Time Passes Quickly...

Here we are. It's been months since my last post. Life has it's funny way of setting you up for opportunities where you least expect them: guess everything really does happen for a reason. Painting has not stopped by any means. Lots of great things in motion that will start to show over the next couple months. Until the details are worked out I'm leery of leaking much info, but: ART SHOW IN LATE JULY! Kenosha, WI has most certainly never seen artwork like this. Be ready. It's sure to impress. More information should be coming within the next couple weeks.

Seriously just remember the reasons you have to smile.

Take care friends!

  -Josh

Quick Painting #3: Orange & Easel

This is the 3rd of my recent "quick paintings" - Orange & Easel - 8" x 10" oil on stretched canvas. The blue strap is from my apron that I made myself from some extra denim and canvas (hopefully I translated the denim fabric texture well) This painting took just over 2 hours, time to eat this orange!

Quick Painting #2: Apple

Well, I know I said not every day, at I still know that will be the case but I saw my Granny Smith apple today with a visually pleasing mix of reds and greens and the mason jar with iced coffee that didn't get a spot in the painting yesterday so I thought, what the heck, why not!? So here is number two, my apple and coffee! :) BTW - this one was completed in one sitting under 2 hours.

- Joshua Grabowski

Quick Painting #1: Banana

There are plenty of groups out there devoted to creating a new painting each day (or as close to it as possible). These types of paintings are typically small, simple still life type pieces which they they post on eBay for immediate sale! Great way to generate some money... and interest to your work! One group in particular, the Daily Painters, are definitely worth taking a look at. Most of these artists are well established artists that are working on major works and using these daily small paintings as a warm up! I'm not going to say that I'll be attempting to paint a new piece each and every day, but I think that I'll be trying to "warm up" with these small studies a couple of days a week. Today, I had a banana to throw in some oatmeal with me in the studio, so I painted the solo banana. I got about 1 1/2 hours of work in before lunch, and finished the last 30 minutes while digesting the subject! MUAHAHA! You can see some of the progress shots below. To liven up the composition, I was going to include a mason jar with some iced coffee I was drinking which you can see the outline of in shots 1 and 2; however, I was already nearing the 2 hour time limit I was trying to set for my self.

Enjoy the banana folks! They are basically one of the cheapest fruits you can find in the grocery store and they are so, so good for you!

- Joshua Grabowski

Untitled 5

Another piece from the Reflections series:

4ft. x 4ft. - Untitled 5 - oil on stretched canvas
click the image for a higher-res photo

This piece was to embody more of an aggressive, yet deep and passionate type feeling (at least to me). The colors seem to make a black, but it actually is dark green posed next to rich, deep reds to make the contrast really pop. In my opinion, this was one of the most successful pieces in the series, strong enough to stand alone from the group of paintings; however, I still believe the series works together to strengthen each other (one the very good reasons for creating a series of paintings in the first place).

-Joshua Grabowski

Reflections Series - Untitled 4

Untitled no. 4 - 4' x 4' - oil on stretched canvas

click to load higher resolution image

My series on color studies, Reflections, consisted of 9 large canvases (this piece above being one of the smallest sizes). The series was to created large scale paintings which the viewer can take in the feeling of the color. Each piece was then titled simply "Untitled [1-9]" since I didn't want the viewer searching endlessly for lets say an apple if the title was something like, "Apple Orchard." Somehow we can trick our brain into thinking that we see something, just because we are expected to. This happens all the time with Magic Eye 3D art. "What do you see?" "A rabbit!" "Oh... uh, yeah! Me too!" I wanted each of the nine canvases to speak for themselves. See what you want to see in them. Reflect on why you think that you see the things you see. Do you see dark, morbid images of monsters, or do you see happy, blossoming flowers? Why? What experiences in life brought on the thought process that led to deciphering the images like that? 

I know I keep mentioning that my online art site will be up and running soon, and there you will be able to view the entire Reflections series cohesively, read about the ideas behind it, and even see more progress shots of how it all came together.

-Joshua Grabowski

Star Wars Finished

Unless another commission comes my way requesting otherwise, I think that it is pretty safe to say that my first and only Star Wars painting is on it's way out of the studio and to it's new home as soon as the paint is dry enough to varnish. I enjoyed working on this piece: the texture in the building, detail in the boy, experience (always a bonus/reward with every next painting). Enjoy it friends.

click on the image to load a high res. pic.

-Joshua Grabowski

Untitled 1, 2, 3...

...is part of my previous large body of work created over the previous winter months that I've only shared a small portion of so far. These three paintings form a triptych, which by definition is a work of art that is divided into three sections. Each stands alone at 7ft tall by 3ft wide for a total width of around 9ft depending on the spacing between the pieces. The colors used here are also in every other painting within my "Reflections" series. They were my favorite pieces from the whole collection... but as the proud artist of this great work, I can not discredit the others, which are all strong and great in their own individual ways. Currently these pieces reside in WI but I have eventual big plans for these, as well as the rest of the series,  with a confidently higher price tag than what I am used to. Below I've included some of the pictures of the construction and painting process of these beauties. Custom HTML by yours truly should allow you to click on any of the images to view them in your full browser window. Enjoy, everyone! Questions as well as comments are (as always) encouraged and welcomed! :)

-Joshua Grabowski

Bell Peppers

Somehow time passes so easily between posts on here! I thought I'd share another still life piece. In the mean time I have taken a little trip back to WI, gotten settled into a new studio space, and just been enjoying life. As work progresses, I will always be sure to share the new stuff! Currently I am working on another still life (as well as other projects that pop up). This new still life piece is a little bit "graduated" from the simplistic compositions that I've previously been posting, much more elaborate and carefully planned. Use your imaginations until I share the progress and think, "lemons!"

Delicious! I love bell peppers! Especially of the mexican stuffed variety, and even more so when they are made by my mom!

5x5

As I progress with working with the easily available fruit from the produce section, I have decided to follow in the footsteps of many "daily painters" and work some smaller pieces, in this case 5" x 5" stretched canvas. This is great because I can start and finish a piece in one sitting; however, I find myself trying to paint more expressively under a time limit but tend to work continually until hours have passed and the piece looks more like a photo than an expressively painted piece made of a limited number of precisely placed strokes. Either way, I think this piece is a success and works well for the size... BIG painting on a SMALL canvas.

Look familiar? This is the middle, last row from yesterdays post of the thumbnails. Of course there is more to come. :)

-Joshua Grabowski

Tea Time

Grabbing things around the apartment to put together a still life piece will naturally include a tea cup or two. The green tea cup I used for this setup is my favorite from the bunch of tea cups randomly found by Michael's dad (funny, and very random story). Going with the fruit-filled still life theme, I setup this composition using an orange that I picked from one of the trees outside. I loved the texture from the odd-shaped rhine. It gave more depth and angle to reflect light on... delicious! However, actually not so delicious, since the oranges hadn't fully ripened at this point... more accurately, very sour!

The picture quality isn't completely amazing. If anyone is interested in seeing more, let me know. Also, BTW... as with most of my art you see on my blog, these recent pieces are for sale. If anyone is interested please feel free to contact me: jg@joshuagrabowski.com. Hope everyone is having a great start to the week enjoying the great weather. Get outside to see the green life! :)

-Joshua Grabowski

A Pair of Pears + 1

Since my recent exploration of fruit still life piece has come about, I've been posting some of the results. Here is another piece that I have decided to add the finished still life collection. There was only one surviving pear; however, the procrastination of throwing it away turned into a fruit fly safe haven. When it finally saw the garbage it looked nothing like the way I've shown it below.

This was my favorite when i was working on the four still life piece at once but the oranges have come out to be my favorite completed piece (so far). As I progress with these pieces, I am getting more comfortable using my medium of choice, which in most cases seems to be oils. More to come soon.

-Joshua Grabowski

Not from Concentrate

It has been common practice for artists throughout time to find an idea that works and reuse that idea until it has run dry. This particular piece wasn't created for the purpose of following my longtime-past concentrations of "oranges" and "faces," but since it is familiar working with the subject of oranges this piece called out to me. The color, the smell, the texture, of course the taste - oranges are by far my favorite fruit! When the orange trees are blossoming, AZ is the place to be! Every gust of wind carries the amazing aroma of sweet, fresh flowers and the trees start to bear large, ripe fruit ready to be picked and eaten! Delicious. If that doesn't make your mouth water with orange cravings, I just don't know what will.

A few weeks ago, I was reading up on some art blogs that I follow and found some postings about the use of a "shadow box" to create dramatic, controlled lighting for still life masterpieces (actual results may vary). Inspired and determined to make my own still-life-masterpiece-creation box, POOF, I was a still life junkie. Four piece later, I am starting to use my creativity more. I've also noticed my comfort with my color mixing, medium use and dilution, etc. I'll post more on the other three pieces-in-progress as they approach completion; however, in the mean time, I'd like to call the oranges finished (of course I will second guess this, over and over, including the possible color correction on the blue bowl... but that is just a possibility, no matter how likely I actually think it is). This picture was the best I could get. You can see the outline of my black shirt against the reflected white wall behind me. Damn reflection! Anyways, Enjoy!

Details about this piece: 12" x 12" oil on stretched canvas.

On a note aside from art, I have been able to run consistently without much pain in my foot! BONUS! The weather has been wonderful and mountain side running just can not be beat. Tax time is here (or at least the dreaded due date) and it feels great to have gotten them done in time and not have to have that weight on my shoulders... make sure to stop out somewhere that has "Tax day specials" and take advantage of the savings! Just don't eat McDonald's, it's plain nasty - unless you are eating chicken nuggets, in which case I say GO FOR IT!

-Joshua Grabowski

Dabbling Back Into Pastels

Just the other day, I received an email from someone interested in my "Swirl Sunset," oil pastel piece. This got me interested once again working with this medium. Easy clean up, fast application, vibrant colors, easily blendable (yes, that's right, I did just make up that word). To kick off the pastel fun, I decided to simply make a 2010 version of the original. The picture below is the results from attempt no. 1! 

Vibrant & fun colors. I was using my newsprint sketchbook, and the weight of the paper is just simply not acceptable for the pull on the pastels (in other words, the paper can rip quite easily since it is so thin! be cautious!...or just use better paper!) Since this medium is so "hands-on," I'm left with a oily, gritty (yet colorful) film on my fingers, which now is spread throughout my keyboard. Yay!

-Joshua Grabowski

Let there be sunflowers...

...at least one, so far. After looking at this piece hanging on the wall untouched for a couple weeks, I decided it was time to work on it some more and call it finished! The reason that I started this piece was for the About.com Photo Challenge of a sunflower I found. Submissions take 1-3 days to appear on their site, so I can't link to the image on their site, but I can however share the image on here. Enjoy!

This piece is an 8" x 10" oil on stretched canvas. Yes, to answer your question, the piece is for sale! Inquire within! :)

-Joshua Grabowski

More of the Reflections Project

I'd like to share a little collage of pictures from my Reflections series. This collage of images was put together for a gallery viewing opportunity but I went with another image instead (I didn't think this image showed them well enough). After browsing many sites for hosting my artwork, I think I may have found a couple that offer services with advertisements appearing on the page for their "free version" where at any point you can choose to upgrade for a reasonable monthly fee... I figure, what do I have to lose? It's free! I'm going to try to get these images up soon since it has been about a month and a half now and I've done plenty of research at this point!

I've been working on some still life pieces recently, just for fun. I'll put the results and the works-in-progress up over the next few days.

Hope everyone is taking advantage of the wonderful weather, and if not... get out there!

-Joshua Grabowski

A Rose Affair

OK FOLKS... they are done, framed, signed, ready to besold and placed in their prospective homes! I've been frequenting Michael's Craft Store due to their amazing sale on gallery wrapped canvas's. Something to note, 12" x 24" frames are not sold at Michael's, but rather Hobby Lobby (for those of you that just happen to have hardboard paintings laying around waiting for the perfect, non-overpriced pre-made frame to pop up... it's entirely common, right?). The first piece is from another recent post saying that it was finished and ready for the frame; however, without the additional leaves that were added (thank you creative mastermind Michael, with our wonderful brainstorming-sessions/art-critiques) it was flat and boring. Adding the leaves not only brought more color but more excitement to the piece. Overall, I think it is much better off with the additions. You'll notice my initials in the lower right hand corner of the yellow "frame."

Next up is "Study of a Rose #2." You might remember the original yellow rose I did almost a year back, if not, you can find it in the previous posts to my site. The light source here is strong and I like the way everything came together in the frame. Again, you'll notice my initials in the bottom right.

And last, but certainly not least (as it is my favorite of the bunch),  "Study of a Rose #3." I know I know, my creativity in the titles of these pieces is overwhelming. Try to contain yourselves. This picture shows a small glare from the light while taking the picture (again, credit to Michael for taking pictures of these today for me, THANK YOU!). This frame was very dramatic. Since the bimbos at Lowes cut these hardboards inconsistent sizes, it was about 1/8" too WIDE for the frame, so it is back-set in the frame which turned out very nice after all was said and done but you can't really notice here in the picture.

All three pieces are for sale on my Artbreak Site and hanging for sale inside SwapSmart here in Arizona. If anyone is interested in any of the three, you can contact me directly and I can hook you up with a sweet deal... maybe... 

About.com has been peaking my interest once again with another project they are having right now: sunflowers! It is a simple photo challenge, they give you and image and you use your creative talents to recreate it however you see fit. Since I have a surplus of canvas on my hands, I plan to try out a couple ideas that I have; some are well within my comfort-zone and others bursting out of it. As I complete these pieces, I plan to share my progress... did you expect anything less? :) 

-Joshua Grabowski

^ getting in the habit of putting 'Joshua' instead of 'Josh' to transition smoothly into my new domain/site. Enjoy all the links I've embedded and click the roses to view them larger! :)

Working through the list.

Trying to make my way through some older pieces I had been working on a couple of months back. Let's just hope that I can get these out the door and make some money. :) Maybe this piece looks familiar? (this time around I was using a much better camera than my cell phone...the difference is 5.1 megapixels baby!)

This picture doesn't show it yet, but all I have left to do is sign it, varnish it, and put up a FOR SALE sign. Finally I can cross this off my list of unfinished work and move along to the next one.

-Joshua Grabowski

The First [of many yet to come] in 2010

Well, the time has come to start out the new year with progress! Tonight marks the official "completed" status on a piece that has been taking up a lot of my time since before Christmas. Experimenting with a new medium (drying linseed oil) that I had never used before set me back a couple days longer than expected in between painting sessions, but the final results are wonderful and well worth the wait! This piece is a 24" x 36" oil painting on store bought stretched canvas (I know, I know... time and cost effective for the project at hand, otherwise I prefer to build my own). Within about a weeks time to ensure the final layer of oil is dry, kamar varnish will be applied to "seal the deal" on the completed status and really make the painting shine! Literally! The frame needs a little TLC to really give this painting the perfect final touch: we got it on super discounted clearance price because of some minor cosmetic damage to some of the edges that can be easily filled with wood putty and painted. This "flaw" is so minor you can't even see it in the picture below. The hardest part is over with, time to get the final things in order and get this baby out the door. I will miss this painting, but I'm learning not to get as attached to my "babies" as I have in the past since it is obviously inevitable to part ways with them. The fact of the matter is that I am an artist and I need to make money for the works that I create. Don't know how I plan to create pieces and keep them all while also making this my only job. Ha!





All in all, this was a great experience. I can't wait to deliver the piece later this month and see the reaction on everyone's face! Next up, more oil paintings coming your way sooner than you think! BIG THINGS happening, and it is pure GOLD! Stay tuned everyone!

-Josh Grabowski

Skyline FRAMED!

After many hours spent planning, painting, material researching and purchasing, PATIENCE, and creative flow... I am please to present the final product from my recent skyline commission:



Click the image or here to view it larger. The frame was the new fun thing for me on this project, since it was my first official custom framework job. I finally signed it, varnished it, and let it dry. WORDS OF CAUTION: Arizona is VERY windy and the air is VERY dusty... WET PAINT SURFACES BEWARE! After a trip to ACE Hardware to pick up some final materials, this bad boy was set in place and ready to hang on the wall! Since this piece is a little bulky with the thick black frame being so large, I triple wired the hooks for three times the strength. Not much else to write about this piece right now other than it's done and the client LOVES IT! More paintings to come soon.

-Josh Grabowski