Update on 1st featured artist

Kurt Halsey is being featured at the Art Star Gallery (right by the 2nd and Spring Garden subway stop), until July 13th! If you liked what you saw on the blog and his webpage, try to get down there after work/during lunch and check it out!

Throwback!

to the 1500s..

Our second featured artist is Sandro Botticelli, who I came to love while I lived in Florence, Italy. There is an entire room dedicated to his works in the Uffizi, including two of the most famous ones, The Birth of Venus and The Primavera.

Botticelli grew up in Florence during the Renaissance and studied to be a painter starting in his early teens (which is what all craftsmen did back then, it wasn’t just a hobby!) If you get a chance to go to Florence (take me with you!), I wouldn’t miss either of these paintings because the amazing detail on both is enticing. And speaking of not missing things.. I wouldn't miss the gelato, street performers, ponte vecchio, nightclubs, cafes, the David, vino, and pastry shops, either.. just to name a few.

1st featured artist: Kurt Halsey

I'm beginning a new series with the blog, where several artists will be featured throughout the weeks, to give us all sorts of great inspirations with our art. The first featured artists is Kurt Hasley. His style is very real and refreshing , by incorporating meaningful words and adorable characters to represent all sorts of feelings that occur in relationships. His most recent works can be viewed here!

OC, NJ break.

I'm down the shore in OC, NJ right now. Went on a 3 hour bike ride this morning to prepare for the Half Ironman in 2 weeks (eek). The weather is a little cloudy, so I might take a walk soon then settle down to paint.
My friend Bill has asked that I paint him a 5 canvas large mural of Philly, with some pictures of standard Philly spots (LOVE statue, City Hall..) and others of more personal places (LS&JN's porch last summer). I'm excited to get started on it! Here's a piece that I did a couple years ago of my favorite shore spot.

Swirled Flowers.

A running theme in a lot of my paintings is bunches of flowers that twist and swirl together. Especially when I first began painting, I found an artist that I loved, Kim Parker, and tried to imitate her work for practice. I love these because you can use any number of colors, and they have tons of movement and life. I've given a lot of these away as gifts and have large ones hanging in my living room and bedroom at the beach house. Because of all the colors they really lend themselves to being hung in several different places, and brighten up the space! (click to enlarge).

greece.

My roommates and I traveled to Athens, Greece and the Greek Islands last year for spring break while we were abroad. The Greek Islands were the most beautiful place.. Mykonos was my favorite. Coincidentally, I had painted a picture of Greece my freshman year of college (the one you see with the white and brown houses on the cliff). I found the picture in stock images of Greece on the internet. After coming home from our trip and looking through pictures, I realized that I had unknowingly taken a picture of that exact spot, some two years later. Funny how things like that happen.

welcome spring!

The cold weather has finally broken and spring is among us! Now there's warm afternoons, bright flowers, and baby kittens to look forward to.. and graduation! Post secret's creator Frank Warren gave a speech at Penn State last night. He spoke about his community art project where people mail in secrets anonymously on homemade postcards. At the end of the speech, people were invited up to microphones to tell their own secrets, in front of thousands of students. It was very special and moving to witness.

philadelphia.

I love philly. Every last thing about it. Through college, I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of friends in the city so I get to visit frequenty, and will soon live there after graduation. So with all this passion for the city of brotherly love.. comes skyline paintings! These are one of my favorite kinds to do, in all shapes/colors/sizes, so if they strike your fancy.. don't hesitate to inquire.

previous art endeavors.

This past weekend one of my best friends took me to see singer Amy Correia perform at the Steel City Coffee House in Pheonixville, PA. It was a cute, trendy little area and Amy put on a excellent show. I recommend looking into her music.

I've been painting for several years but have given all the paintings as gifts in the past. I started out by getting inspiration from many different artists, hence the many different subjects and styles. Here's some old works for you to get an idea of what I do..

*Click thumbnail for larger view

start already!

I have trouble throwing things away. Ticket stubs, pictures, thank you notes, magazines. If you have ever been in my living area, this is very apparent.

So when I decided to get rid of the stacks of magazines I have lying around at school, I had to go through every one of them again to make sure there wasn't an interesting story I missed or an art idea that I'd meant to cut out.

Thank goodness I did this. Not only did I end up with a pile of new design and painting ideas, but I came across a story in Real Simple titled "what are you waiting for?"

Touche. I didn't read the story, the title was all I needed. I started working on the blog that has just been floating around post-less for a month and a half. Because this isn't waiting any longer.