Wow, 2 posts in one day.  This is some kind of record for me!

So I just heard this quote and I thought that it was beautiful and wanted to share it with whomever actually reads my blog . . .

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds

long to play with your hair"

So I am obviously a negligent blog owner.  Thankfully I don't have to feed this blog or else it would die!  So far this semester has been more interesting than any semester I've had.  My teachers are very informative and I'm trying different techniques I've never done before.

Its definitely something new for me!  I'm actually painting abstract pictures and I like it!  Who knows if they're any good but its very liberating to paint so loose and carefree.  I am so used to painting "realism", so this is a big change.  I was listening to Stan Getz when I painted this one.  If anyone wants to try to paint abstract some jazz is a great mood setter, lol.
I'm still not sure which way to present this, I keep turning it to make up my mind.

The color isn't showing up right, its a lot more vibrant in person

The next week I attempted a similar style with this one.  The color shows up better on this one

Never mind about the color, once it uploaded it looks much more faded than it does in person . . .

Oy, why does this have to be so difficult!

So one of my favorite teachers just had a gallery opening.  He is a brilliant artist and this show just blew me away-

His name is Kevin Moore and I highly recommend you go and check his show out if you're in San Francisco and you have the chance.  

This entire show is about space and time.  Kevin would walk around with a camcorder and record his daily life, then piece together the images he collected all into one scene.  The picture about is time lapse of him painting his wife at his home.

It was a fantastic opening and a truly beautiful night

So back to school-

I am currently taking a class called Quick Studies.  Sounds harmless enough, but this class is intense!  My entire "art career" I have been instructed to take my time with my work.  Make sure the under drawing is precise, the shadows are laid in correctly, the values are mapped out, etc.  And along with all these instructions we were constantly reminded to take our time, there was no need to rush. 

Now that we've all had this hammered into our brains suddenly we're being instructed to paint as quick as possible.  Have the drawing done within 3 minutes, get the shadow shapes in under 2 minutes, hurry hurry hurry!  Its so mentally exhausting . . . and fun!  Its as if I like to torture myself because everyone else in my class seems to hate it :)

These were my very first paintings done in 20 minutes.  They are horrible but I figured I might as well share them.  Thankfully the ones I finished yesterday were better, but I don't want to jinx it!

Moving right along, I was also commissioned for a mural!  Its nothing huge 5X8 feet.  Whenever I say mural people seem to assume that it is a huge painting on the side of a building.  There's no way I could handle that! 

This mural is for a young boy in his bedroom.  The parents want his name to be done in graffiti

Here is a rough color study of how it should turn out.  I can't wait to get started!