Six Quick Cats

Again this morning, to help speed the bus trip in to work on my final few days in Wellington. I have sketched up six cat images.

Swedish Style and Art

I have a deep admiration for the European artistic style, characterized by expansive areas of white that are accentuated by vibrant and colorful paintings. This aesthetic inspires me to showcase my art in European galleries.

Art Makes a Home.

I love impressionist art there are hundreds of artworks out there that have a homey appeal. Simple subjects with a sense of intimacy. I love older style frames as well, broad simple wooden frames that add to the narrative by way of being slightly grand. This image from "My French Country Home" blog is a good example. By the way MFCH is one of my favorite blogs.

Another Canopy Sketch

During bus trips and lunch hours I love to sketch ideas for paintings. I use a painting software called MyPaint that you can find for free on the internet. I use it on my HP Touchsmart notebook, bought well before the ipad and other such tablets.  This is a quick one I did for another Canopy painting. Its of the Camellias growing in the garden at the moment. When I have the studio up and running I will possibly get around to doing this and a couple of others.

One More Before I Move.

I am moving away from Wellington to New Plymouth in the Taranaki, land of the volcano. I have taken another job there and will be up rooting and its likely to be a few months before I set up another studio. So the plastics will get stored and my art and dreams of a book will also get stored. Before I head off though, I thought I'd post a couple of artworks I am planning. These are some sketchy almost complete images of some new plastic works I will do once my studio space is sorted out. I hope you like...
I am trying to capture the buzz of spring as plants pop into colour and the garden becomes alive again. Its wonderful to see the newness of another years burst of blooms even in the weeds around the house.

This abstract almost naive style has been inspired by some of my favorite artists. Colour specialists like Australian Ken Done who's use of colour as a language or a rhythm is very effective. This image "Another Sunday" sets a mood of lazy and content afternoons in the summer warmth.

Magnolias - Canopy

 

This Magnolia painting was the original Canopy type painting. Unfortunately framed in budget framing but  beautiful none the less.

Another Finished Image - Canopy

I have just created another of the canopy images. These started titled Bali but to be true to what they represent I am calling them Canopy 1, 2, 3 etc. The others are not yet completely finished so this is now Canopy1.

Weekend Play On Words

Maybe A Self Publish

I am also concidering a self publish as a first trial.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ruskin gallery

Researching Book Mechanics

So today I thought I would look at how a children's book would get put together. I don't want to get suckered in to buying software to create one so I downloaded the open source software called Scribus. you can get it here. Its a page layout software and I'm told it does all the right stuff layout wise. The other software you could use would be OpenOffice.org which I always install on new computers, as its handy as bro'. The next thing is to look at how book mechanics works. A book is not just illustrations and words. There is a pace to how a book operates and it is detailed in various pages across the internet. Tara Lazar has got some good technical details on her blog. I suggest if you want to write a kids book you have a good look at what she has to say. The main thing of interest for me was the number of pages an average kids book has and how many illustrations you have to do to fill them.

I also am looking at stories of other illustrators. This documentary on You Tube was most interesting as it unveiled a lot of techniques like using a sketchbook the same size as the finished book.

Tilting At Windmills

Poor Donald Trump has been very upset about Wind Farms lately. He has a point about their effect on birds but maybe he needs to concider his hotels and golf courses displace lots of animals as well. I did this little cartoon to propose a sollution to his stress.

Megaupload Cat

I have been following the trials and tribulations of the Megaupload case and decided to do this.

From Weed To Wonder

These Bluebells were all over the yard and got treated like a weed instead of a lovely flowering plant. So I gathered them all up and put them in this pot last year. Now they are in full bloom greeting people at our front door. Visitors ask where did you buy them.

Possible Zodiac Bookmarks

It's August and I have been doing more digital illustrations. Here is a Zodiac bookmark design. Sorry about the poetry, it's my first attempt.

An Image From Country Cat

Unfinished And Kicking Myself

4 years ago I set about creating illustrations for free, for a book Lynda Nash had asked me to collaborate on. The files are here and there in different hard drives but...I don't think I am going to get around to finishing it. Too many projects that are paying are getting in the way. If things get quieter I will need to kick myself into action to finish this. I like what I have done so far.

The Chickens Demise

Speaks for itself really. Just a doodle I cleaned up.

Some Paintings Never Make It.

 

This one was very over worked by the time I finished with it. I am keeping it to one side. Maybe I will get around to reusing parts of it in another painting but unfortunately for now it gets shelved. Pity I was using several new types of plastic in this one. I have been collecting coffee bags from work and I used some shopping bag plastic in layers to get different surfaces.

Mixed Flowers

I have been inspired by Gustav Klimt and his use of colour as well as his depiction of flowers in his art. Like those seen in the portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer. A number of the drawings and smaller pieces I have worked on reflect that. My plan is to create much larger versions of this plastic painting.

Another Plastic Painting Ready For Framing

This is the latest painting now finished. I based this one on a small drawing of poppies I blew up in Gimp. I selected smaller areas to use as inspiration for this larger piece. I have some other areas of the same drawing that I will also be turning into these larger Plastic artworks.

Oscar McCoskar On A Tractor

The Country Cat runs his tractor on biodiesel that he makes from duckweed that grows on his aquaponics to keep his fish in the shade. Oscar McCoskar will be the focus on my book about biodiversity, permaculture, buying local and sourcing alternative fuel and energy sources. I am hoping it proves a hit with modern families as I believe people need to switch their thinking to help keep things running along smoothly. I hope to encourage children becoming interested in communities living off the grid, being sustainable and freeing themselves of the status quo that is the commodofied world. I don't believe this should just be a hippy eco relationship with community. But a normal ethical way of living that large companies can never interfere with. This sort of thinking can be found about the place already for example.  The em(POWER) Energy Group are looking into ways to purify waste water while creating biofuel. - LINK Then there is the community of Hepburn in Victoria Australia who erected their own wind turbine to power their homes LINK I believe if this type of thinking became mainstream then the better off our future will become.

Dock Shock Shoutout

I recently stumbled upon Doc Shock Theater, they are a bunch of people reviving the old late night style horror spoof antics of yesteryear. I have never known what it is I like about this kind of  tongue in cheek show format. Its probably the influence of shows like Hey Hey Its Saturday. I thought that I would give a shout out to Doc Shock and the Gang and drew this Cat version of Doc for laughs.

Another Studio Shot

This is another image of my studio from earlier this year It shows a small mosaic icon made of plastic chips and a bowl I am also working on using the same technique. The frame on the icon needs repairing as it fell off of a shelf and broke during an earthquake here in Wellington. The bowl , when it is finished I hope to weld up a metal tripod stand for it to sit in. The shape comes from an old lamp shade. I coated it in a plastic slurry to give it more volume.

What Frame To Frame?

I am soon going to exhibit some of my artworks. Well at least I dream of doing it soon. I have been looking at different frames that might compliment the works I have in mind to get framed. I generally like a rustic gold approach. Here I have pasted digital copies of my art into some frames I found on the web. I think its working well.

I sure would love to know what everyone thought. Comments are welcome

The Red Lady

Very early on I was using little chips of plastic as mosaic pieces to create little images. The idea was to get into larger images but I have not yet moved away from these little icon style pictures using this technique.

Anna's Garden

I believe you can find joy anywhere and something as simple as a potted plant at your mother in laws back garden can inspire an artwork that you feel is worthy of a beautiful frame. This was one such inspired artwork.

Frame yet to be acquired, this is a large painting.

Other Plastic Artworks.

I have a bunch of other large format plastic artworks on the go. I don't just like to paint cats. I have a potted plant image or two happening in the studio. Again I like to use my recycled mixed media process. Keeping plastic trash out of the bin and into frames to be hung on walls as a thing of beauty.

Cat Plastic2

Another in a series of cat images created in recycled plastics.

Cat Plastic

My technique for creating paintings came about when I noticed how much waste plastics I was throwing out. Some of it was really nicely coloured and would lend itself to pigmenting some sort of mixed medium artworks. I experimented and finally settled on a process that I can now use with great ease. By building up layers I think it adds a kind of texturing that is reminiscent of impasto painting. Of course I am painting cats. One of my favorite artists is Pierre Bonard who loved to capture intimate moments in vibrant but soft colours. An effect I am still trying to master myself.

Oscar Inspired.

This is the beginning of some characters that I have been designing around the Oscar McCoskar illustration brand. Some of these are available at Redbubble as t'shirts, stickers and framed images.

Who is Oscar McCoskar?

I have grown up a cat lover. Ever since I can remember cats have been a part of my life. I like dogs too but I have always thought cats were cool, aloof, thoughtful and clever. Some time back, a cat found me and my family in Mittagong in the southern highlands of N.S.W. Australia where we used to live. His name was Oscar and he was all of the above plus very generous with his friendship. He liked everyone. He passed away not too long ago but his memory has stayed with the family. He was a real country cat and would eat anything and would go to any lengths to get food. He once stole a whole chicken from the stove while it was still cooking. I also recall he would eat apples and cut up carrot if you offered it to him.

This is Oscar:

Blog Cull

Here is a collection of illustrations I created in the past. The first image is a background design for a TV commercial that never came to fruition. The setting depicts a country road in Queensland, where a group of kids were debating over who would run the paper route. The lush bush was meant to be the gathering spot for the kids, while the camera would follow the dust trail of the child chosen for the delivery task as they ride down the long road.

The next image is of two pages of a book I will one day finish. It is a scene where a farmer sets off to find a little pig that has gotten lost because of a strange smell. On one side the farmer enters the path from the left and the other you will see the pig silhouetted by the light at the end of the trail.

My Studio

I usually create my artwork during the summer months when the sun shines brightly into my studio. Although the light is good all year round, the concrete floor in my studio tends to get cold quickly, so I prefer to work during the warmer months when I don't have to worry about heating the space. Recently, I've been working on a series of large paintings that feature flowers in both abstract and impressionist styles. Because I use recycled plastics in my artwork, it can be difficult to achieve fine details, but I love the unique, Bonnard-like qualities that result from my technique. During the winter, I enjoy working on my character designs, like Oscar McCoskar, a country cat, and my robots. These projects are a reflection of my thoughts about sustainability and finding positive solutions to modern issues such as food and oil shortages. I've even considered writing a children's book that addresses these topics in an engaging and educational way.