Bronze and Blue

Hello from the void.

 'Elevation', has won a bronze medal from the Society of Illustrators LA! Check out all the gorgeous work at their website.

In the midst of private commissions, work that I can't show, working on samples for the portfolio and teaching, it's important to take some time for self. Which for me is just pushing some paint around for a few hours and seeing what happens. So this week I took a small bit of primed illustration board, some fashion photos cut out of a magazine for inspiration and made this while listening to the audio book of "The Night Circus" (which is excellent by the way)

Blue Meditation

Oil on illustration board

5"x7"

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges is one of my favorite authors and probably the most influential Spanish writer after Cervantes. Many say he is one of the founding fathers of speculative fiction and you can see his influence all over the genre from William Gibson to Doctor Who. His stories weave in and out of reality and psychology and I often find myself thinking about one of his stories years after I've read it. Nearly all of his works include reference to a labyrinth, which is a symbol I have always been drawn to and is certainly another reason his writing speaks so strongly to me. The profile portrait is traditionally used to depict someone passed in a more symbolic and immortal composition, and I thought would present him as the noble, timeless titan of literature he is. Even though he struggled with poor eyesight and blindness for a good portion of his later life, he saw realities enough for a hundreds lifetimes.

If you have never read Borges, I recommend starting with his "Labyrinths" collection. The Garden of Forking Paths, The Lottery in Babylon or The Library of Babel are some of my personal favorites and you may recognize some of the ideas.

New painting for Lincoln Arts Project show

Oil on 16 x 20 cradle board

One of Scott's former students, Pat Falco, and his friend Elliot Anderson have started a gallery in Boston. Their goal  is to bring quality, new art in from  young artists around the city into areas that might not normally see it. The resulting Lincoln Art Project Gallery has already hosted some unique shows including a showcase of concept  artists from Harmonix and a Type show.  When Scott and I heard about their plans to do an 'artist couples' show for Valentines day, we couldn't resist and thought it would be fun to create some portraits of each other for the show. I decided make Scott into a symbolist image about the relationship between artist and creative urge.

charcoal drawing and beginning washes of color 

Scott did a fantastic portrait of me looking very confident with my painting attire and, best of all, surrounded by books. It's a stunning graphic piece and I love that he sees me this way:

acrylic and pen on 16 x 20 cradle board

You can read Scott's blog about the process here.

And some press about the show, in which we are interviewed with some of the other artists, in the Weekly Dig here.

'Match'  at Lincoln Arts Project Gallery

Show Dates: February 8 - March 10

RECEPTION: Friday February 10, 7-10 PM

Gallery Hours: Wed - Fri 4-9 PM, Sat 2-8 PM or by appointment.

Holiday Cards for Sale!

 Impress your family and friends with completely unique limited edition holiday cards. Only $10 for a set of 15 with free shipping until December 7th!

I have a few of my limited edition holiday cards left and have decided to offer them to you in a special holiday sale! These full bleed, rounded-corner, 4x6 cards feature art from my Realms of Fantasy Illustration for  "Maiden, Mother, Crone". The text on the back quotes a line from Robert Louis Stevenson's poem, Winter-Time:

Black are my steps on silver sod;

Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;

And tree and house, and hill and lake,

Are frosted like a wedding cake.

Then reads:

Warmest Wishes this Holiday Season 

Information about the original art is along the bottom opposite the card's number out of 100.

I am fancy- packaging them in sets of 15 with envelopes included. Use them yourself as a unique alternative to store-bought cards or give them as a gift-set to the collector in your life. The cost is $10 per set of 15 and as an extra special early bird offer, I will include free shipping until December 7th! After that, shipping will be an extra $3. Please email me at kristina (at) kristinacarrollart.com if you are interested. I accept most forms of payment.

Remember- there are only a few sets of these remaining so order soon!

It's all about me!

Today is my birthday! So I decided to do a whole blog post about me! Self Portraits that is. One of my favorite teachers, Irwin Greenberg, used to say "If you are unsure what to paint- just do a self portrait!" It's good exercise for sure and what's good enough for Rembrandt...!

These were all done in a little over an hour.

This one was done very quickly last night. My last self portrait as a 20-something!

Nudes to chase away Tuesday blues

Every Monday (except when he's closed up the studio for art making) Rick Berry hosts a figure drawing session run by the Boston Figurative Art Center team. It's one of my favorite things to do up here, naturally, and here are a few of my favorites from the session:

August 2011 copy of Realms of Fantasy now on stands!

I just got my copy of the August 2011 Realms of Fantasy!

Check out my previous blog on my process for this piece, and you can order your copy here!