Portrait Society of Canada - Miracle of the Portrait Gala

Last night was the gala and award ceremony for the Portrait Society of Canada's Miracle of the Portrait. I am so excited to announce that my painting "Craig" won third prize in the competition! Here are some photos from the night that were taken by my sister, Jessica Gordon. (best sister in the world, and best illustrator too:)












Typical Kristy shot - it's me in the bathroom before we make our big entry



























receiving my prize:)














This is a crazy shot. Jessica's the best photographer ever:)

























me and Juan Martinez talking to Theresa Kowall-Shipp and Susan Tonna from Star Portraits during the gala

























standing by the painting Yuqi had done in Santa Fe, but brought up for the conference.













Me with master painter Yuqi Wang:)















































































the award winners (left to right Marina Dieul, Mahmoud Meraji, Katherine Stone, and me)
































The top finalists




































Here's a photo of all the judges. From left to right - Juan Martinez, Marjorie Morton, Gwenneth Barth, Morton Harris, Irena Korosec, Yuqi Wang, Veronica Tsyglan, Dan Thompson

Portrait Society of Canada's 2008 International Portrait Competition

I am so excited to announce that my painting "Craig" is a top finalist in the Portrait Society of Canada's 2008 International Portrait Competition. It will be displayed throughout the conference which run from Dec 4-7 at the Toronto Centre for the Art, and the award ceremony is on Dec 6th. Hope to see some of you there!


















"Craig," oil on panel, 12.5 x 9.5 inches

Star Portraits

Woo hoo! I've been given permission to reveal some details about something that I'm involved with... Star Portraits! It's a new TV show that's being produced by PTV Productions Inc. for Bravo!, and will air in the fall of 2009! It combines the art of portraiture with celebrity biography. Each episode is hosted by Louise Pitre, and three different artists paint a well-known Canadian celebrity in each one. I had the honour of painting Enrico Colantoni, an actor who has appeared in movies and television shows like Friday the 13th, Law and Order and sooo many others including the new television series, Flashpoint.

Video From my Solo Opening Night

My Solo Show at Artguise

Last Friday was the vernissage for my solo exhibition at Artguise Gallery in Ottawa. It was a great success and there was a wonderful turnout. The show runs until October 22nd.

MY SHOW OPENS TOMORROW AT ARTGUISE GALLERY

My solo exhibition opens at 7:30 tomorrow (and runs October 3rd to 22nd) at Artguise Gallery, 590 Bank Street in Ottawa, ON. Here's a video preview of the show! I hope to see you all there!

"Majesty" in Canadian Brushstroke Magazine

The Brushstroke Magazine that my painting, "Majesty," is featured in is out, and you can download it here (it's on page 9):

HIGH RESOLUTION VERSION of Sept/Oct issue of CANADIAN BRUSHSTROKE MAGAZINE, 7.6 MB:


LOW RESOLUTION VERSION of Sept/Oct issue of CANADIAN BRUSHSTROKE MAGAZINE, 1.7 MB:

My Solo Show is Coming Up

My solo exhibition of over 25 figurative paintings opens October 3rd from 7:30pm - 10:30pm at Artguise Gallery on Bank Street in Ottawa, ON. For more information you can contact Artguise Gallery at 613-228-3803.

Guerilla #17

Eee! The article in Guerilla Magazine is out, and I'm on the cover of the printed mag! Here's a link to the online magazine article about my work, written my Tony Martins. Also, below are some pics from the launch event which was on Friday the 12th at the Enriched Bread Artists Studios. I wasn't able to attend (because this really exciting thing that is in the works, but has to remain a secret right now, was rescheduled to take place on the 12th) but I had nine paintings displayed at the Guerilla launch, and it looks like it was a super fun night!

My painting, "Graciela" and copies of Guerilla #17 at the launch.

The Official Invite to GuerillaLIVE #17!

Here's the the official invite to the launch event for Guerilla #17 in print and online. It'll take place September 12th in Ottawa at the Enriched Bread Artists Studios (951 Gladstone) I'm going to have about ten paintings displayed at the event, and an article in the magazine:)

"The Animator"

I just finished this painting for my solo show, which is going to be at Artguise this October (Oct3rd - 22nd) It's the second last one I have to get done for the show! It's of everybody's favorite animator,
Nick Cross:)

















"The Animator," oil on linen, 12 x 10 inches

"Majesty" in Canadian Brushstroke Magazine

I just found out that one of my landscape paintings, "Majesty," is on the short-list of finalists in Canadian Brushstroke Magazine and it will be featured in the next issue, when it is released in the second week of September!

They asked me to write a little bit about my inspiration for it, and here's what I wrote:

The light blasting through the clouds is what really caught my attention. The softness of the trees in the distance, and the movement of the water seemed to compliment it so well. I titled it Majesty because of the way that skies like this can hold us in awe of their magnificence.













Majesty 36 x 48 inches, acrylic on canvas

Ren and Stimpy Thumbnails and BG's

Hey guys, Just wanted to let y'all know that some of the thumbnails and backgrounds that I did for Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoons, have just been posted online for the first time ever on Jason Anders' FULLE CIRCLE PRODUCTIONS

The 2 x3 inch thumbnails have notes beside them about what Johnny wanted me to change about them, and some of them even have notes about what reference I used for the colours. I was using the colours from magazine photos that we had selected with Johnny, and was trying out different styles, mediums, and application of paint. Some of them were done in cell paints, and some with inks and watercolour dyes and stuff:) Anywayyy, enjoy!

oh, and here's a taste of what he's got up there...

I started out in cell paint, without any idea of the technique I was going to go with...









...Then I tried doing the sky, distant buildings, streets and stuff in dyes, like Dr. Martin's water colour dyes, and the foreground stuff (sign, mailbox and telephone pole) in cell paints...
















...which is a technique I ended up going with for most of the show (combining dyes and cell paints in my BG's). I also designed the colours of Ren for certain scenes in the show, like this one (Chris Wallace did most of the character colour design though:)


See more on Jason Anders' FULLE CIRCLE PRODUCTIONS

Finalist in The Artist's Magazine 25th Annual Art Competition

My painting, “Woman in Dress” is a Finalist in The Artist's Magazine 25th Annual Art Competition. The finalists’ names will be published in the December 2008 issue of The Artist's Magazine, and thirteen finalists will be featured in The Artist's Magazine's 2009 Calendar.

Jeremy Lipking Workshop

Woowowowowowooww! I just got back from New York, where I had the pleasure of being teacher's assistant to Jeremy Lipking at the Grand Central Academy for his workshop there! The whole trip was just totally DREAAMMYYY! I love New York, and Jeremy and my pal, Amid Amidi, who was nice enough to let me stay at his place for the week and take me to some vegan-friendly restaurants! But yeah, the workshop was CRAZZYYY awesome!! I can't believe how much I learned, and watching Jeremy paint was just such a treat!!! We spent the whole first day watching him paint, then we did two paintings in the remaining four days, alongside him, so we could watch him paint whenever we wanted to! And the critiques that he gave were sooo helpful! Yeah, wow! THANK YOU JEREMY! Oh, and I even got a chance to go to the Met with Yuqi Wang, and check out the Turner exhibit there! Fun! Fun! Funnnnnnn!!!! That's it, I'm moving to New York as soon as I can!!!



















Stephanie Profile, oil on panel, 8 x 7 inches



















Stephanie, oil on panel, 12 x 9 inches

Portrait Workshop Demo

Last week I taught a three day portrait painting workshop here in my studio. We all really enjoyed painting the wonderful model, Ella Rose. Here's the demo that I did during it:)

DAY 1
Block in with Burnt Umber
Using oily, viscous paint, thinned with linseed oil, I marked in the basic proportions first. Measuring the proportions to get the drawing accurate, I compared the width to the height of the head, and marked in thirds from the chin to the bottom of the nose, bottom of the nose to eyebrows, and eyebrows to forehead, noting that on her, the forehead measured a bit smaller then the first two. Then, I blocked in the big forms and shadows in Burnt Umber. By “drawing with the shadows” I was able to judge the placement of the features quickly and accurately just by judging the shapes and distances of the shadow patterns on her face.



DAY 2
Shadow Colour and Form Block In
First I put down a large area of skin colour in the light area of the face, covering over the drawing lines entirely that were in the light side of the face (but they still show through a bit, and I can wipe it with a rag to see them more if I want to). Then I blocked in the shadow side, and started to describe the larger, overall forms, like the egg shape of the head.

I blocked in a loose background, in a very direct fashion, with my 1” Langnickel brush, and tried not to mess with it. I wasn’t sure if I would leave it like this or work with it more later. I also started to block in the placement of the shirt. I really wanted to keep the painting of the shirt loose and direct, so I didn’t take it too far at this stage. I also blocked in the hair with my Langnickel brushes, mostly just establishing the overall shape of the hair, and making sure that it is not too bright on the right side (the shadow side) or at the edges (so that the hair will turn around the form).

DAY 3
Refinements
Initially, her face felt too wide to me, but it kept measuring correctly. When I started to darken the edges of both the light and shadow sides, making the sides of the jaw wrap around the form, her face started to feel like it was the right proportions. I continued to define the the face and hair, leaving the background and shirt alone for a while. I worked on the features some more, and the overall form of the face. I described the planes of the forehead, and softened the hairline. This day was focused on making things look like the actual textures, so making the hair, skin and cloth all feel like the textures that they are. At this stage I was thinning my paint a with a bit more linseed oil. I loosely blocked in the shirt, trying to keep in loose and direct, with some thick, impasto whites, to help it stand out from the background. I decided not to change the background much from here, since I liked the way it was working with her shirt. I only painted into it where it was necessary as I was painting the figure next to it, like in areas of the hair and shoulders.