Hello my name is.. Melvin

This is Melvin. He is the first of a series I am starting. Skulls.

3' X 4'
acrylic on canvas
price on request

progress and mess

The studio is messy but here is an in progress skull painting I just began. Only just began. Hoping it comes out like I'm imagining it in my head. Literally in my head. Brain Lee told me I don't need to use any references cause I got so many of them in my head. We all do. And they are all pretty much the same. Considering a series of these, to show that. Any thoughts?

Gruff

This is the newest painting. There is a lot of interesting paint applications going on here and worth taking a look at. I really enjoyed this one because I didn't like it at first and I transformed it into something I began to enjoy. I gave myself a lot of gruff over it in the middle stages. I really had to talk myself out of continuing to work on it. I have a new surprise brewing up in about 3 feet to the right of where this is. Its deathly amazing and I'm really stoked to finish it and share it with ya. But until then, I hope you like "Gruff".

This work is acrylic on canvas and approx 3'X4'

is for sale. 

Just some sketching.

 

Zombie Horseship

 

Here my latest painting with a title for the season. Zombie Horseship. What exactly does that mean? I don't know. This painting is approx 4X3 feet. I used spray paint a bit and am continuing to use splattering for texture.  Here are some details. As always this work is for sale. Got walls? I got paintings.

 

Visitor

 

This is my latest work entitled Visitor. I've been revisiting some old paint application techniques like splatter and spray paint and refining them into my current work. The result seems to be a textural miracle. By controlling the splatter and its wetness, layering it multiple colors, I've created a grainy effect. I've included a few close up shots so you can see how intricate the surface of this painting is. Can you match these shots to the painting above?  

 

 

 

New painting, New Style

I don't really have a title for this yet, but its an all new technique. I've recalled some splattering techniques from my early painting career and combined with the more current styles of brush work I've been trying to master. Using the splatters with a lot of control and layering between layers of broad colored brush strokes create an awesome illusion of texture similar to photo grain. Using that atmospheric effect to push against the composition and the brush to pull on it create contrast and depth. I'm sounding like Hofmann.

Hope you think this looks as sweet as I do.

Jonathan.

New Era Introducing: the muskrat hat

Here are some pictures of my latest project. It was for an art competition by New Era. I was one of 100 artists selected to transform a 59fifty hat into a piece of art. They mailed me the hat and I did this work in two weeks. If it is one of the best hats it will go on traveling exhibition. If it is the best hat I win a 10,000 dollar grant. CHA CHING.

Here is the concept:

This hat represents the clashing of young and old that I encounter here in the small town of Boone, NC, also home of Appalachian State University. It is here that the old-timey Appalachian mountain culture collides with the bright and bold youthful culture of a college environment.  

Popular among the youth, flashy flat bills can represent your favorite team, city, band, or simply be a fashion statement. The flat bill hat to me represents a hat that has lost all of its utilitarian purposes (even more so when the bill is turned back to the side). It is a decorative social symbol.

When anyone thinks of hats and Appalachian culture, the first thing that comes to mind is the iconic coonskin hat worn by our great American pioneer and explorer, Daniel Boone, for which Boone is named. Making use of the natural materials from the surrounding land, the hat served its purpose of warmth and protection.

The bill, upholstered with muskrat fur from the banks of the New River in Watauga County, juxtaposed with the cap, painted in my abstract painting style influenced by graffiti’s form and color, creates a conversation between urban and rural, young and old, historic and progressive, as well as natural and synthetic. 

Here is the competition 

 

the Fifteenth anniversary of the Nth Gallery

Bombstract Pics

Bombstract Promo

abstract paintings graffiti paintings

Gearing Up

Make sure you and everyone you know comes to check out my new exhibit on June 1st at the Nth Gallery. It is going to be the BOMB.

Maxilla

Trying my best to break out of my color palette. Yellow, purple, and green. New combo for me. This was a really interesting iPad sketch before it was a painting. The painting came out looking like a landscape of a forest at sunset/rise.

I titled it Maxilla because in the early stages of the composition parts of a skull were emerging.

On my way to having enough work for the show in June. Be there!

Bombstract coming in June

933pm

New painting. Its small. 14" X 10". The title is "933pm". Working smaller I had to pay a lot more attention to detail to acquire the level of closure I can be happy with. It was challenging, but I have ideas for more similar works.

Hooked

New painting. The beginnings of this painting came from sketching on the iPad. Then I eventually abandoned the sketch and just let the paint do its thing. Its pretty good at it.

Here is the sketch.

The Latest

Thrills


Wiz

These are my latest two works. There is another that is almost finished. Wiz is a sibling to Pinko. I will display them together. Thrills is an experiment. I worked from a sketch. I usually don't do that. I prefer to have no plan and just let the composition come out on its own. Nonetheless it was succesful and I'm very happy with the out come of these two paintings.