Noonie's Art Update

Haven't shared any of my creations lately, so I thought I'd get ya all caught up...!

Mr. Furly

Acrylic on canvas

16x20

As you may have read in a few of my previous posts I had my first art show recently, which I painted a brand new piece for. I knew I was going to exhibit my "Matisse Inspired Rappers Series" so I decided to create a piece that would go along with it. Being that Mac Dre is my favorite rapper I had to include him in the show + that's how this piece came to be. Although I have painted Mac Dre multiple times, this piece is my favorite. 

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It's therapeutic to JUST create sometimes without the worry of drawing out an outline + all the other technicalities. Although I do mostly work on the abstract side of things I've never created a piece like this before, but I must say I quite enjoyed the freedom I felt when creating it; just letting the colors do their thang while manipulating their placement. Not sure if I'm completely done working on it, but so far I'm happy with the results + the way the colors are interacting + blending together. Reminds me of candy or something. :P

Of course I've got a ton of other pieces I've created recently...go check 'em out on my Instagram! :)

Until next time friends...Cheers!!

<3 Noonie

Noonie's SN&R Newsstand!

I've always admired SN&R (Sacramento News & Review) newsstands as most of them are covered with original artwork done by local artists from the area. No 2 newsstands are alike for this reason, which is why every time I see one I always take a minute to check out it. You'd be amazed at the variety of different styles/works of art you can find on SN&R newsstands as many different levels of artists have created works on them, from beginning artists (even children) to professionals. As I was to find out none of the artists are paid to embellish the newsstands, which just makes them all the better as these artists created works on them out of pleasure not gain (although it is a good way to promote ones work).

As it turns out I've become one of these newsstand artists, + I couldn't be more excited to share with you my newsstand story! A few months ago I was reading SN&R + I happened to stumble upon an ad calling for local artists who were interested in artsying up their very own newsstand. As soon as I saw the ad I jumped on the opportunity + emailed SN&R telling them I was very interested in the opportunity + the next day I had a response from them telling me to come pick up my newsstand - which I did that exact same day. 

Noonie's |Self Portrait| Part I



I'm sure I've mentioned it before but I'm a huge fan of Van Gogh's work, especially his self portraits. I have painted one self portrait in the past as an assignment for a painting class I took. But recently I was inspired to attempt another self portrait as I had been looking at a few of Van Gogh's self portrait paintings + I started thinking about how he must have modeled for these paintings, by way looking at himself in a mirror. Just the thought of Van Gogh sitting there looking at his reflection + painting it got my inspiration juices flowing + so I decided I needed to paint myself a self portrait (pun intended).

I took a somewhat different route than Van Gogh did by skipping the mirror + snapping a quick photo of myself (Random Note: Notice how I didn't use the word "selfie"?! I despise the word!)  to use as a guideline for my painting. After I had a photo to use I started in on the painting. I worked on this painting for about a week + then it was left sitting + had been sitting as is for a few months. Not that I didn't do any painting for a months I just ran out of fuel to continue working on this particular piece, that was up until a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure what got me inspired to work on this piece once again, but I guess it falls in the "wonders of being an artist" category. After doing some touch ups to the face I decided I wanted to focus some more energy into the tunic part of the painting. I wanted to keep this painting somewhat "flat" looking so I didn't want to go too crazy with the tunic as I didn't want it to stand out or overpower the piece, I did however want to add a little somethin' somethin' to it. This got me thinking about what sort of design or texture to add to the tunic + the answer turned to lye within an lace table cloth + a can of blue spray paint. Yes you read that right. I knew I wanted the tunic design to be blue so I painted the tunic white, then I taped off the rest of the piece other than the tunic, laid down the lacy tablecloth + spray painted the design of the tablecloth onto the white tunic. I'm not sure where the idea of using the lace table cloth + spray paint came from but I'm very happy with the results! Definitely will be using this newly found technique again soon! :)

             

    Painting + Prepping the Tunic

In Action!

When I had left this painting unfinished + sitting for a few months the background I had painted on it was solid black. However when I came back to finish this piece I decided the black had to go. It definitely gave the piece a "stark" look which I did like, but I just felt like it needed a little somethin' somethin' just like the tunic. And so I got to work on the background adding textured black + greens. As the case was with the tunic I didn't want the background to overpower the subject of the piece which is why I had to decided to just do a textured background with a few colors. However unlike the tunic I'm not happy with how the background turned out. And so the journey continues on with this painting. After the failed background attempt I haven't messed with this painting again yet, but be on the look out for more to come with this bad boy! I definitely still have my work cut out with this one!

Until next time friends...Cheers!!!

<3 Noonie

P.S. Whadya think of this painting so far? Any suggestions as to what direction I should take with the background? I'd love to hear from ya! Comment below! :) 

Artist State of Mind |Noonie's Artistic Journey Part 2 Acrylic Paints|

Back in the day. Workin' on some art while out camping.

This post is a continuation of my previous post Artist State of Mind: Noonie's Artistic Journey Part 1: Drawing, which I suggest you read prior to jumping into this one. As I mentioned in the previous post, the Summer I began drawing, was also the same Summer I began experimenting with acrylic paint, and that my friends is exactly what we are going to talk about.

After some success with drawing I wanted to take it to the next level, acrylic paint. I don't recall why I was inspired to try acrylic paint next, but my guess would be is because I really liked Van Gogh's paintings (as I still do) which is what would influence me to want to try creating art by way of acrylic paint. I initially began experimenting with acrylics on paper, but soon grew tired of this medium and I wanted to try something else. When I was growing up the entrance to the attic happened to be in my room, it was framed and had a piece of wood that would slide in and out in order to gain access to the attic. This piece of wood was turned into my first conscious painting, and yes it's still around although my mom is hanging onto it for safe keeping (she gets more of a kick out of it than I do lol).

The one that started it all.

There were a few paintings here and there after my first initial one, but I mostly focused on pencil drawings for a while after. My next real painting, "Sunny Sublime" was one that I had painted for someone as a Christmas gift. Working on this painting really ignited my interest in using acrylic paints, and after completing it there were many more to follow as I started focusing on using acrylics more rather than just solely utilizing a pencil. This is about the time I took my first art course as an adult.
 

"Sunny Sublime"
My 2nd painting

 I enrolled in an introductory painting class at my local college, and that is where I began to fine tune my painting skills. I learned about quality paints, how to properly wash my paintbrushes, and all those other basic painters' skills. I was introduced to a lot of new knowledge and techniques from that course, including painting my first black and white piece. I of course dabbled in other mediums but focused mainly on acrylics for a looong time until recently.

My first black + white piece

Here are some of my acrylic pieces from the very beginning, onto my more recent pieces. It's fun to see how my art has progressed over the years, and how much I've improved since the beginning. Enjoy the show! :)

 I think this was my 3rd painting. 

 (Sorry for the photo quality folks)

I do like how the sun came out, but that's about it. Us artists are often are own worst critic. 

Obviously another one of my first paintings.

This was before I learned about a little thing called perspective + depth.

 

"The Tornado"

This is one my all time favorite paintings that I've done.

Painted this as a birthday gift for a friend.

This painting was done for my first painting class as an assignment about depth. 

This painting was also an assignment for a painting class. 

I used to walk by this old truck everyday when I lived Downtown. 

This set of 3 paintings were done for fun.

 I think this was my first time experimenting with abstract work.

This is my 2nd black + white piece. Really happy with how it turned out. I ended up giving my dad this painting, which he had framed. This is my only piece that has ever been framed.

(again sorry for the photo quality)

Method Man

This was another abstractish piece I did a few years back. It was the first one I did in my 'rappers series'. I was taking an Art History course when I painted this one. We had just learned about Matisse, which is what inspired this piece. 

Mac Dre

Ice Cube

Snoop Dogg

This was me experimenting with impasto.

 

The inspiration for this piece came from a bottle of booze. That's right a bottle of booze, although I don't recall the brand I just really liked the buffalo that was on it. I painted this piece a little after bit after learning about Picasso's "Blue Period", which was the inspiration for using the colors I used. This is one of my favorite paintings that I've done as I really like the color scheme, and how although I didn't add much detail to this piece it has a really "intense" feel to it.

An unfinished piece...

 I really like sugar skulls which is what inspired this piece.

 In fact I was a sugar skull girl for Halloween last year :)

This piece is almost finished.
 I plan on taking a piece of lace + airbrushing the lacey design in white on top of the woman's shirt. 

This piece was inspired by Frida Kahlo's work in ways that are very personal to me.

This is the last acrylic piece I've worked, and happens to be the first piece I ever sold! 

What inspired me to experiment with other mediums was the fact that I had been mainly using acrylics with my art for quite some time, and to be honest I was kind bored of it. That and my health issues were/are getting worse and I didn't feel like setting up a painting station all of the time, as it does take some time to prepare all of your paints, to get your water together etc. I wanted something that was simpler and wouldn't take as much time to set up, this is where my use of oil pastels come in, but we'll have that story another time...

Until next time...Cheers!!