Sunday, October 26, 2008

300 Days.

As some of you already know, I set out to paint every day this year. It's had its high points and its low points so far - taught me a lot about discipline, but there were days it really felt like a gigantic pain in the ass. The biggest benefit, I think, is that it's got me thinking about painting all the time. A huge kick in the pants for my creativity, that's for sure.

Anyhow, I've still got a ways to go, but today I hit the 300-day mark, so I thought I'd show you folks a sneak peak of what I'm working on today:



Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Mosrite.

Hello again. Back with another entry, from earlier this year - it's a classic Mosrite guitar from the 60s surf era (the Ventures used them exclusively), along with a Pignose amp.

Here's the finished piece, as photographed just a few days ago:



I went hog wild building textures on this one - there are bits of canvas, denim and cheesecloth collaged onto the cradled wood panel, the sleeve of an old painting shirt, and chunks of dried paint that I peeled off my palette at one point. I also poured acrylic gels from the top and let them dribble down over the background, and used a ceramic stucco texture gel for the body of the guitar.

A few more pics to show the process:







The texture-building was a fairly lengthy process, but it's one of my favourite parts of creating a painting. Here are a couple of close-up shots to show the results:





And... that concludes Episode Two. Thanks for watching.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Welcome.

Hey there. I'm Bret. Welcome to my new art blog. I'm planning to showcase my paintings here and break down the process a little for those interested in such things. Here's my most recent work, a 1947 Indian captured in acrylics on a 36x12-inch canvas:



This took me almost a month, all told. Here's what it looked like in the beginning, before the magic started to happen:



This one felt like a pretty huge learning experience for me. Definitely a personal breakthrough, especially with regards to the treatment of light. Here's a detail that will hopefully show a little of what I'm getting at:



Anyhow, that's my first post. Drop by again anytime; there should be more artwork up very soon.

Bret Taylor
Vancouver, BC