Friday the 13th of October Show, Cuba Fest Oct. 21-22, New G.H.O.S.T. Agent Books

 

I’m showing with several other artists on Friday the 13th at Bake The Studio for “The Character of Horror: What Is Beautifully Scary?” I’ll have copies of my Spring/Summer 2023 Night Watchman Sketchbook, matted prints of new horror drawings, and a couple framed pieces that sold a week before the show- those can be reordered through Bake The Studio.

If that’s not enough fun, VERY LIMITED STOCK of G.H.O.S.T. Agents: Crimson Reckoning arrived from publisher Cosmic Lion Productions and will also be available Friday the 13th Bake The Studio -Officially, my first published work in comics- in 9 x 13” Treasury Edition format, nonetheless! Thanks to writer Rocko Jerome for hiring me for the two full-page pinups I contributed! See more at ghostagents.net

And finally, I’ll be selling my Eichelmann’s Bakery poster, G.H.O.S.T. Agents: Crimson Reckoning books, and Night Watchman Sketchbooks at Fall Fest in my hometown of Cuba, MO on Saturday/Sunday Oct 21s/22nd at Cuba Fest in Recklein Auditorium from 10:00am - 3:00pm

 #smallbeginnings #spyfi #smallpresscomics #minicomics #scificomics #TheNightWatchman#visualstorytelling #supportindiecomics #indiecomics #ghostagents #comicbookhistory #CosmicLionProductions #horrorcomics #halloween

Gallery Event Sept. 30th

Gallery Event- Sept. 30th 6 - 9 pm

Bake The Studio

119 E. Saint Louis St.

Pacific, MO 63069

Patience

Patience

 May 2021

permanent and alcohol marker, ink pen on bristol paper

11 x 14"

Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Boy and Robot

Boy and Robot (Battle Android Trooper)

May 2021

permanent and alcohol marker, ink pen on bristol paper

11 x 14"

Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Batman

Batman

Jan-Feb 2021

ink pen, alcohol & permanent marker, colored pencil, gel pen on Bristol paper  

11 x 14"

Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from pencils, to ink pens, to markers & colored pencil. 

Sayohm the Fire Elemental

Sayohm the Fire Elemental

Jan. 2021

ink pen, alcohol & permanent marker, colored pencil on Bristol paper  

11 x 14"

Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from pencils, to ink pens, to markers & colored pencil.

 

Cosmic Composer

 

Cosmic Composer

Dec. 2020

ink pen, permanent and alcohol marker, acrylic on Bristol paper

9 x 9"

Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from pencils, to ink pens, to markers & paint.

Rise From Your Ashes, Kneel in Your Prayers

Rise From Your Ashes, Kneel in Your Prayers 

Acrylic on Cut Corrugated Board

16 x 20"

Purchase Inquiries: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from cutting drawn design to finished board

Vampire

 

Vampire

Oct. 2020

ink, alcohol markers on paper, 7 x 10"

 Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from pencils, to ink pens, to alcohol markers.

Scare Glow

Scare Glow
Oct. 2020

ink, permanent marker, alcohol marker on paper, 14 x 10"

 Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Benvolio (Halloween)

 

Benvolio (Halloween)

Oct. 2020

ink, alcohol markers on paper, 10 x 7"

 Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from pencils, to ink pens, to alcohol markers.

Cosmic Dreamer

Cosmic Dreamer

Sept. 2020

ink, alcohol markers on paper, 7 x 10"

 Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from pencils, to ink pens, to alcohol markers.

BUY SHAW ART

Buy prints, canvas and postcards of my work at Fine Art America!

Thank You!

Secret Melody

"Secret Melody"  2013
11 x 14"
acrylic, mixed media collage on masonite

Like "Her Night", this mixed media collage of mine shares a setting of opulence, both paintings containing a jeweled chandelier and female in fancy dress. The subject in "Secret Melody" faces away from the viewer, a seeker following song to it's hidden origin at the top of the stairs. I wasn't sure where this piece was going, and finished up a year after I began work on it, the musical staff on black the final pieces collaged onto the board. A lifelong musician, I can recall hundreds of melodies from memory and recite them at will.  I remember the minutiae of recordings in great detail, and feel I can play them like a record in my head. Music is part of my every day, often times enjoyed singularly, no other activity involved- I can just get carried off by it. Naturally, the themes in my art frequently center around music. While remaining convinced I experience music more profoundly than the majority, I do feel that most people have a certain affinity for it, and perhaps even a special melody or two that appears in their head. What song does the little record player spin in your head?

Above: Art enthusiasts stop by Norton's Fine Art to get a closer look at "Secret Melody" and all the other artist's works at the Nov. 23rd Size Matters Holiday Show opening.

"Secret Melody" is displayed for sale until Jan. 11th, so call Mary at Norton's Fine Art if you need the perfect holiday gift for that music lover in your life    :)
314-645-4040

Her Night

"Her Night"  2013
11 x 14"
acrylic, mixed media collage on masonite

I actually finished work on this a year ago, along with a couple other mixed media collages on masonite I was working on simultaneously, before stopping to paint a few acrylics on paper. Collaging matboard and magazine scraps onto my paintings began many years ago, and is a process I always seem to come back to- using found element always creates a surprise in results I don't achieve in the same way when drawing or painting with convention media. The female in tight gold dress was the catalyst for the implied narrative, finding the houses at sunset and extravagant chandelier scraps thereafter to furnish the setting. Her hipshot stance frames the doorway, confidently announcing the evening to come belongs to her.

This collage won the Bruce Zuckerman Memorial juror's cash award at last weekend's Size Matters Holiday Show at Norton's Fine Art on Big Bend. Though I've sold a lot of paintings, I honestly can't remember the last time I won an award for my work, so that was an unexpected honor. With so many artist's pieces on the wall, it felt special to be singled out for "Her Night". The upswing in my 9 to 5 career and other creative endeavors had taken a great deal of attention away form my painting in the last year, but this humble accomplishment made me feel I should perhaps get back to exploring that. A nice crowd of art lovers in the gallery on that unseasonably cold November evening, and I enjoyed meeting new people to talk about art with.

"Her Night" is displayed for sale until Jan. 11th, so call Mary at Norton's Fine Art if you need the perfect holiday gift for that diva in your life  :)
314-645-4040

Fire In the Sky

Fire In the Sky, 2011

acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30"

$175.00

This canvas was one of the first I made for the recent Dueling Minds show with Dale Wilke at Concrete Ocean. Not meant to be part of the concept portion of the show in which Dale and I worked from the same painting title, it was an initial exercise for my forthcoming switch to a non-objective style I would appropriate for the show. Until this point I had only dabbled in abstract work, and I needed a period of "warming up" before taking on the larger body of work to come.

Unsure of where to begin, I brushed large strokes of bright yellow to begin, returning to accentuate the variations where they had dried in an earthy yellow oxide, letting the canvas direct me as it evolved. Orange acrylic was then used in the foreground, after which I returned to the bright yellow and yellow oxide to knock some of the shapes back in. The dancing color reminds me of an ancient cave painting or Native American tribal art- a fitting comparison, the genesis of that new group of paintings born here during a very hot summer of 2011. In the solitude of my upstairs apartment, the wheels of creativity were turning, and I was... evolving. 

See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)   EMAIL ME if you are interested!

Smoke & Mirrors

"Smoke & Mirrors" 2012
acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24"
$150.00

"Smoke & Mirrors" was my show partner Dale's title idea for our recent Dueling Minds show. It was great fun when he would be the one to assign a title, taking me back to my days in art school when SHOE would give us a title assignment in art class- I'd skip off afterward, sketchbook in hand and head full of ideas!

Like several of the pieces for the show, I used metallic paint on this canvas, first brushing thick washes of dark silver, letting the strokes dry fully visible. After additional thinned washes of silver were applied and allowed to dry, I mixed a metallic purple glaze to layer over the canvas, going back to knock the brushstrokes back in with dark silver again. Metallic crimson was then splattered over it all, along with more metallic purple. The result is a softly shimmering surface, a singular orb looking out from the canvas at the viewer from behind the weaved brushstrokes. Like an eye watching from some concealed vantage point, the viewer is fully exposed to the orb, who's full presence, nor design, can be determined.

I think Dale's thought process in reference to the idea this title encompassed was something along the lines of the hazy intent we sometimes encounter among the individuals we encounter in life, whether it be a lover, friend or acquaintance, or even the politicians and corporations that run our country. Those mixed signals can be the product of insecurity, or sometimes dubious machinations- while faith in others is tantamount to earning their trust, it's also important to listen to your instincts. By nature, humans are prone to selfish inclinations, bad decisions,  and irrationality, but I still believe that most people are basically good at heart.

See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)   EMAIL ME if you are interested!

The Process of Illumination

The Process of Illumination

acrylic/pencil on canvas, 20 x 24"

$150.00

I already spoke about The Process of Illumination back in March, but mentioning it in regard to it's exposed pencil lines in my last post on Polar, I wanted to share some more pictures of this minimalist canvas. As I did with Polar, the pencil lines of the initial drawing were left visible on the canvas, then smoothed over with my fingers, leaving the smudge marks around them for a worn looking surface on the canvas. When I felt the number of washes in varying shades if white had reached the desired effect, I went back over my initial pencil drawing, then varnished over the canvas to finish.

As I said before, the inspiration for this canvas was that synapse at the moment of sentient understanding we experience when we become aware of a situation, concept, or inner realization. Illustrating raw, base emotion in my work had become the foundation of my work, but an undefined existentialist idea such as this was new territory for me. The spare pencil lines connecting there at the horizontal row of circles in the middle ground illustrate that point awareness, that connection. I had to resist not strong handling the the canvas to keep it's gauzy nature, and hence it's interior essence, intact. It looks simple enough, but in my recent experiences working within a nonobjective style, expressing such an open idea can be difficult. That said, if these paintings have not been successful in the eyes of my public, the last year of work has been a time of real growth in my creative process. For these reasons, I feel The Process of Illumination is a work of personal triumph.

See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)  EMAIL ME if you are interested!

Polar

"Polar" 2011
acrylic, pencil on canvas, 36 x 48"
$275.00

Like the rest of my canvases for the recent Dueling Minds show, Polar could not have been more removed from anything I've recently done, in both scale and nomenclature. Most of it was painted in very thin layers of wash- first light blue, then metallic gold within the penciled circles swirling out from the two larger intersecting discs, and then several more washes in iridescent white around the gold discs. This was done gradually while working on the other canvases for the show, and was the last to be completed, going back over the circles in pencil, then varnishing to finish. I've left the pencil lines visible in some of these canvases (as such with The Process of Illumination), even smoothing them over with my fingers, leaving the smudge marks around them for a worn looking surface on the canvas.

The Polar title was my suggestion, stemming from my show partner Dale's opposites attract idea in our initial discussions for shared titles. The iridescent paint give this canvas a ethereal or celestial quality, like some astral coupling of two souls. It projects a hushed peace, the smaller gold spindrift radiating outward from the central converging bodies. For a lack of better words it's... well, pretty, changing it's appearance from different viewing angles and times of the day.

po·lar (poh-ler) adjective

1.  of or pertaining to the North or South Pole.

2. of or pertaining to the pole of any sphere, a magnet, an electric cell, etc.

3. opposite in character or action: The two have personalities that are polar.

4. capable of ionizing, as NaCl, HCl, or NaOH; electrolytic; heteropolar.

5. central; pivotal: the polar provision of the treaty.
(dictionary.com)

See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :) EMAIL ME if you are interested!

Interview on The Bill & Frantz Show

I had a great time sitting in with the guys on The Bill & Frantz Show this past Saturday afternoon! Among the topics of the day were:  Bud Lite Lime vs. Miller Chill Lime, Arizona's new abortion law, California's recent Supreme Court ruling on the lunch break law, and my art! Concerning the latter, we discussed my recent Dueling Minds show at Concrete Ocean, as well as a couple canvases from past years- Enjoy  :)

A better look at Lover's Eden & Diver below, both of which are still available for purchase:

“Lover's Eden”, 2008

acrylic & charcoal on canvas, 12 x 16”

$75.00

"Diver" 2010

mixed media collage on canvas, 11 x 14"

$40.00

See more of my available works at my WORKS AVAILABLE page at Shawart.com :)  EMAIL ME if you are interested!