Inspired by the orange brown colour scheme of the new living room, I could feel the creation of an orange painting was only a matter of time. Done on a horizontal gallery canvas in acrylic, East vs West began just as an an abstract mix of colours. On top of that, I layered another round of abstract colour, keeping the brushstrokes more defined and unblended. Feeling ok with that stage, I dropped on with oil pastel, two different line drawings. There is a New York scene done in light colour, and a San Francisco scene done in darker grey. Both drawings merge with each other to create an interesting visual collage. Depending on if it is brightly lit or dim, only one city sketch pops out from the mass of orange.

In the spirit Mr. D, I had a hankering to get some bad-ass crafting done. Not feeling like making a costume out of scrap bits of flooring, or a tin can phone between me and anyone near me in the neighbourhood, the logical choice was a theme painting. And every room needs a Wise Old Owl.

I scouted out value village for a good aged wooden frame, with a canvass board already in it. Then I just starting painting Mr.Owl from a some video clip reference sketches. I friendlied him up a bit, since as far as owls go, he's pretty disturbing. Now if only I could figure out a way to have his eyes droop shut when he gets tired.

The more I look at his art, the more Koren Shadmi's work grows on me. The Brooklyn based illustrator has been busy lately, turning up in major magazines across North America. His style is a nice blend of line art with watercolour on rough paper. This combination seems to work well, combining texture, colour and quality drawing with interesting metaphors and concepts. I'm particularly interested in checking out out his foray into graphic novels, IN THE FLESH, a collection of short stories and poems, published by Villard.
www.korenshadmi.com