Varnish Make Pretty

TSA, thanks! The piece is 3ft square. It is mostly done in oils but the wolf totem at the top center was done in acrylics and some expressionistic latex has been added since that photo was taken. I've also done some more glazing. I'll add an updated pic. here soon.

MAN,Sneaky, Really TOP Notch stuff here, I really Likee.

Thanks BenZ, U da man!

ST

Hey Sneaky- Very cool Easter painting! I like the colors and "dribble" factor it has...

Sam, Thanks!

I just took some better pix of recent works, some paintings show further work done to paintings as well. I did some more work on the piece with 4 skulls, the Easter piece etc..

Added some glazes to the bear skull at left and had some fun with some latex house paint.

Added some jewel eyes and glitter to the bunny here, same idea I used on my painted wood dish a while ago.

These pictures are about 20% darker than real life, guess I still need to work on the photography.
Thanks for looking.
Sneaky-

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-12 13:39 ]

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-04-25 01:47 ]

Trees... Acrylic, stretched canvas, 2' by 2'.

collaged wallpaper and construction paper and sanded some distressed looking marks onto the painting. Photo is cropped some at bottom.

Thanks,
Sneaky

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-12 13:43 ]

Oh that is too cool and funny! I love the trees, very demented!
Also really like the way the medicine wheel painting came out - especially the blue splatter over the bird skulls' eye. Powerful images!

TSA, thanks!!! I wasn't sure if I over-did the housepaint, good to get your input/approval!

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-07 16:31 ]

Well, I never noticed my first 500 posts so I guess I'll throw this up to acknowledge #600, composite image of an acrylic painting, 3 monoprints done by hand painting on glass, an engraving and some photoshop and illustrator pieces.

Hollow log drum I made from rawhide, log, elk skin and alot of babiche cutting, awl punching, cutting, soaking, lacing, and drying, painted head design I created was influenced by various NW coast Amerind bear depictions.

Bone, horn, elk skin, cow hide, shells, mother of pearl, deer skin, glass beads: Breastplate

Some Gestural quick charcoal drawings;American horse, Lakota

Chief Joseph, Nez perce

Freeform hollow log drum, Celtic and Native American/Polynesian influenced painting on drum head.

Quanah Parker, Comanchee, half breed, brought back peyote from Mexican Indians starting Native American Church/Peyote practice in US tribes of N. America.

#2 pencil sketch of very old arab castle.

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-03 22:20 ]

Got quite inspired by LLT's birdman-uh-palooza

Some quick mud slinging with wet into wet oils, I embedded some feathers into the oil paint and painted over the top of them to give some real feather texture to the blue areas, hopefully after the white dries and I retouch it, it will look better.

[ Edited by: sneakytiki 2007-02-05 09:49 ]

Here's an update to the birdman painting.

I nicked the radiating lines around the eye from LLT's awesome paintings.
I'm glad I sketched some petroglyphs of bird men from my Oceanic art book in my sketchbook, cuz when I went to look in my pacific art books, I coudn't find them or my South american bird man painting. I'll post my S. American bird man from a couple weeks back when I can find it!

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-04 21:46 ]

Wow!
Your version is a lot closer to the stone carvings! I like it! That feather texture looked waaaaaaay fun to do! You say they're oils? Ugh! I hate the smell! :lol:

Thanks LLT! Yes the oils are super stinky sometimes, it was a whopping 50 degrees here today so I painted with the door open which helps with any smell, luckily it's getting warm for us northern suckahs!

Here is another birdman, this one was done before the Rapa-nui painting above. There was a really bad amateur oil painting on a canvas board in the trash down town and I covered this with a puzzle that was missing 10 pieces which my daughter was throwing out. I streaked on red acrylic into white gesso and then decided to paint a bird man on it, my sketchbooks saved the day as I had copied this image into them years back. The source book and some of my other hard to find native am. craft and image books were borrowed by some Indian friends of mine years ago and I really need them back. The image lacked punch on the busy background so I outlined it in aboriginal Aus./SW native american "dot" style using latex house paint, still not satisfied, I added a yellow glaze to the bird-man's innards and beefed up the painted outline with more paint thickness before switching to sharpie marker to finish it up. I had the board border as white, then black and finally black with white latex dots, I spilled latex on the dot field alot and ended up touching up the dot stars with the black sharpie again. All that acrylic and latex on the border is over laying a nice layer of oil paint so it may crumble off eventually and make a weird patina in the process. I hit the puzzle painting with an orbital sander to give some cardboard exposure and sealed the painting with varnish. Whew! blah blah!

Here is an image taken from a precolombian stone pipe found with this engraving in the eastern woodlands of the US. The original was much more assymetrical and of course, an engraving, so not in color. It looks to be an eagleman/bird man/thunder being. Kinda opposite of Easter island with a human head/bird wings and feet rather than vice versa. This is on one of the hollow log drums I made years ago.

To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-04-01 12:50 ]

Hey Sneaky, this is great work, your stuff is getting better all the time. I really love
the log drum with the NW pacific style painting, you really nailed the image. And your
birdman creations are very nice, I love that figure and have always toyed with attempting to
carve one. Really nice work. Nice to have another fan of the NW Pacific style on board.

Conga, thanks! I enjoy the various subjects you tackle over in carving, you fill a needed Melanesian and OTHER* niche quite often, I also liked your bird beaked chimera figure. You and LLT are spreading the avian tiki flu.

Here is a collagraph hand print I made using a piece of a hula skirt to create textures.

To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra

[ Edited by: SNEAKYTIKI 2007-02-07 16:22 ]

Crows I painted last night while thinking about birds...

Thanks, ST

This evening I started a project I've been putting off, a series of illustrations showing mythological monsters. I was excited to do them but they were to be done in a flat style and I've really struggled with doing gouache or acrylics in a "flat" manner. I've had success with guoache in rendering realistically but other than that, ouch! lots of time wasted on crappy product. Today I used some good paint as the last time i worked with cheap acrylics (on the Easter bunny which strangely the paper loved), I had the same clumping issues. Wow! What a difference a few dollars in materials makes! I had a much easier time. I've been sketching ideas for a while too, maybe that helped as acrylics don't lend themselves to the spontaneity I feel I can get away with in oils. I spent some time looking at Flora albums in my LP's and on the net for inspiration and got going.
I did a tinted yellow gesso on a Masonite square I got out of downtown trash and proceeded to swirl some watered down streaky black on it. I then drew in the face quickly, and too asymmetrically for my liking, which I paid for in touch ups later, tried to mix a teal and went a little grayer/ greener than I had anticipated but I liked the way it turned out. I always forget that acrylics dry in a slightly different brightness/color. I think I'll be adding the letters to spell out "cyclops" into the painting in a jumbled multicolored manner as I've been wanting to do some hand lettering. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
ST.

Acrylic on board, 2ft square...

Very fun Sneaky!
Have you tried acrylic flow medium-that helps with clumping.They also have that for watercolors,but it works on gouache as well! I like the vibe of this one! You were right about those crows....creepy,but in context, it works! There's a couple more TCers with the avian flu! Check out Paipo's latest as well as the back of Benzart's Moai with the octopus necklace!...
This new one reminds me a bit of Tim Biskup's work(Check out his 100 paintings book or the new Jackson 500 series he did on teeny tiny pieces of watercolor paper)..all Jim Flora. like you mentioned and Mary Dietch(sp?) thrown in with some Fractured Fairytales-ish fun!You have energy,drive and an eye for the potential of materials! Bravo! Clap! Clap!

LLT, Thanks! That's the 2nd time somebody told me to use the flow medium, guess I better listen, duh! Slow learner sometimes. Again, thx for the birdspiration and the comps. Really appreciated, you are "other crafts" royaltee-kee-ness! I really need to look at some Mary Blair stuff, checked it out briefly when Hanford threw the book up as item o' the day a year or so ago, but haven't been back, better get the book, I want the Flora books too..$$). I think you mean Gene Deitch and Mary Blair as opposed to Mary Deitch? I looked up Biskup on the web as per your suggestion. WOW! Whodah' thunk that and the surrealist's mostest bestest offspring would be, GASP, a low-brow artist! Nice! Thanks for the suggestions, I really do listen and or follow them.

ST

[ Edited by: sneakytiki 2007-03-19 06:57 ]

Here's what I did today..

It's another one in the series of Easter Isle I was on a while back.

This is the series I was talking about, it's on pg. 8.

Thx,
--Sneaky

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-21 15:35 ]

Very...very...very nice. You are quite the talent. Me likes. :tiki:

Vampy, thanks so much! Here is an update to the birdman painting... still not done, I plan on knocking back the feather field with a glaze so it's not competing so much with Mr.BirdMan.

Thanks,
Bryan

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-12 15:38 ]

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-13 04:50 ]

I found this old drawing of mine while reorganizing my micro studio, thought it was kinda kool/post worthy

I'm starting a major sand, restain and varnish project in the Lonesome lagoon. I'm probably 20% finished with that. After the mondo refinish job, I'll be painting spiffy colors inside the cabinet cubbies. Here's some before shots:

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-13 04:45 ]

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-02-21 15:37 ]

Here's a griffin in progress for the monster series i'm working on.

Here's the Cyclops again:

Thanks for looking.

Here are some photos Nicole took of me painting in the dark with the side lit bear skull. One with the flash on so you can see who is painting. Yes I know I have a big neck and I look like an ex convict but it's just concentration. I thought it would be nice to put a face behind the artwork.

These were taken while working on the medicine wheel painting.

To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra
edited for misspelling

[ Edited by: sneakytiki 2007-03-07 16:51 ]

My favorite part about your art is that you just like going for it.

Thanks TeaKey!

Been spending alot of time looking at canvas and not as much time painting, just...thinking.
I'm pretty happy because I was finally able to weild acrylics with some success in this painting. I did one of my skulls in all acrylic and for some reason it "took" this time. Yippee!
I didn't do the dramatic lighting/paint in the dark with side-light thing this time, just used multiple indoor light sources (normal lights) and painted the skull with the diffused-non-contrasty light available. I dunno about my attempts to paint stars by splattering paint... was fun tho!
4' by 3' stretched canvas with acrylics. Easter Island birdman theme.
Please give me your thoughts, criticisms and acrylic know how suggestions.
Thanks for looking!
Sneaky

The "V" shaped bone is the bird's lower jaw bone.

Closeup... weird angle

Closeup, the bird man white is "stamped" on in gesso.

There are several small collaged elements glued on this painting, cut outs of my paintings and these 3-D resin bird claws.

[ Edited by: sneakytiki 2007-03-19 16:25 ]

Here are a couple of round rattan shelves I've just made. Don't clog this thread with a flood of replies or anything. Let's see if I can beat my 2 months with no replies record. That'll teach me to post here. LOL!
This one just needs some finish work on the shelves, about 20" diameter.

This one needs alot of finish work and a shelf added. I may front the shelves on this one with salvaged rattan strips. This one besah tiny mesah thinkin'..

To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-03-19 16:48 ]

Another great piece.

I like the combination of various styles in your pieces. (As I've told you before in PMs or in person.) I really like your approach to traditional "primitive" subject matters, not just aping the originals or going for a more commercial/popular appeal. Your sense of balance is excellent.*

I like the use of splatter/drip painting. It's not an uncommon illustration technique (Ralph Steadman, Gerald Scarfe) but it can come off as contrived and heavy handed. I think you use it well. The drip painting and the rendering of the birdman in a graffiti like style imply the primitive in a raw way that goes straight to the unconscious.

A really solid piece which I hope to see in person. (Your photographs of your pieces don't do justice to them...But that's not just you, I've seen professional photographs of works and not cared for them only to be blown away when I saw the pieces in person.)

*Good balance in "abstract" type paintings is far more important than the average viewer realizes. Prints of Picasso's "Guernica" have been wildly popular fer years and I don't think it's because of the gruesome images of carnage...I'd guess a lotta folks have never even really considered the subject matter. But its balance is excellent making the piece visually pleasing and leading to countless living rooms being tastefully decorated with images of trampled bodies and cries of anguish.

Thank you Woof! I'm showing about 12-18 pieces at a local gallery next month so that should be fun. It is awesome to see work in person, whenever I travel, I always hit the art galleries, SF, Chicago, Sydney, Perth etc.. I try to hit up local galleries as often as possible too. Nice call on the Guernica painting, it's a stellar piece and Picasso is the shizzle.

Great stuff Sneakytiki. I really like the bunnies. Somehow they remind me of Haiti and Voodoo. And those vintage ads, "Trix are for kids!"

"Cyclops" is a great painting.

KC tiki, thank you, there is definitely some springtime love voodoo in those "chix" and bunnies.

Slacks, thanx! I'm still working on that series o' monsters. Currently doing a Harpy and a Minotaur.

I've been doing some sketches with models down at the local college again. Here is a gouache I did in about an hour.

Thx for looking.

New pix of Easter Island painting, added some background elements and the head of that wood/tapa easter island figure with the anthropomorphic bird face.

Thanks for looking!

double post removed.

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-03-25 03:13 ]

I got rid of the tapa cloth figure head in blue, too much male energy already, replaced it with a sooty tern egg in orange next to the tern skull. At upper margin an orange vulva petroglyph is cropped. I have seen these fertility symbol vulva glyphs in WA state at Wedding Rocks just south of the Makah reservation. I've also seen them about 10 miles from my house on big lava boulders in the Snake River canyon near the Owyhees. I know that they are found on Easter Isle as well. When not cropped they look like a null symbol or an oval with a bisecting line representing... yes, .. that's it. Sooty tern wing, tern skull, jawbone, sooty tern man, egg, vulva, night time sky, day time water, dripping wet figure , beaks, webbed feet, claws, rippling thru time, sun, male energy... bird spirits, petroglyphs, stone.

Aloha my tiki-friends.

While I'm on a bird kick I thought I'd do some inter-Pacific spirit relations chilling together. Sometimes the ancestral totems get itchy and travel, visiting each other in the Dreamtime ether.

The first painting is a New Guinea Toucan Sepik River style chattin' it up with his cuz from the Tsimshian people of coastal NW Canada.

The second painting is a rendering of the barkcloth and wood figure from Easter Island that I likez so much, he's done Tromp L'oeil (fool the eye), so as to look like chalk on a chalkboard with some text worked in. It looks like some wee bas-terd put some pink paint on the ol' slate too. This piece interlox with the first piece as seen in this pic.

Closeup:

Mahalo!
ST

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-03-29 02:29 ]

New Guinea Witch Dr. acrylic painting:

Witch Dr. shape-shifts into Toucan in this second painting. Toucans and Flying foxes (a fruit bat) are head hunter totems cuz the fruit they pick is seen as taking a "head trophy" from a tree. The Witch Dr's left eye from the last painting becumz the toucan nostril in this painting, or both paintings can be viewed abstractly.

Here is Toucan again with his buddy from the Tsimshian nation. The totem pole figure has had alot of white paint and details added since my last pic. of this piece.

While I'm doing bird beings fron different mythos I'll update my Griffin piece from the Greek mythology series. The figure has been cleaned up and finished and the hand lettering was added only recently.

I did the clean up on his brother painting "Cyclops" and added a gloss coat to the board/painting to finish it. Sorry about the glare.

I started another piece in this series awhile back but I'm rehashing the background for the fourth time or so. The text/lettering will very likely be redone. These Greek mythological's are all 2' by 2' on masonite.
"Minotaur"

.

Any comments/feedback appreciated.

I'm off to do some more CREATING not quite TIKI enough art.

Iorana,
ST

To drown sorrow, where should one jump first and best? "Certainly not water. Water rusts you." -Frank Sinatra

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-04-01 21:48 ]

Cool new stuff, Sneaky- I'm a fool for the lettering! The gouache of the man is kind of haunting - a nice effect!

Thanks Sam! I wrote out some Greco-Roman looking cartoon letters in my sketch pad for the Cyclops. The gouache was fun but the model was a creepy weird guy. Hopefully it's a nice looking woman next time!

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-04-01 12:52 ]

Here are some pendants/statues I made out of forks and spoons, for more fork and spoon tiki art see page 1 of this thread.

We have here L to R, Hula Ku (KULA), some straight Ku's, some "KU/Lonos", and a Moai Ku totem pole with Ku as the top knot.

Thanks for looking.

ST

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-04-01 16:48 ]

[ Edited by: Sneakytiki 2007-04-03 00:13 ]