Delirium

“Delirium” acrylic & oil, 2019. Lauren Elyse S.

There’s so much I could say about this painting - about how it helped push my practice, my mindset about what I want my work to be, how it helped me further let go of caring about how my work is perceived, and how it gave me hell but was worth every second I worked on it and pushed through. But instead, I’ll just show you the label I’ll be affixing to all these pieces moving forward. I dug up a saucy antique printing block and, well, it just seems appropriate that they’re now a mark for this series.

“Delirium” verso.

“Delirium” verso.

About Last Night

I think the top most frustrating thing as an artist (for me) is when things that usually come easy to you - because you put in years of practice - stop flowing. Being creative is most certainly a muscle you need to constantly flex and condition and even then you’ll have an off day. Normally the drawings I map out for my Touch series flow easily and I’m able to imagine all the spatial arrangements needed without too much difficulty, but this one was a couple days struggle. To decompress before I move this onto canvas I had to just find space to play. So here’s the original digital drawing and a little abstract color play alternate. Now to get this started as a physical painting, take it in a new direction, and hope it comes together with fewer mental blocks.

“About Last Night” painting prep sketch. Digital, 2019.

“Play” Digital Painting, 2019.

Veils

“Veils” - acrylic and canvas on canvas board. 2019.

Sometimes paintings go on long odysseys and come back from ruin - more than once - before being completed. This one really put me through my paces.

tangled

January’s almost gone and this is the first bit of art I’ve done yet in 2019. Adult responsibilities… goooo away. Anyway, you can find prints of this in my online shop. Hopefully I’ll have time to lock myself away in my studio soon and finish/start a few paintings. Here’s to hoping!

Roaming Abroad

I've started a new series in earnest that's taking on a life of its own. It began with the simple idea of explaining how all my work comes together - both as a visual catalog of what inspires me, and to show what is constantly knocking around in my mind that informs the more involved paintings and compositions I pursue. It's also helping me work on what I set out to do at the beginning of this year, which is loosen up my style. Each of these paintings is one brush stroke closer towards instinctual mark making while letting the overly-focused/critical side of my brain rest after doing the heavy lifting with composition. I have to admit it's a freeing way to work. I'm holding myself to as few rules as possible while doing this in order to allow each piece to stand alone and be as idiosyncratic as it needs/wants to be. The only task I've set for myself is that each successive painting must have elements of the directly previous one - whether it be an object, shape, pattern, or just a color - and imagery from paintings previous in the series can and should pop in and out. So this first series is now starting to build momentum, and I'm really loving where it's going. I hope you'll consider following along with each new piece on my Instagram.

I'm calling it "Roaming Abroad" as that's what and where my mind always is, and by you engaging with it you're doing the same, taking time to explore the landscape I've created for you.

"Waiting" acrylic on clay panel

"Where Do I Fit In?" acrylic on clay panel

"Untitled" acrylic on clay panel

"Just Turn Off the Lights" acrylic on clay panel

"Untitled" acrylic on clay panel

Nocturnal Animals

"Nocturnal Animals" acrylic, oil & brush pen on linen canvas panel, 2018.

New thoughts, figuring out new ways of deconstructing compositions and layering that leads to an impossible to photograph painting = another day in the office.

Lately

For a long time with my art I was concerned with subject matter. I didn't know what I wanted to paint, and over the years I've honed in on what I like: nature, mostly, architecture, and people, sometimes, but not in an academic realism sense. As you can see in my abstract limbs series I focus on representations of people and their suggested actions, asking you to look long enough to decode its imagery. Now I've come to the point where I know what I like to paint and I'm trying to push myself in technique. I've recognized I own a duality that, on the one side, causes me to obsess over accuracy, and on the other, an emotive side that wants things looser and more gestural. With each piece I've been working on lately I've been focusing on getting the grander image accurate and the details more instinctual. Trusting your gut is a terrifying business. Refining these two forces that pull in opposite directions is what I'll be working on this year, and here are a few of the pieces that have come of it so far.

"Camerieri in pausa fumo"
Gouache on paper.

"When the Campaign is Won" acrylic on paper.

Meet the Hedonists

Meet the Hedonists. Watercolor on paper, 2017.

Sometimes a commission comes my way by request of a passionate art collector who offers me the freedom to really stretch out and push the themes I've been working in - these are the types of requests I live for. I was asked for a mother daughter portrait in a dreamy format incorporating the abstract florals I've been using in my watercolor and limbs series (I've yet to come up with a name for this series. Working on it.) This watercolor portrait is the result and I couldn't be happier with it. If you're at all curious to see the stages of this painting I've been trying to update more progress shots of my work on my Instagram account. Click here to see.

Patience is a virtue (that's really hard to abide by when all you want to be doing is painting)

Sometimes it takes a bit of letting go. What I mean is, painting is what I'd like to be doing just about every second of my life, but sometimes you have to let life have its way with you. It's been insanely (and I mean, absolutely crazy) eventful and busy since we've gotten back to California a few months ago, and I'm just now starting to hit my stride with balancing everything. Which means being able to carve out more and more time for painting. Thank everything. You can follow me on Instagram (which I promise won't be so quiet from here on out) if you want to keep up with my new pieces.  Here's a little progress shot of some fresh studio work.

California, take two.

It's been about seven years but I'm back in California and I'm pretty stoked about it. Sorry for the silence, the move was a three month long odyssey. So anyway, here's some new work.

"I keep coming back" Ink & watercolor on paper, 2017.

Two Thousand & Seventeen

It's always a good thing when the first piece you finish in a new year turns out to be something you absolutely love.

What I really enjoy about this series is that, at quick glance, it's fairly innocuous. I give the suggestion, but your imagination has to do much of the work. It can be as provocative or tame as your attentions allow.

"Silk Stockings" Watercolor, charcoal & ink on paper. 2017. SOLD