The Process...

It all starts with feeling something.

Feeling something so deeply that you just can't help but live deep within it for each moment you're awake.

Every painting I have made was a feeling in its infancy. One of my favorites so far to showcase that was 'The leviathan." (Listed for sale in my etsy shop.)

Im currently working on 2 pieces, Im in the final stages of a beautiful commission a friend has asked me to do, and Im also in the starting stages of a new one of my own. Its currently in the beginning stages as you see in the video.

I reviewed a couple reference sources and pulled together some general ideas before sketching this one out. I try to never fully copy my reference photo. Instead, I pick it apart and use bits and pieces for my work. Sometimes I pull a lot of elements and other times I pull only one or two. A handful of times I had no reference photo at all and just worked with what I felt. Those paintings tend to make me nervous as I'm often afraid my brain will wander, and it won't come out the way I intended.

I lay down the base color and start to work from there. Being that I love fantasy landscape I often end up with a softer more surreal version of what the photo actually was or what the scene might have started at.

I created a painting I called "Dragon tamer" (Video on my Instagram) for my niece and that came out the same way. A softer, less aggressive version of the original idea. I'm starting to love that about my paintings :) I've had several I have made with a surreal kind of feel to them and they have all become my favorites.

Once I get the painting going, I often hit a point where I'm deathly afraid to touch it. I don't want to add paint, I don't want to even look at it. This point is often where I feel I might be on the right track. I try to push past that, I pour myself a beverage, light a joint and stare at the painting until it begins to speak to me.

Then I hit the grindstone again. The time it takes me to paint each one varies depending on the components and how many times I say "Nope, not done yet..."

After each one is done, Ive gotten in the habit of edging and varnishing it before I even consider moving it to the done stack. I have over 21 paintings now, 12 are listed for sale on etsy.

I'm continuing to stock pile art works, selling them is less important to me than painting them, however I have so many I need to get them out of my house so Ill continue to market myself in my off time and push the sale of the older paintings in my inventory. If you've actually read this post Ill give you a heads up that everything in my etsy inventory will be 30% from Nov 1st to Dec 18th. Just use the code Holiday30 at checkout.