catfish_charlie

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.”
      -Edgar Allan Poe

Title: "Dream by Day"
Medium: oil pastel on bristol
Size: 3 1/2 x 2 1/2"
Status: For Sale (Click image to go to eBay store)

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 spent entirely too much time on this painting. I can honestly say that I truly suffered for this piece- I kept working on it despite a rather serious headache and an infection in my jaw because I really wanted to just see it through. I got couple of scans of this piece in progress as well- I'll post them tomorrow along with a write-up, but tonight I just want to get this image posted and relax.

Title: Nevermore
Medium: Oil Pastel On Bristol
Size: 8 x 10"
Status: For Sale Soon


Enlarged 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

Not feeling well today, but I managed to get this piece done despite that. I need to get a better photo when I have decent lighting for it.

Title: Tree of Self-Fulfilling Fears
Medium: Acrylics on canvas
Size: 11" x 14"
Status: For Sale Soon






Here is a bit of detail;

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

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 was so busy that I forgot to post the final two pieces of the Zodiac series here! Sagittarius has already been sold;



...and the auction for Virgo ends this evening;



And I have already designed a large poster with a compilation of these images that is for sale in my CafePress store, as well as a calendar that displays the signs roughly approximating the months with which they correlate. You can take a look at them by clicking the image;



Any feedback on these products would be great! I plan to release other products with these images as well, as I have time to get them set up.

Two more completed today, I am listing Scorpio for sale today and Libra tomorrow. Next to be finished will be Pisces.


Title: Scorpio
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: Libra
Medium: Oil pastel and colored pencil on Bristol vellum
Size: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Status: For Sale Soon (Click image to go to eBay store)

I am creating a series of art cards based on the Greek Zodiac. I have chosen to create them in no particular order. The first four are finished, the others are in process and should be completed within the week, I'm posting them on eBay as I finish them. Here are the first four;

Title: Cancer
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: Gemini
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: Capricorn
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: Aquarius
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 had a great response to Red Riding Hood, and I enjoyed painting it as well so I decided to do a similarly styled piece with a different subject. Here is a mermaid with a different twist; the Sirenes were said to lure sailors to their deaths.

Title: Sirene of the Abyss
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 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.

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

A nursery rhyme "quadtych". These four ACEO sized paintings can be displayed seperately, or alongside each other to form a single scene. Nursery rhyme illustration is new territory for me, but why not?

This is what they look like side-by-side; you can click this image to see the auction as well.


I put the full-sized individual images behind a cut, to see them just ( click here. )