Comic book pages fascinate me--not merely the art that's on them, but the pattern of rectangles and squares. They have almost a "Mondrian" quality to them. That's one reason I collect original comic book art; I like the way it looks hanging on the wall.
I'm looking this moment at a page from the D.C. comic book, Crisis on Infinite Earths from the 1980s. It was penciled by George Perez and inked by Dick Giardano, two of my favorite artists. The page features Batman and Superman, the two classic super heroes of our time. All this information probably means little to you if you're not a comic book fan, but that page served as inspiration for the painting below featuring flowers.
"Wait a minute!" you say. "The flower painting below looks nothing like any comic book page I've seen." You're right. I said the Perez/Giardano page served only as the inspiration. I was thinking of doing a painting based on that comic book layout, which features multi-sized panels, then I decided to shift it to equal-sized panels, featuring the two comic characters. Finally, I substituted flower images for the superheroes. These trilliums originally appeared in a poster of the Indiana Dunes--but that's another story.
I liked the painting so much that later I did a similar one, substituting images of seagulls quick-sketched one afternoon, while watching my grandson Jake play near a pond in Jacksonville. The second painting currently hangs in our condo down in Ponte Vedra Beach. I like the idea of combining panels and images in an almost quilt-like format. I may do more.
(Earlier, I had done several paintings of running figures, also featuring square patterns. They all sold.)
The third painting below was inspired by a seashell I found while walking on Ponte Vedra Beach. Rose is the beach browser in our family. I can run or walk weeks on the beach without bending to pick up a single item. Meanwhile, she will have collected dozens, mostly polished pieces of glass. But this seashell literally jumped off the sands and into my hands. It was less than an inch wide, but it contained tiny black marks that reminded me of Japanese calligraphy. I used the shell and its markings as model for the painting you see below. It's difficult to see, but the shell is pasted on the canvas in the bottom right corner.
I am halfway finished with a second painting based on another shell. We left Florida to return home before I could complete it, but this too is a motif I may explore more.
TRILLIUMS: Acrylic on canvas. 3 feet by 3 feet; wraparound canvas with art (including artist's signature) continuing around the edge. The flower images were borrowed from a small segment of a well known poster titled Spring in the Dunes by South Shore Line, done by Raymond Huelster in 1928. I'm not sure even Huelster would recognize these trilliums as his. The comic book layout that inspired this painting failed to survive, but I may return to that idea for a later painting. This painting recently appeared in ART COMP' 2000, the biennial juried competition sponsored by the Chesterton (Indiana) Art Gallery. $750
SEAGULLS: Acrylic on canvas. 4 feet by 3 feet; wraparound canvas with art (including artist's signature) continuing around the edge. The seagulls were quick-sketched beside a pond in the San Marco district of Jacksonville. Seagulls fly fast, so if you want to sketch them, you need to freeze-frame an image in your mind, then quickly draw a few lines, because the bird has moved to another part of the sky. I did a number of seagull images, then later combined them into the pattern you see above. Both of these paintings are very effective as works of art. I especially like them and the way they look on the walls of our house and condo. $1,000
BOTH PAINTINGS: Purchase the two paintings of Trilliums and Seagulls for a reduced price. $1,500
SEASHELL 1: Acrylic on canvas. 16 by 20 inches. Framed. A painting that began after a walk on Ponte Vedra Beach. The actual seashell that inspired the painting is attached to the art in the bottom right corner. The colors in this reproduction, unfortunately, do not accurately reflect the actual colors, which are much more muted, much more pastel. $275
SEASHELL 2: Acrylic on canvas. 16 by 20 inches. Framed. Keep watching this space. The painting will probably be completed after I return to Florida this winter. UNPRICED