Calling on Influences

I recently came across the work of Josie Morway and felt an immediate spark. She has the same love of found materials and the same ability to get lost in layers of feathers. She also complements her portraits with graphically influenced backgrounds. Only where I use Arabic calligraphy inspired lines she draws upon Typeface and lettering. I just love the softness she has achieved in this piece.

"The Beneficiaries of my Doubt"
Josie Morway - Oil on Wood

"Overlap"
Audrey Kawasaki - Oil & Graphite on Wood

Then of course there is the work by one of my original influences, Audrey Kawasaki. It was through a love of her work that I came across the oil on wood technique that I use in my own work. Audrey's work introduced me to the magic of sealing the wood with a clear acrylic polymer before painting in thin oil glazes. This allows the wood grain of the support to fully show through and in my case, be left exposed all together.

Tonight I'm excited to get to go see the work of one of my new favorite influences, Kelly Vivanco. Her solo show, featuring mainly new works on round panels, opens tonight at Halogen Gallery here in Belltown.

Having been someone who used to work in the round I'm excited to get to see what Kelly has done with her compositions. Her style of wide-eyed girls isn't necessarily an influence for me but her prolificy IS. (At least I WANT to be influenced by such!) Maybe it is just because she works in acrylic rather than oils but my oh my does Kelly put a lot of work out there. And her style is consistently hers every time with a sense of whimsy, fairytale and dream. Can't wait to see the show tonight!

"Pears"
Kelly Vivanco - Acrylic on Panel

Bearded Guy and Beautiful Pigeons

What oh what has Rekoj been up to?

Turning pigeons into art tis what!

The super fun play of oil painting on wood that I described last week has now evolved into my favorite medium. The oil just glides and blends into the wood with a perfection and smoothness that I always fought for on canvas. All I got to say is Buh-Bye Canvas and thanks to Audrey Kawaski!

The painting is titled "See-Line Woman Dressed in Blue" taken from the Nina Simone song. It's about 12 x 15ish.
Last week, I watched out the window of work a pigeon dive off the roof of a neighboring building. That brief flash of flight was enough to spark the desire to paint it that night. So I layed out the sketch of bird and then blended in layers and layers of oil over the week to form the prettiest little pigeon I'd ever seen. The blue lines completely embrace my Rekoj tendencies and fall into the series idea I want to continue - To combine the Rekoj line drawings that I've been doodling on clothing all this time into my oil paintings that I have kept completely separate and sporadic.

At least for now, I've found the calling of my muse. I can barely keep up with her!

And here to the right is finally, as promised, a picture of the painting I referred to in my last post.

This bearded fella is done using the same method of oil on wood as influenced by Audrey Kawaski. Does he look like one of her lovely beauties? Nope. This guy is entirely my own. Actually, I believe that he was already living in this chunk of wood anyways before I came along and pulled him out.
"God of Love Caught in a Mousesuit" 15x12ish, oil on found wood.