Thursday, May 27, 2010

Chair 1: The Vincent Panel


I love this panel and enjoy calling this portrait of Vincent, a "happier, better looking version" of a Van Gogh portrait. This panel was so much fun to create.
I always like to do a little something special on the back panel of a chair ~ mostly because people often don't walk around to the back of the chair to see the back.
Maybe they think the back panel is left unpainted.
It's my little happy surprise for the viewer.



Oh! and if you look closely,
you'll even see my initials painted into the background swirls!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Chair 1: Sunflower panel


Not everything turns out perfect, does it?
I admit the sunflower panel on chair number one is not a fave of mine.

I don't have much else to add to that. Guess when one creates art, it's okay not to love EVERYthing. You just have to keep plugging, and hope you will make more things you like than things that you do not.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Chair 1: Cafe panel ~ shape challenges

Chair 1 was to be a Faux Gogh ~ a tribute to Vincent Van Gogh with my interpretation of several of Vincent's paintings.
My son commented once, that my painted chairs are paintings, but they're also sculptures because the viewer of the work has to move around the chair to see the entire piece of art.

And painting Chair 1 presented me with my first taste of the shape challenge aspect of painting a chair when I got around to painting the side panels. I had to find paintings that I could adapt to the odd sized "canvases" which I needed to paint. And then I needed to skew them accordingly. I admit, I was surprisingly pleased with the final result. Sometimes it is difficult to paint into the little nooks and crannies, but for me the challenges these works bring me are half the fun. If you ever witness me painting, you'll likely hear me whine and complain about the shape and how much easier it would be just to paint a simple oblong canvas.

But really, I wouldn't have it any other way.