Canyons, deserts, and angels, oh my

Hi all,

Welcome back to the blog! Today, I’ve got updates on the angel painting, as well as recent shows.

As I mentioned in my last post, I got into the Wrightwood Wine and Arts Festival, which I showed at in May. I turned the show into a small road trip, and I got to see some really beautiful places along the way. I of course brought a sketch book with me to document them. Here’s a drawing from Moab, Utah:

and another from Snow Canyon (also in Utah):

Although that sketch was a fun one for the campsite I stayed in, it doesn’t really do the park justice, so here’s a quick video I took, too, just for good measure:

The festival in Wrightwood was a beautiful day — plenty of sun, art, and interesting people. I brought a few more pieces with me than I anticipated, too . . .

In addition to Wrightwood, I also recently showed at another Pancakes and Booze pop-up show here in Denver. I decided to change it up a little this time and bring some bigger pieces with me.

I also had a few more prints made for the show, so if you’re in the market for some giclée prints, stop by my Etsy account or shoot me an email!

Giclée prints — “Angel Torso,” 10’’ x 7.5’’ (left); “Shipwreck,” 9.5’’ x 8.25’’ (right)

Outside of the recent shows, I’ve been continuing to hack away at the cherub painting. When I last posted, I had finished all the studies and was starting on the underpainting. I’m very excited (relieved?) to share that I finally have finished the underpainting:

“Cherub — Ezekiel’s Vision” (WIP) - oil on canvas - 42’’ x 26’’

Freaky, right? If you’ve been keeping up with the project, you know that I’m using Ezekiel I (yes, that Ezekiel) for the textual reference. The Bible’s got some pretty bizarre imagery.

This painting has been a long haul . . . and I’m only halfway done. To give you a better idea of the scale, here’s me and the painting side-by-side:

I’m 5’11’’, and it comes up to my waist, so it’s not quite life-sized (whatever that means), but it’s definitely a biggun.

Because of its size, I think some aspects of the painting are better seen up close. Here’s a quick tour of the details:

I used such warm colors because Ezekiel describes the cherubim’s appearances as “like burning coals of fire or torches”. You can look forward to some color studies of burning coals (and maybe torches?) in my next post.

Aside from all the painting news, we also recently released a new issue (15.1) of Consequence. Stop by the website and pick up your copy up today!

The reading period for our next print issue is also open. If you’re a writer, be sure to send us your best work on the culture and human consequences of war and geopolitical violence before the reading period closes on October 15!

That’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by, and keep creating!

New year, new paintings

Hi all,

Welcome back to the blog! Today, I’ve got an updates for you on the cherub paintings and a self-portrait series, plus more work available on Saatchi.

First, let’s get the shameless self-promotion out of the way. I’ve added a whole bunch of work to Saatchi, including two hamsas, work from the Paradise Lost series, skull paintings, an abstract, and a very cute cat, so stop by and see if anything strikes your fancy! And as always, feel free to email me about purchasing a piece directly or to inquire about commissions.

The last time I posted an update on the cherub painting studies, I had finished the lion head study and was making my way through the eagle. For those who haven’t been following this (sub)project, I’ve been working on illustrating the cherubim from Ezekiel’s vision in Ezekiel I. In his vision, Ezekiel sees ‘visions of God’ that some rabbinic scholars believe include two classes of angels: cherubim and seraphim. If you’d like to see a quick study I did of the seraphim (truly bizarre), you can check out this post.

The cherubim are four-faced, four-sided creatures. One of the faces is human. The others are a lion, an ox, and an eagle. The cherubim also have four wings—two covering their body, the other two facing upward—with human hands beneath them. They also have straight legs leading to feet “like those of a calf” that gleam “like burnished bronze.” Here’s a preparatory charcoal study I did of the cherub as I geared up for the painting:

Cherub, rendered - charcoal and dry pastel on paper - 12’’x12’’

Since I’m not super familiar with lions, eagles, or oxen, I decided to do some head studies of each of these animals before diving into the full painting. I’m now done with all three (yay!), which you can see below:

Lion head study - oil on canvas - 14’’x10’’

Eagle head study - 14’’x10’’ - oil on canvas

Ox head study - oil on canvas - 10’’x14’’

The lion and the eagle I painted the way I spent most of my time at The Art Students League of New York learning to paint: alla prima, or direct painting. In alla prima, you start with opaque paint, mixing what you see and putting it directly on the canvas (thus the ‘direct’ name). For the ox, however, I decided to try glazing. When you glaze, you start with a monochrome underpainting called a grisaille, usually using a warm earth tone like burnt sienna. You then add the color in using thin, transparent layers.

This past fall, I started teaching a course called “Painting Through Time” where I guide families through the materials and methods of different painters over art history. The second painter I covered was Anthony Van Dyck, who, in my personal opinion, makes the OG list.

Van Dyck had a three part glazing process. First, he would do a grisaille in a warm brown. Then, he would add in the highlights using impasto, or thick, opaque paint without any kind of paint thinner added. Lastly, he would glaze and scumble the color in. Glazing uses wet, transparent paint to create thin layers; scumbling uses dry, thin paint.

I usually hate glazing, but I actually enjoyed trying out Van Dyck’s method while making a demo painting for class. In my demo, I did the grisaille using red ochre. After it dried, I taped off a third of the canvas and did the impasto highlights. Once that was dry, I taped off another third of the canvas and glazed/scumbled in (most) of the color. This allowed students to see all three layers on the same canvas. You can check out the end result below:

Van Dyck demo - acrylic on canvas - 10’’x8’’

Since I actually enjoyed this process, I decided to try it (albeit with a different palette) with the ox head study. Here’s the grisaille, which I did using burnt sienna:

And here’s the grisaille with the impasto highlights (and a touch of glazing on the snout):

I plan on starting the final painting of the cherub soon — but first, I decided to take a detour and work on some self-portraits. I look at self-portraits as a way of checking in with myself, using visual expression as a means to free myself from verbal or written articulation. I tend to do them at points of transition in my life or a short time after them, once things begin to feel a little more internally settled.

It’s been about a year and half since I moved to Denver from New York, and, especially with the new year starting, it felt like time to check in. I knocked out two quick ones using watercolor and ink. The first one I started with an ink line drawing, then added the watercolor:

Self-portrait - pen and ink on paper - 12’’ x 9’’

Self-portrait - watercolor and pen and ink on paper - 12’’ x 9’’

For the second, I reversed the process — watercolor, then pen and ink:

Self-portrait - watercolor on paper - 8.5’’ x 8’’

Self-portrait - watercolor and pen and ink on paper - 8.5’’ x 8’’

I’m also working on a new one using oil:

Self-portrait (WIP) - oil on canvas - 12’’ x 12’’

Funnily enough, this one is reminding me of another self-portrait I did in my senior year of college. I was taking a painting class at the time as an elective (I did my undergrad in Middle Eastern studies) and had no real training when I started it. The assignment was an ‘internal self-portrait,’ which is how I’ve more or less come to think of all self-portraits since. I had just come back from a rather tumultuous seven months in Jordan and Lebanon, and the piece definitely reflected that.

“On Anger” (internal self-portrait - 2015) - oil on canvas - 11’’ x 14’’

This one feels calmer so far, but I definitely still like green (and partially obscuring my face).

Aside from all the painting stuff, we also have a new reading period open at Consequence, the journal I help edit poetry for. We focus on writing and art on the culture and human consequences of war and geopolitical violence, so if you have any relevant work, send it our way! We publish poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, translations, and visual art. You can find the links to submit here.

That’s all for now, folks. Thanks for reading, and keep creating!

Plein airs, watercolors, and more

Hi y’all,

Welcome back to the blog! I’ve got a new plein air piece, updates on collaborations, some watercolors, and a review out.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been trying to get looser and more impressionistic with my landscape paintings. For a brief refresher, here’s the last one I posted:

Guarded Sunset - 12’’ x 12’’ - oil on canvas

I tried to take this a step further in my most recent piece:

Alameda Station - 12’’ x 12’’ - oil on canvas

I definitely had some fun with this one. I liked how the looser brushwork came together, as well as the complexity in the warms and cools, but I think I overcrowded the composition. Live and learn!

In other painting news, I recently started teaching drawing and painting with the Arts and Culture Department at Denver Parks and Rec. As part of my training, I got to shadow the watercolor instructor — a medium I’ve generally avoided. But I got some fun results!

Eye and landscape - 12’’ x 9’’ - watercolor on paper

Hamsa - 12’’ x 9’’ - watercolor on paper

I also got to do a brief oil demo for an open house. I decided to do a little hamsa; definitely had a blast!

Hamsa demo - 12’’ x 12’’ - oil on canvas

I’m also happy to share that my friend Kevin Shoemaker’s debut album, Sounds for the Young, is out. You can stream it here. As I’m sure many of you know, I made a series of digital drawings for the album release, one for each track. Here they are below:

Capital - Procreate

David - Procreate

Beauty - Procreate

Americana - Procreate

Tutu - Procreate

Honey - Procreate

Prophet - Procreate

Burn - Procreate

Be sure to check out the full album, and stop by Kevin’s website for more!

On the poetry side of things, I’m happy to share a review I wrote for the literary magazine I work for, Consequence, on two excellent poetry collections: Graham Barnhart’s The War Makes Everyone Lonely and Nomi Stone’s Kill Class. You can find the review here.

That’s it for now. Thanks for tuning in, and keep creating!

More angels; send us your Iliad poems!

Hi y’all,

Welcome back to the blog! This week, I’ve got an update on the Milton illustration project and a high-key pitch for you to submit your best Iliad-related poems to Consequence, where I work as the assistant poetry editor.

For those of you who haven’t read last week’s post, I’ve recently started work on a long-time goal: illustrating the angels from John Milton’s Paradise Lost. If you’re not familiar with the poem, it’s essentially a retelling of Genesis/the fall of Adam and Eve (but much more exciting and stuffed with drama). At one point, Milton describes the angels’ anatomy as “vital in every part”, capable of taking on whatever shape they please, and similar to the “fluid air" (check out last week’s post for the full passage).

Over the past week, I’ve gotten through two more pen and ink studies of the angel anatomy, this time of the back view of their torso. As usual, I started with a regular, human anatomy study:

Human torso, back view

then distorted it:

Angel torso, back view

I’ve also worked up a procreate study of the back view of the angel torso, like I did for the front view. I decided to get a little more adventurous with the lighting and mark-making here. While it was more difficult than the last Procreate study, I think I also learned more along the way.

Angel torso, back view (Procreate)

I also managed to get through the first study using oils. As I was working on it, I kept thinking about how the medium naturally translates Milton’s idea of the angels’ bodies being like the “fluid air.” In future oil studies, though, I think I want to get more out-there with the color choices and the background. Live and learn!

That’s it for this week on the Milton project. Outside of that, I’m very excited to announce that we have an open reading period through the end of March at Consequence. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the journal, we’re dedicated to art and writing on the culture and consequences of war. This coming issue, we’re launching a special project — “What is War Poetry?” — in which we’ll be asking fundamental questions about the historical development and importance of war poetry. For the first installment, we’ll be tackling those questions through the lens of the Iliad, the ancient Greek epic composed by Homer about the Trojan War/the beef between Achilles and Agamemnon. Send us your best poems that touch on the Iliad here! And stay tuned for future special issues. Next up: the Bhagavad Gita.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for tuning in and keep creating!