Taking a Little Break to Post This...

Flowers of Romance
Originally uploaded by Michelle Mia Araujo

Here's the "Flowers of Romance" piece, back in my hands again before leaving for Alpha Cult next week. There are a few real leaves in there, but 95% of them are silk flowers, gessoed and stained to perfection to make them look like they're dead and dying. They are glued securely with E6000, so they're not going anywhere!


My studio is a war-zone: do not enter! It's the real-deal stage. I begin painting next Monday, and have only this weekend to finish up all of the color comps, trace-transfers, and last-minute drawing fix-ups. I made the mistake this week of plunging headfirst into a painting that I didn't have figured out, and ended up wasting time instead of saving any. So I now know to trust the way I work. There's nothing wrong with having a method. Sometimes I second-guess myself, and this is the sort of thing that happens.


But overall, it was a good week. A lot of work done. Seeing the drawings come to life in the color-comp stage is thrilling, and now I am excited to start painitng. Bet this is fun: watch me do the number thing again. We're down to 8 for February, and 15 for April. Again, I'd rather get work done than spend time posting all of my drawings, but I promise to post some... eventually.


On a last note, if you haven't seen Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights", go rent it now. It is one of my very favorite films in the world, and easily one of the best ever made! Pure genius. I could watch silent films forever. Ok...back to work!

Three Shows for December

Here is all the information you need to know about my group shows this month, along with the paintings that I'm showing in each gallery:

“Dr. Frankenstein.” 5" x 7". Acrylic on wood. (left)
“Hester Prynne.” 5" x 7". Acrylic on wood. (right)

Show: “Price....Less" Group Show.
Opening: December 1st from 8pm-12:30AM.
Show Runs until December 29.
Where: The Hive Gallery & Studios
729 South Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90014
http://www.thehivegallery.com/

“A Couple of Christmas Trees.” Lord (left) and Lady (right).
Each are 4"x6," acrylic on board.

Show: “Wishful Thinking,” presented by Project: Gallery and Juxtapoz magazine.
Opening: December 1st, 7-11pm.
Show Runs Until December 15.
Where: Project: Gallery
8545 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
http://www.projectgalleryla.com/

“Flowers of Romance.” 8" x 10" Acrylic on board.
(This one's being photographed right now, but I will post a picture of it with the frame when I get it back! Hint: it's where the flowers come in...)

Show: “Pop Muzik”
Opening: December 15th, 7-11pm.
Show Runs until January 9.
Where: Alpha Cult
408 East First St. Suite #102
Long Beach, CA 90802
http://www.alphacult.com/

Thank you!

A huge thank you to the two lovely ladies who made my day!
Snow Mack, who bought my painting ("Flotsam") at Cannibal Flower last night, and Michele Waterman for buying "A Change in the Wind" from me today. You don't know how grateful I am for your support. Makes me want to paint a hundred times more!

Edit: For some reason they told me it was Snow, but apparently it was (her husband, and artist) Kevin Mack who bought the piece! Thanks, Kevin! But both of you are wonderful!

I finished the "top-secret" painting that I was talking about earlier. I also finished all of the April show drawings, and will start painting them next week, as well as finishing up the drawings for the February show. Let's make the last week of November a good one, because December will find me elbow-deep in acrylic until the middle of next year!

The Largest of Them All

I spent all day yesterday on this one. This is the centerpiece for my show in April next year. It's going to be about 20" x 15." The numbers keep changing, but there will be 16 paintings for that show ( I finished 9 or so drawings for those), and 11 for the February one! Again, the numbers may still change.

Have been slaving away on a top-secret painting this week, also. It's top-secret, because I don't know if it will happen or not, and I don't like to tell about things until they are for sure. So I'm unveiling it in 2 weeks, even though I need to get it finished by this Monday.

Busy, busy, busy...

Great News!

I got 6 pieces accepted into Si-LA's Illustration West 46 competition! Here are my winning entries. They will only be featured online though. The gallery they're showing at this year is small, so the judging was tough. The pieces showing at the gallery are the award winners and the top 20% of the entries.

This week I've been working non-stop on drawings for the big Hive show next year. I came up with tons of ideas, finished the drawings for 3 epic pieces, and the drawings for 5 character ones. Exciting! I'm considering posting them soon, but I would much rather get the paintings finished.

Recently purchased Hanne Hukkelberg's newest album, Rykestrasse 68, and it is sensational. "Ticking Bomb" is probably my favorite track, but every song is incredible. It is the perfect soundtrack for the work I'm doing at the moment. I highly recommend her to anyone.

More soon.

Website Updated

I took some time this weekend to revamp my website a bit. The gallery is organized by application of work now (editorial, gallery work, etc.), so the art is distributed a bit differently. I also added all the recent work that you've been seeing here.

I added a couple more links, wrote a biography and exhibition listing, and changed around the contact page as well. So every page has been reworked in some way or other.

Oh and in case you may not have noticed, everytime I update my website, the homepage image in the frame changes. That's how you know there is something new to see.

www.miaillustration.com

Finally Finished!

"Rogue." 11"x14". Acrylic on board. For the Stan Lee show at Gallery 1988 next year. This one took just under 40 hours to complete. Not bad...it was a lot of fun.

The Finished Painting

Here is the finished "Flowers of Romance," but the piece is not complete without the frame treatment, as I'm calling it. It's a surprise, but I will post a photo of it once it's finished.
This one's for Alpha Cult's December 15 show.

Ta for now!

A Deep Breath

Here's the drawing for my Alpha Cult piece...

I've been working like mad on work for the featured shows next year, as well as meeting with people this week. Lots of helpful advice, feedback, and insight from them. I also made a calendar for myself covering the work I need to do over the next 6 months, and it's insane. To get everything done, it's something like 5 paintings a month on average, not counting the resarch, sketching, drawing, and everything that comes before the finished piece. And this is also excluding meetings, and other side-projects that I've promised to do.

So this is the reason why my posts might come less frequently. It simply means that work is getting done very quickly!