Minnesota State Fair

"Evening Tea"

14 x 18 in

Oil on Linen

I'm very proud to announce my painting "Evening Tea" will be on display at the Minnesota State Fair! It's such an honor to be showing at a great venue and with so many talented artist. The Fair opens today August 22 until September 2. Stop by and check a lot of great art on display while eating cheese curds or a bucket of cookies. 

Cheers!

Rupert Brooke

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"Rupert Brooke"

9 x 11 in

Ball Point Pen 

I wanted to thank you all for your nice comments from my last post, I really did not expect all your responses. Especially being gone for so long, thank you again everyone!

I did this Ball Point Pen drawing of Rupert Brooke, a famous English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War. Rupert Brooke was not photographed often and there are rare photos of him. He was an amazing poet for his time and even till today. I can't imagine if he would of lived beyond the age of 27 what other masterpieces he would of produced. I usually do ball point pen drawings in a really small format, but this was way out of the ordinary. I wanted to try something different by going bigger. I'm glad I did but it was a lot of work. When building up layers with ball point pen you have to be very careful by not pressing to hard with the pen or you'll get blobs of ink. It was a challenge to build up these subtle layers in such a large format.  I had a lot of fun with this one, not sure if I wanna go this big again but won't turn it down if it came my way.

Drawing and painting are relative, if you know how to draw then you can paint. I approach a painting the same way I do with a ball point pen. Always think about form, and how light wraps around the form.

Im back!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long delay in posting. This spring and summer have been one of the most memorable times in my life. The reason I have been away from posting is because I just got MARRIED! My dream finally came true marrying the love of my life. We first met almost seven years ago in Florence, Italy. I moved to Minneapolis for her after studying there and has been the best decision I ever made. From the first moment I laid eyes on her I knew she was the one. We got married in Pistoia, Italy which is 30 minutes outside of Florence. The villa we got married was just spectacular.

To have family and friends with us was even more special. It was all such a surreal experience. An experience I will never forget. We also had another event here in Minneapolis to celebrate with everyone that could not make it to Italy, and one prior leaving to Italy. To say we have been busy is an understatement, but have enjoyed every minute of it. 

Aside from getting married I have been busy finishing commissions. I'll post the older work in a couple days. I did however create three small 4 x 4 inch paintings for a local show here in Minneapolis. I really liked painting that small and seeing how far I can take it.  Here are the paintings I had in the show.

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"The Butcher"

4 x 4 inches

Oil on Masonite

This is a familiar face that I have painted and drawn before. This guy is the local butcher at our grocery store. Although I haven't seen him lately, so I can totally be sure he's still our butcher. But he has a great face to paint and have always wanted to paint him. Excited he agreed to pose for me, always unsure what the reaction might be when asking someone to pose for you.

NFS

"Mason"

4 x4 inches

Oil on Masonite

This is a very interesting individual I know. He's intelligent and extremely funny. Again it's a portrait I wanted to paint for a long time and finally had the chance to do so.

Contact me if interested in purchasing

"Mustache Jim"

4 x 4 inches

Oil on Masonite

This individual is somewhat of a local celebrity here in Minneapolis. He's a musician, and a barber. Another individual I would see from time to time and wanted to paint but never had the courage to ask him. One day I ran into him at the mall and took advantage of the chance. He was extremely nice and was very welcoming of me painting him. His hair and mustache are obvious reasons why I wanted to paint him. A very unique individual and a pleasure to paint.

Thank you again everyone for tuning in. I hope to post more shortly. Its hard getting back in the routine of things after such an amazing time. 

Cheers!