Antarctic travels, and lost paintings

My last post here was Halloween, as the winter holiday season is typically a time that I try to step away from the computer for as much as possible. While it's a brutal winter back home in the Northeast, I've been living my own version of the frozen wasteland, by reading a lot about Antarctica recently.

There's a classic travelogue of Capt. Scott's journey to the South Pole (with special focus on a side trip to gather penguin eggs) by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, written in the 1920s but taking place in 1910-1913. It's available free as a public domain text from all the usual places (I got mine from Manybooks because those are always formatted nicely). The writing style is humorous at times, and at other times gets bogged down in a lot of description of coordinates, numbers of ounces of pemmican consumed at various meals, etc.

One of the most delightful things I learned in this reading was that one of the members of the expedition, Dr. E.A. "Bill" Wilson, did watercolors throughout the journey, some of which have been preserved. These photos from the Terra Nova expedition can be seen at various places online -- I am borrowing a glimpse of them from the Cool Antarctica website. It lists them as courtesy the NOAA. I love the soft colors and the otherworldly quality of these paintings -- they were done under extreme, freezing conditions, with the few materials he had at hand, and that is part of why I love them so much.

by Dr. E.A. Wilson "Scott's Last Expedition" 1913

by Dr. E.A. Wilson "Scott's Last Expedition" 1913

The past few years have been full of "Scott of the Antarctic" related news, in fact....in 2012 they found his ship, the Terra Nova, off the coast of Greenland... and incredibly, one year ago they finished retracing the Scott expedition, a wondrous event I wish I had been following in real time.

At any rate, whatever the reason for my interest in Antarctic (and Arctic, which I also want to read up on) exploration, I like doing paintings of icy world landscapes as well so here is my contribution to the genre for now, "Penguin Peak" --

I made a special trip to the aquarium pyramid at Moody Gardens in Galveston to meet some penguins in honor of my recent interests.Unfortunately, there is not a "swim with the penguins" option.

Here are a few other things new in my Etsy shop. First, a new version of a painting I originally did in 2003, but I wanted to recreate it and eventually make prints from it as well. I don't have hi-res pics of my paintings from that far back, but I also like to repaint, and hopefully improve upon them. "On the Green Moon" is available as an original painting for a mere $50 for a limited time.

I also uncovered some older paintings that I haven't had up for sale anywhere in a long time. I kept them in my personal stash but I'm willing to put them out there, for now....if there are no takers I'll put them back in my personal stash. :)

This butterfly fairy is 9 x 12 and only $60 for the duration of this listing. She is based on a vintage postcard photo but I added all the fairy and butterfly elements.

And finally, a D&D inspired piece showing some classic dungeon monsters taking a coffee or tea break. Also at a special price and for a limited time. I can make prints of any of these on request but I haven't specifically listed prints on their own yet.

We do, however, have some of the most popular prints back in stock right now...including ghosts, banana slugs, cloaked witches and this, possibly my most popular piece...these always sell out quickly when I get a few in stock!

Cryptids and Kaiju

I have the pleasure of being surrounded by some very delightful vinyl toys depicting that most compelling of Japanese movie monsters -- Hedorah, or the Smog Monster. Not only is he pretty groovy in "Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster" but these toys take his grooviness and develop it into a psychedelic color palette of infinite possibilities.

Clear, black, white, silver, metallic, glow-in-the-dark, flocked, and multi-colored, you could fill your house just with versions of this drippy fiend and his glowing red eyes.

In fact, some of them look good enough to eat. This guy below sent me looking for a bomb pop, or some kind of lemon-cherry-blue raspberry Italian ice.

Since I don't have an array of paintable figures for my own experimentation, though, I do have the ability to have some two-dimensional representations, so I've been kicking those around lately. This one resembles the tainted rainbow hues of an oil spill.

"Rainbow of Smog" 8 x 10 inch painting on canvas board

And this little guy just tries on some purple for a profile pic. I am quite sure I'll do more of these, as the colors continue to compel me, and it's a lot cheaper to paint my own Hedorahs than it is to buy up some limited run toys!

"Smog Monster in Profile" 5 x 7 inch painting on canvas board

 

But wait, there's more! Another favorite film is "Attack of the Mushroom People," aka "Matango"...

 

 

I had wanted to see this for most of my life, it seems, because nothing sounds more amazing and psychedelic than a Japanese film from the 1960s about people who eat mushrooms, and become mushroom people. What could possibly be better? It's a bit more bleak and psychological than your typical "monsters are coming to kill us" movie, but it nonetheless enjoys considerable cult popularity, decades later. It also lends itself to vinylification (?) quite splendidly. Look how psychedelic...

 I find this a pretty compelling subject as well, so I hope to do some more two-dimensional Matango paintings as I have time...here is the first.

"Beware of the Matango" 5 x 7 inch painting on canvas board

Being caught up in weird monsters and science fiction also means that I have cryptozoology on the brain. The popular image of the Mothman is particularly arresting, to me. You know the story, perhaps. Perhaps you don't. But either way, the big red eyes and wings make for a spooky thing. For some reason I thought he should have an ice cream cone, though. Maybe it's just because it's summer. Maybe I still have that Italian ice flavored Hedorah on the brain.

"In Seach Of...Ice Cream" 5 x 7 inch painting on canvas board 

Finally, for this installment, I really like UFOs, and since I've already painted them beaming up a unicorn, I thought I would dig deep for another creature that, who knows, perhaps aliens have some interest in. It would certainly explain a thing or two. Right?

"The Plot to Abduct Nessie" 5 x 7 inch painting on canvas board

Loch Ness Monster and coupon code!

I did this painting several weeks ago and neglected to post about it!

"Legend of the Lost Loch" is an original 8 x 10 acrylic painting on flat canvas board - another loosely inspired by my gothic novel covers, but I had to add in a sea serpent because, well, I haven't painted one in awhile. Actually I can only think of one other sea serpent I've painted in this "looking out of the water" kind of way, and I never offered it for sale -- I painted it directly from a dream.


But the real meat of this post is that I have a 15% off coupon code good for more than the next month -- I'll leave it up until the end of the day April 15th (probably longer, I am a night person and I'm not going to be sitting at the computer at exactly midnight with my finger on a button). This helps me remember that tax day is coming (whee) and it helps you if you want a little discount when you're looking to spend your refund! :)