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! :) 

Impromptu Art Show

Few of my favorite 
pieces of art that I own

A couple of years ago a friend of mine went on vacation to Brazil and she brought me back a couple of goodies, including a few paintings done by a local Brazilian artist! If you've read this blog before you'd know these little paintings were right up my alley. Thought I'd share a few pics of them :)

 I love the bright colors that the artist used to create these paintings! 

I decided to include photos of the sides of the paintings as they need their story told too! I typically don't paint the sides of my canvases to incorporate them into the painting which is another reason why I really liked these paintings too. Got me thinking that maybe I should start doing the same with my pieces. It's funny how an artist that's thousands of miles away can inspire a complete stranger, and they don't even know it. The power of art my friends. The power of art.

Back of the painting

I really wish I knew exactly what the # represented that's in the top left corner. My best guess is it's the 119th painting that the artist has done exactly like this? I guess I'll really never know. I like how the artist Flor, included the title of the piece, where it's from, what year it was done, and by whom. I think this information is important to include on a piece so people years from now can track the history of this painting. I had posted a blog earlier about an oil painting my boyfriend and I had found at a thrift store and I would've loved to have known more about the artist and the piece! If only they had included this info. Makes me think I guess it's never too early to start thinking about the long long term future. For this reason I decided I'm going to start including this information on all of my pieces so that one day years from now, when I'm not around someone will know where the piece came from and that I did it. Pretty deep stuff right?

I also really like how the artist painted scenes from the area, depicting different activities that the locals must do.

Hope you enjoyed the art show!

Until next time...Cheers!!

P.S. Are you an artist? Or would you like to share a piece of your favorite art? We would love to feature it right here on BSOM! Check out our Contact page for more info! :)