My Giant Train Painting for ArtPrize 2013

I have been working on an 8 ft tall by 20 ft wide painting of a vintage steam locomotive train entitled "The Standoff". The painting depicts a massive machine that is stopped in its tracks by a humorous twist of nature. The underlying narrative is how we as mankind are faced with unforeseen challenges and how we overcome them. 

This coming week I will be transporting this piece 1500 miles across country to Michigan to participate in ArtPrize 2013 - the largest art competition in the world! I am honored to have been invited to participate and excited about the challenge of painting the largest piece I have ever painted. This 2 minute video explains what I am doing and includes a time lapse of the painting so far.

I am looking for backers to support me in this massive undertaking and have set up a project through kickstarter. When you pledge, there are a number of rewards including prints of my work, original paintings and the thing I am most excited about is the opportunity for your name (or company name) to be included in the final painting. 

To see the details or to pledge visit - 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1218855594/the-standoff-a-giant-train-painting-for-art-prize

 If you are able to support this project, or pass the word along, I would greatly appreciate it!

Lately In My Studio

Over the next couple of days (with the help of my amazing family and friends) I will be packing up my studio and heading out for my next show at the Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale, Arizona. As always, right before a show I am painting day and night to get ready and only stopping to eat or sleep when absolutely necessary. But it's been worth it and I am really excited about this body of work and the expansion of my subject matter into the world of vintage boats.

Here are some shots from my studio with paintings at various stages of completion.

If you are in Arizona I hope you will stop by!

Celebration Of Fine Art

Scottsdale, AZ

Located in the SW corner of Hayden Rd 

and Loop 101 off of exit 35.

Look for the big white tents.

Jan 12th - Mar 24th 2013

Check out last year's move and booth set up here.

A Summer Full of Art

This summer has been busy to say the least. Lots of travelling, shows, and lots and lots of painting.

It was beautiful in Aspen, CO

I was glad to have my family along for our Beaver Creek, CO show

Baby girl got tired.

It was my first time at the Sausalito Art Festival. What a beautiful city and amazing venue!

We attended the gala and got dressed up.

I won 2nd place for painting in the Best of Show contest.

I've taken a few weeks off from painting to work on a remodeling project at our house but come next week it's time for me to get painting again. I have some new galleries I will be working with and I'll be getting ready for Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale, AZ.

Preparing For Vail

In a week from today we will be headed to Art On The Rockies in Vail, CO. Here's a glimpse of what my studio looks like right now.

I'm sure I will be spending many late nights turning these under paintings into finished paintings but I don't mind since I feel most inspired in the middle of the night anyway. Plus the excitement of an upcoming show is extremely motivating!

Hope to see you there!

Art On The Rockies

Vail, Colorado

July 14th - 15th 2012

Saturday 10-6pm

Sunday 10-4pm

Colorado Mountain College

150 Miller Ranch Rd

Take exit 163 off 1-70

In A Painting

During our drive home from Cali we started to feel like we were driving in a Jeff Pugh painting. We have both fallen in LOVE with his work over the last few years. I absolutely covet his square cow paintings and dream about having one in our home.

Santiago was determined to stop and get a picture to capture the Pugh-like scenery. He cracked me up pulling over on the side of the highway, hoping out, and running down to get a shot as close as he could.

I think the cows were pretty surprised.

All that for this shot - the windmill was awesome!

With a little enhancement from Instagram.

Woodstock Bus Painting

Putting the final touches on this piece before we headed to Cali.

While in California we delivered the Woodstock Bus painting to it's new home - a VW dealership in Huntington Beach. This piece will go on their focal wall in a few months when the remodeling is complete. 

It was great to meet the owner who I have been working with on this commission for a few months. He loves art, bikes, and cars so it was a great match. We got to see his surf boards and his model car collection including a model of the Woodstock bus.

Awesome rare bike - one of three in the world.

His model car collection.

The Woodstock bus model.

Even got to meet the dog - I think she liked the painting too.

Car Show

Wish I had bought these!

This past week we were in Orange County delivering a painting and celebrating my son's 4th birthday at Disneyland. While we were there we stopped by a car show/swap meet. I love everything vintage and it was great to get inspiration and see some amazing cars in person.

The wife loved this awesome mini.

The only thing we took home was this vintage (or probably not so vintage) Curious George lunch box. Our little artist loved it!

Inspiration At The Met

During the three days were in New York City we had the chance to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We could have stayed there all day! But, we had so many things to fit into our short visit so we saw as many exhibits as we could fit into about 4 hours.

Here are some pictures of our favorite paintings:

Mrs. Hugh Hammersly by John Sargent

Seeing Sargent's pieces was the main event for us.

"Madame X" by Sargent was absolutely stunning in person!  

"Salome" by  Henri Regnault - Santiago loves this painting and we wandered all over to make sure we saw it.

Van Gogh's self portrait.

"Wheat Field with Cypresses" by Van Gogh. It was an amazing experience to see so many famous paintings
in person that I have only seen pictures of in books. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one that was tired.

"Vsevolod Garshin" by Ilia Repin. This piece was one of our overall favorites.

"Joan of Arc" by Jules Lepage

I was OBSESSED with all of the mother and child pieces and want Santi to compose and  paint
something like this for our permanent collection.

I really liked some of Picasso's portraits.

This Picasso "Mother and Child By A Fountain" reminded me of something
Brian Kershisnik would paint.

Moving To Arizona

Saying good-bye to daddy.

Last Saturday Santiago packed everything into his trailer and started the drive to Arizona.  Despite all the snow he arrived in Scottsdale safely.

Over the next 3 days Santiago along with a few faithful friends built his booth at The Celebration of Fine Art.

We have lights!

The show will open this Saturday, January 14th at 10:00 am and is located on the SW corner of Hayden Rd and Loop 101, off Exit 35 in the big white tents.  There are so many amazing artists all congregated in one place the energy is amazing! Hope to see you there!