Packing for Toronto

A few years back I bought a computer, I saved for a while and after the Xmas expo I made enought to get me an emac. 14inch and it weights 55 pounds exact. Now at that time i did not think I was going to be moving about or yadadada. well here I am on my way to Toronto and I am not going to bring my computer. I am going to go with a stock of prints and stuff on disc and thats it. I hope to buy a mac book up there. Well thats the goal. So far I have over 400 images to take with me. I am already going through bouts of sadness on leaving my beast behind. Oh as you can see Here are some images I did this week. I did not have time to finish the other paintings. I also think the M777 and the chopper one need more work I think I will go to a finer level of detail. I started two new stores on line with my product and we will see how that goes. you can check em out on the side over here. My skate board sold for $135 at the auction. Pretty cool. I don't really want to go to Toronto, I like it here, slow paced relaxed. humph poop.

proskates blog

proskatesblog
Click this link to check out their blog. It shows all the entries into the Skate Auction and some really cool stuff was done to some of the boards. oh and you can see mine too.

35 DOWN 7 TO GO

Holy cow did it rain yesterday. Down poured and thunder and lightning, it was like three different storm. I went for a run later in the day and got caught in a sheet of rain. Fearing for the life of my ipod. Thinking I don't want to ruin two ipods in one year. I sprinted home with my ipod in my pants. I got home soaked but I save the ipod ...phew. Finished the Howitzer and yesterday I preped 7 canvases to finish of the body. I should have 42 in the collection. I am now working on the LAV III, LEOPARD, GRIFFIN, air born, anti air craft tank thingy, M777 and some more Howitzers. The auction yeaterday apparently went well, I didn't go to it. It is a long drive from Oromocto to Halifax and I was not in the mood to be travelling for that period of time. I would of had to take a 6 hours bus ride there. Yuck 12 hours on a bus no thanks. Apparently my deck was up to $120. So will see how much it fetches. What else, oh yeah we taught the cat to tap the door knob when he wants to go out. I went to CTAPC on base and I was able to look at some of there better files and photo which is were I got the material for the last 7 paintings. They offered to photograph my painting professionally so I can have it on a digital file. I squeeked with joy. Well I need to go through the proper paperwork to do it but how fricked cool is that. I am going to the base museum this coming week to see what they have there and if we can work on a show. fingers crossed.

105MM HOWITZER (in progress)

This is my work in progress it is the largest canvas in the entire series. It is four feet by two feet. I like the brown in the back ground. I am using a mix of Gold green and Hookers green. I am also seeing if I can get my work on a poster website. I registerd at art.com and I am waiting to see if they like my art enough to sell it. You can have a free gallery and have 50 images for sale. I looked at some of the artist work and I think I will be able to sell on their Artist Rising section. Well will see. I was going over my stock of prints and images I have and they are way over 50 ways.... way way over 100 so if i do good I may just pay more to add more images. its like $50.00 a years. Gosh but I am so cheep, what to do what to do?? I have had my bombgurl book sent to a lot of pubishers and it has been refused. Even thougth she is very popular. Fingers crossed on all this lot. So I finally bit the bullet and went to drivers Ed and I drove on a highway and in Oromocto for the first time this week. I liked it, I was really nervous but I liked it. When does the sounds of artillery fire and gun fire from the base blend into the background?

Halifax Skatepark Coalition

Doors Crash Open on Friday, June 22 at 6:30pm. Art on Skateboards! What a great idea! Each year the work just gets better and better. Come out on Friday and enjoy the silent auction as well as the LIVE AUCTION that will get underway at around 7:30-8pm.

This event coincides with the Grand Opening of the Halifax Skatepark at the Commons on Sat, June 23. Then come back to finalize your silent bidding wars on great decks- turned- works- of art on Sunday, June 24. All bids end at 4pm!! Check www.argylefa.tk, Pro Skates and www.halifaxskateparks.org for more details and previews of decks soon!

CH 124 Seaking

This was the largest in the series and the most difficult. The size of the painting is 2feet by 3feet. I had some accidents that were fixable but indicative of the characteristics of the Seaking. I found myself walking away from the painting and completed five other one and then finally resigned myself to finish it. I like the color, under other circumstances sea foam geen would be tacky, but here I think it is fitting.

Pro Skates Art Auction

Along with the series I am working on, "Canadian Issue" I also participated in the Pro-skates Art Auction. This auction will be held at the Arglye Fine Arts Gallery on Lower Water Street, Halifax NS. Local artist paint on a skate deck and the paintings are auctioned off to Fundraise for themaintenance and constuction of the new local skatepark. The live auction will be FRIDAY JUNE 22 AT 6PM, and you can continue to bid on some of the boards on the 23 and 24th. This is the deck I have done for the auction. It is one of my favorite images I have done in the series I call it ARC. Last year I did the AH64A APACHE. If you can make it to the auction it will be a blast. And my birthday is the 25 so bidding on the deck would be awsome. I will be 33 this year. Here is a pic of last years auction.

Canadian Issue- A remarkable endeavour

I was in the Oromocto Post Gazette this weekend. A very good article. Hopefully it will generate enought buzz to get the paintings a place to be exhibited or go on tour. I tried to find the article on line of it but to no avail.

portrait

I am never comfortable with doing portrait. I took this contract on to shake off that uneasyness. But, I can't shake the feeling of "are they going to hate it?" This one was super hard a lot of emotions of different types were felt, RAGE was one. There is always that problem with contracts. The person that wants the painting has an idea in their head and well the out come will never be that image they think of. The background and the guy on the right was from one photo and the two guys on the left are from another. I am struggling with adding more detail to the face then there will be an inbalance in the detail on the face and the rest of the paintigns loose lines. I like the way it looks, there is a softness to it. OH well keep yah posted on the out come.

Ch146 Griffon

These paintings were a blast I love the color. Again Cudo's to Gold Green, love that color. I am working on a contract a portrait of some guys serving in Afganistan I am excited about how it is going to turn out. So far I have done 34 painting in the series and some days I feel that I am almost finished and then most of the rest of the time I feel I have just scratched the surface and I have only just begun. Tonight is date night and we are going to see the movie Knocked Up and mexican food. I can't wait to see the movie.

Oromocto mall craft show

This past week end I did the Oromocto craft show from Thursday to Sunday. I did pretty good. I raffled off a painting to help pay for the rental of the table. That helped a lot in the end. It was a very slow weekend but I got a lot of good responses from the people about the paintings done thus far for the Canadian Issue body of work. The only thing that drove me near to insanity was the music playing in the mall. Country music over and over all day long for twelve hour for four days. This week I am working on the Seaking painting aka thorn in my side, a Griffin painting, a commision and a LAV III. Trevor started his Phase 4 couse this week so I will be home alone working my way to finish this body of work. I am sending Bombgurl out to many publishers and well, will see what happens with that.

Toronto

Here I am on the streets of Toronto last week. I set up usually infront of or next to Mis De Meaner between Soho st and Spadina. It was a great week I did really good and I miss working and interacting with people terribly, aside from the kookie people and their life stories I had to endure. We left our cat in Morin Heights at my parents house duing our time in Toronto. My parents have 3 acres on the simon river, it is very woodsy. The cat was in heaven, every tree was climbed. On our drive back to Oromocto he cried for the first two hours and then sulked. Today he is back to his old self and he seems very happy to be home. When we were at my parents I decided to sell at the large Prevost market. This was a loss and a bad idea I did not make one sale. The people did not know what I was selling, no clue. We resigned ourselves to the fact that this was not the place for selling art , in betwen underwear 3 for 10 bucks and 5 buck cell phone leather cases?????? Trevor and I decided to people watch and we lost count of the freshly cut mullets. We finally got bored and went home to eat guacamole and salsa and drink Corona.

On my way to Toronto

I am leaving for Toronto this weekend. I have a complete stock and I am going to be on Queen and Spadina for next week, weather permitting. here are some of the bamboo paintings I have available and I will have a whole new sleak look. Here is a picture of the painting I did for my brother. He got me and Ipod for xmas and the deal was to do a painting for him. So one of the subject matters was Dirty Harry, 44 magnum 29 special. I hope he likes it. I hope he doesn't see this blog before he see he painting.

.50 Cal

So I set up a new blog, It is just on the right, where it says links it says Bombgurl website. I am trying to find a pubisher for the book I wrote s few years ago. knock on wood. Here is the latest painting, I truely love the color, it just keeps getting better and better. I am working on the CH-124 SEAKING the background color is making me giddy already. It is seafoam green fading into white. Yes, quite the lame color but it is a Seaking, and it flies over the ocean. Quite fitting, hahaha

sig sauer 9mm

I just finshed this one today as well. The cat loves to chase crows and it is pretty funny to watch him jump 7 feet into the air after a crow then almost get killed by them nose diving over him. I think he rolled in crap cause he smells like ass so I gotta go give him a bath. Stinky kitty. I just finished the book "Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray and I am now reading Rebel Angel the part two of the trilogy. Oh they are a good read. and I just finished Inkheart, next book is Inkspell. by Cornelia Funke check out www.Imdb.com the movie data base website and check out the cast for the upcoming movie of the book Inkheart. She also wrote the book The thief Lord whick is a great movie as well. Now she was the producer in The Thief lord and the rendition from the book is exact, and the casting was impressive. She is also the producer on this movie Inkheart and i think it is going to be exciting. Bendan Fraser plays Mo. I am just giddy. Not like the terrible disappoinment of Eargon ( what the hell was that) nothing like the book whick would have been an awsome epic movie if it was rendered exact.

sniper .50cal

Your not allowed to let your cats out in this community. I find that is a form of torcher. We live in a rural very grassy fun area with lots of trees to climb and squirrrels to chase. I trained the cat and it does not leave the yard. It took over a month, of having it on a leash then a harness and a rope tied to the clothes line. Now he goes out a stays in the yard. I only let him out for a bit and I am always with him and he never goes out after the sun goes down. I have a string and he chases me around the outside of the house until he plops down exhausted. I also only let him out right before I feed him so he is hungry and will want to come in when I shake a jar of food. I worry cause cats can eventually get stubborn, you can only play fetch with them for so ling the they don't listen.
Here is my latest painting. it is the snipers .50 caliber rifle. I love the colors.
Here is something I do to remind me of Korea I make Bulgogi pizza
I love to cook,
I am not sure if you make you own pizza dough or buy the dough. I make my dough
you get fondu beef 5 bucks worth(you can get at every grocery story, its hard to find so ask the meat guy) its usually frozen
go to a korean grocery and buy a small bottle of Bulgogi BEEF (not pork) maranade sause.
OK maranade the fondu beef
to add a bit of taste to the maranade
two cloves of garlic minced
one small onion minced
if you have some sesame oil and soy sause add 1 tbl spoon of each with 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
if you dont have sesame oil don't add the soy sause without it
maranade for 2hours or make sure the meat is thawed
cook it up in a frying pan, let it simmer till the sause reduces. (don't want the pizza soggy)
add it on top of the pizza dough
add mushrooms if you like
mozarella cheeze and diced Jalapinos if you dare (all over)
cook in the oven for 12-15 minutes at 425 degress
yummy

30 hours of Hail

Oh my gosh the weather sucks we have had 30 hour of freezing rain, hail and fat wet snow. I have yet to see the sun in days. I am on my way to halifax for the last time in a while. Trevor is going to a funeral for one of the boy that died in Afganistan and I am picking up supplies and going to meetings. In the past two weeks or so I have done eight paintings, here are some pics of them. The walls here are getting pretty full and I have more work to do to finish the body of work. Last week I was able to view a lot of the infantry schools photo archive. Thanks you guys for all the help. I also was able to take pics of the LAV and the 50 Cal rifel. Oh my gosh that gun is heavy. Did you know the gun with its three parts weighs 148 pound this does not include the tripod. Can you imagin carrying one part of that gun for 5 KM. You would have to be a big guy. Thats like carrying a keg plus all your gear. I am currently working on the Sig Sauer 9mm pistol P223. It going alright, it will be done today. next two weeks I am doing the 50 Cal rifle, the 50 Cal sniper, the LAV, the leopard, Nyala and three artillery pieces. That should finish up the body of work. I still would like to do at least 50 more pieces. I have to get new paint brushes cause all mine have been worn down. Well back to work.

sad day on base

The town is very sad for the six guys who died this weekend, all flags are half mast some even in Fredericton. Trevor is teaching on an exercise for three day and it is gonna be lonely. We watched the three season of Entourage this weekend. It was great. Anything from HBO has so far impressed me. I would ge the channel but I prefer renting them on my own time. we also rented the matador. Too much dialogue and it was the worst movie ever, we had to watch it in fast forward. Ugh just terrible. So I check out the face book, its cool, I can chat with people I haven't seen in a long time and they are not on msn so I like it. I like that i can leave a note and not have to chat with them, most of the time, I have like half hour to fart around online when I am having my breakfast in the morning. so long chats, any chats are just to wordy for me. I am checking to see if I can photograph the 50 kalibler rifle today, some hand guns and check out their library of stock photos, wish me luck. Oh yeah here is two pics of my geishas I did this week.

Working on my summer line

I am taking a break from the project for the next three days and I am working on my summer line. I have 6 soft pink, 7 lime green and 4 blue canvases preped. I am doing a series of geishas on the pink here is one I started yesterday, It is very far from completed but you get the idea. I think I will do some bamboo on the lime and some Koi fish on the blue ones. This is just to get my feet wet in the production for the summer. I will be in Toronto on the street near Queen and Spadina on June 1st- September. This year will be more of a busking event rather than a selling event of prints. I will have the prints but in poster format. I cannot find a frame supplier that is affordable anymore.
Here are some pic of my kitty. We looked up what breed he might be and he may be a bombay cat or he may just be a solid black cat. He is very vocal and has human like characteristics. Here is a pic of him in a box and in his new house which he is always on. They say Bombay cats have a tendency to get obease. So we ration his food throughout the day and only the specific amount. If I put any amount two table spoons or half a cup of food, he inhales it. I really don't want a fat cat so we are monitoring his food from the start. Pretty funny cat, he has a black toy mouse he carries with him and plays will for hours, and if you throw it at him and he is on the bed he will leap in the air three feet, fly into the wall in mid flight catch his toy and land on the floor, and ready to keep on playing. We have to stop because we can't stop laughing.

C14 Timberwolf

All done the sniper rifle. I think I have had my fill of painting guns. The cat keeps on trying to get out. In the town of Oromocto you are not aloud to let your pets out without a leash. We got the cat a harness and a leash but that has been a retarted experience. I would love it if my cat was an outdoors cat, but I think the cat is just going to have to stay in until we move to a different area. We might get a collar and just let it out and see if the cat comes back. I don't think it will get picked up by the municipality. Up next artillery.