Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Sketches and Portraits

Portraits have a definite possibility of being stressful to produce, but for the most part, I have had much success with them.
















Maya Unique was the baby of a woman I'd met at one of my shows.













TrentAlaina & The Feige Resistance were both commissioned by one person. TrentAlaina was, once again, a play on the name of Trenton (The girl's name was Alaina).








The Feige Resistance was to be made in an Anime-style, because the recipients lived in Japan and the mother of the family's name was Anna May - so they wanted Anna May in Anime, Get it?






As for sketches, these two are for the coffee series I started with the two paintings Coeur and Carreau. The next two will be called Trefle: café de soirée and Pique: café de nuit. I am so not sure when I will do them, but these are the bones of 'em.






The Trento Mfg Co. Additional Works

I'll be doing a few posts of some older work, as I have been going through my computer files and found pieces I don't think I've previously posted. All of these are Trento pieces. Trentine Gum is actually the third painting I did when I first started painting. Sorry for the poor photo.


Sunday Hats was inspired by the ladies who attend Black Churches on Sundays who wear these big, spectacularly festooned bonnets. Its really an amazing thing to see. So git on over to church on Sunday. You may just come out with something even more special.





Can anyone guess who this is wearing the Trenti Lift shoes? I did a presentation for the children at the Chapin School in Princeton, NJ where I had a solo gallery show and I asked the kids who that was in the painting. They all yelled out the name. It was the coolest thing. When I ask adults however, they usually say they don't know.

Regarding TrentoMelon; I think I've made my position pretty apparent about people who feel the need to complain about something in my work, so I won't go into that again, but before I'm handed a deck of Race(ist) cards, I think its worth saying that this piece was commissioned by one of my galleries for an actor who was performing in a solo show. This image was loosely based on her advertisement for the play.

Trenta Femme Corsets was an homage to Cheret and Toulouse Lautrec. This was in the early stages of my painting and I was attempting to evoke the feel of their posters. To my own mind, I was not successful in accomplishing exactly what I wanted, but was a good effort and it still resulted in a good finished piece. I've thought of doing this one again - a bit differently next time tho.

I don't know what it is with me and all these French and French-sounding adverts - I don't even speak French! I suppose its just that the ones I am attracted to are the ones from France. Le Trenteau is one of the ones made to evoke a romantic (or is it romantique) feeling. This is another of my very early paintings.

Trentident Toothbrushes was made to compliment Trentident toothpaste (version #5) and Trentident Floss (which I haven't a photo of, but I'll get to taking at some point). They were commissioned by my dentist for his office. I guess you'd say that was corporate art right? A second one of this painting was also made for a couple to hang directly over their claw-foot tub at their home in their master-suite.