A few photos of me painting from one of my recent painting excursions.

Aaron Crayne has selection of new works hanging at the Pioneer Square Starbucks in Seattle WA now through the end of July, 2008.

Pioneer Square
maps.google.com
102 First Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98104

*Images of the show*

One of my paintings at the Allied Arts exhibition has won the Evelyn Nagley Memorial Award.

Aaron Crayne has selected a small series of my haystack paintings on view at the Broadway Market, the work will be available for viewing April 12 through May 31, 2008.

Broadway Market
maps.google.com
401 Broadway E
Seattle, WA 98102

*Images of the show*

Two of Aaron’s paintings were chosen to be shown in the annual juried exhibition at the Allied Arts Association in Richland WA.

Exhibition starts April 01, 2008 through May 02, 2008.

Allied Arts
89 Lee Blvd
Richland WA 99352
(509) 943-9815

**The two paintings**

**update**

at the exhibition

I will be showing a series of haystack paintings at the Broadway Market, the work will be available for viewing starting April 12, 2008.

Broadway Market
maps.google.com
401 Broadway E
Seattle, WA 98102

Another washed out snap shot of this water color study. Working through ideas.

Today is very windy, 20+mph, I didn’t plan on starting any oil paintings today because of the wind, but I did anyway. I used a big three legged easel with my water color bag full of stuff drapped over the back, then I took the box of snow chains out of the pickup and tied it to the legs of the easel (about 50lbs of weight total). After all that the easel finally stayed on the ground. But towards the end it was blowing so hard that the wind was blowing the mineral spirits out of the can I had it in, plus it was blowing other things around, so I packed up.

Over all, it has been less then a week since I came out to do some painting, and I have three oil paintings underway, two of them are 24×30 and one 24×36, about 6 water color paintings, and about 10 water color studies. Not a bad start, not as much as I had hopped but a good start.

Quick study, one of many, of some irrigation pipes. There is a lot more color and texture in the study, it washed out when I snapped the photo and I was irritated enough while painting today and I didn’t feel like re-shooting it. I have started several new oil paintings in the same area dealing with this subject.

Lets start by stating a general update of the last six months. As some of you may know we are now on the west coast living in Seattle. We had a good offer in Seattle so we took the opportunity and moved out west. For Karla it is a move to a new area, one that will hopefully become home. For me, it is a move back home, not the Seattle are as home, but the Pacific Northwest is home. Over the last little bit of fall and this winter we have been digging, moving into new apartments, starting new work, working on art projects, grants and exhibition opportunities.

I am now in Eastern Washington on a painting trip, with the hopes of getting a good start on new work, sketches, water color paintings and oil paintings. I am also doing some video and photo work on a documentary project. Hopefully this will be a fun filled week and half. I got here a couple of days ago on Monday night.

Yesterday was spent getting materials and supplies gathered and running a few errands around my home town. Plus it was very windy here in the area, it had rained Monday night and anybody familiar with the Tri-Cities knows that after it rains the wind blows, and it was very windy yesterday. Windy to the point that even with 20- 30 lbs of weights added to the back of my easel it still takes off like a kite. So it was good that I had errands to do.

Today, I spent all morning and part of the afternoon near Jump Off Joe (on the hills behind Kennewick) where the windmills are. I did a few sketches and a couple of water colors (see my next post for a picture of one of the sketches). I was starting to set up to paint, but my French easel broke and I left the other easel back where I am staying. So I returned and spent the other half of the afternoon fixing the easel. So tomorrow morning I am going to head back out there and try and do some painting. I need to remember my winter coat as well, I forgot to take it with me because the temp. in town is not to bad, but up on the hills in the wind is very cold, there is still snow on the ground up there. An quilted flannel isn’t enough protection from the wind an cold, luckily I had a pair of gloves in my painting bag.

I am also hoping to use this as an opportunity to start a semi-daily posting of paintings, drawings and sketches. Something new each day. Check out the daily tag for posts & updates.

Starting today, for the next month I have a selection of paintings on display at the Starbucks 505 Union Station in Seattle WA. This small showing is of seven paintings and is my first showing in Seattle.

Drop in a check them out, if you have any comments come back and post them here.

I thought I would share a little insight into a few of the books and research materials that are on the top of our needs (in some cases want) to acquire.

Chumble Spuzz: Kill the Devil <– supporting a local artist, plus the best new gn/comic in well damn near ever. As soon as I get it I will review it.

Salome <– research for an upcoming project.

Patterns: New Surface Design <– research for in progress project.

The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss <– research for in progress project.

The Apologetics Study Bible: Understand Why You Believe (Apologetics Bible) <– I need a good study Bible, and this just looks real interesting.

The ScofieldRG Study Bible III, NKJV <– I need a good study Bible.

Alberto Vargas: Works from the Max Vargas Collection <– research for in progress projects.

shameless plug of my wish list.

A link to an announcement from an exhibition that took place about a year ago, March to May of 2007. This link is from the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. The show was at the Waterbrook gallery at the Waterbrook winery in Walla Walla WA (yes, that is the same Walla Walla that Bugs Bunny mentions in his famous line “the wishy washy washing company of Walla Walla Washington”)

The show featured new work that was finished right before the show opened. It also featured some older pieces that were requested because they are landscape of Eastern WA.

As you may have noticed there have been some recent changes that were made.
There are multiple portfolios, projects etc that are all located here. Most of the changes so far have been small and behind the scenes, these are all progressing slowly to a complete restructure of our website. We are making things look pretty, easier to find our portfolios, make it easier for us to keep you updated with our new work and projects. Things will slowly keep happening, but every once in a while there will be some big jumps, all of this will will be finished over the next couple of months.

Recently I was going through some old notes and binders of papers, and I ran across this handout. I originally recieved this at a Portrait painting seminar/workshop about seven years ago and one artists handed it out as part of his demo.

I am trying to find out where this comes from. I am pretty sure it is from a book, if anybody knows which please contact me and let me know.

Here is a pdf of the handout. Portrait handout

We are updating. Please view some samples of my artwork here and I have a couple of pictures of some paintings that are in progress here.

Please check back soon for an updated portfolio, documents and the website in general.

The previous week I was in my home town of Pasco, WA doing a weeklong painting sabbatical. Not much of a sabbatical, but I did get some good painting done. I also had a nice visit with family.

I have a show coming up this spring, and I really needed to start some new pieces to be in the show. The show will be in Walla Walla, WA and I wanted to show some new work from the Eastern Washington region. So I went home for a week, I did start oil paintings and some water colors. I don’t want to give to much away, but I will post a couple of in progress images to show some of what I did.

While in WA I was staying at my parents, I am always pleasantly surprised by a painting I did several years ago. I did this as a demonstration for a Painting course I was teaching at the local community college.

So far the paintings has had a short but interesting life. The painting was a demonstration on the use of a limited pallet, then it hung for a short while on the wall of my studio. After it was there for a couple of months I gave the painting to my Great Aunt, Annie. She was nearly 90 when I gave her the painting. It is a painting of my cat at the time, Fritti. Annie was very fond off Fritti, and called him “The Boy”. She had the painting in her room for a couple of years, until her accident and then she had to go to an assisted living facility. She was unable to take the picture with her.

Now the picture is hanging in my mothers house, actually it is in the bathroom.

Right now I am in Washington State on a painting trip. Several years ago I painted a Water Color painting of a local church, and the painting was given to the paster of that church. Recently the church was broken into computers and checks and other things were stolen and a fire intentionally started. The think the fire was set by the thief (thieves) to cover the evidence. The painting was hanging in the church office where the fire occurred. Fortunately the fire was contained to the one office and the rest of the church sustained minor damage. With the exception of smoke and smell.

The painting did sustain some damage in the fire, so I picked it up from the church to see what I could do with it. The painting did not receive direct fire or water damage, but there is substantial smoke damage, and probably heat problems (I am only guessing, will find this out when I take the painting out of the frame and mat). The painting was given back to me, still in its frame, and it is all wrapped in a plastic bag. There is heavy soot, and smoke damage to the glass and frame (it got so hot that the glass broke). I have no intention on saving the frame or matting.

This is utterly ridiculous. What would prompt someone to rob a church and then set it on fire. Especially when the church is rather noted for its community outreach and services. Appalling.

*update*

I have removed the painting from the frame, and I took pictures all along the way. I think the painting is not repairable. After I removing the framing and matting, as you will see in the upper right corner, there is heavy discoloration that is where the glass broke from the heat. The painting was so hot that it almost ignited, it also caused discoloration on the reverse. There is discoloration over most of the painting, and the paper feels like it has become brittle. There is probably very little I can do, or what can be done. I have attached some photos.

Big things are afoot, just as the title says. While we may have been rather quiet online here at Paintbox, we have been very busy offline. Not only offline have we been busy, but we have been busy with little projects scattered about the internet.

A quick run down of goings on and upcomings.

* I (Aaron) am busy preparing for a solo exhibition in spring of 07; it will be in Walla Walla Washington (just like in the Bugs Bunny cartoons).

* I am about to go on a short, week and a half, painting trip. Heading out to do some plen aire painting in Eastern Washington.

* Karla is busy with Dance; Rehearsals, Performing etc. She is also studying various Latin folk and ethnic dances.

* We are both writing and storyboarding some film, animation, and story ideas. We are also preparing to produce a couple of short films and some collaborative projects.

* We have set up, designed, etc several websites. We are also creating a new dance website for Karla, hopefully this should be up and running within the next month.

* New and revised Paintbox, with new portfolios, projects etc. Exciting.

There is so much more that we have done and are doing, stay tuned. With any luck we should be able to start posting more and showing more of our work.

The latest and greatest version of Paintbox.org is now up and running.  We have converted portions of our previous versions, dumped some portions, and still still transfering other stuff over.  We have used blogging software called WordPress to power our site.  Its cool, we love it.  We can do more with our site, take on projects, create things and have the freedom to blab away about everything and nothing endlessly.

 As you may notice, we are placing more emphasis and focus on the artists, artwork and the many many projects that we are constantly involved in. 

Recently I have been working in Central Park, NYC capturing the Cherry trees. I have been working with the trees as they go through their bloom cycle. The types of trees and the arrangments when planted, near the reservoir towards the north end of the park, allow for a sequential display. The trees are arranged where those on the east side reservoir bloomed first, then as their cycle was nearing its end, the trees on the north and west side of the reservoir were just starting theirs. This has given me the opportunity to work with this subject for a little over a month. (more…)