I am a painter by trade, mainly specializing in portraits of animals. My own three dogs are my particular muses, and I have painted them again and again. The guy featured here is Boo, and this triptych is destined to hang over our dining room table, as part of our campaign to make our home into a midcentury/tiki/generally cool oasis. My intent here is to have Boo present as a sort of tiki himself- iconic and god like. Each panel measures 16" x 31", and when they are really hung I will be positioning them an inch or so apart. As you can see, I have just started on the one on the left. I will be continuing work on it today, getting the background roughed in. It is oil paint, so am waiting for the paint to dry on the tiki dude himself before I can go in and start refining him.
Gotta confess that I swiped a good part of the background treatment from a Mark Ryden tiki painting. It was too perfect for my purposes and I could not resist. I take some small comfort from the knowledge that Ryden's painting is itself derivative of mid century exotica paintings... in any event, I wouldn't do such a thing for something I was going to sell, but since it is for myself...
p.s. there is surface glare on the chin area of the tiki on the right. Doesn't look like that in real life.

[ Edited by: Gwen 2013-04-09 11:00 ]

Very clean Gwen, almost photo-realistic ~ I like it. Greyhounds, Tikis & Pterydactyls? Hmmm... :lol:

Quite fun, Gwen - I look forward to seeing the finished piece!

The Tiki in the middle looks like a dog.

Hi Gwen,

You have the Artistic chops for sure, but I have to question the concept
on this particular Triptych, it is not a focused choice of subject

As a matter of fact the only thing Tiki are the two Tikis on the sides
the dog is the primary focus of the pictures with the prehistoric back ground as the secondary
(You must ether love dogs or have this Greyhound as a pet & was compelled to include it on this piece)
you have already lost the focus of the subject matter.

So what I see is this, A Greyhound & two Tikis some how go back in time to the Jurassic period
& the Greyhound is about to become Teradactyl chow, was this what you wanted to convey?

But your execution is very nice & I look forward to more of your work in the future
(see, this is what happens when you ask someone who has done to many years in Art school, "what do they think?") :lol:

Atomic Punk (I like your moniker), I don't claim to be an total purist. But then neither is somebody like Brad Parker, who often mixes tiki with a love of old school monsters, etc. Nor that other fabulous guy (I have forgotten his name) who's very wonderful work I have seen on here who's work features things like tiki flying in rocket ships. Their stuff is both very tiki and also a take off point to riff on funny personal passions. I know that mine (my dogs) are not something as universal as, say, the creature from the Black Lagoon. But the affectionate and humorous intent is similar. And I would argue that there is a lot more that is tiki going on in my painting than just the figures themselves. We have the lava fields and lava flows, the volcanic mountains, the Japanese fishing float lamp, the tropical foliage and banana tree and the palm trees and tiki torches which are going to be in the final panel. And the mid century color scheme, for those like myself are into vintage exotica. To me, it is very tiki indeed. Even- or especially- my ultra laid back beach bum of a dog. But if the consensus here is that this is in violation of good tiki taste, I will keep my posts to carving.

roomquote]
On 2013-04-09 19:17, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Hi Gwen,

You have the Artistic chops for sure, but I have to question the concept
on this particular Triptych, it is not a focused choice of subject

As a matter of fact the only thing Tiki are the two Tikis on the sides
the dog is the primary focus of the pictures with the prehistoric back ground as the secondary
(You must ether love dogs or have this Greyhound as a pet & was compelled to include it on this piece)
you have already lost the focus of the subject matter.

So what I see is this, A Greyhound & two Tikis some how go back in time to the Jurassic period
& the Greyhound is about to become Teradactyl chow, was this what you wanted to convey?

But your execution is very nice & I look forward to more of your work in the future
(see, this is what happens when you ask someone who has done to many years in Art school, "what do they think?") :lol:

Hi Gwen, Im glad I checked on TC tonight and saw your painting. I love the colors
and I dig the soft rendering. The Tiki in the middle looks like a gentle guardian. Please stay right here and show us the finished painting and whatever else you've got brew'n. Other Crafts is the perfect place for artists to push the Classic Tiki boundries and come up with new ideas. Thanks for posting! MP

Hi Gwen,
In this case I am not criticizing "how Tiki" your Triptych is, not at all
just the focus of the subject matter you are conveying, I actually would
find this quite entertaining if the title was "Pterodactyl Chow"

It just seems that was not the intent of your subject, but I am just one voice offering an opinion
(You did ask after all!) please don't take that as disapproval, but as honest criticism
I do think you have talent & encourage you to keep posting your work.

Now, Save the Greyhound from the Pterodactyls!

On 2013-04-10 01:25, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

I am just one voice offering an opinion

One person offering an opinion, or one person who just cannot keep their mouths shut and has to comment on absolutely everything, with the majority of the time those comments not actually contributing to the topic but just clogging up the thread.

On 2013-04-09 19:17, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

(You must ether love dogs or have this Greyhound as a pet & was compelled to include it on this piece)

Did you actually read the post ATP or did you see the image of the dog and scream, "That's not Tiki. I must comment. Because i was not held enough as a child".

On 2013-04-09 10:24, Gwen wrote:

I am a painter by trade, mainly specializing in portraits of animals. My own three dogs are my particular muses, and I have painted them again and again. The guy featured here is Boo.

On 2013-04-09 19:17, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

(see, this is what happens when you ask someone who has done to many years in Art school, "what do they think?") :lol:

On 2013-04-10 01:25, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

(You did ask after all!)

Where did Gwen ask exactly? I've read her original post several times and i cannot see anywhere where she asked for anyones opinion. Could you please point that out ATP?

P.S. Paintings looking good so far Gwen, although personally, i'm a cat person. :P

[ Edited by: swizzle 2013-04-10 01:49 ]

Jesus, swizzle
Some people just can't handle criticism well, what the hell is wrong with some criticism, by the way?
(Gwen took it well,I thought)

So I reread the thread & yes I did interject more then Gwen had written
so let me apologize to Gwen for that.

But I do stand by my observation at the heart of my earlier posts on the focus of the painting.
I was not talking about how much or little "Tiki" it contained at all, but the combination of
subject matter in a purely artistic sense.

As for criticizing someone for criticizing another, Then ending your post with a final criticism

quote

"P.S. Paintings looking good so far Gwen, although personally, i'm a cat person."

Well that is just being hypocritical, don't you think :lol:
But I am glad you are exercising your right to an opinion, just as I do, keep it up
just as Gwen can tell me how wrong I am, if she thinks so?

"like Brad Parker, who often mixes tiki with a love of old school monsters, etc."

Zing!
Have seen far more untiki art on TC than this fer sure.
Thank god you did not try to pass any glitter art on to us.:)
Nice job, Stick around.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2013-04-10 06:14 ]

Be careful what you call "tiki" around here Gwen, there are knock down drag out battles that go one for ages and pages. If in question, I personally just call it "Polynesian pop", which is pretty close to the same thing but more of an open label.

I really dig the colors and the wonderful execution of your work, the subtle blending reminds me a lot of classic illustrators from the 30's and 40's. Seems to me you are trying to link the primal beast to the savage tiki. Love the tiger stripe collar...but then of course I would. :wink:

On 2013-04-10 06:37, tigertail777 wrote:
Be careful what you call "tiki" around here Gwen, there are knock down drag out battles that go one for ages and pages. If in question, I personally just call it "Polynesian pop", which is pretty close to the same thing but more of an open label.

Solid advice. Also, I dig it. Dunno about tikis in prehistoric times with a greyhound, but it's well done, and weird, and that's totally cool.

EDIT: I've run across your site before, I recognize the logo. I don't remember how, but I've seen Iconic Dog before. Either way, I enjoy it. I'd love to see you explore Poly Pop more.

[ Edited by: Hale Tiki 2013-04-10 06:55 ]

My opinion is that I like your art...welcome aboard. Definitely enough "tiki" for me, and
I like the colors. I like fez monkeys, and I prefer a greyhound with an exotic collar over
aliens and monsters, but that's just me. Maybe you could tip the scale by putting a fez on
your dog :)

Thanks for the kinds words, all. Be confident that I shall now and always avoid the use of glitter in this and all creations! And fear not for the life of Boo the greyhound, Atomic Punk. While a ordinary dog would be in imminent danger of being pterodactyl chow, my dog in this case is a sort of demi god, beyond the threats of this mortal coil. Hale Tiki, you are perhaps remembering my website from a few weeks ago, when I introduced myself in the hypertufa fountain thread?

[ Edited by: Gwen 2013-04-10 08:28 ]

On 2013-04-10 07:59, congatiki wrote:
...Maybe you could tip the scale by putting a fez on
your dog :)

:lol: If in doubt, fez it out! :lol:
(edit-spelling)

Clay, the oldest and most divine art media;
"And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man" Genesis 2:7
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2013-04-10 14:44 ]

hypertufa,
Well now you have gone too far!
hypertufa is not Tiki, pour rock is Tiki.

And the Fez is sooo last year.

On 2013-04-10 09:39, tikiskip wrote:
hypertufa,
Well now you have gone too far!
hypertufa is not Tiki, pour rock is Tiki.

And the Fez is sooo last year.

HAH!

And nope, not from a few weeks ago, Gwen. Didn't look at it then. From a bit back. I'll have to go through the blogs I regularly read and look for it.

Just for the record, I was not criticizing if the painting was
Tiki, just the over all concept & focus of the work
and what appears to be unintentional humor in the work
which I really like, by the way!

My criticism was referring to the conceptual content of all the elements
and if they work together as a whole (you know "Artist Talk")

This is by no way "a Tiki, or not Tiki" comment
after all it does have two Tikis in the painting, which is better then a lot
of other art that has been posted here as far as "Tiki Content"