The Painter, Jamie Adams

The Painter, Jamie Adams

April 2025, Digital Render

My inspiration for this artist portrait of Jamie Adams was a diorama featured in his recent show, surrounded by colored lights, from which he could study light and shadow while painting. In Jamie's canvas, the models are standing in water, so I put Jamie and his easel in water for my illustration.

#digitalart #procreateillustration #procreateart #procreate #ipadpro #thepainter #stlartist

Werewolf Mask

I don't talk much about being a performing/recording musician on this blog, but a project I both played drums on, and did artwork for, was recently released on both streaming platforms as well as limited edition vinyl- a first among the numerous recordings I've performed on in the last three decades. Truman Kennedy is a fantastic songwriter- I signed on to the "Werewolf Mask" immediately upon hearing the bare bones demo. This singular group of Americana tunes has a ton of style as well as a sense of humor anyone could enjoy.

Of course I could have a free copy, but I couldn't resist picking up a copy literally around the corner from my apartment at Planet Score Records in Maplewood, MO! In a cosmic twist, the shop was across the street from where I performed my first recording sessions 34 years ago, in the building that used to house Smith Lee Productions. What a trip!

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

G.H.O.S.T. Agents: Rocko Jerome

Rocko Jerome/Donna Printiss (Forever Onyx)

Digital Render, Feb. 2023

Promotional pin-up of author Rocko Jerome breaking the 4th wall with character Donna Printiss of G.H.O.S.T. Agents, published by Cosmic Lion, of which I am part of the creative and promotional team.

G.H.O.S.T. Agents "Apocalyptico" Oversized Treasury Edition from Cosmic Lion is ON SALE NOW. "Across time and space, the clandestine organization called G.H.O.S.T. (Global Hierarchy of Secret Tactics) sends its agents to combat threats with bad intentions- lycanthropic drug addicts, demons from the netherworld tearing into the space/time continuum, and the nihilistic, fashion obsessed terrorists collectively known as APOCALYPTICO."

https://cosmiclionproductions.com/comix-shop-1/ols/products/ghost-agents-apocalyptico

Cosmic Dreamer #2

 

 Cosmic Dreamer #2

April 2022

digital render/Procreate

See the "analog" version of this original character in my Sept. 2020 post.

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. 

The Nightwatchman

The Nightwatchman

Dec. 2020

ink pen, watercolor, colored pencil, & acrylic on Bristol paper  

 9 x 12"

Note: a fictitious graphic novel cover based on stories I used to tell my nephew about his retired Grandpa's brief stint as a nighttime security guard at the local Meramec Springs State Park outside St. James, MO. The cover depicts my own father's witness to the FBI's confrontation with an alien saucer beneath Meramec Spring. Riveting to my young nephew, at least...

Full color prints available: colinshawart@gmail.com

Process: from pencils, to ink pens, to watercolor & 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.

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.

Untitled (Lonely Space Ranger, 2016)

Untitled (Lonely Space Ranger), 2016
Acrylic on Plywood, 11.75 x 11.75"

Barrel of Monkeys

Barrel of Monkeys
digital photo, November 2016

From the Missouri History Museum's current exhibition, Toys of the '50s, '60s, and '70s, this Barrel of Monkeys set piece took on an apocalyptic 12 Monkeys tone through one of the filters on my phone camera apropos of the recent presidential election upset. May all be well.

Untitled, Donald Judd 1969

Untitled, Donald Judd 1969
anodized aluminum, Plexiglas

I never tire of watching people interact with the Donald Judd boxes displayed in the new East expansion of the St. Louis Art Museum. See my July 2013 post and movie on the museum expansion and beyond. Thanks for reading!

BMW Test Drive at Gateway Motorsports Park

I had the rare opportunity to go along to a BMW Test Drive at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison Illinois this past Friday, courtesy of Bullivant Gallery & Consulting in St. Louis, MO. I had such a great time with gallery director Robert, that making a short movie was the inevitable result:

Aside for the M4 we ran on the track, I also got to drive the iElectric Car, and sit inside a $150,000.00 i8 pictured below:

White Rabbit Video

I've kept busy making more movies and taking photos lately than painting this past year, culminating with this latest video of my band, the Good Medicine Revival Show, covering "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane (1967).  To my delight, my band mates came to life when I began recording- Dan & Mary in particular. We laughed so hard and had such good time... 

While I haven't any full-length feature aspirations, and my little videos are simple, I did reach a new level of sophistication with this one. White Rabbit was a learning experience for me, involving some lip syncing and far more snips of video than I've used in one video to date. The Windows Movie Maker is an idiot-proof program that satisfies my as of late spur-of-the-moment mode of creativity, and has allowed me to express myself in new ways. Special thanks to friends Todd & Jill Hampton for moral support, great extra footage & photography, and making it FUN!

Guardian Kal

"Guardian Kal"

14 x 20"

acrylic on 140 lbs. watercolor paper

Here's something I had fun doing-  a portrait of pal of mine dressed as a galactic superhero.  I've felt for awhile that Kal would be an interesting subject, and a month ago I got the idea from a pic of the bearded one peeking through the band on his headphones. It looked as though he were wearing some kind of visor, somehow sparking the thought of our shared enthusiasm for the Guardians of the Galaxy comic by Marvel. I imagine Kal recruited by Peter Quill/Starlord to join the reunited team, using his cool wits and raygun (The Fridge) to help battle the dread Dormammu to the death at the North Pole! Or where our new recruit was "weaned by wolves in Northern Quebec"? So much to work with here, People...

Pygmalion & Galatea

"Pygmalion and Galatea" 2000

acrylic on board, 14 x 11"

Here's a blast from the past- I was using mythology and religion in many of my paintings during this period, sometimes updating the setting and/or using myself and people I know as the characters, rendered in my awkward, cartoon figurative style. I sold a lot of prints of  "Pygmalion and Galatea"  at a little shop called Archetypes on "the Loop" in University City back then. I like to think about all those prints out in the world and who may be looking at them, what they are thinking...  it was a very productive time for me.

In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. His statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it. When Venus' festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at her altar. There, he quietly wished that his ivory sculpture would be changed to a real woman. When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again and Venus had granted Pygmalion's wish.

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

Shady Lady

"Shady Lady"

acrylic & charcoal on canvas, 24 x 36"

$225.00

I think it's fair to say most of the canvases I painted for the recent Dueling Minds show at Concrete Ocean were far removed from anything I'd done before, eschewing my "modern folk art", as Dale defined it, for a completely nonobjective approach. While many of the narrative/story paintings I've been making for years could be described as abstract, the simple figures, animals, and symbols that fill them are representative by nature, so they aren't "pure" in that way.

After some warming up on a few paintings like "Mecha Verde", I started work on the first canvas that would be part of Dale's and my concept portion of the Dueling Minds show. "Shady Lady" was Dale's first title idea, so I just ran with it. This one began with heavy charcoal, stabilized by brushing matte medium over the drawing, as I sometimes do nowadays, leaving the canvas a splendid, sooty mess. Several layers of dark magenta were then applied, further stabilizing the fugitive charcoal and unifying the surface of the canvas in both texture and color, care taken not to completely mask the smeared drawing beneath.  Like "Mecha Verde", it prompted several biological associations, from myself included, when upon it's completion I observed it's likeness to a cephalopod (well, look at it!). It's simultaneously menacing and whimsical, like some sort of villainous Disney creature, and was a favorite at the show.

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