Another Robot...and a bird

The Lookout

(11x14", Oil)    Price: $600.00   SOLD

This robot painting is a bit of a departure from my usual tin toy whimsical studies. It still has a touch of whimsy and is based on a robot sculpture by the award winning artist and sculptor, Vincent Villafranca. We've been seeing Vincent at Illuxcon in Altoona, PA, every November for the last three years, where he has exhibited his sculptures to an enthusiastic audience and also purchased some of my bird paintings for his wife, Michelle. Vincent's life long love affair with science fiction and fantasy coupled with his fascination with metal casting, bronze in particular, has produced some brilliant fanciful sculptures, robot and rats included. He does a live bronze pour each year at Illuxcon to the amazement of a spellbound audience. Last November I had an idea to include one of Vincent's robot sculptures in my pantheon of robot paintings...with a bird of course, sticking to the current theme. So he let me take some photos and I came away with the concept for 'THE LOOKOUT'. This painting can be seen one of two ways, at least. Either the robot is striding stealthily out of the grass and the bird is his lookout, or the robot has rusted in a walking position and the bird is using this unusual prop as a lookout post for predators. Any viewer may have another view of course. 

 This is the final drawing for 'THE LOOKOUT'. I finally settled on a little rusty colored Bewicks Wren for the featured bird. He seems to have the right look about him, and he blends in with the robot just a bit.

This is my easel set up...ready to begin the painting. Not sure how the wildlife book got in the shot. 

 While I was waiting for paint to dry on 'THE LOOKOUT', I noticed the leftover paint on the palette. I pulled out a couple of small boards and started doodling...hence the names of the paintings below. Nostalgic colors for 'BLUE' by way of the blue, white and orange gold. And 'SATURN' doodle was influenced by a book on Ivan Aivazovsky, a Russian landscape/seascape painter from the 19th century. It was lying on the floor of the studio by Bob's easel and I could make out the colors and shapes but not the details. My reading glasses go blurry beyond three feet. So I made up the Saturn rocket from those impressions of color.

Rocket Doodle Blue

(4x6", Oil)      Price:  $45.00  SOLD

Rocket Doodle Saturn

(4x6", Oil)         Price: $45.00   SOLD

These are some very different results using the same palette. The same palette that I used for my previous painting, 'MECHANIZED HARVEST'.

So, thanks for stopping by. I've already started the preliminaries for the next painting...
Cheers
Marianne

You can go and look at Vincent Villafranca's brilliant sculptures and photos of his bronze casting process at:
www.villafrancasculpture.com

Birds 'n' Bots...working to a theme

 Mechanized Harvest

(12x16", Oil)             Price: $950.00     SOLD

 Well this is the first real epic in my continuing spree with birds and tin toy robots. This time I've included another favourite painting subject: mini pumpkins. I've been wanting to paint mini pumpkins again for a long time now and finally had a brainwave with the above idea. Red Robo Rover was always going to be in the line up somewhere, and the flying saucer guy was from a series of reference photos I took during a visit to a friend's house in San Francisco last year. He let me run, with camera, barefoot through his toy collection at will. After a having a wonderful time playing with the little blue robot, Mark sent him home with me. Rover and Blue have been inseparable and often hang around my easel. Other robots that I took reference photos of that I thought would be the final line up for this painting didn't quite make it but I'm getting new ideas for those as I go along. Meanwhile, I'm pleased with my whimsical version of a mechanized harvest. And of course, the bird is a Black Capped Chickadee...I've been growing very fond of these little birds.

The background was filled in with a large flat brush and a smaller Filbert, and blended a bit with a fluffy blending brush. Detail was added with progressively finer brushes as I worked my way through the robots and bird. Palette included: Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, French Ultramarine, Cadmium Orange Hue, Cadmium Lemon, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Titanium White, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Red Light, and Sap Green.

Painting this took some time and some painstaking brush work in the details, but I'm rather proud how this turned out.

This is a shot of the easel when the painting is almost complete except for the bird and flying saucer and some highlights. Of course Rover and Blue are putting their two cents worth in as usual.

More to come tomorrow...Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers
Marianne