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Friday, October 29, 2010

New Painting: 'Candle Light'

       'Candle Light' is the newest completed painting! You may click the image below to see a high resolution image of it. It is a self portrait, 24"x30",  oil on canvas, and took approximately 15hrs I suppose. It can also be viewed in my painting gallery of The Art of Mary Kinstler. The photo never does a painting justice, and I assure you that there is much more depth to the dark background than the photo shows. I learned a lot about the depth that 'black' can really have, based on the colors mixed to create that black, ie a red black or a blue black. Very interesting!
Finished 24"x30" oil painting titled 'Candle Light'


   Here are a few more photos taken during the paintings creation.
Almost done

Oh no! I'm green!
         I'm looking forward to my next painting. I'm planning on it being of a surreal nature. Keep your eyes peeled! I am also working on a large drawing.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Steven Assael MSUM Demonstration

        As I mentioned in previous posts, Minnesota State University hosted an Artist Symposium this week, October 18th-20th. There were many visiting artists that are known nationally. The artist of interest for me was figurative artist Steven Assael. He is a New York native artist that is represented at the Forum Gallery in New York city, and has exhibitions in many other national galleries. He was here from 10am on the 19th, to 2pm on the 20th, so he didn't stay long! But in that time he graciously gave two 3-hour long demonstrations, and a 2 hour lecture for us to enjoy and learn from. In his time he completed 2 portraits. The first portrait he probably spent 4 hours, the second 2 hours. He explained that he worked differently for us during the demo than he does on his large personal work. He worked fast and painted wet on wet for the demo.

         After the demo today I brought him to the MSUM Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gallery to show him my work that was on exhibit for the Faculty/Student show. He said he was impressed with the skill in my paintings, and hoped I would come to study at the New York Academy of Arts, where he teaches, for graduate school. We will see I guess!! :D You can see how excited I was in my picture.

Assael and I while viewing my work at the MSUM Gallery

I was checking out a small piece Assael brought in during the demo


 Portrait of Anna by Steven Assael done for the MSUM demonstration October 19th & 20th 2010. 4 Hours






 Portrait of Sonia by Steven Assael done for the MSUM demonstration October 20th 2010. 2 Hours


The painting studio was silent as he worked masterfully on his work. He shared insightful information about pallet management, brushes, painting surfaces, and mediums. But the most important knowledge to me was gathered just by watching him work. I better get to painting! I have a lot to try out!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Fun has Begun

Hello everyone!
This week is the artist symposium here at MSUM. It is Monday-Wednesday, with many lectures, and demonstrations. So far I have watched the portrait painting demo from my teacher Zhimin Guan. It felt a lot like class, but it was great to simply watch him paint and develop a painting.Today are the lectures and demonstrations by Steven Assael that I have been so excited about! I was chosen to be a part of the MSUM Faculty/Student show during the symposium. Each teacher chose one student to exhibit along side them! Very exciting! I've got to get going, but here are some pictures from the journey so far. Yesterday I even had a little bit of a following after students started seeing my work displayed :) Thank you everyone!

Me with my paintings, along side Zhimin Guan's work
Portrait painting demo with Guan (seen on the right). My work in progress (front center). Guan's painting can be seen in the background.

here are the updates on my self portrait. it is coming along slowly overall, but I have to paint rushed when I do have time to paint :(

Black and White under painting
First layers of color (I'm not painted yet :)

More to come!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

New Painting on the Way

I have started working on a new self portrait. It will be 24"x30", oil on canvas. It will be for my portrait painting class, but I have been hoping to do a self portrait in this style for some time now.
Drawing on top of toned 24"x30" canvas for new self portrait


It will be a very dark painting, as there is only candle light lighting the scene. I love dramatic chiaroscuro, and want to emphasize that technique in this painting. I hope to get better and better at it. This painting is inspired by the work of Caravaggio, and Vermeer (two of my favorite painters). The reference picture for this painting can be seen as my current profile picture here on my blog. I am keeping the full composition a surprise :) I have done the underpainting in grisaille (shades of gray), and will update with my progress with a photo when it is dry.


I had the opportunity to enjoy the unveiling of the John Rosenquist 'Mural of North Dakota' on Thursday. The first mural commissioned was tragically burned in a house fire in 2009. Rosenquist's home was burned to the ground. This mural that we have now is the second mural that he has completes for North Dakota. it is 13'x24' in size. It was very unfortunate that the artist was not able to attend (he is now 77yo and caught pneumonia right before the unveiling and couldn't travel). He will instead be coming back on October 20th to enjoy a second event for the mural.
Unveiling of the 'North Dakota Mural' at the Fargo Plains Art Museum


My Current Projects:
as of 10/9/10

  • Self portrait in Oil (Portrait Painting Studio) 20% done
  • Portrait of Taylor Kearns in Graphite (Drawing Studio) 10% done
  • Medusa Tattoo Design (Commission) 50% done
  • Possible Commissioned Painting (no details yet) 0% done

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Artistic Opportunities and Events on the Horizon

Laying the Foundation
        October will be a pretty exciting month! There are many artistic opportunities that will be awesome to be a part of. First of all, legendary Pop artist, James Rosenquist, will be unveiling his brand new mural that was commissioned by the Fargo Plains Art Museum. October 7th I will be watching the unveiling and will be there for his talk.

        Second piece of excitement this month will be the Minnesota State University Moorhead Arts Symposium. This will be bringing many national artists to our school for a three day workshop and lecture event, starting the18th. This only happens every ten years in this region. The artist that I will be meeting and watching will be contemporary figurative artist Steven Assael. I have been a fan of his for some time now, and will be really excited to be able to see him work, and let alone meet him!  As part of this event, the faculty from MSUM's art department will have examples of their work displayed at the college gallery, and each professor chooses a student to display a piece along with theirs. I was chosen to have my work displayed!

I will be displaying my diptych of Velveeta for Dinner, and Another Long Day.
Stay tuned! <3

Friday, October 1, 2010

Preparing the troops for battle

         The first post to this new blog will be the introduction to my artistic mission at hand. I would like to be more of a visible artist, and be available to anyone that would like to know more about me and my work. I can feel that I am on the verge of finding a concrete concept for my work, and will be building my portfolio towards a common idea and style. I also hope that this blog will keep me more motivated towards creating new work, and keeping myself active when I have the time.

           I am building two new canvases today. They are 30"x40" (medium size for me), and will be stretched with canvas (hopefully by tonight :p). Then they will be ready and waiting for my new ideas. I feel like I have a rejuvenated bank of ideas, and hope to be working a lot in the coming months.

          I also have some exciting gallery exhibition opportunities that I am waiting to hear back about. They wouldn't be until next year, but the idea of possibly having my own solo show already really boosts my determination to create new work. Keep your eyes peeled for a lot more contemporary portraiture!

Time to see how straight the wood is!
On the floor, wishing I had a work bench :)
Moving on to the stretching!         



























































































      I am also currently I am working on a side project besides all my school work. I am sketching up a tattoo idea for a client and friend. It will feature a stone bust of Medusa, and will be a half sleeve for the upper arm.
Stone Medusa