Chelsea Rose Fine Art: 2014

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Recent Spray Painting Experimentations

What with the Holiday's and all I have recently found some time to get back into experimenting with spray painting. Earlier this month I drove down to the Eugene Oregon free wall with friends and had a blast painting:

I started with this piece, inspired by my previous acrylic painting on canvas called The Seed which you can view or purchase a print of here.

Here it is finished. It took about an hour and a half. I was pretty happy with it, but still abel to see things that I could improve upon…especially line weight control.

I started on one last piece and did it in a about 30 mins because it was getting pretty cold outside and my fingers were starting to go a bit numb.

This spEYEn character has been one of my most popular drawings and most commissioned designs in recent times, so I thought to give it a try in my new favorite medium, spray painting. I had a lot of fun doing the shading on the body and butt with the various colors.

I took a bunch of footage of the experience and made it into a short video. Watch it on my youtube channel: YouTube.com/ChelseaRoseArts

….And it turns out it was really good that I got some spray painting practice in because the following week I got the opportunity to do some spray painting in California with Jennifer Korsen, a female spray paint muralist that I admire.

Jennifer took me to one of her favorite places to paint called "The Fame Yard" which has some truly awesome artwork on the walls. I was honored and a little intimidated to paint at first but Jennifer was very encouraging and the space was so inspiring that I couldn't help but grab my paint cans and give it a go. So here we are, in the photo above, a couple hours into our paint session, happily painting the day away.

I was excited to see a bit of progress with my line weight and can control. My technique still needs a lot of work but practice makes perfect!

Here is my mermaid mural all finished!

And here we are together posing in front of our respective finished murals, grinning ear to ear.

It was such a fun day!

I am back from California now and looking over the photos, thus I was moved to make this post and share them with you. I hope you enjoyed!

I have a bunch of video footage from the day that I have edited into a video which you can check out right here.

I hope your Holidays and New Year are filled with love and art!

-Chelsea Rose

Earth Goddess Healing, body painting photo shoot

Back in September I managed to squeeze one more Earth Goddess body painting in before the season got cold and altogether not conducive for body art modeling and photography. And it was my first and probably only couple's photoshoot that I will be including in my series.

(Work in progress shot, painting Kelly.) Also, please read the blog entry she wrote, reflecting upon what it was like participating in my body art series as well as her thoughts and feelings about body image and learning to love the skin your in.

(work in progress shot, painting Sam)

My friends Kelly and Sam have been through something remarkable together. If you spend anytime with them, the way they are around each other, the way they speak, laugh and feel would make it plain as day that they are strong and more importantly, made stronger by their love of one another and the life they chose together.

When Kelly was diagnosed with cancer her life and the life of her wife, Sam, began to change.

They are still on a journey of healing and I was honored to momentarily step in and take part when they asked if they could be painted and photographed together for my Earth Goddess series to commemorate the end of Kelly's chemo treatment.

I think that these photos do catch a glimmer of their experience, and their exuberance for eachother but I feel they also speak about the condition of Mother Earth. I often feel that the prevalence of cancer and the many other diseases plaguing mankind can also be seen reflected by the condition of the Earth as it battles to remain balanced in the face of pollution, deforestation, genetic modification and more. Many people believe that the Earth is too big to fail, that our actions are insignificant to the planet's health but there is plenty of evidence that begs to differ.
As above so below.

And all I know is, the path of healing is most effective when loving, helping hands are there to lend support. In these photos I can glimpse Mother Earth's own journey towards healing, which of course is guided by her lovers, her protectors.

And so must it be.

With Love and Light,
-Chelsea Rose

I Am Therefore I Think & Bling group Art shows

This month I am in two group shows around town:

"I Am Therefore I think" at Peoples Art of Portland Gallery, and "Bling" at Splendoporium Gallery

I created four paintings for "I Am therefore I think" which is a social commentary art show:

"Devastated"

11x14

original acrylic painting on canvas board

by Chelsea Rose

This painting was a nice change in subject matter/intention then my usual art. I was still able to paint the sacred feminine, but did so in a setting and environment that expressed my own unease and misgivings about mankind's disregard for the planet we inhabit.

"War Is Over"

6"x6"

Original Acrylic Painting on canvas board

by Chelsea Rose

"Justice"

6"x6"

original acrylic painting on canvas board

by Chelsea Rose

"Not Asking for It"

6"x6"

original acrylic painting on canvas board

by Chelsea Rose

These three mini paintings were created as a mini series expressing three major issues that women face in global society. I chose the issues of War, Inequality and Rape Culture. It was important for me to try and show a verity of ethnicity in these three paintings which I feel I managed to accomplish by featuring a Middle Eastern woman, a Black woman and a White woman.

Here they are drying on my easel:

And here are some photos from the art opening:

Here I am posing by one of my protestor mini paintings. The opening was a day before Halloween so I wore my dreadlocks in Sailor Moon style hair buns.

And I had to take a photo of this lady dressed as one of my all-time favorite female artists, Frida Khalo, as she sat below my "Devastated" painting.

As you can see by these small sections of wall in the photos, there was sooo much art on those walls, it was practically floor to ceiling.

The show is still up, and will remain so till the first of December, so go check it out!

And then I have one painting in the "Bling" show at Splendorporium Gallery:

"Gems in the Heavens"

original acrylic painting on wood

by Chelsea Rose

The show will be up till January 5th, so you have plenty of time to have a look.

I am also working on my five paintings for the Big 500 show, opening Dec.13th.

...as well as getting several of my acrylic paintings on records submitted to the vinyl record art show at Future Shock.

And if you are looking for an opportunity to buy a bunch of prints, or original art from me you will have the chance to do so at the 6th annual Splendorcraft gift sale, where I will be sharing a booth space with Silly Weird Things.

So come visit us Friday the 5th, Saturday the 6th of December and collect some art!

Thanks for the support!

-Chelsea Rose

Things that go Bump in the Night, art show

Fall is here and I LOVE this time of year, as the sweet summer weather turns into moody, atmospheric fall, pumpkin spice flavored treats pop up everywhere, I get to play dress up for Halloween and watch all my fave movies like Sleepy Hollow, Hocus Pocus, Beetle Juice, Adams Family and more!

This year I also got to participate in a spooky group show called "Things That Go Bump In the Night"
at the Peoples Art of Portland.

Here are my contributions:

The Offering

(SwampThing meets Dracula)

11"14"

original acrylic painting on canvas

by Chelsea Rose

Furreaks

original acrylic painting on a vinyl record

by Chelsea Rose

The show runs through to the end of this week, so if you are in portland make sure to check it out before its gone!

And of course I got all dressed up for Halloween:

This year my costume was inspired by the Celtic nature god, the Green Man.

and I also painted a pumpkin:

My pumpkin painting was inspired by the Cheshire Cat, of course!

So thats that, I hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween and managed to dressed up and ate too much sweets.

Much love and light,

-Chelsea Rose

Lots of original art is in my store right meow!

In preparation for my solo show back in September I had feverishly painted a ridiculous amount of new and small, thus affordable, art works to sprinkle on the walls in-between my big expensive pieces. A lot of these lil ones found homes, but I still have some left. I have been slowly adding a few pieces each week to my etsy shop and now I have a nice group of small original and affordable paintings listed in my etsy shop. So check out these new pieces of art:

I have taken a strong liking to painting on vinyl records:

"Lucidzilla"

Original acrylic painting on a vinyl record

by Chelsea Rose

$65

For more photos or purchase here.

"Lucid Ness Monster"

Original acrylic painting on a vinyl record

by Chelsea Rose

$65

For more photos or purchase here.

"The Golden Luck Dragon"

Original acrylic painting on a vinyl record

by Chelsea Rose

$65

For more photos or purchase here.

"The Mermaid's Offering"

Original acrylic painting on a vinyl record

by Chelsea Rose

$65

For more photos or purchase here.

And as always, I absolutely love painting on skateboards. The following is one of three that I painted for my show. It is the last one of its kind:

"Green Roots Goddess"

Original spray paint and acrylic paint art on a skateboard deck

by Chelsea Rose

$80

For more photos or to purchase click here.

And here are a couple other, smaller paintings done on more traditional supports:

"Wormhole"

Original acrylic painting on wood block

by Chelsea Rose

$65

For more photos or to purchase click here.

"Tribal Cyclops Maiden"

4"x6"

Spray paint + acrylic paint on stretched canvas, studio frame

by Chelsea Rose

$40

For more photos or to purchase click here.

"A Glistening Encounter"

Original spray paint and acrylic art on gallery depth clayboard

by Chelsea Rose

$50

For more photos or to purchase click here.

So that's what I have listed so far, there are several other pieces I will be working to get listed in the next coming weeks. I realize the holidays are coming up which is a great excuse to buy and share art with loved ones. Consider buying handmade this year, its good for the world and surely its good for the soul.

Much love,

-Chelsea

The High Priestess, Tarot Show at Splendorporium

I have been getting involved in more group shows lately. I find themed shows very helpful in challenging me to draw and paint outside of my usual conceptual directions. One such recent group show that I participated in was a Tarot card themed art show at Splendorporium Gallery in Portland Oregon. I have always been drawn to Tarot cards and other divination tools so I was super stoked to pick a Tarot card to paint in my own style.

I chose to do The High Priestess Card:

(9"x12" Original acrylic painting on wood cut by Chelsea Rose)

Here is what a standard High Priestess card looks like:

So yes, I took a LOT of liberties in making this card my own. But I did keep some aspects the same, like my Priestess( who bares a striking resemblance to the caterpillar from Wonderland) is blue, while the card has the priestess in blue robes. My priestess also sits on a throne of sorts, but they are huge purple mushrooms. I also incorporated the black and white towers into my painting. And instead of having my priestess hold the Tora, I have her holding another book of knowledge that has a down pointing triangle( which is a symbol of the sacred feminine) which I adorned with an all seeing eye.

All in all, it was a great deal of fun getting to research the meaning behind all the symbols present in the card and It has me really considering doing an entire Tarot deck in my style!

And here are a couple photos from the opening reception at the gallery:

It was very interesting to see other people's interpretations of various Tarot cards. Some were literal kinda like mine because they incorporated some of the traditional symbols from the cards, and others were very abstract.

Here is a photo of my friend Darci, Silly.Wierd.Things card:

She did "The Moon" Tarot Card and I think it came out beautifully in her style.

And here I am with my painting at the opening reception. As usual I am too short to manage a photo with my art that is not entirely awkward :)

The show is up for the remainder of the month so go check it out if you are in Portland!

Blessings,

-Chelsea Rose

Earth Goddess body art in the Columbia River Gorge

I am FINALLY getting around to posting about the body painting and photo shoot for my Earth Goddess series that I completed back in August!

This was the 14th body painting I have completed for my Earth Goddess series. I had such a wonderful time with my model as we picnicked and painted on the bank of the Columbia River Gorge in one of Oregon's clothing optional state parks, Rooster Rock.

As usual it took me around 4 hours to do the full body painting.

Here are some of the finished photos from the shoot:

My model, being an adventurous soul, was most willing to get into the water for some shots. I love the results! And I am SUPER excited to learn that the body paint held up relatively well in the water and so now I am dreaming of an entire new "Water Goddess" series. But I am getting a little ahead of myself. I feel I am pretty much finished with my Earth Goddess series so now I must get serious about finding a gallery that will show the finished images, and also start putting together a book for self publishing.

I hope you enjoyed these photos, more soon.

Much love,

-Chelsea Rose

Future Shock Body Painting

With my art show at Future Shock coming to an end as the month of September culminates, I felt a live body painting session inside the gallery amidst my art would be lots of fun. And it was!

(this work in progress photo was taken by Tony. Thanks Tony! )

The body painting took a lil over four hours to complete. My model Caitlin Sparkle Jackson was very patient and sweet about it. I was very happy to be working with her one last time before she moved to Hawaii at the end of this month. She is one of the most fearless models I have had the pleasure of working with. (Our first shoot together was for my Earth Goddess body art series, where she ended up posing in nothing but my body paint, in the snow! That takes guts! Photos of that shoot can be seen here.)

Once the body painting was complete we began to shoot, using my art show inside Future Shock gallery as a background environment.

Here are some finished photos:

This one might be my favorite shot, despite the fact that it does not show off all of the body paint. I think I am especially loving this photo because she is completely surrounded by my big acrylic painting "The Last Mermaid" so it gives the sense that she IS one of my goddess creature ladies who has just stepped right out of one of my paintings.

It was not intentional, but I had a few people tell me that the body painting reminded them of Kali, the Hindu goddess of change. I could not agree more! Between the blueness of her face, Caitlin's dark curly hair, and her head dress( she said she bought it at Country Fair and that its a hand made piece by Neman's Commedia Mask) she really does resemble Kali in some ways. After looking at the photos I stopped on this shot, where, to the right of Caitlin is my own acrylic painting interruption of Kali which I call Goddess of Eternal Change. I love the synchronicity!