2017 is starting off to be a wild ride of a year, and my best laid plans for my paintings for the JordanCon 2017 ArtShow seem to have been constantly waylaid! Like any family with a high school senior, we are trying to help Cole in his decision on where to attend College. But for us, this is coming at a time when we are finally at a point of feeling the loss of Julie's income. It's the first time the family is solely reliant on my income, which makes me jittery. And then on top of that, probably ten people from my office have either left or been let go since the end of December, several being some of my best friends for the past 17 or more years. The staff upheaval created an extremely stressful work environment, and many evenings when I should have gone home to paint, I just went straight to bed emotionally exhausted. Work is only just beginning to get back to any sense of normalcy. But our biggest scare came two weeks ago, when Julie went into the hospital for a freakish inflammation of her right ear that almost resulted in the lost of vision on that side. She came home Monday, and amazingly the eye has gone down from the size of a half orange to normal. And her double vision is almost entirely gone! Thank you, God above!!
Anyway, I'm finally getting back into a regular painting schedule, and I can say that all this has taught me that painting is truly therapeutic for me, and I could never completely give it up! I'm never happiest than when I'm planning a new concept for a painting and trying to lay it out. And I'm so glad that I'll still be able to offer at least one new large painting in the Art Show in April.
I love the element of surprise, so I won't completely give away the whole painting. However, I Also don't want to leave my fans hanging, so here is a progress teaser in the form of before and after snippets!
The painting was planned as part of a larger grouping, which I had hoped to complete by April. However, it still stands on it's own, and it actually may be more fun for the grouping to unveil over time. Some people may or may not want the whole grouping in any case, so I had always planned for each image to be complete in itself. Personally, I'm really excited about this whole group, and really pleased with the progress of the first piece.
Of course none of my pieces would be complete without one of my signature Edselonian borders combining Art Nouveau and Deco elements. In this corner of the border I've included one of my favorite cultures in the entire Wheel of Time series. The reference should be pretty clear to even the most casual Jordan fan, although this form is my own personal interpretation of his descriptions.
The first image shows the original line work and some flat colors, and the second image shows the same area after painting in the three dimensional aspects. Hopefully it gives an idea of how detailed the final piece will be, and evokes curiosity over the subject and it's final form! Enjoy and speculate!!
I had also started a smaller character piece as a repaint idea. If everything goes well with this primary piece, there is a small chance that I will still complete that piece as well.
See you all in April!!
Edsel
Note: JordanCon is a fantasy literature convention focused on series The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. The annual convention is held in Atlanta, Georgia and the JordanCon 9 convention is being held at the Atlanta Marriott at Perimeter Center April 21-23, 2017. http://www.jordancon.org
This year's special guests are author Charles E. Gannon and fantasy illustrator Stephen Hickman.
