Celtic Designs on Frame Drums

Recently I painted Celtic designs on the heads of a number of my frame drums.

Rock and Roll Icons

Over the past few months I have been painting a series of Rock and Roll Icons, mostly from my era of music. These are musicians I have greatly admired for their creativity, musicianship, and for being counter to the wider culture. I hope to paint more of these portraits in the near fuure.

 

 

Johnny Ace and Kali Verra: In the spirit of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth

 

 

During my pre-adolescent and adolescent years (early 60s) in the surf-drenched, Kustom Kulture of Southern California, my counter-cultural hero was Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. I had a fever for monsters and hot cars and  Roth was the cure. I sent for his free catalogs, order several of his shirts and prints, assembled his Outlaw car and Mr. Gasser by Revell, wore a Rat Fink "crash helmet" and even spray painted my own monster t-shirts in high school. Roth faded from the scene and I moved on to the hippie and psychedlelic culture of the late 60s.

 

In the succeeding decades not much was heard of Roth and his Kustom Kulture, until it all re-emerged in the public eye in the 80s (The first Rat Fink Reunion was in December 1977). Roth returned to my personal vision in the 90s and beyond through the whole re-emergence of Kustom Culture and Roth influenced artists. I could see Roth in such artists as the Pizz, Todd Schorr, Dirty Donny, and Jim Phillips. The Roth influence, and the further development of the Roth-image, was obvious in artists like Ed Newton and Robert Williams, who worked for Roth. Some artists took the Roth influence into a new time. Not many kept the look and feel of those early Roth years of custom airbrushed t-shirts.

 

Another artist who worked for Roth, Johnny Ace, has produced, along with his partner Kali Verra, the classic look of the Roth I remember from my adolescent years. Other artists have done Roth-style work, but not like the work of Johnny Ace and Kali Verra. The airbrush work, bright colors, and traditional Roth images of monster and rods of Ace and Verra reflect the spirit of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth like no other. Their work evokes images and feelings of the early emergence of my counter-cultural sentiments.

 

 



These are not photos: The Pencil Photorealism of Paul Cadden



Paul Caden, Scotland born, is a hyperrealist artist who works primarily in  pencil, but sometimes in charcoal. Each drawing takes 3-6 weeks each. His detail is amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dirk Dzimirsky: Photorealist Graphite Artist

I have appreciated the tehnical skills of photorealist (or hyperrealist) artists going back to the beginnings of the movement in the 60s. I stood amazed before the large paintings of Chuck Close at a gallery on La Cienega in LA in 1968. My appreciation has grown over the years as photorealist artists have continued to exhibit techical skills that are almost unimaginable.

 

Artists are producing mind blowing pieces simply using graphite as a medium.The detail goes down to reproducing the very pores on human skin! Sometimes it sems like they use subjects that are an even greater challenge than a simple portrait, such as people covered with water! 

 

I would like to feature a number of these artists in some upcoming posts. One such artist is Dirk Dzimirsky, a German freelance illustrator. Of his work he says: "I work in a style that most people refer to as photorealism or hyperrealism. I use photos as references for my hyperrealistic drawings and paintings but I am not after a perfect reproduction at all. I use a photo very loosely once the proportions are established. I usually work as if I were drawing from a live model actually. I work with movement and expression, working fast on larger, more unimportant areas, and slowing down on parts that need more attention. I am actually improvising a lot. My main concern is to capture the essence and substance of forms in order to get close to a perceptible presence of the subject."

 

Disks blog and website: http://dzimirsky.blogspot.com/  http://www.dzimirsky.com/



 

Barry Moser: Book Illustrator

Barry Moser is an illustrator known for his print work. His prints are recognizable for their technical detail.  He illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and over 300 other titles! Moser was awarded the Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Westfield State College, Westfield, Massachusetts (1999), the Doctor of Humanities degree by Anna Maria College, Paxton, Massachusetts (2001), and the Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts (2003). His most exquisite work are his illustrations of The Holy Bible, the first illustrator to do so, solo, since Gustave Dore in 1865. His magnum opus, THE PENNYROYAL CAXTON BIBLE. was published in October 1999.

 

 

M.U.S.I.C. Musicians Undermining Social Injustice Creatively: Stevie Wonder

A scratchboard I finished today for my M.U.S.I.C series. The series is posted on my art blog at: http://leosart.wordpress.com/

Jason D'Aquino: Miniaturist Illustrator

 

*Note- My posts over the past year and 4 months have been my weekly sermons while I was interim pastor at Zion Mennonite Church in Hubbard, Oregon. I some ways my sermons were my regular expressions of my artwork in words. Now that I have completed my verbal art I want to return to sharing my passion for the visual arts by posting more of my exploration into the world of art.

 

The other day I came across an artist that inrigued me with his style, medium, technique, and subject matter. Jason D'Aquino refers to himself as a miniaturist. He draws primarily using graphite and creates highly detailed renderings of icons of pop culture, common objects, and his own weird creations inhabited by smiling cartoonish children on old paper, ledgers, and pages from antique books. Most amazing are his detailed drawings on matchbook covers that are only a inch or so in size that he creates with high powered magnifiers.