Passion Project Progress Report (Cover Art for Memoir)

Every day I am pushing my Passion Project ahead a notch.

Working with a world's leading hand's-on publisher makes all the difference in the world, but there's no substitute for taking the initiative on the design side of things.

I've mulled over the design concept for the cover art re: "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" and it was one of those pillow moments that changed everything. I thought, there needs to be some human touch on the cover, not so much the abstract, surreal image of the pill mosaic.

My aim, as the graphic designer, was to come up with something eye-catching and impacting, but also extremely legible, above all else. There may very well be changes yet to come. Thanks for your patience.

And then I thought, oh, how about the "Recovery" mural from back in 1979, when I was 19 or 20 years old? The human touch touch would've been a good idea, too bad I painted a bunch of weird red and blue androids. So I guess it isn't that human after all, but hey, it was created by a human, albeit a human in recovery mode after a near-death experience.

Extracting from the back cover, "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality" is a romping, adventurous yarn that chronicles the life and times of a long-term kidney transplant, and his rise to become a monumental mural painter.
Excruciatingly honest in its scope and breadth, this story shines a light on the reality of kidney disease, a condition that affects millions worldwide."

Did I mention I am publishing a memoir?

A Passion Project of mine for the past several years has been first the collating, transcribing and then finally the writing and attending to the editing of the memoir/novel 'dancing with rejection: the beginner's guide to immortality'. It's a rollicking, adventurous drama that traces my life from the early death of my father, through to my own brush with death and on to chronicle the rise in my fortunes as a monumental mural painter and advocate for patients' rights. There is an early illustrated synopsis that you can view here: Near-Death Experience Fuels Quest for Immortality.

Getting closer to creating the official cover art for my upcoming novel 'dancing with rejection:
the beginner's guide to immortality'.

My latest project is to promote the cause of, wait for it, 'Reasonable Efficient Notifications and Action Law (RENAL)'. This begins with a petition that I invite you to sign. Takes like 15 seconds in total. We are asking for better, clearer, more timely communication between kidney transplant centers and their millions of potential kidney donors and recipients. Please, take a few seconds to sign, if you know anybody with kidney disease. Chances are, you do.

'55 Cadillac Convertible Mural!

I have always loved the challenge of creating illusory surfaces with acrylic paints, including the effect of a bottomless finish on, for example, a painting of a vintage automobile. It just so happens that one of my all-time favorite "finishes" is so-called "Candy-Apple Red", that is one of the classic colors of the pre-nineteen sixties American-Made cars. A noteworthy example of this would be the classic 1955 Cadillac Convertible.

An early shot of the work-in-progress, after about five glazes.

I was especially happy to be awarded a design contract a couple of months ago to create an articulate cut-out silhouette of both a '55 Caddy along with a vintage Texaco fuel pump, as decor to compliment the candy-apple red painted doors in a private Saskatoon residence.

Getting serious with glazing, about ten layers in. 

I am happy to share a few pictures of the work-in-progress with my readers, and also the finished montage. Just FYI, both of the objects were cut out and painted with professional artist's acrylics on "cresone" which is a high-grade painter's panel. Cresone, also known as "M.D.O" or "Medium Density Overlay"  is an exterior grade plywood with a waterproof super-smooth paper coating, that makes it idea for mural-painting applications. In many cases, this is superior to working directly on an existing surface. Remember, a mural is only as good as the strata that it's painted on!

The wall that would eventually receive the cut-out panels.

We decided after our preliminary discussions that the preference would be painted (aka removable) panels in favor of painting directly on the wall. The advantage of this approach is, if the occupants ever decide to move, then they can easily detach the panels and retain their original artwork.

Finished! The panels may be removed at a later date if required. See the advantage?

I was happy to complete and install the painted panels on schedule. Also, I can report that my clients were delighted with the result. It's funny, I had mentioned to my wife not that long ago that I would love to create some artwork with an articulate cut-out silhouette and then "bam", it happened! 

Two Succulent New Paintings

I was inspired by a stunning view...of a shaft of early morning sunlight that illuminated the vapors rising out of my coffee cup. It was one of those moments that demanded to be captured for posterity.

Sometimes an artist HAS to pause to appreciate the natural beauty of everyday objects.

As a longtime member of FineArtAmerica.com, I have been enjoying lots of activity at my site. FAA is an artist-friendly community that reproduces original artwork in a wide variety of professional-quality formats. These range from prints on canvas to acrylic prints, to greeting cards. This link points you directly to my FAA site that features "The Magic Cup".

I have always loved the mystical color violet, so it was a sublime pleasure to create the still-life "Amethyst Mountain".

An Amethyst geode shimmers in the light of Ruby Red candles, set against a luscious backdrop of Prussian Blue velvet.

Click on this link to explore the various formats of "Amethyst Mountain" reproductions.

eduPOW

I will keep this real short. These guys are really on a mission to change millions of lives through their cloning experiment and they were nearly bought out for millions. But they rejected it and wait till you see why.

Trust me, it's not what you think.
Watch that video at https://www.edupow.com/?a=119049 and then you tell me :)

Michael

Painting Class at Dauphin MB ''Watson Art Center'' a Success!

  I was honored recently to be invited to facilitate a two-day intensive Acrylic Glazing Workshop at the ''Watson Art Center'' in Dauphin Manitoba. The class was held in the lovely old fire hall in downtown Dauphin that is being refurbished to house all things artistic in the district.

The beautiful old Fire Hall in Dauphin MB is being refurbished to house the artistic activities of the district.

The class was attended by seven participants who all came equipped with their acrylic painting kits including the signature "matte medium'' that is fundamental to the technique that I teach. The only time I allow water to be used is to clean out brushes. The so-called ''glazing technique'' involves the application of many transparent layers in a certain order of hues to at first accomplish a ''full-chroma'' tonal study.  We set up a still life in the center of the room that all of the participants were invited to study with the aim of ''zooming in'' on an interesting detail that would serve as the starting point and reference for the exercise to follow.

After the glaring white base is tinted a warm golden yellow, the first glaze of transparent orange is applied.

The first step in my approach is to ''sketch" with a transparent orange against a warm golden yellow base what appears to be ''dark'' versus the remaining light. In other words, separating the light from the dark. This process of identifying the dark forms and shapes carries on through the entire spectrum as you will see.

Separating the light from the dark with the initial orange glaze.

Once the participants established what detail(s) of the still life they would focus on...and I encouraged everybody to ''think big'' as in work on just two or three objects ''writ large'' on their canvas...we all proceeded in tandem to work on each successive glaze. Nothing random whatsoever in this process; rather, it is an organized and systematic approach that emphasizes a ''global approach'' to the painting process. This is in stark contrast to the haphazard approach of ''micro-managing'' that is often the downfall of amateur painters who struggle to maintain continuity in a copy and paste method that sees isolated areas of their work being lavished with attention while other tracts remain unfinished. The result is a constant struggle to create a visual harmony throughout the composition.

The first transparent orange glaze is reinforced with a transparent red glaze.

The participants are asked to designate ALL of the areas, shapes and forms that are darker than the golden yellow base. This initial step is reinforced by all of the proceeding steps in the tonal study.

I think the most powerful advantage of the glazing technique is that the artist is obliged to discern the entire picture field as the work progresses. This is in my opinion the most intelligent and organized way to tackle any subject, as the artist becomes increasingly familiar with the subject with each step, while realizing that the entire composition is coming to life simultaneously.

This is the rich effect of the full-chroma tonal study.

The participants were invite to line up their paintings for comparison after the study was completed.

 Once the first  six glazes were complete AKA the full-chroma tonal study, the participants were invited to line up their works-in-progress for comparison and study.

Making progress after a full day's painting to create the tonal study.

After a full day's painting we made a lot of progress. The tonal studies were complete and we were now poised to introduce for the first time...the ''local" or ''native'' colors. In other words, the colors that we wished to end up with to faithfully reflect the colors that our eyes perceived in the actual still life.

Right Hand(some) Portraits

Here's your opportunity to participate in the alluring and intoxicating world of Art Collection. Hot off the press, this little series of four paintings explore the dynamic tension of  "hand gestures" and their attendant symbolic potency. What, you may wonder, is the meaning derived from common hand gestures in different quarters, under varying circumstances and in disparate locales?

Love and Peace...isn't that what it's all about?
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

"Hitch-hiker's best friend, meaning 'pick me up, I'm such a positive person.' "
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

"Is it OK to do this?"
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

"Thinking it is bullsh*t...in a manner of speaking."
(Acrylics on Canvas...11"x 14"...$299.00 includes shipping and taxes anywhere in Canada)

You can purchase any one of these original paintings immediately via Paypal c/o mrgaudet@gmail.com