Proceed to the Route.

The past month has been a whirlwind. I finished the last piece of the collection commissioned by a New York law office, grabbed my BFF  (he’s an excellent driver), rented the biggest SUV ever, programmed the GPS (which said incredibly helpful things like “proceed to the route”) and headed off into the night to deliver the paintings to their final destination in midtown Manhattan.

The paintings look rather comfy in their new homes, and a big shout-out to interior designers Brooke and Yiannos of Input Creative Studio.

After the bizness was concluded, BFF and I roamed about the city, having various adventures and seeing many things. Turns out New York is, indeed, just as awesome as everyone says. Since I got back (and recovered from the bronchitis I picked up in the City), I’ve been working on a 3-panel collage incorporating ticket stubs, business cards and my Metrocard. I can’t wait to show it to you and the folks at They Draw and Travel.

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New York, New Yoooooork

Have I ever mentioned my day job? I ‘m a graphic designer in the marketing and communications department of a large law firm. I’m bringing this up now because one of the attorneys I work with recently commissioned three paintings for the office in Manhattan. This one, bearing the working title Le Big One–NYC, measures 42″ x 42″. It’ll be the focal point opposite the reception desk in the lobby. I took progress shots along the way, because, hey– that’s fun, right? I like to look back at earlier stages and layers to see how it developed and evolved– it’s a bit like archaeology, in a way…

So as you can see, I started out layering in various papers–including maps–and blocked off areas with a little oil paint. I then worked in a few gel transfers and more paint (rinse & repeat) until I was satisfied with the result.

But the real take away here is that I’m going to have paintings on display in New York City. (pause to let that sink in.) Also, the beloved attorney that commissioned the works sent this to me via email: “To have personal, original, meaningful work from within the family in our space is priceless.” That brings a l’il tear to my eye, it does.

The Even Better News is that my BFF coincidentally just moved to the Lower East Side, and I’m going up to visit her this spring. We’ll take a jaunty little hike up to Midtown East and pop in to see my work in its shiny new home.

Cheers to that!

And hey,  –thanks for stopping by. Got any questions about my methods and techniques? Ask away!

Want to see more of my mixed media gel transfer art-making shenanigans? Yeah, ya do– click it.

Mermaids Communicate Via Shell Phone

Angie Brown | Mermaids Communicate Via Shell Phone

I’ve been meaning to post this one for a while– and conveniently, this weeks Illustration Friday is swim. So viola!

Mermaids Communicate Via Shell Phone    48″ x 24″ oil on canvas.

This is a commission that I completed last month. It posed an interesting challenge, of how to paint a naked mermaid without exposing or drawing attention to her nakedness. So I gave her something to do– and solved the problem with a pun. Like all teenagers, she’s practically glued to her mobile device.

Her face looks better when it’s zoomed in a bit. Go ahead, click on it. It’s not the best photo in the world, my apologies.

In other news, sheesh, have I been busy, or what? I am putting together a portfolio to try to get into an upper level illustration class at an online art school. But more about that another day. Among other things, I’ve also been working steadily on the two children’s books, Square Dog, Round World and Annabelle & the Bear, and I’m blogging my little heart out for Illustration Friday. My next post will go live at 9:00 a.m. EST tomorrow. That’s generally the time slot I’ve adopted for my weekly artist feature. I’m still sort of random here  and the Square Dog blog, because that’s how I generally roll.

Questions? Comments? Accolades? I’d love to hear ’em. Go ahead– poke me in the comments. 🙂

a background with no foreground

angie brown | piove sul bagnato

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is “yesterday“. So I think of nostalgia, history, memories… I think of Italy. I fell in love with Italy a few years ago, the culture, the language, the art… and one architect in particular. His name was Angelo. He met and married someone else, and I realized that I was just painting empty backgrounds with no foregrounds.

This painting is typical of the work I was doing back then. It’s called Piove sul Bagnato, which is how the Italians say “when it rains, it pours.” It’s one of the last paintings I did in the Italian architecture series.

I moved on.

I’ve been exploring mixed media collage for a while– you can see more of that on my portfolio site, and now I’m learning character-based illustration.

Sometimes, though, I still miss Angelo.