update

Hi!

What I've been up to lately..

started a tumblr (which i am hopelessly addicted to already)

 

painting a lot


 

pretending to be Stevie Nicks on the regs

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shooting guns in Ohio

which I'm kind of good at?

oh, and being ridiculous



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enjoying the country flowers

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walking by pretty things

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humbling fan tattoos

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wearing excessive amounts of jewelry

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being in love with my new pants

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girl days with my bestie

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geeking out to world of warcraft (at the airport)

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enjoying goodiess from proseIV

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entertaining myself on dull mondays (not today)
 


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and collecting rosaries 
  
Okay, have i overwhelmed you with too many photos again? Good.
I'm still in Ohio and will be back in a couple of days, then its back to paint paint paint paint aiptna pitnpi tnpssdflsd
Oh, and fireflies are amazing. !!!!!
xx

tattoos, vegas & works in progress

Wow. okay, so, it's been a minute.

I've been working on a couple of new pieces that are halfway doneish, if you follow me on instagram/facebook/twitter you've probably seen little snippets of them.

a self portrait of sorts. Waiting on the tattoos and other little embelleshments. 

Here are a few progress pictures of it..

I've been all about painting on the floor lately. (I wonder if its bad for my knees to be sitting cross-legged all day?)

I decided to add freckles, which I think adds a lot more depth. Something I'll be doing from now on. I'm also really freckly.

Also been challenging myself with incorporating backgrounds in to the mix. It changes the piece for sure. still deciding if I like this route or not.

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Then there are these girls

Still soooo much to go. But this girl, Fernanda, has the most fantastic eyebrows I've ever seen. Stoked she was able to model for me recently. I'll probably be doing another piece or two of her down the line.

Besides painting a ton, I went to vegas for a few days for my good friend Laura's birthday. What a strange place. I was totally burnt out after like, a day. Played too much roulette, drank too many gin and tonics, won some money, lost some money, got tattooed and ate at Coco's too many times (twice). If I was a better planner/think-ahead-er I wouldve gone to see the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor WHICH I STILL HAVE NOT SEEN. I've also been dying to see Zumanity. Next time. 

Added a little ditty under my anchor. It says "amour" in runes. Runes are pretty much how Lizzy and I survived high school. We'd write full-page notes to eachother in runes, teachers were always baffled when they intercepted them (which wasn't often. we were good at being sneaky. or so we like to think.)

I love how tattoos make me feel. Currently planning out my quarter sleevie. Beyond excited.

Also, we've been having a few freakishly warm days.

Definitely been patio-dwelling a lot. And playing with leaves.


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I'm going home to Encinitas this weekend for my sister-in-law's baby shower. EEEEE YOU GUYS I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT! Looking forward to some family time.

Hopefully I wont wait a whole month before posting again, but who knows with me. 

loveyouguys. thanks for putting up with me and my erratic "blogging" ♥

C

Painting sneak peek + prints

The past few weeks have been really really busy for me, I'm sorry for neglecting you.

I did get to work on an illustration for Nylon Magazine which I had a lot of fun with.. Can't show it to you quite yet, but look for it in the "culture club" section of their Dec/Jan issue. Exciting!

Here are a few teaser images of the painting I've been working on between other projects.
Meet Aveline, sister of Ophelia.

I'll show you the whole thing when she's done. Doing something a bit different here, still painting on wood but am not leaving the wood texture exposed. I wanted something a little darker, something more intense. Oh, and be careful of her red eye.

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I got Ophelia and my feathered girl professionally photographed cause I didn't have time to fuss with it myself. The quality is ammazzzingggggg.
Lookit!

mmm crisp.

I will have updated prints of those two ladies in my shop this weekend.  10" x 10" and 12" x 12".
(I'll also be ordering some larger 20" x 20" size, let me know if you are interested. )
Hope you have a pretty weekend. My parents will be in town for a few days so I'm very happy about that :)

xoxo

Feathers & Skulls - finished

Yeah, yeah, I know. I've been a terrible blogger lately. Not going to make up any excuses here. 

To quote one of my lovely Anonymous readers "Holy hell, update your blog already!" 
So here's to you! ;)

Finished this piece a little bit ago, but to be honest I couldn't really look at it anymore. it took me quite a while, which I'm now learning isn't the best thing for me. My wandering eye distracts me and I start fantasizing about the paintings I want to do next. I then start to lose interest in the one I'm working on and the motivation isn't really there anymore. BUT. I had fun. I tried new things, listened to new tunes, it was a grand ol' time. Here you go. Enjoy.

40" x 40" oil & ink on cherry panel

up close & personal

I had fun experimenting with glazing on this piece. I really loved it. I used a mixture of linseed oil & galkyd for the glazing medium, which worked really well. I first tried using straight galkyd and HATED it. Let me say that again. HATED it. It's super thick and sticky and annoying and doesn't blend properly and and and i'm done whining now. Luckily, you don't start glazing until the other layers are completely dry, so wiping it all off was a cinch. Then I tried linseed and oil and it melted my heart. So buttery and lovely. It really did the trick in smoothing out brush strokes. I ended up mixing it with a bit of the galkyd to give it more of a glossy/glazed finish. Anyway. Did about 3 or so layers of glaze on the face which was a lot of fun. I did some glazing on the body too, but not as much as I would have liked. But, like I said, couldn't look at it anymore ;)

You can see the glossyness of it here. But it's also difficult to get a good photo of it, as gloss LOVES to reflect light in all the wrong places ;)

Also, here is an update on some upcoming shows I'll be partcipating in (most are in the bay area):

November 4th - 4707 Telegraph, Oakland, CA 

December 4th, 2010 - Mezzanine, San Francisco, CA

December 2010 - 111 Minna, San Francisco, CA

Dec 2010, @ 323East Gallery, Royal Oak, MI

January 7th 2010 - C.A.V.E Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

January 2010 - Vessel, San Francisco, CA

Okay dearies, have a LOVELY Halloween! Don't get in to too much trouble. Or do. Whatever. 

Can't wait to show you my next piece I started. Get ready for Ophelia's evil twin pirate mermaid sister ;)

xoxxoxoxox

Charms

facebook giveaway + work in progress pic

Hello my dearies I'm hosting another print giveaway on my facebook fanpage. You know the drill ;)
(leave a comment on this picture and I'll pick a winner on Wednesday)

On another note, I haven't been keeping up with blogging lately, I've been painting like a maniac and traveling a little bit. But now I'm home and ready to finish up this piece. I have like 30249 paintings in my head that I can't wait to do!!!

xoxo
C

Feathers and skulls - work in progress

40" x 40" oil on wood
Aztec-inspired woman. (yes, she's modeled after the beautiful Adriana Lima). Dang, those Brazilians! Sooo gorgeous. But of course she'll be covered in tattoos when I'm done with her ;) I've also been playing with the idea of using some gold leaf on this piece, Klimt has inspired me..
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On another note, I'm putting together an F.A.Q post. I've been getting a lot of the same questions about my wood painting techniques so I figured I'd put all the answers in one place. What other sort of (art-related) questions would you like to see answered?


And prints of Boat Shoulders will be in my shop by Thursday, stay tuned ♡

xo,
C

The 50 States! - New Mexico

She's finished!

(click image to see it larger)

Alright, so for New Mexico, I went with the obvious Native American theme. 

The little red symbol as pictured on her arm and on the headdress is what's found on the New Mexico state flag. Even though their state bird is the adorable Roadrunner, there just wasn't a place for him. Sorry little guy!

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My streak of feeling highly unproductive is over (for the moment). Which state shall I do next??

Love,

Charmaine

 

Lace & C4 Explosives Part 2

 

A major advantage of C-4 is that it can easily be molded into any desired shape.


35mm Mamiya/Sekor, the previous post was digital.

Lace & C4 Explosives

Lavender, Velvet, Lace, C4 Explosives, Cold Hands, Honey, Wooden Rings, Black Construction Paper, 

Cindy & Guilty, Orange Peels, Salt Water, Lizzy In A Tree, Norway, Trash Bins

This Is When I Can't Remember If I'm Dreaming Or Not