Destinations Show at the Stained Glass Garden

I just finished this. Done as a tribute to Dan, a badass security guard I worked with. He was commissioning me to do a lighthouse in stained glass. He died of a heartattack before we could get to it. I submitted it to the Stained Glass Garden and got accepted into their Destinations show. The Stained Glass Garden is at 1800 Fourth Street in Berkeley, California. The show opening is this Friday from 5-7pm. It’s up for the month of February. Come out and see me if you’re local.

What I did on Christmas

I started this in the mid 90’s. I’ve kept it for years. Just pulled it out of storage and started working on it again. I’m taking a break from painting and drawing. I’ve decided to end the year hand sewing. It’s made of clothes I loved to death. It was a way to keep some of the fabric that I’ve loved over the years.

MIA – East Bay Artist Book

I haven’t been on here in a really long time. Just figured out how to reach my blog and dealing with the new format. I’m posting this image because I just got accepted to the East Bay Artist 2022 Book. This is titled “How I feel about people”. I work as a Security Guard at the Oakland Museum. Dealing with the general public inspired this piece. It’s oil on canvas. My roommate told me that hands are hard to do and that I was actually good at them. So I challenged myself with painting a bunch of hands.

Baroque Collection

VIDA included my work in their Baroque Collection. The scarf is mine and so is the bag. You can view the collection at:

https://shopvida.com/collections/baroque-collection?utm_source=ShopVIDA_Newsletter&utm_campaign=461db12991-Baroque_2018_09_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e43621ed23-461db12991-323974753&mc_cid=461db12991&mc_eid=e13fa0d6c3

Serving Fish

I usually don’t do a full on watercolor painting. Watercolors are hard. I usually do a drawing with washes which is much easier. This is for a project I’m working on. It reminds me of old fashioned book illustrations. Something I have never done before, but seemed appropriate for this project.

Morocco…

Initially inspired by a Moroccan tile that I saw in a photograph. I did my thing with it -intended to stage homes for realtors. I’ve been working with NSD for three years now and only twice have I missed the mark and had to repaint something. When I showed them this, they said “maybe it could work, we won’t know until we try it”. I liked this one and did not want to repaint it. Trying something new is a risk. When I texted them today they said it worked wonderfully. I then looked at the website and found this photo. The colors I used worked perfectly for what they did. This makes me happy.

Modern Cricket

My commercial work is abstracts that stage homes for realtors. If you know me, I’m all about old stuff and antiques. This shows up in my personal work. I love patina, age and character. It is funny for me to see myself being so modern. I’m the lead artist for Nurture Source Designs that stages these homes. They’re requesting more from me ASAP because they’re so busy. I’m not coping today, but I have to be on point and do some more of these over the weekend.

Oakland at Night…

The previous two paintings were out at my studio for the Gilman Art Walk. We had a lot of people come through. Nobody noticed them. Nobody talked to me about them. It really depressed me. It took me a few days to post about them on here and Instagram. The day I posted to Instagram, I had a curator for 1340 International Art Magazine suggest I submit to their Instagram. I did that and then had another curator suggest I submit to their magazine. They wanted four images. I had three and needed another one. So I did this one quickly to have a series. Response has been minimal, but I have to follow my vision. I’ll be posting more about this on Patreon as I go forward.

https://www.patreon.com/williamcricket

Oakland at Night on Patreon

I’m new to Patreon. This is a way for people to support the work I do and become more involved in the process. I’m new to making videos, but I’m going to be posting videos of work in progress for patrons. Please check out my page:

http://www.patreon.com/williamcricket

This is a new venture and a work in progress, so any feedback is appreciated.

The painting below is the second in my series and I recently touched up the foreground. I  thought this would be a good project to take to Patreon and see if I can develop any support around it.

 

Oakland at Night (a new series)

I started a new series of Oakland at night. I pass through Oakland on the way home and take pictures. First up was Lake Merritt. I’ve done two. Originally inspired by a book I read on Van Gogh. I’m doing my own thing with it and not trying to copy his style. Usually it takes me a month to do an oil painting. I’ve done these faster. Underpainting in a day – wait til it’s dry (3 days) – then final painting in a day. These are so different for me, I’ve been unsure of them.