Christopher ClarkPainter of Memories

The Anaheim Art Crawl Experience (or ACE) this past Saturday August 13 was a really fun show. Live artists lined up and down the sidewalks, paint and creativity flying everywhere, palm trees glowing with bright lights, a live swing band (music provided by the infamous Dean Mora and his Modern Rhythmists), dancing, great food... what more could you ask for on a beautiful summer evening in Orange County? I painted a live piece there of course, and the finished painting is available for purchase and can be seen here: A Storm is Coming Here are some other photos from the night. Hope to see you at the next live painting event!

Since my recent switch from acrylic paints to oil paints, I've needed to change the way I do paintings outside. Rather than being cooped up inside all day, when I get a chance I go outside for a bit, even if I'm still just painting from a photo reference. Because acrylic paints dry so darn fast, when I was done painting, I'd set the painting down and put my stuff away, and by the time I'd turn back to my painting it was completely dry. I could just stuff it into my backpack with my other gear and be off. However, the other drawbacks from painting in acrylic were constantly apparent. The paint dries very quickly on the palette too, which means I was constantly mixing new colors. It also dries fast enough to make it unworkable on the palette in a matter of minutes. And it doesn't refract light that well, since it is essentially liquid plastic. Hence my switch to oil paints. They take much longer to dry, which means they're workable and blendable both on the palette and painting for hours or days. But this also means that when you're finished painting out in the field, you now have a sticky wet painting to negotiate. The first time I tried doing this, I walked back to the car with my little wet painting delicately in hand. It was a rather breezy day, and all kinds of dust and little bugs and such were sticking to it. I almost dropped it at one point, and a plastic bag in my hand fluttered up and threatened to smear my last hour's hard work. It was such a precarious situation, it was kinda funny. So I discovered the need for a pochade box. This is a small portable art studio: an easel, supply storage, and wet painting storage all rolled into one. Looking to purchase one, the nice ones run from $300-$500. I discovered this home made design by Jim Serrett and ran with it. I made a few modifications, and it was a bit trickier than I thought, but it turned out very nicely. I took my home made pochade box for a test drive today and I absolutely loved it! It's very easy to set up and start painting right away. The painting is held securely onto the surface, the supplies are readily accessible, and it fit perfectly in my lap. I will eventually attach a tripod mount on the bottom so I can set up a tripod and stand in front of it if I want. I also built a little wet painting carrier, with enough room to slide 3 wet paintings inside. Both the painting carrier and pochade box can be adjusted to accommodate 9x12" paintings and smaller. Many of my new daily paintings will start coming off of this pochade box, and I'm very excited to start using it on a regular basis. Especially because I built it myself – there's a unique sense of accomplishment ...

Finally finished a huge commission project for my good friend Tim. He just finished redecorating his entire house, and I was honored when he asked me to create custom artwork as his finishing touches. I designed the pieces to fit within the environment of his newly refurbished home. Here is the livingroom: And here is the giant 60x60" piece I did for his stairwell/entryway. I first visited him at his home and took photos of the rooms these paintings were to go in. I then talked with him a while about his life – this is a spectacular way to find out what someone loves in art. You don't just come right out and say "Hey what you do you want me to paint for you?" Sometimes people don't really know. So Tim and his daughters and my girlfriend and I just chatted all night over wine and In'n'Out, and I discovered the things he loves in life, and there you go. I also showed him my portfolio of paintings, and took note of the ones that he really reacted to. When I delivered the finished pieces and helped him hang them, he said "Your creations are inspiring!" Well thanks, Tim. You're a good friend and I hope you enjoy my original paintings for many years. Here are all 4 pieces I created for him (click for full size images): Arriving at Paradise Tree of Memories II Living the Good Life If you'd like me to create a beautiful design for your home, office, or private art collection, see my commissions page to get started today. It's such a fun process!

Winestock XIII, a charity event put on by my good friends John Harper and Janan Hughes was a huge success. Every year, these wonderful people open their home up to a fully catered wine tasting party for a charitable cause. This year's beneficiary of the helping hand of so many attendees was the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer. Full of great wine, delicious food, and live music entertainment, it's always a good time at Winestock. I decided to do a live painting at the show and do a silent auction for the finished pieces, donating all the proceeds to the AVON Walk. People really get a kick out of seeing create a painting in front of their eyes, and the auction was a success. In honor of the wine-themed event, I decided to do a set of wine paintings. This was the finished set: Here are some photos of the event: Thanks again John and Janan! See you at the Winestock XIV next year!

Thank you to all who came to the Santiago Art Walk in Santa Ana this past Saturday. This was my first gallery showing there, and it was definitely a success. I met lots of fun people, drank lots of wine, and I even got some painting done at the show. People always seem to be entertained when I do a live painting, and I will continue to do them whenever possible at a gallery show. So if you enjoyed it, come to more shows and watch more paintings come to life. Photos of the finished painting will be up soon. Pieces sold at the show: Salute (Cin Cin) - SOLD. Commission a similar painting. Staring at the Sun - SOLD. These are limited edition prints of my digital work, mounted on a custom textured board just for this show. Commission a similar painting. Walk in the Park - SOLD. Commission a similar painting, or buy a print of this painting. Other fun photos from the event:

Sometimes it gets difficult to find the time to do as much painting as I'd like. I need to paint often to fulfill two needs: 1) The obvious love and desire to paint and create beautiful images, to recreate my memories in a way that transcends the photograph and captures the sentiment in a way that I have total control over. And 2) to produce inventory so I have a variety of pieces my clients can choose from, or in case I suddenly need 10 paintings to do a show somewhere. But with working a full time job that occupies about 55 hours of my week (travel time included there), and being on a swing dance team (the Fly Rights) that competes at the national level, having my beautiful girlfriend Alison in my life, and of course finding some time in there to sleep for a few hours a day, sometimes my painting takes a backseat for a few days. It makes me sad when I walk by my studio in the house and see an unfinished piece staring at me. The temptation to walk over to it, to start scrutinizing it and finding areas I need to work on, to put just a little dab of a few paints on my palette and maybe work out one little bit ... it's rough when I look at the time and realize I have to run out of the house! Sometimes when it's late at night, and I know I should be heading for bead, I will decide to stay up that extra hour and a half because I know I am so close to finishing a piece. And when I'm a train wreck in the morning getting out of bed, I feel it's worth it because I have one more beautiful memory successfully captured that I can share with the world. This weekend Alison will be working all day Saturday and Sunday, and she'll even need to take my car to get to work. Which will leave me stranded at home. And as much as I will miss not being able to spend time with her during those precious weekend hours, I can't say I'll be complaining because I will have an entire weekend to focus on my craft. And that makes me happy. Because I know she'll be home eventually, and I can put my paints aside – satiated for the moment – and spend some fun time with her.