colors. Added some Green and blue variations, some quinacridone red, demon flesh tones, a little bit of brown, dark charcoal for the hells cavern, revisiting some tones in places I missed yesterday. It's a good thing I managed to save a bit in a little plastic sealable container from Vietnamese the other day. I pulled out my red sharpie to quickly block in roof tiles on the temples. See if you can see all the work one below ;)

It was about 1am when I noticed all the time had been used up;( I got out my burnt umber and quickly added in little hairs on the tiger pelt to make it look far more soft and hairy, like a kitty pelt would be. 

At this point I've realized I'm only about half way to where I'd like to be at about 40 hrs. It is looking far to simplistic and "cartoony" now. There are many little details and shading that need to be added to please my artistic temperment. Alas, I'm just going to have to deal with getting it to a place where I am happy to exhibit it on Saturday evening after my class from about 10 - 2am tomorrow evening. Sigh. We will see what kind of artistic magic I can conjure tomorrow night;)

Purple preview

So those who know of this blog get a preview of what I'm creating for the upcoming 'purple show'.  My latest work is a Rhinoceros done in in purple acrylic, this show is coming up quick, I need a quicker drying time, so no oil paint for this one ;(

Here is the first stage. The rhino is inspired by a quote and photo with Salvador Dali. He thrusts his head up from the bottom of the picture plane, originally I had the idea to paint the main horn as an erect penis but I think I'm getting a little conservative in my old age.....I am just going to show the work as is. I intend on painting in a few more details but leaving the purity of the gestural application of paint. Tonight I am going to mix up some gold paint and fill in the background with that so it shines, purple and gold look so good together.

Year of the Rabbit - Part 2

So here is the second phase of the three rabbit paintings.

 

I blocked in the darks with a number 4 flat brush.

 

The paintings begin to get some form and depth with the application of the darkest tone.

Blocking in the eyes adds life and a focal point. I decided to change the ear on the first painting to give the profile a bit more mass.

Year of the Rabbit

I began painting 3 options for shirt designs for the Taoist Tai Chi society this year. Here is my introductory process.

I painted them with Stevenson and Golden acrylic on canvas.  My first step was to sketch out my preliminary drawings taken from sketches base of photos I found online.

I used a grid to blow them up from my sketchbook to the two sizes of canvas I selected.

I then roughly brushed in some light and dark browns to give each fuzzy body some form.

Horse painting

Well although I did an awesome sketch of Vladimir Vasiliev before hitting the sheets last night.

Instead of a drawing, I wanted to show a painting I completed before it disappears into it's new home. I painted this horse triptych for my aunt and uncle who are staging their home on an equestrian ranch.  They needed something to go with their brown walls over the mantle.

I took all the photos of each canvas individually that is why the lighting looks a little odd. There is vibrant gold that shines when you look at the piece, photos cannot do it justice. The three canvases are 18" X 24" and were completed with acrylic paint. The wheat was painted by using some grasses I pulled up from Ben's yard last week when we did some digging in the front yard.