Art for Krab Jab Studio

This coming February we will have some paintings in Seattle's Krab Jab Studio show, Faerie II.

The show will run from February 8th-27th 2014. 

Address:

5628 Airport Way S, Ste 150

Seattle, WA  98108

Phone: 206-715-8593

Email: krabjabstudio@gmail.com

Here is Justin's piece for the show!

A.W.O.L. #6: The Seahorse12x16, oil on paperJanuary 2014

A.W.O.L. #6: The Seahorse

12x16, oil on paper

January 2014

Justin starts with a rough digital comp.  Once the basic idea is decided on, he begins a more defined drawing on toned paper.  

From there, a watercolor underpainting is fleshed out, and then sealed in acrylic.  This prepares the image for the final oil glaze.

And the final framed piece!

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And here is Annie's painting:

Calida and the Diamond11x14 oil on Belgian LinenJan 2014

Calida and the Diamond

11x14 oil on Belgian Linen

Jan 2014

Annie begins with a rough pencil thumbnail to get an idea of what the composition of the piece will be.  A digital color mock is created to determine mood and basic lighting.

A final sketch is created after all preliminary work is completed.

The colors are applied in oils with glazing.  The color is built up over many glazes to create the atmosphere of the piece.

Calida and the Diamond

A short story by Justin Gerard

Once there was a fairy named Calida, who was very beautiful. Calida was a very energetic fairy, who, like most fairies, did not love to work. Instead, she loved to dance, and she loved music, and most of all, she loved her mother. 

 

One day, Calida’s mother gave her a gift. “This is a magnificent jewel my lovely child,” her mother said, “made from a single star, that once fell to earth, and which I caught when I was your age, in a thistle leaf. And now, I give it to you to have as a treasure forever.”

 

It was Calida’s most wonderful and favorite possession. 

 

One night Calida heard a nightbird’s song. “What a beautiful melody!” she said to her friends. 

Then a joy began to overtake her and her little feet began to wiggle. Then her little knees began to wiggle. Then her whole body began to wiggle and she couldn’t help it; she had to dance.  And she and her friends leapt from among the cold clover and danced among the tall flowers. They danced and danced far into the night. 

They did not care that it had grown dark, all they cared about was the music.  It became so dark in fact, that they couldn’t even see.    

 

Then, as the night came to a close, the dancing finally came to an end. The first rays of the morning began to break through the trees.  

Calida exclaimed, “My diamond! It’s gone!” 

And they all saw that it was true! It was no where to be seen.  

Calida wept, knowing it had been lost somewhere amongst the flowers during all the dancing.  And as dawn broke, she went out to search for her lost diamond

 

Calida never found her diamond, made from a star; but she still searches for it each night.  

And if you watch for her, just before sunrise in the forest, you can see her tiny figure, as she goes out and opens each flower in the forest, one at a time, to look for her lost diamond. 

The Gryphon Hunters

Here is the final, high-res scan of The Gryphon Hunters.

That's right, I said scan. We couldn't get the 4 x 6 foot painting photographed at our local studio, so we literally scanned it in, piece by piece, with our Epson flatbed. 30 scans later, I present to you:

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The Gryphon Hunters

2013

Private Commision

4' x 6'

Oil over Acrylic on Canvas 

While the scanning takes a great deal longer, especially at this size, it does at least capture the detail of the brushwork and canvas texture amazingly well.

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Annie and I both have our next large-format oil paintings thumbnailed out and ready to go.  We are just waiting for our shipment of new canvas roll to arrive before starting.  We will be sharing our progress on those soon.  Stay tuned...

To see the work in progress shots of The Gryphon Hunters visit the portfolio page at: www.gallerygerard.com/the-art-of-justin-gerard#/the-gryphon-hunters/

Welcome to Gallery Gerard!

We have a lot of big plans for 2014! We will be attending several conventions, painting a lot of new paintings, selling new prints and sketchbooks this year and working on new illustration series. We also plan on delivering some exciting new demos. In order to help share all these things with everyone we've launched this site!

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What’s happening here now?

A brand new blog!  Which you have already seen.  But on this blog we will be sharing the aforementioned paintings and works-in-progress several times a week, with our “On the Easel” section.  It's a unique insight into what is going on in the studio here. Because hey, we’re giving up on privacy. And also because we like sharing what we’re working on!  

What’s to come?

A brand new store!  We will be launching this in the coming weeks, and we will be offering original artwork, sketchbooks and prints. 

Education!  In the coming months Annie and I will be doing live and online demos. You can see what’s happening and when in the “Events” section. There is even talk of mentorships. Stay tuned.

Contests!  We will be holding drawings for drawings, as well as some other soon-to-be-named mystery give-aways.

How to follow us? 

We have gotten with the times and will be Twittering and Facebooking like real, grown-up professionals. 

Does this make you happy? Angry? Strangely hungry?  Tell us about it in the Contact section!  We want to hear about it!