Elysium

It doesn't get much rawer than this...painted in black & white acrylic on a large-ish piece of cardboard (from a box we had a sofa delivered in a few months ago).

Elysium, 2017, acrylic on cardboard, 44" x 35" approx.

Destiny, the Hooded One

This is a new ink drawing...from an ongoing series of hooded and/or robed figures & heads. Often, the faces are obscured by shadow, but in this case the 3/4 profile is visible. I think this does not detract from the mystery of the piece...

Destiny, the Hooded One, 2017, brush & ink on paper, 17" x 14".

The Old Man and the Desert

Not the sea. My paintings are currently getting looser & denser...this one didn't make sense to me until I changed the background from blue to "desert" tones...then the idea crystalized. It can happen like that sometimes.

The Old Man and the Desert, 2017, acrylic on plywood, 14" x 11"

Earlier version

The Watcher From the Deep

A new acrylic on MDF (fiberboard), a quite dark image of an underwater sort of nature. I've been looking at a lot of Symbolist art from the 19th century recently, which may be applicable...

The Watcher From the Deep, 2017, acrylic on MDF, 9" diameter

Found on the Web: How to communicate with people who are always bad

That's what the text on the image below says, apparently. It's my "Narcissus" painting from 1991, which has been edited a bit. I wonder if the "always bad" thing refers to borrowing artwork from other web sites & not crediting it...I think maybe it does. From a Russian web site that I'm not going to link to.

Bad Narcissus, from Russia with love

New UDHR Poster / Article 25

From the series of paintings that I created around 25 years ago to illuminate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). There are actually 2 series of paintings—one without text at the top, the other with Spanish text. The Spanish series was created in Spain, just outside of Sevilla, at a friend's apartment. The friend was going to continue exhibiting it around Spain, but he became busy with other things, so he returned the paintings to me many years ago. In any case, the other day I got an email from the University of Toronto asking for permission to use the Article 25 (concerning health & well-being) painting on a poster. When the email arrived, I was out having lunch as the Internet was down in the house. We were also preparing to leave for a UK visit the next day. I hurriedly emailed a friend (thanks, Ricardo!) who helped me make photos of the 2 versions of Article 25 (non-text & Spanish text), which we sent to Lisa in Toronto. She chose the Spanish version (with the text cropped out) for the poster, which you see below.

Some links:
University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs
UDHR Art web site (the complete series of paintings & drawings)

UHDR Article 25 on University of Toronto (Munk School of Global Affairs) poster

Seven (Deadly Sins)

I mentioned the other day that I was thinking of doing a "frontispiece" for the 7 Deadly Sins, so here it is, a column made up of many souls/sinners in the shape of a "7".

Seven, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x 9".

And here it is along with the other images:

The Seven Deadly Sins, 2017

Seven Deadly Sins, 2013 ink drawings

Seven Deadly Sins 2017 & 2013

While still intending to do a "cover" piece for this series, in the meantime I've created a montage of the 7 pieces & also added for comparison the original drawings, done back in 2013. Now to let the dust settle & consider how to move forward to the definitive versions.

In case your Latin is not so good, from left to right:
1. Lust 2. Gluttony 3. Greed 4. Sloth 5. Wrath 6. Envy 7. Pride

Seven Deadly Sins, 2017 painted versions

Seven Deadly Sins, 2013 ink drawings

The typeface used, btw, is called "Good City Modern".

Luxuria / Lust (7 Deadly Sins)

Trapped in the fires of lust...

This is the final small painting-sketch in this series, though I intend to do a piece that would serve as a kind of frontispiece to the group, & create a montage of all the images in one piece as I did previously. That should be appearing soon...

This was (perhaps oddly, as when I did the drawings, I did this sin first) the most difficult to envision, required the most work, & came out the darkest of the seven images.

Luxuria / Lust, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x 9"

Avaricia / Greed (7 Deadly Sins)

This is the sixth out of seven (see below) small sketch-paintings of the 7 Deadly Sins. Only one left to go...

Avaricia / Greed, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x 9"

Portrait Revolution Art Book

Thanks to Martin Beek in the UK who just sent me a scan of the page in "Portrait Revolution" that has my ink portrait of Mariah O'Neill on it. This is from Julia Kay's Portrait Party, an international art project that I was part of — I did a number of portrait pieces for the project a few years ago via Flickr. Click the links for the UK & US versions via Amazon.

From Portrait Revolution, Julia Kay's Portrait Party

Invidia / Envy (7 Deadly Sins)

The latest (5 out of 7 done) in the series of small sketch-paintings. I think this one is my favorite so far...the grasping tendrils of envy...

Invidia / Envy, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x 9"

Gula / Gluttony (7 Deadly Sins)

Continuing with the Seven Deadly Sins painted series...these are intermediate painted sketches on a fairly small scale (inspired by the series of drawings I did back in 2013). When these are done, I'll try & synthesize between these & the drawings to come up with a large-scale series of paintings (or drawings?).

Gula / Gluttony, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x 9"

Superbia / Pride (7 Deadly Sins)

This just in—the latest in the painted (study) series for the Seven Deadly Sins. Also entitled "The King of Pride".

Superbia / Pride, 2017, acrylic on board, 12" x 9"