My latest completion is titled "Sharper Straighter Cleaner". The height dimension varies from 12" to 9.5" and the width is 7.5". Oil on panel as usual.  The piece is meant to show a different perspective of the painting, sort of a glimpse of the process. The subject matter is painted as though you are looking at it from an angle and the panel shape replicates the perspective. I constructed the frame to appear as though it is being viewed from an angle as well.  

This painting shows a bit of insight into how I painted one of my earlier successful paintings from 2012. The first Hershey miniature piece won two awards and helped me get representation through McCormick Gallery in Chicago...  so I decided to revisit the subject. The post-it note repeats the words that constantly run through my mind as I'm painting - Sharper, Straighter, Cleaner. It also has a hidden signature, see if you can find it.    

Finally completed this poor, neglected painting I started last fall. I received two commissions that delayed the completion of this piece. Today I finished it and got some photos of it.   

The painting is titled "Sounds of Earth Single" and features a Chuck Berry 78 rpm record. It's 16" x 16" and oil on panel. An interesting fact about Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was that is was so influential and such a pop culture icon, NASA included it in the Golden Record which was carried by the Voyager Spacecraft for the  space missions in 1977. The purpose of this mission was to capture images of the solar system,  but also an attempt to reach out to contact any other intelligent life once the spacecraft traveled into deep space. The Golden Record on Voyager contains music and other noises to show what human life sounds like. This means out beyond our solar system there is a copy of "Johnny B. Goode" traveling and waiting for other intelligent life to discover. 

On the Golden Record there is a cover with diagrams demonstrating on how to play the record and how it works. The other symbols show the location of our sun and technical information about the recording such as wave forms, binary code, and the hydrogen atom.

I decided to invent my own paper sleeve for the "Johnny B. Goode" record using the diagrams from the Golden Record. My goal for this painting was to combine this record along with this NASA space mission. I hope viewers find the juxtaposition as interesting as I do. 

With all the commission work completed, I've started working on some new paintings.  The piece below is meant to show a different perspective of the painting, sort of a glimpse of the process. The subject matter is painted as though you are looking at it from an angle and the panel shape replicates the perspective. I constructed the frame to appear as though it is being viewed from an angle as well (I'll have pictures later).  

This painting shows a bit of insight into how I painted one of my earlier successful paintings from 2012. The first Hershey miniature piece won two awards and helped me get representation through McCormick Gallery in Chicago...  so I decided to revisit the subject. The post-it note will repeat the words that constantly run through my mind as I'm painting - Sharper, Straighter, Cleaner.     

The other painting I have going on is a small round painting of a Coca-Cola bottle cap from the 40's. The frame is round too. For extra difficulty, I'm going to paint water droplets over the entire painting.  I've wanting been want to try to paint beads of water for a while and I think it will add a bit of interest and beauty to this Coke cap. You can see in the images below I have my photo references of what I hope the finished painting will look like. I feel the water is going to be time consuming. For now I've got just the first layer on the painting.