Saturday, August 01, 2009

Thanks, All 250 Or So Of You

I very much appreciate the posts. 250 is roughly the number of sites which have posted regarding my paintings during the past few days. The unicorns actually went viral a day before the Comedy Central show, starting with a post on Wild Ammo.

Just for the record, I've mentioned in the past that the Universal Health Care Obama Unicorn portrait was a commission from a goon on SA; his name is Daniel Wood. He's the person who originally dreamed up the concept of the painting. Kudos to Daniel.

Also, the painting of Obama leading the woman on the horse was a commission as well. The identity of the rider is confidential, hence the identity-hiding flare which doesn't appear on the original painting.

Something I don't think I've ever mentioned on this blog or anywhere else online is that I do quite a lot of painting in my car-

painting in my car

I do this out of necessity, just because time is always at a premium. My wife doesn't mind driving since she usually needs to be in the car at the same time anyway. Here I am starting a new Obama unicorn-

a new obama unicorn painting

Once I develop the acrylic underpainting I'll apply a few layers of water based and/or highly pigmented oils, both of which dry quickly. I've painted a large number of my oil-based pancake paintings completely on the road, using as an easel a large styrofoam board (never know when the airbags might go off) and an empty pill bottle for thinner. The more detailed unicorn paintings are finished at home. Minnesota's roads expand and crack in the winter and need extensive repatching in the summer. Makes it harder to paint unicorn eyelashes.

The drive was to the Minnesota Rennaissance Festival site, where Chris had a wedding to perform at. The festival isn't happening yet but you can still rent the site for weddings and such-

Minnesota Renassiance Festival site

The Renfest wedding. Chris used her celtic harp, which was appropriate-

a Renfest wedding

Click for a larger view.

When the wedding was concluded we visited 'Lady Kate's rock,' named after her persona-

Lady Kate

I've been asked by a gallery in Thailand to contribute up to three unicorn paintings for an upcoming show. Not sure if the painting I started today will be one of them or not, but with this request and all of the recent interest in my paintings I'll be ramping up unicorn production during the next few weeks.