Delphine

Delphine // La Femme Naufrage // Lady Shipwreck

30" x 40" (inches) oil & gold leaf on wood panel. 

So. While creating these wild-eyed nautical girls, I've been weaving this sort of vague backstory for them; how they're lives are interwoven, how they're connected, how they abhor and adore each-other. I originally was setting Delphine up to be a motherly figure to Ophelia and Aveline, but while the piece grew and developed, that path started to feel forced. I have several other images brewing in my mind, all tied in with their story line, and I started playing with the idea of all of them being sisters. I'm intrigued by the Greek myth of the constellation Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters, and decided to do a series loosely based around it.
So here we have Delphine, number three in my series The Seven Sisters.

 
The model for Delphine is my best friend Morgan of Whiteflowers. She wrote a beautiful song in collaboration, which I would love to share with you while you're visiting.

   Nautica [Delphine] by Whiteflowers

Here are some bits about my process for this piece.


As some of you know, a large portion of my creative process is the conceptualizing stage. This stage is really where the piece is really created, where I take a mental image and start drawing & combining elements together in Photoshop until I "find" it. Here is my "sketch" for Delphine. Naturally things change along the way, but I generally have the piece 90% planned out before I start painting. Of course I count on mistakes and bumps along the way to further shape the work.
I've become so comfortable working this way that I think it would be difficult to make up a painting on the spot. I know I would produce a completely different body of work if I was more spontaneous about it, which I'd like to explore more in the future. However, I do take my paintings very seriously, as they are a commitment, both time-wise & emotionally, so I suppose I save the spontaneity for my drawings and conceptualizing (for now).

 

So. I haven't played around with gold leaf much, so this was a fun experiment. I just sort of made up the process as I went along. I've recently fallen in love with Klimt and love the way he uses gold in his paintings, so I decided to try my hand at it.
After sketching out the figure, I stained the triangle portion black before applying the gold leaf, so bits of black would show through the cracks.

 I definitely busted out the hairdryer at one point. I'm not really a fan of the "waiting for the paint to dry" game. (I consider myself a patient girl, but sometimes you just want to keep going with a project, especially when feeling inspired and gung-ho. Paint drying times can seriously disrupt my flow!!) Okay. So. Hairdryer. Yes. Then comes the leafing. Which is oddly relaxing. I didn't want the gold to be perfect, which is really hard to achieve anyway.

But seriously guys, gold leaf is so pretty in person!! Photos just don't do it justice. There are these really delicate and lovely cracks in the leaf which look beautiful with the black behind it, which you can't really see in the main picture. Also, she looks super weird at this stage. Before I start painting, I like to erase all the extra pencil marks from sketching the figure, otherwise the graphite can muddy up the paint. So all that's left when I start painting are the outlines of the face, etc.


The rest is just clockwork and takes time - applying layers upon layers of paint, until I'm happy with it.

Early stages of the tattoos.



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Well that's enough for now. Got a Jackie Kennedy painting I've gotta finish for a fun upcoming Warhol-themed show! Pics soon!
Also thanks to those who came out for my show the other night, it was fun times!

And Thank you for all the birthday love. You're the best.
xxx

Lady Shipwreck, work in progress

Here's some previews of the piece I started the other day. My best friend Morgan is the model, as part of a collaboration. She wrote a beautiful song to go along with this, which I will share with you soon. I still have a lot of fine tuning to do on everything, as well as draw the tattoos and shipwrecks in her hair. But let me tell you, gold leaf is SO MUCH FUNNNNN. It's super shiny and pretty and half the time I just end up staring it.

 It's looking very Klimt-y to me, guess gold leaf will do that ;)

and uhhh, here I am hanging out with her. looking tuff.

more soooon. but right now I'm redecorating my apartment and there is stuff EVERYWHEREEEEE. I'm not sure when I started spending more money on housewares than shoes, but it makes me feel really old.

Also, I just listed a bunch of new prints in my shop, including Aveline and some of my new silhouettes. Like these lil darlings:

go take a peek ♥

xx

C

Drawings, sneak peek, madness

Hello dears

Perhaps you've heard of the madness that ensued last night. What a glorious city to be in right now! After 46 years the San Francisco Giants finally won the world series. Honestly, I haven't cared about baseball in a really long time, not since I was little and liked watching the Padres, but the past while has been incredible. Some nights I wouldn't even be watching the games and I could hear my neighborhood erupt in cheers every time someone got a run. And last night was absolutely insane. Thousands of people out in the streets celebrating, crying, lighting mattresses on fire, dancing on firetrucks.. (I expect it was a little difficult to be a city official tonight)

Anyway, it's hard not to get all emotional when your entire city is ecstatic. I don't expect the celebrating to end any time soon. Ha.

Anyway, on a completely separate another note, here is a sneak peek of the painting I'm working on right now. Only just started it, can't wait for you to meet her. 

Also, here are a couple of drawing/paintings I did for an upcoming show at 323 East. Doing a few small, affordable pieces for their holiday show. These are both made with india ink & gold leaf. Will be doing a few more for this little grouping.

And finally, today is my honeypie's birthday! Happy Birthday joeyloveybabycakes! (sorry. gross)

(us two years ago when we first started dating. I look so little!)

That's it, have a fantastic Tuesday

C