Carnivale

"Carnivale"
6x16 Oil on Gessoboard
$395 Unframed
Click Here to Purchase

I love, love, love this one. It really just reminds me of a circus or carnival. I'm especially happy with how the yellows turned out. This shophouse is in Chinatown, although in real life, the colors on the house have faded significantly in the two years since I took the original reference photo. In any case, until this one finds a good home, I'm really enjoying it on my drying shelf in the studio.

Speaking of my studio, I've been working on really making it my own, "feathering my nest" as Dreama Tolle Perry puts it. One of my biggest struggles has been lighting. I have a full wall of giant windows that face mostly East South East, so I get fantastic morning light, but they're tinted. Also, by the time the afternoon comes around, I have indirect light from outside (which is not enough) and a warm (very warm) flourescent overhead light. So, by the time the afternoon rolls around, I've really been struggling to see, which has been heightened by the fact I'm now seeing colors so much more clearly. 

Well, today I finally got fed up. I've been looking for a decent lighting solution since we moved here, but so much is flourescent, which I can't stand. Too cold or too orange. Ideally, I would like to find a 3 bulb halogen floor lamp like the one I had in the US, but so far I've had no luck. As per usual when I'm in doubt and don't know where to go, I wound up at Ikea. Ikea winds up being like the closest thing to Walmart or Target here, when you don't know the exact widget store for what you need at home. 

In any case, all I did was take one of their track lights and sit it upside down on top of my book case. Viola! With three halogen lights, I can almost work at night (not quite, but almost). With another track of 3 lights, I could totally take over the world. In case you want to use this solution, make sure you get the wall plug-in attachment. It is ugly, but makes the whole thing totally transportable to the next apartment/studio situation. Yay!

Emerald Hill

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"Emerald Hill Study"
8x10 Oil on Panel
Click Here to Purchase

This is still one of my favorite paintings. This little guy was a study that I did for the larger commission, and the lovely ladies here at the American Women's Association asked me if they could use it for the cover of their magazine this month. So exciting! I can now have a press tab on my website, ha!

It has been a bit of a rollercoaster of  week, I must say. I really can't believe it is Friday.We said goodbye to one of our closest friends this week. She is repatriating back to the US. Very bittersweet, but I know that we will see each other again, so I refused to say goodbye. You make friends so quickly when you get over here, and we made so many wonderful friends. But then what happens if you are the people that stay past your two year contract period after all your friends move back? I don't know, we're entering uncharted territory here.

In any case, Happy Friday! I hope your week was as good as mine!