Scottie the Scuba Diver

Scottie the Scuba Diver Acrylic on Museum Board on Panel, 16 x 20 inches, 2013


As a part of my series of modern women doing adventurous things I present Scottie the Scuba Diver.  (I know Scottie is not a usual name for a girl, but I kind of like it.  I'm wedded to alliteration and the only other choice was Scarlett, a name that didn't seem appropriate here.)  In the picture, she's on a dive boat just preparing to go below.  The boat, which probably should look a lot smaller, is a rigid inflatable -- the gunwale or side is inflated to make it easy for the diver to do a backwards somersault into the water.  To her left, Scottie has her bag to carry her gear and a diving cylinder, which would contain a breathing mixture called nitrox -- oxygen is actually rarely used.  The tank is still connected to its carrier.  Hey, these things are 30 pounds even when empty, so I think even Mike Nelson (remember Sea Hunt?) would use a carrier.  Scottie holds her spear gun, for use against angry sharks and hostile mermen.  And she is holding in her other hand the regulator, the part of the scuba that you put in your mouth; it steps down the pressure of the air from the tank and has a valve that opens to allow the diver to breath in air and closes after inhalation.  (These things are delicate instruments it took decades to develop, and they cost a fortune.)  The familiar older ones connect to the tank with two hoses, but newer models almost always employ a single hose.  On hand are her swim fins.  Surprisingly, these were not used much till the 1940's.  The Italians in World War II were pioneers in underwater demolition and their divers were the first to use them extensively.  Also, to watch what's going on, is a friendly and curious sea bird, a dovekie.  Incidentally, the scuba (short for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) was only developed in the late forties,  in part by the legendary Jacques Cousteau.  Before that, rebreathers, using a different technology that recycled air, were used, but mostly for escape from submarines.  Most early divers used cumbersome diving suits with air pumped down from the surface.

If you like my work you can check out more of it at www.artmajeur.com/stephander and feel free to friend me on Facebook

Dragons

Dragon Rider 12 x 16, acrylic on illustration board on panel, 2013

Friendly Dragon 8 x 10, acrylic on museum board, 2005

Virgin Sacrifice 16 x 31, gouache on hardboard on plywood, 1997 

Saint George and the Dragon 21 x 33, tempera on shade cloth on particle board, 1989

Dragons are an intriguing subject for any artist  who deals at all with the fantastic and the whimsical.  Interesting in that dragons are prominent in the mythology of both western and eastern cultures.  In China the dragon is usually benign and a source of wisdom.  Not so in the west -- the beguiling serpent of Eden, not quite a dragon, to be sure, but of the same reptilian ilk, was also, indirectly, a source of knowledge, specifically, self awareness and a recognition of good and evil.  But in the context of the Biblical creation narrative, it is regarded in a negative light, for it acted in defiance of God. 

Subsequently, the dragon, often winged and fire breathing, became a symbol of evil, a creature to be slain by the goodly knight.

Over the years, I have depicted the dragon (and the requisite maiden) in several contexts in my paintings.  My most recent work  Dragon Rider is pictured here along with some earlier works featuring dragons.

For more of my work see www.artmajeur.com/stephander

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Butterflies of New Guinea

 

Tithonis Birdwings and Other New Guinean Butterflies  16 x 12 inches, Acrylic on Museum Board on Panel, 2013

I have been experimenting with various butterfly-theme paintings.  One idea -- and this is the first effort in this format -- is to paint butterflies arranged as they would be in a display case.  (There are  quite a few of these around the house, containing both local butterflies and moths and exotic ones.  They are, maybe, 45 years old, but, for the most part, are holding up well.)  I depict the butterflies life sized.  Symmetry is always a problem and butterflies with a lot of fine detail are difficult to do, although I use a needle to apply the paint.  The texture is effectively rendered, but doesn't really show up in photographs.  They also seem to look more life-like under dimmer light.  Another challenge is the background.  Here I am spent quite a lot of time on a light-color dotted background.  I may try something different next time.  (It's really impractical to have a white background, say to capture the effect of cotton batting, since white covering any large area seems to just kill an acrylic painting.)  

The butterflies in the painting are:

Top: New Guinea Rustic (Cupha Prosope), Godart's Map Butterfly (Cyrestis Acilia)

Middle upper: Tithonis Birdwing (male) (Orinthoptera Tithonis)

Middle lower: Tithonis Birdwing (female underwing) (Orinthoptera Tithonis)

Bottom: Cramer's Cruiser (Vindula Arsinoe), Red Lacewing (Cethosia Cydippe)

All are native to the island of New Guinea.

You can see more of my work at www.artmajeur.com/stephander  and www.stephander.wix.com/swa-art

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The Lady of the Butterflies

The Lady of the Butterflies 20 x 30, Acrylic, 2013

I have over the years often inserted butterflies into my pictures and have even done a few studies of butterflies.  An early picture I painted in tempera almost thirty years ago, Swallowtails Among the Columbines, hangs in my sister's bedroom and still looks pretty good to me.   It occurred to me that I might not only do butterfly and moth portraits, but perhaps feature butterflies as strong supporting characters in other types of pictures.  The recently completed scene, above, though nothing more than attempt to paint something pretty and appealing, is a fairly major work and consists of a girl, some flowers, and lots of butterflies.  The nearer butterflies are painted life size, those in the middle ground are, like the lady, one-quarter life.  The butterflies depicted are all ones that can be seen where I live, in northern Illinois, although there are a few species I haven't seen for a while.  (Tiger swallowtails can be seen every summer.  Monarchs are becoming less common, but red admirals are ever present as are the much less exciting cabbages.)  They are, clockwise from the upper left - azures, baltimore, monarch, cabbages, mourning cloak, monarchs, tiger swallowtail, monarchs, red-spotted purple, black swallowtail, painted lady, gulf fritillary, sulphur, and question mark.  I have painted red admirals so often that I decided to leave them out of this painting.  I rather like painting lepidoptera and will, if I find the least encouragement, do more.  The life sized depictions turn out, if I do say so, fairly real looking, though much less so on film and screen.

You can see of my work at www.artmajeur.com/stephander and www.stephander.wix.com/swa-art

If you like my work please feel free to friend me on Facebook

Lizard Men and Zombies

 Invasion of the Lizard Men 16 x 20, 2012, Acrylic on Museum Board on Panel

Zombies in the Park 16 x 20, 2013, Acryic on Museum Board on Panel

Going back about ten years I have produced, off and on, some narrative work inspired by pulp literature and "B" movies and including text, titles, captions, even a story synopses.  This is work I have always enjoyed creating, and so I decided to indulge an urge to revisit this genre.   Examining the response to this work, I've discovered that sales have, over the years. been exceptionally good. In fact, the only pictures that failed to sale were either large (over 20 x 24), featured multiple images, or were of subject matter other than sc-fi/ horror.  Thus, I am presented with a clear guideline for future work, one which fits in well with what I want to do.  I plan to do a series of 16 x 20 to 20 x 24 narrative tableaux suggesting stories that might have been made into wonderfully schlocky "B" movies in the 50's and 60's.  I plan to insert elements of humor and social satire and also to make the images generally pleasant and beautiful with sinister or horrific aspects underplayed.  I decided that plot summaries, which I have used in past paintings, are unnecessary and a title at the bottom is sufficient -- let the viewer create his own story from the image!

You may see more of my work at www.artmajeur.com/stephander

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Book Announcement

I have just completed a book that comprehensively chronicles my twenty-five years or so as a professional fine artist.  The Art of Stephen Warde Anderson, Neoclassical Naif consists of a brief personal memoir, a professional history, and a chronological gallery of several hundred images of paintings.  I have been working on the book for about nine months, lately spending more than half my time on it.  I have tried to make the text interesting and concise.  I have attempted to give an overview of my career, a summary of my techniques, and the sources of my inspiration.  I avoided talking about every show I ever had or commenting on individual paintings.  I have perhaps included more personal information than anyone will want to know, and probably more images than anyone will want to look at.
I regret the photos are not all of a quality I might desire.  The recent, digital images are pretty good.  Some older prints and slides were professionally scanned, but there are a lot that were poorly photographed.  In the end rather than leaving out imperfect images, I thought it was better to show as much work as possible.  It was a huge project, finding and organizing the images, editing them to increase brightness and sharpness and cut down on saturation, then converting them to 300dpi and scaling them.  (If they don't look right, it won't be through lack of effort on my part.) There are over a hundred pages of illustrations.  I haven't counted the images but with an average of five or so on a page, there must be about five hundred, maybe more.  Of course, I did leave some out: I've done fifteen hundred pictures.
The book The Art of Stephen Warde Anderson, Neoclassical Naif comes in several editions.
Deluxe Edition 11 x 8.5 paperback, 158 pages, illustrated -- $37.56
Illustrated eBook Edition same as above in eBook form -- $3.99
Text Only Edition 8.26 x 5.83 paperback, 120 pages, no illustrations -- $9.68
Text Only eBook Edition same as above in eBook form -- $1.99

Also for sale is another book which features images of recent paintings available for sale or consignment:
Acrylic Paintings by Stephen Warde Anderson 11 x 8.5, 24 pages -- $13.14

These are all print-on-demand books available from lulu.com.  The price of POD books are of necessity high, as there is no cost whatsoever to the author.  I have discounted the books for the rest of the year just in case someone wants to buy them.  The Deluxe Edition is actually at a maximum discount; I only get 66 cents per book sold -- just letting you know so I'm not accused of being a profiteer!  I should mention that the Text Only eBook is formatted for the computer, that is, wide instead of tall, really easy to read once it's sized properly.  I may get around to reformatting the Deluxe Edition, but I'm not up right now to the many days of work that will require.  I will, probably after the first of the year, get an ISBN for the Deluxe Edition and officially publish it, making it available for sale at retail outlets.  As doing this raises the price astronomically, I thought I would make it available for awhile at lulu for a minimal cost.

There is a sense of satisfaction at completing this monumental project, well, relief at least and an eagerness to move on to something else.  I have no unrealistic expectations of sales and would not have even if the book were less pricey.  I do have a hope that someday I may have sufficient funds to purchase my own books! 

You can check out the books, get more info, and see previews at www.lulu.com/spotlight/stephander



    

Seraphim Ultralight

Seraphim Ultralight (Poster) 24 x 18, Acrylic, Oct., 2012

Seraphim Ultralight (Small Billboard) 12 x 24, Acrylic, Oct., 2012

Seraphim Ultralight (Large Billboard)  20 x 30, Acrylic, Oct., 2012

About ten years ago I was working with pulp art themes and hit upon the idea of creating faux advertising posters.  Recently, I decided to reexamine the concept and revisit the genre after seeing a wonderful exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum of advertising posters created in France, circa 1890's.  I thought I would invent a product and then devise a poster for it.  The first experiment is the top painting for a fictitious ultralight aircraft, the Seraphim made by the Hollister Aircraft Company.  (Since seraphim is actually plural, perhaps it should be seraph, but seraphim sounded better.  The name Hollister was chosen because I am descended a couple times from the Hollister family that settled in early New England -- distinguished folks, more than one a militia leader)  Not quite satisfied with the result, I concluded that it was better to work in a wide rather than a tall format and to create a billboard rather than a poster.  Art posters are no longer an existent art form, but the billboard is still with us and though usually not terribly artistic, it could be.  Billboards are generally 1 x 2 in format so I created a work in the largest size possible in standard frame sizes, 12 x 24.  Unfortunately, I really found it too small to work with and that extreme width just doesn't work with a painting even if it's great for an outdoor billboard.  Thus, after executing two Seraphim Ultralight paintings, I had to satisfy myself and do a third, this time in the more congenial 20 x 30 size.  This is something I have rarely done before, multiple attempts at a painting, but I felt I had to see the idea through.  The advertising billboard a somewhat difficult genre, not in execution, but in composition.  Even if the picture idea is effective, the placement of the elements, especially the writing needs to be really well thought out to compelling state a message as well as to create an attractive and interesting picture  It's also a challenge to do a decent job with the lettering.  (I choose a font, print up the text, position it, trace it, then paint it with a stub brush or needle.)  I have many further ideas for advertising billboard paintings and hope to get to them at a later date, although currently I am  pursuing another genre. 

More of my work can be seen at www.stephenwardeanderson.com

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