⭐ 🌟 ⭐ ⭐ 🌟 ⭐
HORN CONCERTO BY GAS
Our friend, GAS, has allowed us to use his wonderful Horn Concerto as a theme for this Art Exposition. My suggestion is to play it in the background as you walk through our lovely virtual museum of the beautiful and the curious.
Sketching, Woods, and Banderas Bay — Art by MT Spaces
Let’s start with a forested scene:
Photo and sketch combination — Model: Ruth; Location: Lambs Canyon, Wasatch Mountains, Utah.
I have previously shared some artwork from Sketch Cabaret in various R&BL diaries. I’m posting a couple of sketches, plus some on-the spot photos as a mini-series.
(Above) Promotional photo session at sunset, outdoors in Heber Valley, Wasatch Mountains, Utah; (Below) Drawings from actual Sketch Cabaret event, indoors near the railroad tracks in Salt Lake City.
My late friend Deanna Mollner turned down a modeling gig on a sailboat because: I didn’t feel like dolling up at 3am! She was sailing, and whale-watching (Separately, in a sturdy seaworthy motor boat ) on Banderas Bay to celebrate her 76th birthday six weeks later.
Those Pacific whales, migrating northward, average 50 feet in length, and weight 90,000 pounds. Your motorboat needs to be fast and maneuverable. Their tails are many times more massive than your boat. My photos of Pacific whales were almost all GIGANTIC TAILS, waving and plunging above our heads. We got close enough to suit me … but Deanna had a professional dancer’s vitality, and was fearlessly physical, maybe because she grew up on basketball courts with her Olympic champion dad.
However, she respected the ocean, knew the waters of the Gulf of California, as well as Banderas Bay off of Puerto Vallarta, named for colorful Indigenous banners seen on the shores by early Spanish explorers.
She could tell sea-stories like a pirate captain, but she knew navigation, ropes and canvas, with a scientist’s eye for natural forces -- and sure loved her water sports!
On the sailboat “Ada” -- Hand-drawn, then colored with some photo-assistance and messy inks.
Hello, acrylic portrait painted by CMAE
This started out as an abstract drawing in preparation for a painting, as you can see, it morphed into something else, along the way. My paintings always do. I never know where they will end up, it is always a mystery. Which is fine by me.
Acrylic portrait. Painted by CMAE
ART BY A PAGAN IN ARIZONA
Artifact. Acrylics on natural bone. 2022. Work of A Pagan in Arizona.
Artifact was painted on a portion of an elk's jawbone, using the same kind of paints I use when painting on canvas panels.
Morrigan. Acrylics on canvas panel. 2022. Work of A Pagan in Arizona.
A representation of the threefold goddess of Irish mythology known as The Morrigan. This was my first work using the watery spattered effects.
Badb was painted using a similar technique, and represents another goddess of Irish mythology.
Badb. Acrylics on canvas panel. 2022. Work of A Pagan in Arizona.
Comic Book Pages by Matt Z
Hello. A lot has happened since the last Art Expo with my comic book Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse. Previous Art Expos have had me showcase the work on my site, which comprised of the first 34 issues and some Sketches. Sort of a limited canon to choose from, but I made it work.
Because of a health scare, I’m not willing to wait to finish all 90 issues to shop them around to an epublisher and better artist to clean things up anymore. I was hoping Google would allow me to run ads on my site but they said no, and I’ll have to settle for a Buy Me A Coffee tip jar. But that means I have released every single issue of The Un-Iverse to my site, and will add every issue as it is put to paper.
Check out the ENTIRE Un-Iverse (so far) at my site:
gildaandmeekandtheuniverse.blogspot.com/…
For this Art Expo I’ve decided to showcase Bernadette Anderson. Don’t let the title Gilda And Meek fool you. It could be argued Bernadette is the second lead of the franchise instead of her brother Meek. The whole subtext of the saga could be boiled down to b.s. detector vs. b.s. artist, which describes her and Gilda, not Gilda And Meek.
Bernadette has also racked up more Un-Iverse comic book appearances than any other character, including Gilda. She’s in every single issue of Gilda And Meek save two, every single issue of the sequel superhero spoof series Lace Doilies, and makes multiple appearances in UnComix One-Shots, UnComix Tales, and The Terran Wars.
The first page I’m showing is from the first Meek’s Chiller Theater story. It’s a splash panel of Meek turning the tables on and scaring his little sister for the first time in both of their lives, during the spooky story he is relating. It says everything about their brother / sister relationship, and I hope something about the magic of getting yourself lost in storytelling.
Page from UnComix One-Shots #5: Meek’s Chiller Theatre “The Curse Of The Pink Gorilla” (Un-Iverse #19) Story and Art by Matt Zimmer
This next bit is a two page sequence from the first part of the two-part series finale of Gilda And Meek, with Not-A-Morning-Person Gilda trying to deal with the twin annoyances of a 10-year-old Bernadette bouncing off the walls, and a spaceship landing on their back lawn.
Warning: Spoilers for later issues in this next two pages.
Pages from first part of the two-part Gilda And Meek series finale Gilda And Meek #32 “Dark Child: Part One: The Riddle” (Un-Iverse #46) Story and Art by Matt Zimmer
Pages from first part of the two-part Gilda And Meek series finale Gilda And Meek #32 “Dark Child: Part One: The Riddle” (Un-Iverse #46) Story and Art by Matt Zimmer
For the record, “Yogo Banana Pellets” is a catchphrase of my own making. If there is any justice in the world, it will totally catch on.
THREE MANDALAS BY MORGANSMOM
Here are three Mandalas. The designs were filled in with colored pencil. With the last one, I had to use a magnifying glass, and sharpen the pencils every couple minutes because the spaces were so small. It took days but it was worth it.
Sound work: Audio drama and Music by niemann
In previous Art Expos I’ve put up drawings and paintings, but I haven’t done much of that lately. I also wrote once about how I’m really interested in how different creative fields overlap, and in people who do things in more than one field, so I thought that this time, with Tortmaster’s kind encouragement, I would put up links to some of my sound work, which I’ve been focusing on more lately.
(You can watch them on this page, but if you click on the YouTube logo it should take you there, where you can read more information about them.)I had performed this short play I wrote (about 17 minutes) onstage six or seven years ago, but when Covid shut everything down, a theater friend and I decided to do this audio version of it for her company to put up. I also did the music and sound editing. It’s related to my usual themes — the reality of imagination, and the invisible reality surrounding us — but was also a reaction, I think, to the notion that plays and drama have to be all about “conflict.” What I’ve found is that, more often than not, that results in characters (and overacting actors) standing around yelling and swearing at each other. So this is a drama about people being nice to each other.
Next: The soundtrack album of music I composed for an award-winning animated short film (about 23 minutes of music all together) based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables. (I also performed the voice of the Mr. Holgrave character.) I’m really proud of this, and it was really a case of different creative fields coming together — literature, art, puppets, music, acting, animation, storytelling — and I loved it. I had always wanted to try writing music to accompany a film, so a big thank you to the writer/director for giving me the chance. (The best compliment he gave me as I sent him my ideas: “You’re not just writing ‘mood music,’ you’re approaching the music as an actor.”)
And here is my own first collection/album of personal “pop” songs (about 58 minutes), called Otherwhere. As I explain in the notes:
A collection of my own personal "pop" songs (meaning, songs not written to other people's words, or for an outside film or theater project).
Of course, for me "pop" music encompasses traditional folk songs ... Irish music ...19th century songwriters like Stephen Foster ... all the sophisticated jazzy standards from the 1920s through the 1950s ... 1950s rock 'n' roll ...1960s British Invasion bands ... all the way up through maybe 1990's grungy alternative.
Basically, I just do whatever I like, in whatever style wants to come out: real songs with real melodies, and real chord changes and structures (including real key changes within the song, a rarity these days). And … played on real instruments by real people, with real non-robot-sounding voices.
Travel sketches from Spain, by Laurel in CA
Whenever I travel, I carry a little sketchbook with watercolors, pencil, and ink. We were in Sitges, Catalunya, Spain for a week in June, as my husband had a conference there.
Sitges is known for being very LGBTQ friendly, and the day we arrived was a festival, lively and colorful (but I was too tired to sketch it, after the long flights from CA.). Here are 3 of my sketches:
1. The walk along the coast, in the evening, with a full moon.
2. A view of the town and its little bay from a trail in the pines just to the south.
3. A view of the beach in the morning, before it got too crowded — with my sandy little foot in the foreground.
The best thing about traveling with a sketchbook is the way it preserves memories so vividly. Next best — the chance to have conversations with people who come by and stop to chat. And finally, the chance to share with other people who like to draw or paint!
ART BY RKNROBIN (Rock Slayer Art)
This piece is a cupcake stand. Epoxy art. I make these to order if desired. 😎
This is a flow art piece. I laid out lines of acrylic paint and then used a blow dryer to create this effect.
Same with this piece except I place white on one side and black on the other. Then I ran a vein of gold between the two and took the blow dryer to it.
Photography by gizmo59
Photos from my recent (mis)adventures:
Sunset, Summer Solstice, 2022.
The Committee (Lake Erie, Beach 10, Presque Isle State Park, Erie, Pennsylvania).
African Daisies.
SKETCHES BY BUMPA
Quick sketches from Germany (Rhine) and Switzerland (Lugano & Burgenstock above Lucern) that I did in the last couple of weeks. Was going to color them in with W/C, but I think they hold up well in Pencil.
Lake Lucern from Bürgenstock.
Near Rüdesheim.
Niederwald Monument near Rüdesheim am Rhein in Hesse, Germany.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANGMAR
Lake Ontario area early spring 2022 WNY
Firefly July 1 2022
Fractal and AI Art by Judith Moffitt
The beauty of mathematics
Rebirth - Created using Ultra Fractal, this signifies the process of being reborn. I have sent it as a wedding present to a couple on their second marriage and as a Transition present to a former coworker after she announced her new status.
Rock Formation — This is a photo I took in Utah that I ran through an AI program called Dreamscope. I find the resemblance of shape to the previous image to be particularly interesting.
Into the Light - Created in a program called JWildfire, this image speaks to me of the the coming of the light into the world and the hope that light gives us.
SKETCH BY RIVER OF THE WEST
Columbia Gorge: Oregon Wildflowers and Washington Hills
Art by Marko the Werelynx
This art is so fresh, I still haven’t cut it off the wheel:
Unfired stoneware, approximately 8” in diameter
Last weekend I attended a concert and sketched a few of the performers while they played.
Liner pen on carton, 5” x 6”
A bit of life drawing from a month ago:
Pencil on wine-stained sketchbook paper
Then, back in April there was this little beer label design I created for a small local brewery that I work for from time to time:
Illustration and design work by ol’ fuzzy-headed Marko
POETRY BY CLIO2
For D.D.R., Requiescat
.
Cumulus piled on a blue plate: challenge
To the girl who, always and only
Chose to draw bones. Antlers, chicken vertebrae,
Pelvises of extinct amphibians; finally
A six-foot dragon skeleton, with horns.
Pencil and ink, no matter how precise, can't
Duplicate mashed potatoes, nor could
The unpracticed brush.
.
At the last instant Dante-Donatello
(They said) chose Christ, died gasping
Under oxygen and was instantly hoicked,
The officiant implied, to Narnia.
He who first demonstrated, to her shock,
That sugared violets might outface marble.
She rinsed the brush in salt-water. Returned
To that dead certainty of bones.
…
A Crossed Stick :-)
.
Kin to cat, some say.
Inari's darling.
Trickster extraordinaire,
Sun-spilling, snow-soft,
Under bright umbels.
Never a microchip.
Each sleight, a startle.
.
Note: Inari Okami is a benevolent Japanese deity of uncertain gender. Inari's pets and messengers are white kitsune--foxes with multiple tails and supernatural powers. Other kitsune in Japanese folklore may be dangerous tricksters and fire-starters; this little tribute acknowledges both sides of the species.
…
(Green Mountains Are) Always Walking
.
I have been to the mountaintop.
I have been to the mountaintop
And stopped on the way down at the monastery,
In sunset, among the monks in their scarlet saris,
And high-piled ebony tresses, gold-threaded,
Delicious sisters, but tall, tall, tall,
Not my people. So again the walking-stick, the knapsack.
.
I stared along the blue road from the gate:
Ridge after ridge after wave, with the mist dividing,
And took the path down. I don't know why we live,
But at some times, in spite of everything,
Here is a secret:
I believe the gods love me. And one day
I will requite them with some act of magic:
.
Perhaps a vast incomprehensible explosion
Of mirrors, cello notes, fragrance of apricots, sapphires, wheels flying off of hearses, sighs,
Majolica shards, sweat, rusted cans, gold thread, polished bones, drumming, flamingos, incinerated sonnets,
And at that moment everyone in the world
Will suddenly look up
And see everything
All at once. Every thing in everything, and no distance between us.
.
Note: The title of this one was borrowed from a line in the "Mountains and Rivers Sutra" by the 13th-century Zen master, Dogen.
###
Art by Starhawk
This is the eagle mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil war named Old Abe. The portrait is life sized and done in acrylics. Birds of prey are one of my favorite subjects in my wildlife art.
Art by Gwennedd
Electric Blue Jelly
This is a simple watercolour and art pens creation on a midnight blue background.
Pasted Poppies
This was an interesting experiment with poured paints. Instead of simply pouring specially mixed paints on a canvas, this was pouring small amounts of mixed paints on a silicone mat, manipulating the paints by blowing the paint into shapes using a straw, letting the creations dry and appliqueing them onto a prepared background.
In Golden Pond
This is just a simple painted background and gold art pen work.
Art by Desert Scientist
Dawson
This is a painting I did recently of my foster daughter’s dog Dawson, an odd combination of a Dachshund and some other dog. Watercolor, watercolor pencil, color pencil, white ink and black ink.
Black-tailed Rattlesnake, Arizona
A painting I did for a friend in Tucson from a photo they made. Again Watercolor, watercolor pencil, color pencil, and black ink, but no white ink.
Horse Farm at Night
A painting I did to try and catch the light cast by a lamp on buildings at the NMSU Horse Farm. Watercolor.
PAINTINGS BY RALPHDOG
PHOTOGRAPH/IMAGES BY ENOCH RO0T
Taken May 19, 2022 from my yard in northern Michigan.
These next two images were created using a program called Ultra Fractal. I haven’t used it for over ten years, now, but it’s still available, doubtless with many updates and improvements..
A fractal composition of mine from 2008
Another fractal work, 2008
DONATE FOR FREEDOM AROUND THE WORLD
Ukraine is fighting for its freedom. One of the best things you can do to help is to make a donation to World Central Kitchen. Here’s a link. Chef José Andrés is doing wonderful humanitarian work in that country right now. And you know he’ll be there for the next natural disaster.
Additionally, there’s a continuing disaster in Myanmar caused by a military coup. Save the Children has helped nearly a million children in that country over the past year. You can find a link to donate to this four-star-Charity-Navigator-rated charity here.
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Paintings by Nolana
Dogbane Beetle, Acrylic, 6”x6” 2022
“Dogbane Beetle” is actually a study I did for a wide-angle view of the same creature. I wanted to be sure I knew how to depict its glossy, iridescent wingcases before starting the other painting. Turns out I like this one better! Chrysochus auratus is a small, jewel-like beetle whose preferred food is dogbanes (Apocyum spp.) and milkweeds (Asclepius spp.)
Weathersfield Barn, watercolor, 11”x14” 2022
This painting is the result of an online class/workshop I took in February with noted watercolorist Robert O’Brien. It’s not great, though I do like the tree and the effects of shadow on the snow — the parts that Mr. O’Brien liked, too. It’s not bad for 4 hours of work, I suppose. O’Brien exhibited his own much more polished version of this painting in the same exhibit where I showed the following painting.
Dorset Mountain, Acrylic, 24”x36” 2022
In late February this year I got a notification that the Southern VT Arts Center Members Show was coming up, with a deadline for submission in less than a month. I threw this onto the canvas over the course of about 3 weeks. The foreground of the photo I took to use as a source is ugly and uninteresting, so I invented the clearing, rocks and birches.
Despite its volcano-ish shape, Dorset Mt. is full of sugar-white marble, and quarries here are the source of all the headstones in Arlington National Cemetery, and the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Watch you rise- by hay seed
in early morning light
you rise, kicking to the sky
off to dazzle elsewhere
exchanging notes in the distance
I watch you rise
a flashing arch
into the cover of swelling buds
the feeder spinning, abandoned
new feathers and leaves
after the winter struggle
ready for the gathering in
and hungry mouthes to fill
⭐ 🌟 ⭐ ⭐ 🌟 ⭐
