This is one of my favorite fairies from this group. I'll eventually rotate it in to the PRINTS section. A friend in Ithaca has the original.

Reworking a composition I don't like in gouache but I'm using Oxgall medium this time. I never tried it before even though I've known of it for years. It seems pretty cool. A subtle difference from just using water but it is definitely different!

Molly, my GF, had a great 2015 and topped it off with a successful book launch and tour of her book "Drawing Blood" from Harper Collins... no relation. In her mind she thought she was very difficult to live with this last year as she wrote her book and planned all the details around it to be a success. Truth, she wasn't any harder to live with than any other time! Well I wasn't going to argue as she wanted to treat me to a three day get-away to New Orleans... Come to think of it I guess she was a bitch!... and you made a mess in the studio! Is that worth at least a trip to Pittsburgh? HA!

We spent all three days going from food, to coffee shop, to more food, to a hookah lounge, to roaming all over the Bywater, French Quarter, and the Garden District. This was one of the doodles in my sketchpad at a coffee shop. We had the best time and I would even go so far as saying it was perfect. I love that girl!

I played around with it in Photo Shop a bit. I think it'll make a nice painting eventually.

I posted this on my Instagram (deadredfred) a few days ago. These fairies are definitely in an ambiguous area for me. I think of "fantasy art" as illustration. The gallery work to me is clearly art made for a gallery although on an abstract level it could be used as a companion to peak interest for a story or book cover etc. Like most gallery art could. Illustrations are clearly for articles. They might use elements written about to construct an image that might represent the ideas conveyed or pull a small part out to make the viewer interested to find out what the artist saw that would make them create that.

These fairy paintings are in the middle of this for me. I'm not creating them for a story but they are a known sort of creature that comes from fantasy art associated with witches, and dragons, and talking bugs, etc. They have this history, like baggage that you have to bring along or at least address. The gallery world doesn't seem to value this very much.

I'm very happy for the new-ish art scene that still doesn't seem to have an agreed upon name. Juxtapose, Pop Surrealism, Outsider Art, Lowbrow... I think it was germinating in the mid 90's. I wish I had been paying attention to it sooner! My first Lowbrow show I was in was around '05. I had a good painting that won "Best of Show" but I really didn't have a plan. My images were hit or miss.

This brings me to these fairy paintings. This is my launchpad for the next exploration.

Definitely letting my current study of James Jean art creep in. I guess I began looking at his work more closely because I was already noticing similar elements between my work and his and several other people.  These paintings are pretty small and also for sale for any people interested in transitional paintings.

This one isn't finished yet.

13th Hour group show will be coming up next month. This is "Target Pathogen #371" gouache on paper. I put it in this wonderful gold frame and I think it compliments the art very well. Contact Last Rites about purchase or to see any other information about the show.

Sketches and more sketches. I need to hire some models again now that I'm finally discovering the poses I think will work for the images I want to do. I have been using the Canson paper in their multi media sketch pads and they've been holding up pretty well. better than the Moleskine that's for sure.

Gouache study on Canson paper. I treated the gouache more like a water color since I'm not ripping them out of the sketchpad just yet. I thought the paint should stay very thin to keep the paper flexible so the pad can be flipped through. I pushed the full range of values in Photo Shop here. I want to create the perception in these paintings that there is no solid earth to stand on. The tubes and other objects exist with the assumed understanding that they are anchored to something.

This one is still developing. I drew it out on to a panel to paint but now I'm not happy with the image. I may have the model back to do more specific poses for it. Also on this piece I'm going to experiment with putting things in front of the figure to help place it more within the environment.

I'm experimenting with this graphite cake stuff I found at New York Central. It's similar to a cake of watercolor that you can wet with a brush and use on the paper. The graphite works the same way. You can rework it with more water and almost erase it like pencil. I added a little white gouache to it as well. I used a dip pen and Dr Martin matte black ink. The paper starts to bleed a little if you try the ink over the graphite so best to get all the drawing in ink done first!