My BFF – 30″ x 40″, acrylic on canva
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Going For A Walk With My BFF
If the art pops, is it “Pop Art”?
One of four of my Pop Art paintings featuring word plays tied together by an ampersand.
Several times, I have entered the many paintings that are shown on my BloodLines Art website to become a featured artist on a mass email called “Artsy Shark”.
My work has never been chosen.
The curator of the contest tells me that I have a very inconsistent portfolio and that it’s hard to tell what I’m trying to do as an artist.
“If people don’t know what you represent, how can you ever expect them to buy your work?” she told me.
Maybe that’s true.
The painting you see featured here, which is called, “Salt & Pepper” does not fit my normal surrealistic approach to painting.
And I decided several months ago to completely ignore her advice. Call it my ‘artists prerogative’.
This is the fourth in a series of paintings that feature word plays, tied together by an ampersand. First there was “Rock & Roll”. Then came “Fish & Chips”, followed by “Jack & Coke”. Now, I present, “Salt & Pepper”.
These paintings are bold in their color palette. The visuals aren’t always as easy to paint as they might look. There are seven different colors in the red pepper and that’s not counting the green stem which has five different colors in it. Trying to emulate the typography on the Morton salt canister was a challenge and though it’s not perfect, neither am I! BTW – I used the old time rendition of the Morton Salt canister which featured a much larger version of the girl with the umbrella. The version that is sold today has a much smaller version of the girl and some of the detail has been eliminated.
These paintings are fun to create and offer a bit of a break from my normal surrealistic endeavors. I consider them Pop Art – not just because the visuals pop, but also because they deal with popular known expressions and give them a bit of a twist. They are fun, playful and when you have all of the paintings lined up in a group, they make for extremely striking imagery.
When I painted “Rock & Roll”, it sold about two months after I had created it. I liked that concept so much that I created another version of “Rock & Roll” using a different rock and a different roll.
So now there are four of these and yes, there will probably be more.
And I will continue to post them on my Bloodlinesart.com website. And if I’m never featured on Artsy Shark, I can live with that. Fame is fleeting anyway.
In addition to creating advertising and marketing communications by day, I also create art by night and have built a worldwide following.
You can order prints of my work on Artfully Walls. You can also order prints as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vida on an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!
A Flying Leap Into Spring
May we all rise above this damn pandemic and leap into the beauty of spring!
With this on-going pandemic continuing to bring us all down, I wanted to paint something that was totally uplifting. That was my goal as I began to ponder ideas.
For some reason, I zeroed in on a ballerina. I’ve always been fascinated by their amazing grace and power as it takes great athletic ability to do the many moves they make.
I knew I wanted to paint the ballerina out in the open, set against a blue sky. It was then that I decided to put her in a field of sunflowers and she would be holding two of them in her hands in mid-leap form.
So that was my initial sketch that I worked up.
I spent quite a while on scaling up my small sketch onto the canvas, paying special attention to the ballerina. Since she was the focal point of the painting, I knew I had to get her features correct.
Generally, I don’t paint too many faces. I have a tendency to overwork the image until it becomes a muddled mess.
The painting began with the sky. I went from a straight blue sky to working in the cloud formations that you see. Initially, I thought I had overdone the largest cloud and that it would take away from the grace of the ballerina. But I decided to let it be and move on to the flowers. Even now, I can see the shape of a praying mantis in that cloud formation. But that’s how clouds are supposed to be – where you can see objects or things that aren’t really there.
The sunflowers were more of a challenge than I anticipated. They needed to be defined in the foreground and nebulous in the background. Initially, the backdrop was flat but I thought adding distant hills on the horizon helped to define everything a bit more.
When I began painting the ballerina, her dress was more bluish which I quickly decided didn’t work. So I went with more of a plum color and tried to maintain the shape of her legs underneath the dress. I actually painted her face first before I moved on to the dress. I used a very fine tipped paint brush to highlight her features.
Though this painting may not fit my normal surrealistic approach, there is still a hint of surrealism as she’s probably about 15 feet in the air meaning she either has enormous power or I’m simply using her as a metaphor for all of us to rise above.
I’m hoping that in the coming weeks, we may all be able to leap into spring. There is beauty everywhere. And it is meant to be enjoyed.
In addition to creating advertising and marketing communications by day, I’m also a recognized artist whose works are enjoyed by many around the world. If you know anyone who you think might enjoy these updates and overviews, you can sign up for my free art newsletter at https://www.bloodlinesart.com/email-newsletter. Also, if my prices are keeping you from purchasing anything, know that you can order prints of my work on Artfully Walls. You can also order prints as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vida on an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!
Social Distancing with a touch of Magritte
I took a surrealistic viewpoint of Social Distancing and this is the result.
To say that the Coronavirus has changed the way we live is an understatement.
In January, no one had ever heard of the term, “Social Distancing”.
Now, it’s the new norm and there’s no telling how long it will be in effect.
These days, a simple walk in the park is no longer possible. You have to go out of your way to stay out of the way.
I totally get it.
But I certainly don’t like it.
Personally, we have been lucky so far, able to avoid the ravages of the Coronavirus. Like so many others, we have abided by the rules, sheltering ourselves at home and when we do go out, keeping our six-foot distance from others.
I thought to myself, “Why not somehow portray this in a painting and do it in what I think is now my own unmistakeable style?” The man in the bowler hat, my on-going homage to the Belgian surrealist master, Rene Magritte, would anchor the right portion of the painting. And in a similar style, a woman with her blond hair braided and in all black occupies the left portion of the canvas.
There is a noticeable gap between them.
They each stand with their backs to the viewer, so that you, as well as they are all staring out at some body of water and a distant horizon.
Though the sky is blue, the moon is out – another Magritte reference. It could be dawn. It could be dusk.
There’s a light on the horizon, perhaps signaling that better times are just ahead.
I like to think so.
When you see this painting for real, it is quite striking. It’s 36″ x 48″. The two figures really stand out against the background.
It’s a painting that had Social Distancing never entered our vocabulary – if the Coronavirus had never come our way – would still be quite striking.
But with this damn virus, it has a whole new meaning.
I hope you all are well and healthy and that we can return to some sort of normalcy in the very near future.
Thanks for reading!
In addition to creating advertising and marketing communications by day, Tom is also a painter by night. His work is available on a variety of websites. For example, you can order prints of my work on Artfully Walls. You can also order prints as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vida on an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!
Wanted: American ingenuity to find new ways to work
We need to get back to work. But how we work needs to completely change. And for that, we need ideas.
Each day of this ongoing pandemic gets more grim. Our country and indeed, the world, was not adequately prepared for the challenges we now face.
Many people are in to finger pointing saying had he done this or had we done that, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re currently facing. But that accomplishes nothing for where we are today and where we might be as a nation by the time 2021 arrives.
We have to get back to work. But the way we work has to dramatically change. Business as usual would be a colossal failure leading to more spread of the virus and crippling our healthcare system for good.
So what can we do? We need to look at how we conduct business and what types of business we should be conducting in the first place.
We need American ingenuity now, more than ever.
Our first focus has to be on serving the needs of our healthcare providers. That seems to be the current emphasis – but the rest of us who aren’t involved in any of those endeavors can’t just sit idly by, waiting for someone to signal “Everyone back in the water.”
Social distancing needs to become the norm for the immediate future in the workplace. Workers need to be checked each day at the door for potential symptoms. Are there instant temperature reading devices available? If not, we need them.
Factory automation needs to be ramped up. Just like Ford and GM have shifted to making ventilators and masks, we need more companies to figure out ways to mass produce protective shields, temperature readers, sanitizers and other key items that could allow retail stores, restaurants and other types of businesses to re-open their doors.
Mass transit is no longer an option. But it doesn’t mean it has to come to a complete end. If we got rid of 9 to 5 hours and went instead to shifts around the clock, that could ease some of that burden. Purchasing tickets online and limiting the number of tickets sold for each stop could also help.
We may need to go to a cashless society. We may need to eliminate personal transactions between individuals.
We need to re-think our food preparation and food delivery system.
I don’t have all of the answers. In fact, I don’t have any of the answers. Many of the above items I just listed would take months, perhaps even years to implement which is not much help to what will take place next week.
But the fact remains, our work paradigm has completely shifted. And we need to find new ways to shift with it.
Sports and entertainment are a huge component of our American fabric. Sadly, until this resolves itself, team sports are out of the equation and attending events probably isn’t a viable option either.
Individual competitions could still go on. Professional golf could return – maybe the players wouldn’t be allowed to have caddies. They’d have to meet health criteria before going out on the course. Courses could follow the same restrictions they’re currently using with no flags or rakes. Broadcasts could still go on with limited camera coverage. That would mean ad revenue and sponsorships could return.
Track & Field events could be ramped up with new restrictions regarding social distancing. Same with swimming & diving. Figure skating. Skiing. Motocross. Bull riding.
Professional bowling could return. Bowling alleys could re-open with new sanitary rules and social distancing regulations.
The key is to get people to re-think how we’ve done things in the past. And figure out new ways of doing things for the future.
We cannot afford to wait to return to business as usual.
There may never again be a business as usual.
If you agree, please share.
More important, put on your thinking cap and whatever your profession may be, think and propose new ways that we can get back to work without further risking the spread of this virus.
The idea for this surrealist painting came from out of the blue
“Out Of The Blue” – 30″ x 40″, acrylic on canvas A spiral staircase rises out of the ocean with a woman in a long, red dress standing atop it.
Generally, right about the time I’m finishing up a painting, my mind begins to churn over the basic question, “What will I paint next?”
For artists who paint abstract images or focus on landscapes or portraits, perhaps the answer to that question isn’t quite as wide-ranging compared to what I choose to do.
For me, you have to have an idea in mind before you begin the painting process. And that idea might lead me anywhere.
Sometimes, different visuals will pop into my head. They’re totally random thoughts but if I find myself going back to the same one, I generally pursue it.
So for some odd reason, I had a spiral staircase in my head. I had done a painting before featuring a spiral staircase and I didn’t want to repeat myself.
Yet the image persisted.
So I looked for some spiral staircase reference material and came across a rather unique looking one where the steps appear to be free-floating, anchored down by three different beams at the top, middle and bottom of the staircase.
I liked it. But then, what to do with it? In the previous painting involving a spiral staircase, it rose out of the clouds and there on top of it was the man in the bowler hat.
I knew that wasn’t a solution. So then I thought, what if it rises out of the water in the middle of nowhere?
I sketched it out and liked the starkness of the image. So I committed to the concept and sketched it out on the canvas. And with this painting, I decided a woman should be standing at the top, looking out on the horizon. And why not have her in a long, red dress, just to add a little drama to the scenario?
It wasn’t much of a sketch. Just the staircase, the woman and the shape of a few puffy clouds.
I started in on the sky and as I was creating it, I really liked its blueness, knowing that there would be even more blue to come with the sea. When it came time for the ocean, it was done in different shades of blue, using five different blues overall.
All that blue was overwhelming. Which is when the title for the painting came to me, “Out Of The Blue”.
The spiral staircase rises up from out of the blue.
The woman is standing atop it, seemingly from out of the blue.
It’s a very simplistic, yet powerful visual.
Perhaps, in this, ‘Year of the Woman’, it represents women’s ability to rise up, seemingly from out of nowhere. Maybe she’s waiting for her ship to come in. Or maybe it’s a melancholy look at singularity.
Its beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
In addition to creating advertising and marketing communications by day, I love to paint at night. If you’d like to receive regular updates about my paintings, you can sign up for my free newsletter: http://tblood.faso.com/email-newsletter
Also, if my prices are keeping you from purchasing anything, know that you can order prints of my work on Artfully Walls. You can also order prints as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vidaon an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me onInstagram to see work in progress from start to finish!
Artfully Walls gives my painting exposure a big boost
For the next few days, visitors to Artfullywalls.com will see this upon arriving at the site.
As most of you know, when I’m not creating advertising and marketing communications, I also have a passion for painting.
If you’ve ever seen any of my work, it’s quite obvious that the paintings I do are a little off the wall.
Most people like the work, but they don’t necessarily envision my paintings adorning the walls of their home or business.
So I was thrilled to receive an email this morning from an e-commerce website called Artfully Walls promoting some of my work as their Featured Artist of the week. You can view the email that will also take you to my page on their website here: https://mailchi.mp/artfullywalls/featured-artist-tom-blood?e=beb13f45f0
I have had some success over the past year selling prints on Artfully Walls. I’m hoping that this promotion created by Artfully Walls will lead to a few more.
If nothing else, I am getting a lot of free exposure to my work. I am guessing that the Artfully Walls email list goes out to more than 100,000 people.
That dwarfs the living daylights out of my newsletter email list – it’s still under 100 people. So the email I received is a definite brand-building boost.
I’m hoping for continued growth as an artist in 2020 as my on-going goal is to get better with each painting that I do. Of course, the same applies with all of my advertising and marketing efforts – you’ve got to keep learning, keep expanding and always continue to try and get better.
I have been blessed to be able to successfully pursue both of these endeavors – and I love doing what I do which is essentially use my creative talents in as many ways as I can.
So if you’re not in need of any advertising or marketing communications help, perhaps an off the wall print from Artfully Walls would suffice instead.
Happy New Year!
If you know anyone who would like to learn more about my artistic pursuits, please invite them to sign up for my free newsletter. And if you haven’t, please do!
Also, if my prices are keeping you from purchasing anything, know that you can order prints of my work on Artfully Walls. You can also order prints as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vidaon an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me onInstagram to see work in progress from start to finish!
And Then There Were Two
“Rock & Roll”, “Fish & Chips” and “Jack & Coke” – art that pops makes it Pop Art!
The three paintings shown above are a rather dramatic departure from my surrealistic style. I believe they would fall into the category of ‘Pop Art’.
The idea behind them originates from yet another departure I took almost 40 years ago with what I called ‘stick paintings’. That’s where I would smother the canvas in paint and then literally ‘stick’ objects into the paint. The first one I ever created was also the first art work that I ever actually sold at my first gallery showing back in 1981. It was called, “Sealed For Your Protection”.
That was back when I was still doing airbrush painting. I had a small canvas and didn’t know what to do with it. So I decided to cover the canvas in color, using a palette knife to spread on paint from every tube of paint I had. It ended up being kind of a mess. Looking around, I noticed that I had all these tabs that had been pulled from my air brush bottles of paint. The tabs were all marked with the words, “Sealed for your protection”. Looking at the gobs of paint on the canvas, I thought, “Why not?” So I stuck about 40 of the tabs into the paint. When it dried, the tabs were literally sealed into the paint.
Jump forward about 34 years and while we were visiting my son, Tom, while he was studying at Oxford, we went to The Tate Museum of Modern Art. It was there that I saw a canvas that had been painted black. The artist had then used a knife and cut a big slice into the canvas, revealing a white canvas beneath it. Modern art.
That journey rekindled memories of my first ‘stick painting’ and I decided to bring back the concept, using items that were linked by an ampersand. The first one I did was “Nuts & Bolts” featuring hand painted yellow screw nuts and their accompanying bolts. I liked what I had done.
So then I created, “Nickels & Dimes”, “Salt & Pepper”, “War & Peace” (click here to see it) and “Sticks & Stones”.
I was thinking of doing more in the series, just to take a break from my more time-consuming surrealistic paintings when I decided to give the word pairings a different treatment. So that’s when I came up with “Rock & Roll” as the first of what would be a series of at least three paintings.
“Fish & Chips” was my second in the series. I had a number of different options for the third but a conversation with Tom Jr. convinced me that the third painting should be “Jack & Coke”. The idea was his. The execution was mine.
When you view the three paintings all in row, they make quite a visual statement as each one is 24″ x 48″. I thought they would look excellent on a gallery wall, or a game room or perhaps a restaurant.
But “Rock & Roll” was recently purchased, and no, I’m not upset about that in the least. So now there are two.
I’m contemplating painting a new version of “Rock & Roll” – using a different rock and a different type of roll. Or maybe the same. Or maybe something new altogether.
That will be a 2020 decision as I’m currently trying to wrap up one last painting for the year.
So stay tuned. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year to you and yours!
If you know anyone who you think might enjoy these updates and overviews, I recommend that you sign up for my free newsletter.
Also, if my prices are keeping you from purchasing anything, know that you can order prints of my work, as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vida on an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!
Why “The Traitor” is called, “The Traitor”
The idea behind the name of this painting is meant to tell a story.
The concept behind my most recent painting came to me in a dream. Perhaps I’ve been overdosing on political coverage recently and all of the backstabbing taking place on either side crept into my subconscious where they later emerged as a vision in a dream.
Whatever the case, I woke one morning a few weeks ago with the thought of five men standing in a row, backs facing us. Four of them were holding a gun, and one, had a bouquet of roses.
Generally, when thoughts like this stay with me upon waking up, I act on them, so I quickly sketched out the visual. At first, they were going to be on the steps of the Capitol, tying the visual even more to politics.
I went out and bought a new canvas – but before I did that, I looked at the overall dimensions and decided that there should only be four men. That way, they would better fill the space. That’s also when I decided that the men on the steps visual was too obvious. I wanted something more nebulous that would be truer to my surrealistic roots.
I chose to have them looking out on a body of water and wanted the sky to be a mix of blues and purples and have some turbulence going on. At the same time, the rays of the sun offer a glimmer of hope in what is upon first glance, a rather ominous painting.
As I was sketching my new creation onto the canvas, the name came to me – that’s often the case with my surrealist paintings. I knew it had to be called “The Traitor”.
And why? Because it adds an all new dimension to the painting. It creates a story. Why is the man holding the roses, “The Traitor”? Who or what has he betrayed? And how do you even know that “The Traitor” is the guy holding the roses?
Is the man with the roses planning on killing someone with kindness?
None of these story lines would have ever even crossed the viewer’s mind had I simply called the painting, “Guns ‘n’ Roses”. Just like putting the men on the steps of the capitol seemed too obvious, I like to have the names of my paintings add to the potential storyline inside the viewers head.
So the answer to why I called this painting “The Traitor” is really quite simple.
I did it for you.
If you know anyone who you think might enjoy these updates and overviews about my art, I have an art related website where anyone can sign up for my free newsletter.
Upon visiting, if my prices are keeping you from purchasing anything, know that you can order prints of my work, as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vida on an even wider variety of items – from umbrellas to yoga mats, clothing and jewelry to household items. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!
Unique items featuring my art on VIDA make holiday shopping easy
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My artwork continues to get seen and noticed. A few weeks ago, I was asked to consider being a featured artist on a website called VIDA that sells a variety of items – clothing, jewelry, accessory items like tote bags and umbrellas as well as household items like place mats, glass trays and even oven mitts. I decided to give it a try and I liked what I saw – and I think you will, too. Click here to go to my gallery. Items are affordable and they will definitely be one of a kind should you decide to buy an item or two … or more. You could actually get a complete set of tableware – a table runner, place mats, plates, napkins and then take a seat at the table wearing a t-shirt, leggings, scarf and some matching jewelry – all featuring my art. (Well, maybe not, but one can dream!) I’ve had some initial sales of rather unexpected items – a luggage tag and a yoga mat as well as a wood print. Currently, I have about 15 pieces of art featured on a wide variety of items – more than 200 total. If you have a favorite piece of art of mine that either isn’t featured or isn’t available in the type of item you’d like to purchase, let me know and I’ll get it on the site. With the holidays coming up, now would be a great time to give Blood – in the form of a unique gift for yourself or someone you know featuring my art. Thanks for at least considering and happy shopping! In addition to creating advertising and marketing communications, I’m also quite an accomplished painter. My work has won numerous awards at local art shows and is featured on quite a few websites around the world. If you’d ever like to order prints of my work, as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items please visit my website on Pixels. As if that weren’t enough, more items are now available on Vida which was the topic of this blog post.. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from startto finish! |