Gandalf

Back in January I posted the oil sketch for this piece. I've been finished with it for a while, with the occasional tweak here and there and finally decided that it was time to share.



There's something about painting old men with white hair that really appeals to me for some reason. I think it's the challenge of whispy hair against old, leathery skin. Wrinkles are so much fun! And big, bushy eyebrows.

Replanting the Garden

Replanting the Garden brings together the work of 40 artists who were simply given the directive to make a piece in response to H. Bosch's GARDEN of EARTHLY DELIGHTS.



I ended up choosing something a little different: Eve Taming the Snake. Eve gets a bad rap when all she did was choose to accept awareness and knowledge of the world. Without Eve there is no art, no words no pain, no love, no beauty. Without Eve, we would not be able to delight in the earth, so I decided to paint a portrait that illustrates the respect I feel for her. She has cast off her forced role of the weak-willed woman, shaved her head and made that snake her own. My Eve isn't the tempted, she is the hunter. Next she will go rescue Prometheus.

Replanting the Garden, curated by Richard Saja, opened last week in Indianapolis' Big Car Gallery space. This is a wonderfully eclectic show and I was very happy to be included. You can see all the images at http://replantingthegarden.blogspot.com/ and purchase them through the Gallery or http://www.etsy.com/shop/BigCarGallery.

ArtOrder article, some drawings and some news

Hello folks!

I am excited to share my first ever foray into semi-semi-pro writing. Jon Schindehette over at his ArtOrder blog recently put out a call for guest writers to help lighten his workload and I decided to respond. You can see the results Here:

http://artorder.blogspot.com/2010/04/guest-writer-kristina-carroll.html

Please go check it out and let me know what you think! I had a wonderful time writing it.

And now it's time to share a few new pieces I'm working on:

Eve


This piece is for a show going up in May: Replanting the Garden. All pieces are works that were inspired by Heironymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delight's. I wanted to try something different so I chose a very simple and quiet composition of Eve taming the snake. The curator is the same man who commissioned my Richard portrait for his show at the Shelburne Museum so I think this is going to be a good one. I also quite like the color studies I did for the piece:



You'll have to wait until the painting's finished to see which one I chose. Lastly is a drawing I am very excited to start painting:

Merlin


Very much inspired by the charcoal drawings of Charles Vess. I haven't done a nice, woodsy scene in a while and I am really looking forward to it.

Lastly I am very pleased to announce that the aforementioned Richard painting has been accepted into this year's Spectrum annual!



This is such a huge honor, and I still can't quite believe that I got in.

Read what Richard Saja, the curator, had to say about the piece in his show here:

http://mrpeacockstyle.blogspot.com/2009/10/chat-with-historically-inaccurate.html

Last, but not least, Marc Scheff posted a lovely review of my Zebrulu piece on his blog:

http://www.marcscheff.com/some-favorites

Go check them out!

Mutation Nation

Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get in on the latest Art Order challenge, but made some time this weekend to play (and get sorta sick) so I did a little something. Introducing Zebrulu!

Kim Boekbinder

Not too long ago I discovered the music of the very talented Kim Boekbinder and have since become a big fan. Not only do I love her songs, but she is a work of art herself and a very fun girl to draw and paint. Here's a little watercolor piece I finished recently and hopefully just the first of many. We may figure out a way to use the art to help her raise money for her album, so check back for details.



Original drawing:

Still Life

So I have been doing a lot of charcoal stuff lately and decided, after being inspired by Rob Rey's beautiful still lifes, I wanted to spend some time painting to keep up my practice. I haven't done a proper still life in... a long time. So I set one up all nice like- even did some clever umbrella action to control the light. Here's the set-up:



And the full painting:



Because I'm me, I spent longer on it than I had originally planned- so tomorrow I think I will set up a smaller one, stick to my time-limit and see what happens. I was just too happy to be playing with paints today to stop.

Starstruck

I am very happy to share my newest painting. This piece was made to be a two page spread for Michael Kaluta and Elaine Lee's groundbreaking space-opera comic, Starstruck, currenlty in re- release from IDW. The updated book is made all shiny with brand new drawings and covers by Michael, additional words by Elaine and some beautiful color-work by Lee Moyer. These are some of my favorite people in the industry and I was so honored to be asked to take part in their baby.



The short story behind this piece is that it depicts the murder of Sambo Thrace-Smith, the worst playwrite in the universe by Kettle Black, leader of the Guernican Art Squad. To get the full story, you need to go buy issue #10 of Starstruck. But really you should buy them ALL. Because they're really, really good and unlike anything else you've ever read.