acrylic on panel

I've Finished a New LSU SVM Artwork: Overlooked!

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I’m beginning a new artist residency, but I still have some paintings I’d like to do from my summer 2022 artist residency at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine so I worked on them before I headed out! Last summer I had begun, but not yet finished, the contour drawing underpinning this painting of two juvenile possums. I worked on the background this past fall, and began to paint it at the beginning of this summer! The background is a chemical stain from the anatomy lab; I’ve had some trouble with the lightfastness of the veterinary stains I’ve tried in the past, which is why I gave this one so much time between setting it down and painting atop it! Both due to the time involved and my research, I have more faith in this particular stain’s staying power. This stain is called orcein and is derived from lichens, and it has been used as a fabric dye in addition to scientific usages.

This is Overlooked, acrylic and orcein stain from the LSU SVM anatomy lab on Aquabord panel, 24x18x1.5”, 2023.

LSU Vet Med Artist Residency Artwork 6 Process

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Here are process photos from Crèche Chic!

LSU Vet Med Artist Residency Artwork 6

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As I may have shared before, I have met a bunch of amazing animals while here and there are a handful with whom I’ve really connected. This little fellow tops the list - you may recognize this brown thrasher from Wild Card, but here he is in his natural color palette and two different poses! I was fortunate enough to get to see pretty much his entire journey at the vet school in ZooMed’s wildlife hospital - from coming in as an abandoned nestling whose two siblings didn’t make it to his fledging and becoming a young adult, to his release! I will share his release photos in a different post.

The whole background is non-traditional veterinary media - namely, herbal treatments from Integrative Medicine! They created a really cool surface but were water-soluble and organic so I sealed over them several times with acrylic medium before painting the baby birds.

This is Crèche Chic, a mixed media painting including Integrative Medicine’s Jing Tang Herbal Concentrated Red Lung and Concentrated Prostate Invigorator and acrylic on panel, 18x24x1.5”, 2022.

A mixed media painting incorporating non-traditional veterinary herbs of two baby brown thrasher nestlings.

LSU Vet Med Artist Residency Artwork 2

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Here’s my second finished piece from my LSU Vet Med artist residency! I’m still mulling over the title - my current tentative selection is Wild Card, but I’m open to other suggestions.

I’ve met a lot of very cool animals here already, so this is high praise indeed - this is my favorite animal I’ve met thus far. ZooMed has a superstition they observe: you cannot name a wildlife patient, or its health will go downhill. This little fellow therefore doesn’t have a name, but he’s a real character. He has charisma and attitude in spades. When I arrived, he was a nestling and still had these “Einstein” feathers he’s rocking in the below image, but he’s now a fledgling and is getting closer to release every day!

I specifically chose the elongated landscape aspect ratio of this panel as mimicking the dimensions of the pathology slides. The coloration of the background comes from my novel usage of veterinary stains and medicine as art media, and I continued that color palette into the subject as well. However, as you’ll understand more clearly in the process post I’ll make soon, there was a lot of trial and error in the creation of the background, and a cyan coloration that was produced ended up quickly going almost entirely fugitive (bleached out). I reinforced it with acrylic droplets as a final step.

This is a mixed media painting of a wild brown thrasher nestling including Clinical Pathology's Diff-Quik methylene blue counter stain, Histology's light green stain, ZooMed's chlorhexidine antiseptic, and acrylic on basswood panel, 10x20x1.5", 2022.



New Artwork: Guardian

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This toad, who I named Reginald, was one of the guardians of my porch this summer and fall. His presence was so regal and dutiful that I felt he required a portrait. He posed for it with the resigned tolerance and grace befitting of a conscientious public servant.

This is Guardian, acrylic on basswood panel, 16x20x1.5”.

New Artwork: Dreamedary

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When I began to paint Camelflage, I actually had envisioned a “white on white” concept. However, that painting rapidly began to change direction and I liked where it was going so I let it ride and am happy with how it turned out. I still wanted to paint my original idea, though, so I ordered the same panel size again for continuity and mirrored the camel for a little variation.

This is Dreamedary, acrylic on basswood panel, 12x12x1.5”.

New Artwork: Puffinry

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I haven't actually added paint to this piece in a couple months, but I also hadn't decided it was done either.  I'm finally willing to call it and say it's officially finished!

This piece is acrylic on birch panel, 20x10", and is titled Puffinry.