Bob Dylan portrait on Etsy

A portrait of Bob Dylan done in ink and acrylic is now available on Etsy. Hope everyone (in the US) enjoys Thanksgiving. Looking forward to some time with family.

Commissions

Recent commissions for the songs Fantastic Voyage by David Bowie and All along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan.

Visual Journalism

I am scheduled to teach a class in Visual Journalism/Visual Essay at RICA (Raleigh Institute of Contemporary Art) beginning in January, 2010. RICA is a new school started by a group of Raleigh artists committed to offering classes that will inform, challenge, and inspire creativity.

The course will involve exploring how the visual information around us can inform our work, how stories and narrative can be found in the most unlikely places, and look at how both the content and form of a work communicate. You can tell a really interesting story about what you ate for breakfast, or about people living with jobs lost, or about a major event. What you choose to draw, what you choose to see, and how you share this, all have an impact on the viewer.

In addition to learning to see better, we will explore media and technical approaches to help us get where we want to go and study how artists of the past and contemporary use journals as a way to report and comment on their surroundings and society.

Monotype offered on Etsy

This monotype was printed as part of a suite of images made to raise money for hurricane Katrina victims. The themes of the series revolved around imagery drawn from Louisiana scenes and icons.

Prints available on Etsy

I have added more smaller prints to my shop on Etsy.Here is a preview

Painting on Etsy

Goauche and pencil on paper, 11 x 14.5 in.

Gary Kelley

I just discovered that Gary Kelley has a website. If you don't know his work, you should. It is beautiful, varied in approach and technique, and ever changing and growing. Here are a few pieces of his that will whet your appetite. One thing that struck me about the site is that though he has a career that spans more than thirty years, all of the work on the site is recent. This tells me that he is actively making new things and is interested in what he is doing now. I find this fact in itself inspiring. Also, Gary works in pastels, oils, monotypes, and just about every other medium you could name.

Best,

Bill

Sterling Hundley

Last Friday I drove up to Richmond to see the work of and meet Sterling Hundley. Sterling has been a working illustrator for about ten years now and the show he had up was his first solo show as a painter. I had seen some of the work online via his blog, but this only offered a glimpse. It was enough to make me want to see the whole thing, and I am really glad I took the time to drive the three hours to see it.

After meeting with Sterling for lunch beforehand where we talked a bit about whose work we like, painting and illustration and a slew of other things. I had heard a lot of positive things about him from George Pratt (a mutual friend) and had seen his work grow over the past ten years. I've always liked it for both his thinking and aesthetics and felt that he was someone who was willing to try new things and who approached subjects with an emotional and intellectual approach that resonated with my sensibilities.

When we got to the gallery and I saw the work I was floored. He has taken on some heavy material and approached it in a way that draws viewers in with beauty and asks them to look their own relationship with the content without ever stepping into preaching. My favorite series is "God Save the Queen". I don't want to give it away here, but if you are lucky enough to see the work, you will be treated to a beautiful an moving series of paintings.

The titles themselves give enough to prompt a dialogue with the work but never give it away but instead work as a starting point for one to consider the beautiful works.

After looking at the work and discussing it a little with Sterling, I was treated to a short tour of Richmond and some historical places including the Hollywood Cemetery, one of the seven hills of Richmond with a train buried beneath it and a great view of the James river.

Thanks Sterling.

More offered at Etsy

I uploaded a few more pieces for sale on my Etsy page including the original painting for the cover of Faultlines # 1, some watercolors, and ink drawings.

New items on Etsy

I have posted a few new monotypes on Etsy. These are smaller, affordable pieces. Thanks for looking.