Kathy Rubesha

I painted this portrait for a show taking place early next year named "Movers and Shakers". This show will consist of portraits by regional artists of Art VIPs of San Diego, in recognition to the large role they play in the Art community of San Diego; at the same time giving exposure to San Diegan artists. Kathy Rubesha is the the president of the board of the California Center of the Arts , Escondido; and owns the Municipal art gallery in Escondido. For more info about the show go to http://www.sdvisualarts.net/

I was invited into the show by Jen Trute and Dennis Batt. I met them at my work one day when they were buying art supplies. We exchanged business cards and Jen had kept me in mind when she heard Kathy was the last VIP without an artist assigned to her. Thank you Jen.

The portrait was done on gold leaf. I cradled my own board, sealing it with acrylic medium on the back and acrylic paint on the front to avoid moisture from warping the wood. I then gold leafed the board, before painting on it. I found when painting on leafing, the entire painting relies on the adhesive size holding the leafing onto whatever surface. If the adhesive fails, your painting is gone. When it is glued to a board as opposed to canvas, the rigid surface does not stretch or bend like canvas, so there is less pressure on the sizing holding the leafing on. This was mt first time painting a portrait on gold leaf and was a good experience. I wanted to show the luminescence of the metal in the shadow areas to enhance the illusion of reflected light. The surface is slick and takes good pressure sensitivity to control the paint in the beginning stages.

A Seemingly Merry Greeting

This here was an experiment I did last semester, involving aerosol artists spray paint, inspired by a group of German artists known as Herakut. The eyes were done using spray paint, along with the sky and other various parts, the rest was done with acrylic paint. This painting style is a lot of fun. I recommend using a gas mask or something rather to protect yourself from the fumes and atomized pigment particles in the air, I was a little dizzy after painting this. Don't know where the snowman came from, just made it up on the spot, the next time I will involve a sketch before I get spraying. This painting is 36x48, It seems like you have to paint large in order to control the detail with the cans. This is where knowing your caps and pressure release is key. More to come...

Link Infinite

30x60... acrylic, oil and gold leafing on canvas. This is a painting from my Allegory Painting Class with Vanessa. The idea behind class was to learn, think, and create a painting/image using visual elements to communicate a story or a message visually, not needing to explain the painting with words....so I will stop here. Interpret as you will.

Spirits of Rangoli

This is a painting I started last semester in Vanessa's Acrylic Painting Class. I was first experimenting with texture and color in an abstract sense, the faces were not a part of the painting yet. The bright yellow between their heads was part of the under-painting, I scraped the darker paint away to get the somewhat electricity/ember looking lines. Before that particular class was over I had fuzzed in three faces on this canvas, using simple forms, with up lighting on the faces. I took this painting home...looked at it for a while... and then it went in storage, it sat around for a while. Vanessa liked the start, and one day out of the blue she had mentioned this painting. She gave me a nice challenge in finishing this painting for a show this Saturday in San Marcos. I most likely wouldn't have touched this painting again if she hadn't said anything. I sure am glad she had, cause it was a neat learning experience. I am now able to mix my cartooning skills with the more traditional skills I've learned in the past two years. This painting was invented, I didn't have any reference to look at...good challenge.

Anze

Here is a piece I cranked out last Thursday morning. Just had some fun throwing color on a big canvas. The face is of Anze Kopitar of the LosAngeles Kings hockey club. I am obviously a Kings fan and a big fan of hockey. This controversial logo was photo-shopped to look like graffiti on the freeway walls of downtown LosAngeles. The photos caused a buzz in LosAngeles, and ended up getting back to Anze. He spoke about the graffiti, and being flattered during an interview on a sports radio broadcast a few years back. Great logo, great idea....had to make some art out of it. Here are those ESPN headline photos.

Portrait Drawing studies

Here are some charcoal portrait drawings from Ron's dynamic lighting portrait class. I'm having a lot of fun in this class. We are experimenting with different lighting situations that force you to see the abstract shapes even more. Right now, I'm focusing on the head construction.

Orange Still-Life on leafing

Here's a still life experiment I painted on silver and copper leafing. I'm trying to use the luminescence of the metal leafing in the shadow areas to imply reflected light. The possibilities in using the metals are exciting to me and will take some development to utilize them well....more to come.