The Hanegraaf Easel

A very good friend of mine, Peter Hanegraaf whom I met in Pasadena, built a customized easel for me back in 1998. I remember when I spoke to him about it, he just jotted down a few notes and asked a few questions about what I wanted in design. All I wanted was an easel that could spin around and turn upside down because I liked to paint upsides down sometimes, especially when I get stuck creatively. A few weeks later, he surprised me with the beautiful easel mounted on a lazy susan. It is adjustable to accomadate small and large canvases and it also has a 'hand brake' to lock to whatever angle I set my canvas at.

It is now 2008, very close to 2009 and I am finally able to mount this easel onto my studio wall! I had it done tonight and I am very eager to use it. Why did it take so long for me to mount it? I am currently living in a house where my studio is finally big enough to accommodate a spinning wall mounted easel! Ten years, three cities and 4 children later I finally have this beautiful easel up and ready to go! I'm naming this the 'Hanegraaf Easel', after Peter. Peter, if you are reading this, you are a good man. Oh by the way, Peter built this for me free of charge. Good man indeed.

Latest Paintings

A gallery in Idaho called and was interested in seeing if my paintings will do well with their clients. And so I am sending these latest paintings. The train painting is an image I have done already, but trains always seem to do well so I gave it another whirl. Let's hope this gallery will be willing to take me on and represent me. It could never hurt to be represented in another state!

Red Car on Lift / 14" x 12" / oil on wood
Union Pacific 21 / 14" x 12" / oil on wood

Santa Monica Freeway 002

Here's my second take on an earlier painting I did of the 10 Freeway in L.A. I wasn't quite satisfied with how the first painting turned out (See post on 9/7/2008).

Finished with a Alizarin/Transparent Orange glaze, then a Transparent Earth Yellow glaze and lastly a Ultramarine Blue/Burnt Umber glaze on the bottom half, all with drying times in between.

Need to crate this up tonight and hopefully make it in for our annual Holiday Show!

72" x 14" / Oil on canvas

Hover Cycle

I haven't posted any concept art for a very long time, even though I do it everyday. Thought I'sd post a line drawing of a vehicle concept art I did for a science fiction writer about 6 months ago.

Laundromat 008

I have been working alot of overtime at work and just moved into another house. It is just in the last 2 weeks that I feel like I'm starting to settle into my new studio. So forgive me for the inactivity on my blog, but here is my latest painting just completed.
14" x 12" / oil on panel

Union Pacific 020

My wife was dissappointed after I did my usual finishing glazes on this painting. According to her I lost some of the original vibrant colors. For some reason, I like to add a layer of grunge to all my paintings, and yes, I do lose some of the freshness every time i do it. I've always thought this was strange of me to do this considering I grew up in beautiful Hawaii. But then again, I did grow up in Kalihi which wasn't so beautiful part of Oahu. Those that know Honolulu who might be reading, you know what I'm talking about...

Anyways, the glazes that I concocted for this painting was a mixture of Sap Green and Burnt Umber on the ground and a mixture of Indian Yellow and Transparent Orange on the top half. Oil on canvas / 27" x 17"

White Pickup On Lift

14" x 12", oil on wood.

Santa Monica Freeway

I've always wanted to do this painting. I was excited when I started it. It didn't turn out as well as I wanted it too, but I will treat this as a warmup. My panoramic format, i feel, is so appropriate to communicate those crazy wide freeways of L.A.!

36" x 12", oil on canvas.

Union Pacific 019

14" x 12", oil on wood

Union Pacific 018

Wow, this is my eighteenth painting of trains. I was asked by my gallery to explore changing my format to something more upright as opposed to the long panoramics that I have been doing. Oil on canvas, 25" x 40".

Latest painting

This painting is based on railyard references that I took in Corvallis, Oregon. 48" x 30", oil on canvas. I used a new glaze color: Gamblin's Transparent Orange.

Oil Painter's of America Exhibition

Well, we returned from our Montana trip to attend the Oil Painter's of America exhibition. We drove up to Missoula, Montana, about a 10 hour drive from Bend, Oregon. Overall, it was a great road trip for me and my wife. It was an a opportunity to spend some time away from the kids. as far as the show was concerned, I felt flattered and perplexed at the same time that my painting was selected. While most of the entries were romantic and traditional in nature, my painting stood out as the most unsaturated in nature and subject matter. Here is a shot of my painting amongst beautiful paintings form across the nation. It is the tiny, grey thing next to the white arrow.

I also met some renowned artists and I am glad to have met them, Scott Powers and Joe Iantorno.

International Artist magazine

So sorry for not posting in a long time! I have been so busy trying to run my new company, Big Lava Chop, Inc. It is a concept art company directly connected to video games. I plan to expand it further out into animation, architectural and industrial visual design. That's my plan, we'll see what the Big Boss in da sky does.

Anyways, the latest is that I got into the latest issue of Internationl Artist magazine: http://www.international-artist.com/

Also, my wife and I are also planning to drive out to Missoula, Montana because my painting got into the 17th annual OPA juried show. This is exciting as I never got into any juried exhibitions before. Thank you, Eric, for encouraging me to do this. Oh yeah, you too, Terry!

Do I deserve all this? Not at all, I'm just blessed. I have a very supportive wife who also is an artist. She's putting her art endeavors on hold because she is so dedicated in being with our children Kinda neat to see that dedication in her. As for me, trying to balance between the two different industries of art galleries and entertainment design is challenging. At this point, I am far behind in painting but I plan to get back on the canvas real soon. Thanks for reading!

Laundromat 007

This is a laundromat based on references I took in Burbank, California. It was finished with an Indian Yellow glaze. (oil on panel, 12" x 48")

Kitchen with Red Floor

This is a back kitchen based on a local bakery/diner here in Bend, Oregon. In reality, the kitchen was probably one third the length shown in the painting. I just made up stuff everything in between to justify a panoramic painting. I normally use Indian Yellow to glaze over my finished, dried paintings. I decided to use a new color: Transparent Red Oxide. (12" x 48", oil on panel)

Red Sea Tube

I am sorry that I haven't posted in a while.

This may not be scripturally accurate, as it does say ' and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.' (Exodus 14:22). But wouldn't have been cool if they walked through a giant tunnel of water just like those aquarium walkways? I did this in Photoshop on and off in the last few months.