The Birth of the Original Pop Art Divas Paintings

Lately I have found myself with a growing need to do some hands on painting and sketching again. These days I spend most of my time doing Graphic Design, Illustration and Contemporary Art on the computer and I love digital art and how the computer has opened up a whole new realm in the art and graphics world. There are things that can be done on a computer that could not have even been imagined in the pre-history of the computer chip. It’s a brave new world out there for anyone with the desire and patience to learn the ways of the Jedi Art Geek!

However, and this is a big however, I did not start my career using a keyboard and a Wacom tablet, I started my art career eons ago in a mist filled time before Photoshop, laser printers and Microsoft Word. In those days we used words like typesetting, paste-up, lithography or original, canvas, Russian sable and acid-free. I spent most of my life creating graphics and original art the old fashioned way using pencils, brushes, papers, canvas and other tools of the art trade.

I spent nearly 25 years producing fine art for sale at some of the major art shows in the United States. My week days were spent in a studio where I was awash in paints and happily balancing 3 or 4 loaded brushes as I leaned over a giant canvas, sheet of watercolor paper or textured sculpture waiting for my creative juices to bring them to colorful life. I have always been happy with a pencil, pastel or brush in my hand.

I retired from the art shows in May of 2008 and closed my studio – moving all my artistic efforts onto a hard drive and into a Jedi Art Geek style studio. My colored pencils, sketch pads and paints were winnowed down and shoved into a drawer to collect dust.

But you cannot take the crayon out of the artist and I found myself one day opening that drawer and starting some doodling. Another day I dug a little deeper and found a stack of little canvas boards and I suddenly had an urge to dig out the brushes and paints with an almost desperate yearning. I missed the feel of the brush in my hand, I missed sticking that brush in my mouth to bring it to a point, I missed the way that honest to God paint will take on a life of its own and demand that you quit being a control freak. I missed the smell of the paints, the splatters all over my clothes and body and I missed the sensual rush of applying a stroke of color to a virgin white vessel.

And so I have started a line of original paintings and drawings done just for my artistic soul. I love color, I love the art of the sixties and the cartoon style of that era that became so pervasive in the culture. I don’t have a lot of time for this project – it is going to be a treat to myself for those times when I need some “me” art time. And I am going to sell these because the one thing I found out about myself is that if I horde my original art I tend to do a lot less of it!

So, don’t expect to see hundreds of these produced, don’t expect to see any kind of regular uploads of new pieces either. I will do these whenever I can find a day to myself and can indulge in the pleasure of painting for painting’s sake. I plan to post them for sale here and on an Etsy store and expect the prices to range from around $25 up to about $100 (plus any shipping costs). And yes, I will make copies of them and sell reproductions in various forms. But this is where I will be posting the originals.

Above are three of the sketches I did today while I was “taking a day off”. I did not get the paints out today – it was the first real day of fall and the chill in the air has made my hands hurt a bit from the quick weather change. Besides, I had to spend a bit of time contemplating these little canvas boards and how I might use them. Around mid-day I got the idea for Pop Art Divas by Pop Art Diva, I love doing faces and I love pop art – the concept was perfect and funny!

I’m hoping that Sundays will be my day for these little paintings and original art projects but I’ll take the time whenever I can find it. I’m hoping that you’ll enjoy viewing and buying them as much as I plan on enjoying the creation of them.

It’s a good day when you can end it by saying “I made this today – before today this did not exist.”