catfish_charlie

I finally got some time yesterday to get some serious work done on this piece, and I finished it up this morning. My goal with this painting was to portray the puerile, naive trust that children sometimes possess. As is true with all my work, there are things I do and things I don't like about the finished piece, but overall I'm rather happy with it.

Title: Introduction
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 20 x 16 inches
Status: For Sale Soon


And here are a few details from the painting;

I simply started painting on a fresh canvas and this was the result. Don't ask me to explain what it is please, the only thing I could tell you is that the vaguely humanoid/mermaid-like creature doesn't appear to be frightened by the ominous looking leviathan. The title refers to the fact that I finished the painting on the morning of Friday the 13th. Clearly fish are a prominent thematic element in a lot of my works; I have been infatuated with creatures of the deep since my earliest days. My oldest preserved drawings (created when I was only 3 years old) are of giant squid, sharks, stingrays and so forth.

Title: Abyss 13
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 16 x 20 inches
Status: For Sale Soon

I already quoted this poem several entries back for a different painting I made (Memories Of Carcosa), but it continues to inspire me to do more art, so here are a few lines from it once again;

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in
Dim Carcosa.

The King, cloaked in a tattered yellow mantle and bearing a pallid mask, is an avatar of madness and destruction.

Title: The King In Yellow
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 16 x 20 inches
Status: For Sale


Detail from painting;

I had a request some time ago to do a portrait of H.P. Lovecraft. Although I had the idea on the back-burner for a long time, I just couldn't resist giving it a shot. I plan to put this up for auction tomorrow evening.

Title: Lovecraft
Medium: oil pastel and colored pencil on mat board
Size: 8" x 8"
Status: For Sale Soon

Title: Memories of Carcosa
Medium: acrylics, mylar and iridescent pigments on canvas
Size: 11" x 14"
Status: For Sale Soon





"Cassilda's Song"

Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink beneath the lake,
The shadows lengthen

In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies
But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,
Where flap the tatters of the King,
Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa.

~Robert W. Chambers, "The King In Yellow", 1895

I spent way too much time on this painting of Cthulhu. I may make a few minor adjustments to it, but I doubt it. I think it was worth the extra time.

Title: "The Dreamer Awakes"
Medium: Oil pastel on stretched canvas
Size: 20" x 16"
Status: TBA


I'll be getting better photographs than this snapshot later this week.

Well I haven't had a whole lotta time this weekend to work on this piece, but as you can see I've added some details and worked a bit on making it "pop". Still have the wings, rocks, waves to finish and of course the lighthouse. Also I was able to better adjust the color on this photograph, so while it's not perfect it's much closer to the actual colors on the painting. Should be done in another 3 or 4 days if all goes well!

As I painted this painting of Cthulhu I thought it would be a good idea to photograph it in stages so that if I overpainted the original sketch too much I could go back and look at the photographs to get back on target. As it turns out I haven't needed to do that, but I do have some nice progression shots now. Since I always enjoy seeing others' work as it unfolds, I thought I would share this progression here for anyone interested. This painting is not yet finished, although it is getting close. The latest photograph looks different from the others because it was taken at night using my studio lights instead of during the day using natural window light. The actual color is somewhere between the two. I'll use better lighting to photograph the final piece.

I'll post everything behind a cut for those who don't want to see all the images, but first here is a sneak peak at the latest in the progression;


For the progression to this point ( click here. )

Feeling a bit surreal today. Here is what I managed to finish this morning;

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


I am experimenting with this pallet of colors, I especially am trying new things with the yellow and purple combinations, which I hoped would give the sky a dramatic, otherworldy feeling.

For those not familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, night-gaunts are;
"...noxiously thin and horned and tailed and bat-winged...shocking and uncouth black things with smooth, oily, whale-like surfaces, unpleasant horns that curved inward toward each other, bat wings whose beating made no sound, ugly prehensile paws, and barbed tails that lashed needlessly and disquietingly. And worst of all, they never spoke or laughed, and never smiled because they had no faces at all to smile with, but only a suggestive blankness where a face ought to be."
From The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath

Here are a few new pieces I have completed recently.

This first one I'm pretty happy with the end result. It's an interpretation of Cthulhu that is slightly different from my normal portrayals of this entity. It looks pretty good even enlarged quite a lot- there is an enlarged image in the auction description.

Title: Dreaming No More
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)


While I'm on dark subjects, here is an auction that will end soon;

Title: The Quiet Woods
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)


A little lighter mood;

Title: Beyond Reach
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)


There are more, but I'll wait to post them until tomorrow so I don't flood everyone's friends pages with pictures.

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.

Well I guess you have to start somewhere so here is my first post. Don't have much to say right now, don't have much time to say it, but I did fill out my bio so if you're interested you can check that out. I will also add more to the list of interests when I have more time, in the meanwhile you can check out my website for my art gallery to see what I spend my time on when I have time to spend it. Right now I'm working on making a Lovecraft themed chess set. The pieces are about 98% finished being sculpted, I have moulds made of more than half of them and have only to finish up some details on the rook and pawn before I make moulds of them as well. I have castings finished of the king, queen and knight. If interested in Lovecraft mythos, the king is Cthulhu, the queen is Nyarlethotep, the bishops are Dagon/Hydra, the knights are hounds of Tindalos, the rooks are shoggoths, and the pawns are deep ones. I'll post updates here in case anyone has interest.
Well I gotta finish up, my 5 year old is climbing stacks of boxes to tape pictures she colored on the wall and saying, "Look Daddy, I'm an artist!"