Art of Don DeLeva

So the Skull painting is finished. I forgot so take photos of the progress while painting it. See the problem is that I finished it in one sitting, I usually take photos after each sitting. Oh well I will get it right. Salmon Eater has not been changed yet. It needed to dry a little, this time I will take pictures.

1. 2. 3. Painting 1.  is a finished painting called Salmon Eater. Painting 2. is what happens to works that sit in my studio too long. They get sanded and changed into another painting. LOL! Painting 3. This is the 3rd stage in the repainting. Notice how it is starting to look completely different. As I paint my subject changes because I really don't ever have a subject to paint this is why it is hard for me to create illustrations. My mind wanders with my immediate feelings and "findings". I paint shapes and lines or do something to the surface like scratch it. Some times those elements suggest images to me so I go with them until I get board with what I am painting and some times I end the work or end the progression of an image. I am not looking for a finished recognizable image, rather I seek the ephemeral or enigma. I am looking for that place before something becomes a materialized image or thought. I am interested in moment before you label someth

At this point you can see that I have scratched in a skull and then dripped paint over the panel. I used a very "loose" paint to drip an organic grid for me to work with. ( in the same way that bones are an organic scaffolding for the muscles.) The paint is oil, it's 1 part paint to 6 parts turpentine.  It's called lean paint because the oil has been broken down in favor of flow and dying speed. There is a process of painting called "Lean to fat", it's a process that insures that the paint will dry correctly. For now, just understand that loose paint in the beginning is really important to the longevity of the style of painting I work in, "Glazing". I will go over that in the a little later.

I have had a lot of people ask me to show them how I paint. I am going to try to answer that by taking you through a painting from start to finish. This is a photo of a piece of Masonite that used to be a scrap piece of Scratch board sitting on my easel. Some times I find things and work over them. At this point I have done nothing to the Masonite.

"16. If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics. " Sol De Witt Numbers are not mathematics in my art. They are representations of emotions mixed with mystery. They come to me as I am painting and I feel it is important to include them in the content of the work because they came to me in the creative process.

Title: Skull in Motion Medium: Oil size: 6"x 6" x.5

This is simply the most incredible video I have seeing in the last 10 years of my life. 2 of my all time heroes in life together playing one of the best songs ever! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLwhnUiNDs

SO my website is almost finished. Actually I got the front page and supplemental pages completed except the Archive and Dollhedz page. These will be finished up in the next month. I created the templates for the pages so it shouldn't take too much time once I get other work out of the way. These last 2 weeks have been crazy. I had 3 shows to put up a cold and 14 days of work in a row. That takes a lot out of you. Today is the first time back doing some painting. I have 3 new works in the studio I will photo them and give you an update.

The show at tasty went well. I sold these three paintings.

So this weekend I am getting ready to Hang at the Auburn city Court house for October. It should be a good show.

Title: Untitled Medium: Oil on panel, gold leaf Size: 42"x46" This painting is comes to me as an abstracted Mecha coming alive for the first time. Title: Untitled2 Medium: Oil on panel Size: 28"x36" I have this thing for abstracting skulls, it's a reference to the fact that our bones supports a bio machine that runs a spirit. The abstracted shapes and colors are the live with in the scaffolding of the bio machine.

Title: 12 Medium: oil on wood, gold leaf. Here is one of the first pieces I painted this year. It's had 3 shows this year. 2 in Seattle and one in Portland. It has one more show before the year is over. You can see the earlier stages of this painting in an earlier blog. It was originally two paintings that I painted over and bolted together.

It's been along time since I gave you any updates at all. I am really sorry about that. I have had a lot of things going on, most of them have centered around the art of computer graphics and Flash. For those of you that think I have given up on my quest for truth and using my freedom of expression, I say to you Have more faith in me! Flash and code only add to my skills of fine art. You will see the results of this soon with my short movies. It takes money and reinvention to be good at what you do, these are the things I have been working on. They insure that I paint as honest as I can. Last year I found myself starting to lean towards selling painting to make ends meet. That became painfully obvious that I have a limited audience for my fine art. Since honesty is the only thing we have in this world I have decided to preserve mine and paint what comes from my head and heart. Computer graphics is my business. It is the money maker that keeps my art honest, it is my way of in vi

So this year in October I have 2 big shows, one is at the City of Auburn Galleries and the second is at the La Familia gallery. I just got the 2010 city of Auburn gallery announcement in the mail, its always sweet to see your work in print when some one else prints it. ToooT ToooT. I am starting a plan for a redesign of my website. So it might be a little while before I list new work. Stay tuned

Here is some news, I had a painting accepted into the CVG gallery show in Bremerton, curated by Gary Faigin. The painting is "Psycho and Zephretti" oil on panel. I have a photo of it at my website. www.dondeleva.com . The show will be on up in February. I all so got a show at the Georgetown Limited Gallery in Seattle for July. Proceeds support the TheyShallWalk.org . I swear I have some work finished I just have to find the time to shoot it. Its coming!

Aqua went AWESOME! It's so good to have work on the east coast. Next year Aqua, I will send larger work, ( more money!). The La Familia Gallery is working out to be a good place to show and the people are great. I think this year I will concentrate on showing in Washington State. I would love to have a gallery in Grays Harbor or La Connor. I am also going to do more fine art fairs and less craft fairs. I had a great run of craft fairs this year it showed me what the game is about, now I need to take my work to the fine art audience.

This has been a great year, I have had a lot of shows! I showed in Miami Basil at Aqua, I got 2 galleries and entertained my illustration ideas. This year also put in to prospective where I want to go with my work. If anything, I learned my abstract side is an important part of my art. In 2010 I plan to focus back on my abstracts with a new muse. In one way I feel I left my collectors wondering "What the hell is he doing?" All I have to say is, some times you have to step outside yourself to see yourself, you know forest from the trees? By doing this I didn't come away with any "New Vision". What I came away with is the reaffirmation of why I painted in the first place. This year I got to play the "Celebrity Painter" by attending fairs and being out in the public. I also got to paint with quantity as a goal. The experience helped me to understand where to place dollhedz in my work, it also helped me to take my interest in OOP computer programming to

Well its been a month... 10 days in Sayulita Mexico were I painted 6 paintings in the sun and pool. Tuff? yes! You try to be in paradise and work. I really can't call it work since I love painting. :-) So here is a run down of this month. I had: Solo / Little Olympia Theater, "Architect dream" Group / Gallery Zero, Portland OR., "Big Ass Art!" Group / Art Not Terminal, Seattle WA., "Rock the Terminal" Group / Fremont Abey, Seattle WA. Here is the work I did: 3 paintings for Aqua Miami Basel 9 paintings for the 5x5 show at La Familia Gallery 2 commission painting for private collectors 1 personal oil painting for my private collection Fremont Sunday market. That's quite a bit of work for being on vacation and still having 9 days left in the month. Well on a different note, you know when you go on a vacation for more then 5 days, you start to loose sense of yourself because you have to see yourself in relations to the new surroundings, eve

Here in Mexico, with my acrylics, sun, water, roosters, fish , tacos... yeah I know, you think this is all fun agames but let me tell you I have finished 4 full paintings since I got here 3 days ago. One of the local galleries, Clay-Brom, has asked to show my paintings. It just so happens I have painting with me. So I guess I know am an international artist. Anyway i will upload some photos of Sayulita soon.

I am starting to work a lot in Acrylics, mainly because of drying time and and durability. If you don't know, oils take at least 6 months to a year to dry to the touch. Then they can take up to another year or so to completely cure. Once the work is cured the oil film is very sensitive to scratches and dust. Since I started doing markets and fairs, I have had to transport my work and subject it to the outdoors, rain, dust and constant handling, besides the transport. Acrylic seems to be able to stand up to mild wear and tear. My true love is oils and it will take some time before I fully understand acrylics, however my acrylics are teaching me a lot about oil. Next year I am looking into traveling to the Southwest and maybe the Midwest for some art fairs. It's time I take the my work outside of Northwest. LA and SF would be closer but people tell me Santa Fe and Austin are the places I should go to show my work. Who knows, I won't know till I get out there. Well, I am