catfish_charlie

Here are my latest two paintings. The first one is the Jabberwock (from the poem Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll), and the second is a "bonsai" style shimpaku juniper tree.

Title: Jabberwock
Medium: Oil pastel and colored pencil on Bristol vellum
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)



Title: Rocky Perch
Medium: Oil pastel and colored pencil on Bristol vellum
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)


'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

~Lewis Carroll

I've painted the Cheshire cat, White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and even the lizard, Bill. I guess it's about time I got around to painting Alice!


Title: Alice
Medium: Oil pastel and colored pencil on Bristol vellum
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)

I've gotten behind on this journal! I've been busy painting commission pieces, which is good and bad. Of course the business is good, but it keeps me from producing as many original pieces from my own imagination. Nonetheless, here is a piece that I finished last week. It's got one day left on the auction. This is a lesser-known character from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, the Mock Turtle;

Title: Mock Turtle
Medium: Oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)


I also never got this piece posted here which is a bit of a shame;

Title: Brothers
Medium: Oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: Sold


Next I am working on a series of nursery rhyme themed paintings. I should have the first installment finished tomorrow. I still have a couple more Wonderland pieces to get out of my system as well, plus a few more Lovecraft influenced pieces are currently in the works!

Other than the insanely cold temperatures we've had these past few days, the only real news is a bit of new art. I had one viewer comment that they would be interested to see my interpretation of the March Hare after viewing the White Rabbit I made, so I took it as a challenge and ended up creating this rather insane looking fellow;

Title: Madder Than a March Hare
Medium: Oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction



And I so enjoyed painting the last Northern Lights piece that I decided to try another, but with a little twist;
Title: Under the Rainbow Bridge
Medium: Oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)


As always I have a lot of other stuff that I haven't had time to post to this blog.


There is one other small piece of news. I will be starting to look elsewhere besides eBay to list some of my artwork, particularly anything with a higher value. Ebay has implemented changes which affect all auctions where the bidding exceeds $200, making it impossible for bidders to know who is bidding on those auctions. I fear that this change will cause bidders to lose confidence in these auctions, because the inability to see who you are bidding against eliminates the transparency for which eBay has always been famous. How now can bidders know who their opponents are, to be certain they are not bidding against a shill? Where now is the excitement of the bidding process? I am thinking about trying artbyus.com or etsy, but have not decided exactly what changes I will be making yet. I'll be carefully checking out my options before I decide on anything.

I have people ask me why I sell my art on eBay and not in a gallery. The reasons are many. Most notably, eBay doesn't take the huge commission that galleries take. And, eBay doesn't tell me what to paint- I paint whatever I want to paint.

The biggest reason of all, though, is the exposure I get at eBay is far better than any gallery. I have sold artwork to people from New York to Los Angeles, Mexico to Canada, in Finland, Denmark, all over the UK, in Germany, France, and Australia. No gallery I've ever seen can offer me that kind of worldwide exposure. And no, eBay doesn't pay me to say all this. I pay them, in fact. But there are some seriously talented artists on eBay that have found the same thing I have.

Which brings me to the main subject of this post, the eBay Artists Choice Awards. This is an annual event put on by the artists of eBay, for the artists of eBay. Who is eligeable for an ACA award? Anyone who has received ten or more feedback in the participatory year from the sales of artwork. This puts the pool of eligeable artists into the tens of thousands. Anyone who is eligeable to receive an award is also eligeable to nominate and to vote in the awards. This means that the awards are given by a group of true peers, which makes them very meaningful.

In 2005 I was pretty new to eBay sales, and I won a single award in the category of Dark Art, Large Format (I tied for thrid place). I think I was nominated in one other category as well. As much of an honor as this was for me, 2006 was much better.

In 2006 I was nominated in eight categories! These included Favorite Overall Painting, Favorite Overall ACEO, and others. Once the votes were counted, I was very pleased to find that I won awards in three categories! I won second place in Favorite Overall, Dark ACEO. I also won second in Creative/Imaginative Large Format, and in Dark Art Small Favorite. When all is said and done, the important thing is that these awards do a great deal to encourage me to continue doing something that I truly enjoy!

On another note; I've been posting occasionally my Caterpillar work-in-progress. Well, it's been finished for a little while now. I have gotten high-resolution photographs taken, and tonight I got it posted for sale. The piece uses a lot of pearlescent pigments which can only be seen under more direct lighting conditions than are favorable for photography, so the image below doesn't show this piece to its full effect. You can see more of what I am talking about, including a nice close-up of the caterpillar, by viewing the auction itself- the image below is a link to the auction.

Title: Advice From a Caterpillar
Medium: Acrylic and Oil pastel on stretched canvas
Size: 16 x 20 inches
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)


And, why not, here are a few other pieces I have up for sale right now;

Title: Curtains of Fire
Medium: Oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)


Title: Pageantry In Red
Medium: Oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)

Here is a piece I made this afternoon. Although it is rather simple, I am very pleased with the way it turned out! I'll have it up for auction tomorrow.

Title: White Rabbit
Medium: Inks, colored pencil and oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale soon (Click image to go to eBay store)

Well here it is December, days are short and nights are cold and life lingers on. I have a couple of new pieces to post tonight. I have been getting numerous requests for more Cthulhu mythos artwork, so this first piece is in response to that. This is a Byakhee, an entity from Lovecraftian fiction.

Title: Agent of Hastur
Medium: Inks, colored pencil and oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to auction)



This next piece is one that sort of fell out of my subconscious as I sat to paint with no subject in mind. So far, my subconscience has not given me a title for the piece, so it remains untitled at this time. Perhaps my subconscious would be willing to surrender the title if I bribed it properly with the prospect of a nap.

Title:
Medium: Inks, colored pencil and oil pastel on cold press watercolor paper
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale Soon (Click image to go to eBay store)


And one last thing, I finally have an update on the caterpillar painting. This is pretty much the way I work on my projects- a little here, a little there until I finally feel like proclaiming it "done". Which this is not, yet- done, that is. But it is progressing. I used iridescent blue to create a pattern on the background representing the smoke from the huka.