Art on Display!

 

Today brings us a quick update from Studio Halifax!

 

As of yesterday I have three pieces of art hanging at relish gourmet burgers in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The manager, Drew, was kind enough to give me a bit of wall space.  If you live in Halifax or are in town visiting, stop by and grab a burger and spy some art...I recommend "The Great One."

 

The three pieces are:

 

"Hunter"

 

"Sunset City"

 

"Appreciation"



Studio Halifax...LIVES!

After an all too long reprieve from posting, here is the first post since moving 2,100 miles to Halifax, Nova Scotia!  

Studio Halifax is officially up and blasting out work on a daily basis.  This piece, entitled "in the city", started off as a warm up to get back in the painting groove.  I was away from all of my supplies for over a month so I was feeling a bit rusty.

The background on this one started light...then got dark and then mellowed out a bit.  Kind of reminded me of a gritty metropolis. So, with my penchant for buildings, I laid out the skyline structure and then did some sloppy blue outlines to oppose the background colors.

After everything dried I went back through and drew in the windows one by one.  This was a bit painstaking but gave me quite a few ideas for the future.

"In The City"

16x20in

$75.00

Spines II - Things just got spiney-er

 

The second in the "Spines" series has arrived! "Spines II" is the sequel to the original spines painting which I unveiled three or four posts ago.  To be completely honest I didn't really care for the Spines painting...however, out of all the paintings I have done, that's that one that has received the most praise.  So, I'll give the people what they want....more spines!

 

 

I chose to not limit my color pallet and instead worked with the idea of color vs. lack of color. Or light vs. dark I guess.  There is so much going on in this painting that my feeble Iphone camera really has had a tough time picking up the subtleties.  The first and last pictures are probably the best visual representations.

 

This painting like the other was a practice in using the paint knife.  I started with blues and greens in the background and then really went a bit crazy with the rainbow of color.  After the rainbow was laid down I started to play with the dark idea.  I incorporated the black and purple bottom portion, but still wasn't satisfied.

 

After staring at the painting for an hour or so I decided to add the bold white streak through the middle.  At that point I went back to the paint knife to bring things together.  Spines II is much like the original in the fact that I don't really like it all that much.  This might be the last spine theme painting I do for a while.  Or will it?

 

"Spines II"

 

Acrylic on Canvas

 

8in x 24in x 3/4in

 

$75.00

 

"Trees III" Return of the Sapling

 

Here is the third installment of the Trees series...I know we're all getting a little tired of trees...I promise a change in thought starting tomorrow!  However, it's eleventy five degrees in Minnesota and my yard is somehow full of leaves....which makes me think of trees and global climate change...but I don't have any paintings of Al Gore...so you get more trees!

 

 

 

This is a rather small painting...quaint if you will, fit for a breakfast nook or study, or above a toilet for that matter.  The concept, as usual, started with the background.  I used five different shades ranging from straight green to straight blue. 

 

 

First, I blended the colors with a wide brush.  Once the blending was complete I went with a thick brush and produced a stippling effect to give it a bit more depth.  I added some green that creeps up the middle of the painting and fades into the blue.

 

 

Once the background was finished I just couldn't resist the allure of those snow white trees.

 

"Trees III"

 

12in x 6in x 3/4in

 

Acrylic on Canvas

 

$45.00

 

 

Sunset City

Today we go way back to somewhere around 2006 or 2007.  This painting was really early on in my experimenting with acrylics on canvas.  I really had no idea what I was doing or how I was going to do it.  None the less I think this one did well in pushing me to travel further down the abstract path.

 

 

The imagery here started with the background as my paintings often do.  Once I had the sunset background finished I used my paint knife for the very first time.  Let it be known that the power of the paint knife should not be under estimated. 

 

 

My lack of ability at the time gave me these very crude and dirty looking buildings which I ended up liking quite a bit.  I thought that maybe we are looking at some kind of low income housing or just the big city in the middle of hot and humid August. 

 

 

So, there you have it.  One of the earliest works of Jon Thompson.  I definitely like things about it and there are other things that drive me crazy.  Regardless, this piece served as quite a jumping off point for some of the paintings I have completed since.

 

"Sunset City"

 

Acrylic on Canvas - 16in x 20in x 3/4in

 

$75.00

 

 

 

Trees II - A walk in the woods

 

 

Today we're back with the second installment of the "trees" series.  This is another recent painting, completed within the last 3 weeks.  This is also a rather large painting at nearly 4 feet tall and 1 foot wide. 

 

 

This painting did not start out with a goal of being a part of the trees series however the background colors really reminded me of a dark Disney-esque forest.  I can imagine some tripped out Alice in Wonderland character bumbling into this magical forest.  Or maybe not....what do you see?

 

The most time consuming portion of this painting was creating the "trees."  remember that this painting is 4 feet tall so that means I painted about 10 feet worth of trees.  10 feet plus white paint on a dark colored canvas equals an exorbitant amount of time.  Overall, totally worth it.

 

 

One of my favorite things about this painting is how it is effected by light.  When the painting is in a dark area it looks much more menacing with the colors looking like they are in the shadows.  But as you can tell from the pictures, when it's outside the colors tend to light up and shine through rather nicely.  The last touch will be to paint the sides of this one black.

 

"trees II" 48in x 12in x 1in

 

Acrylic paint on canvas

 

$260.00

 

He Slimed Me! A Tuesday Vinyl Excursion.

Today's post goes outside the realm of canvas and enters the relatively new world of custom vinyl toys.

 

Slimer!

 

This is a 4 in Munny figure.  These figures cost about $10 and start out plain white.  It is up to the artist then to apply paint or stickers or whatever suits your fancy.  For whatever reason, when I decided to do a Munny figure, the first thing that popped into my was Slimer.  Thank Zuul it wasn't the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

 

 

The green base color was applied with an airbrush.  I must say that airbrushing is not an easy skill to pick up.  I had many goes with the paint to try to get it come out evenly.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with the consistency I got with the end product.

 

Once the basecoat was complete I went back to my original sketches and started applying them to the figure.  Since I usually work in abstract, I had quite a bit of trouble getting the straight smooth lines I was envisioning in my mind. 

 

 

The black outlines of Slimer's facial and body features were done with a small brush and then some of the rough areas were smoothed out with a sharpie.  The line work in my opinion is the weakest area on the figure.  If you look closely you can see some waviness....perfectionism, meh.

 

I think that in the end the figure really does capture the old cartoon version of Slimer.  The mouth and teeth were by far the most fun parts to do.  I used a brush and many coats of paint to achieve a smooth finish.  The figure was sprayed with a sealant and now resides on a shelf in my painting room.

 

"Slimer" 4 inch Munny Figure, Acrylic paint via airbrush, brush and sharpie marker

$50.00

 

Remember all of the art on the blog and on the FACEBOOK PAGE is for sale!