Not Dead Yet

Wow, it's been almost a month... I haven't been doing much painting - at least not of paintings! I have been doing a bit of drawing - including a project for Amanda. You can see it over at her new blog:

Blog Squad Application at Adventures of a Yoga Mom.

I've also been READING at lot of comics - like a LOT!. It started with reading everything I could find by Jeffrey Brown (no relation). Then I read the entire Scott Pilgrim series by Brian Lee O'Malley. Then I read Two Generals and Northwest Passage by Scott Chantler (I think there's a website there... google searches always turn up lots of entries, I've added it to my blogger follow/reader thingie and occasionally get updates... but whenever I actually try to go to the site I get a message that says "Safari can’t open the page “http://www.scottchantler.com/” because Safari can’t find the server “www.scottchantler.com”"...?! Is it something with Safari or my ISP...? I don't get it... anyway - awesome comics). Then I read the whole Scott Pilgrim series AGAIN and then tracked down Lost at Sea. Then I think I read Love Fights Volume 1 by Andi Watson.... um... and I think there was some others in there... Anyway, all awesome stuff!

Oh and I've read a couple Look Straight Ahead comics by Elaine Will and I'm looking forward to Number 3! Or the graphic novel... I'm a patient sort...

There was a couple of Cthulhu graphic novels and collections that I tried to wade through but they kind of sucked... I don't know... I just couldn't get into them.

I have a bunch more on the "to read" pile. Some that I've picked up recently; Motel Art Improvement Service by Jason Little, Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco, and Essex County by Jeff Lemire. Others I've had kicking around for too damn long and never got around to reading; Louis Riel by Chester Brown (no relation), The Undertaking by Michael Hind, the Kane series by Paul Grist (I finally picked up books 5 and 6 in the fall, but I need to go back and read the first four again as it's been over a decade...), and an embarrassing number of others...

There's also a new book out by David Collier, called Chimo, that I'd like to track down.

Ugh... too many comics, not enough time.

Wow... Link-o-rama!

I was drawing minicomics with the kids for a while in November/December, but that seems to have petered out for teh moment - they each did four 8-page minicomics... I worked on a few, but never actually managed to completely finish any?! Hopefully we'll get on that again in the near future.

I have one little project I'm trying to finish up this week, then hopefully I'll also be back to painting critter and bikes and stuff...

Big Brown Bear Rides a Trike

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Big Brown Bear Rides a Trike, December 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 50x40cm

The Firebird and a Giraffe

More painting-presents by the kids. These were for my folks. Keira has been inspired by Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird and it has featured heavily in her artwork of late. If you look carefully, even the Ballerina Polar Bear she painted for Amanda is in a Firebird costume.

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Keira Brown, The firebird, December 2010, Acrylic and metallic glitter on MDF, 32x40cm


Finnegan Brown, Giraffe on the Plains, December 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 32x40cm

Dragonfly Triptych

“Auntie Margie” likes dragonflies…

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Keira Brown, Dragon Fly Triptych I, November 2010, Acrylic and metallic glitter on MDF, 40cmx40cm


Finnegan Brown, Dragon Fly Triptych II, December 2010, Acrylic and metallic glitter on MDF, 40cmx40cm


Tim Brown, Dragon Fly Triptych I, December 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 40cmx40cm

Polar Bears

The kids had so much fun making paintings for my folks and sister (more on that in a moment), not to mention the Cows for Nana earlier) that I got them to paint a couple paintings for Amanda to take to work and hang up in her office.

(Amanda already got her Family Portrait from me).

Both the kids decided to paint Polar Bears.

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Finnegan Brown, Peter the Polar Bear, December 2020, Acrylic on MDF, ~40x35cm


Keira Brown, Ballerina Polar Bear, December 2020, Acrylic on MDF, ~40x40cm

Coming soon on Tim’s Art Blog:

More holiday gift paintings… maybe tomorrow, after all the gifts are given away...

Piggy Rides with her Violin

Painted for our violin teacher... She likes pigs (and, presumably, violins!).

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Piggy Rides with her Violin, December 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 40x50cm

Coming soon on Tim’s Art Blog:

More paintings…? Only 17 shopping/painting days until Xmas – and there were a couple more I wanted to get done… Luckily in a little over a week all the madness around here will be done and I’ll have a little over three full glorious weeks with no scheduled activities. Oh, we’re going to do some sledding… and visiting friends we just don’t get around to seeing regularly enough… but we’re also going to get some stuff done (and for me, that’s going to be painting!)

Family Portrait 2010

I tried to paint this in secret – like I had done with the Small Critters on Bikes. Painting in secret while Amanda was at work or after she went to sleep and then just hang it up one night or afternoon and wait to see how long it took for her to notice… unfortunately, being somewhat LARGER, it was considerably harder to hide away – the small critters could be tucked in a book… this beast… not so much…

Anyway Amanda found out I was painting “something” – having spied the back of the large painting hidden away in basement. At that point I pretty much had to just show her lest she build up in her mind some sort of brilliant masterpiece that no physical painting I could ever produce would ever live up to.

(Remember: click on the pictures below to see a slightly larger version)


Family Portrait 2010, November 2010, Acrylic on MDF, 81x59cm

This is the biggest painting I’ve worked on for quite some time. It was fun, but challenging… Same level of detail on larger painting = lot more work (and a lot more time!). It almost felt like the high productivity level I was feeling just a month ago ground to a halt. It almost did… the last week I was almost sick of it – and the stuff that needed to be done was just fixing up wonky little details… ugh… it was hard to motivate myself to work on it, but impossible to move on with other projects until this one was finished.

Well finished it is. Time to move on to something else…