At work on a special commission...

I usually do not accept commission work.  Commissions are an interesting tight rope as they are a fusion of the vision of someone else, the intended recipient, and personal artistic practice.  This one is going well so far.

Final work in progress.

Preliminary sketch.

With a circus mind that's running around
Butterflies and zebras, and moonbeams and fairy tales
That's all she ever thinks about, riding with the wind

- Jimi Hendrix 

Crazyhorse

The studio production has taken on a different focus during the recent weeks.  Here is the fall 2014 edition of crazyhorse featuring my painting Art Department on the front and back covers.  Thank you College of Charleston!

Read more about the painting Art Department click here.

Painting in process...

...and almost done, but not complete.

A Wind Has Blown The Rain Away And Blown, by E. E. Cummings

a wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand.  I think i too have known
autumn too long

                  (and what have you to say,
wind wind wind—did you love somebody
and have you the petal of somewhere in your heart
pinched from dumb summer?
                            O crazy daddy
of death dance cruelly for us and start

the last leaf whirling in the final brain
of air!)Let us as we have seen see
doom’s integration………a wind has blown the rain

away and the leaves and the sky and the
trees stand:
             the trees stand.  The trees,
suddenly wait against the moon’s face.

New Nuclei

Conceptualizing neurons and nuclei in an unconventional portrait.

Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei, acrylic and ink on paper, 11" x 14"

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

detail, Man as Sunflower, Sunflower as Nuclei

"Unfortunately, nature seems unaware of our intellectual need for convenience and unity, and very often takes delight in complication and diversity."

- Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Sketchbook entries

A day spent in working in the sketchbook.  Below is a sampling of today's results.

Sketchbook drawing #4, graphite and ink on paper, 5" x 13"

Sketchbook drawing #5, graphite and ink on paper, 5" x 13"

Sketchbook drawing #3, graphite and ink on paper, 5" x 13"

"Like the enotmologist in search of colorful butterflies, my attention has chased in the gardens of the grey matter cells with delicate and elegant shapes, the mysterious butterflies of the soul, whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind." 

- Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Sprouts sprouting...

...Buds budding, roots rooting and taking root -- Ha, some studio humor within my new series.

Please note:  Anyone wishing to appropriate, re-use, reproduced or distribute this image or concept of this image, contact Dawn Hunter at dawnmariehunter@yahoo.com to receive the appropriate permissions.

Sketchbook drawing, acrylic and ink on paper, 11" x 14"

"The brain is a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and great stretches of unknown territory."

- Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Fledgling right along

I completed my latest work which features fledgling Cardinal.  I was stunned a couple of weeks ago when I spotted one.  Unexpected to me was the neutral and somewhat cool red-violet hue of the tiny bird, because adult Cardinals are red-orange and red-brown in hue.  I was struck and in awe, and felt the sweet tiny creature would fit nicely into my latest work.  

Here is the painting in its beginning stages from the July 24th post of this Blog:  http://dawnhunterart.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-big-and-small-of-work.html

Fledgling, acrylic, ink and graphite on Yupo, 18" x 24"

detail of Fledgling

detail of Fledgling

The Fledgling by Edna Saint Vincent Millay

So, art thou feahered, art thou flown,
Thou naked thing?—and canst alone
Upon the unsolid summer air
Sustain thyself, and prosper there?
Shall no more with anxious note
Advise thee through the happy day,
Thrusting the worm into thy throat,
Bearing thine excrement away?
Alas, I think I see thee yet,
Perched on the windy parapet,
Defer thy flight a moment still
To clean thy wing with careful bill.
And thou are feathered, thou art flown;
And hast a project of thine own. 

The Big and the Small of the Work

Sometimes you have to make a lot of small things before you can make one big thing. 

My studio days have been spent in deep study and thought.  It may not be clear to all who 
visit the studio, but everything is leading somewhere - the studies are a map exposing 
direction.  As an artist I need to experience my future choices in some form before they are 
made or executed in a long term work.  The studies below assisted in the realization of the color drawing featured in the July 19, 2014 post of this Blog:

http://dawnhunterart.blogspot.com/2014/07/happy-ending-to-new-direction-new.html

New painting in progress, acrylic and ink on Yupo, 18" x 24"

Vine study, maker and pen on paper, 14" x 17"

Grey Sunflower study, graphite and ink on paper

Green Sunflower study, ink on paper, 14" x 17"

“…I am a fervent adept of the religion of facts. It has been said innumerable times, and I have also repeated it, that “facts remain and theories pass away…To observe with­out think­ing is as dangerous as to think with­out observ­ing. The­ory is our best intel­lec­tual tool; a tool, like all oth­ers, liable to be notched and to rust, requir­ing con­tin­ual repairs and replace­ments, but with­out which it would be almost impos­si­ble to make a deep hol­low in the mar­ble block of reality."

- Santiago Ramón y Cajal