Time For a Cool Change

Losing my domain name last month incited me to make a few changes.  I've registered a few new domain names: www.RobertReevesOilAndDust.com, www.RobertReevesArtist.com, and www.RobertReevesPainter.com.  All of them will resolve to www.RobertReevesOilAndDust.com.

This leads to the next big change.  This will be my last post on Blogger.com.  I've exported this blog over to Wordpress and will be hosting my domains from there as well.  I am in no way unsatisfied with Blogger.com.  I just needed to move forward with some different hosting options and Wordpress has the tools I need right now.  After today you'll be able to find my updates at www.RobertReevesOilAndDust.com.  My plan is to get the rest of my gallery site reconstructed in the near future and get back to business.

 Hope to see you there.

Thanks for tuning in.

Cheers,

R

Ghost Crab Hunting

Just put the wraps on the latest piece, "Ghost Crab Hunting".  It was an interesting change of pace as I rarely do any sort of portraiture.  Especially children.  Granted this one doesn't have a face so it's only marginally a portrait.  

And now... back to work.  

Cheers,

R

Chicago Mashup Final

I finished up the Chicago commission a while back.  So after allowing for some drying time I shuffled it off to one of our town's best imaging firms, Beeline & Blue to have it scanned.  A lot of times I'll employ a photographer if I've got multiple works that I need print-quality images of, but in the case of a single painting it's more cost-effective and expedient.  I can drop the piece off whenever I wish and pick it up at my convenience.  Easy. I like easy.

I used to take my own photos, but after a while I decided to trust it to the pros.  It costs a bit more, but I like giving what business I can to local vendors. Plus I have neither the equipment or the space to get decent photos of my own work.  My new studio space is a little smaller than I'm used to.  With the way the lower level of the house is laid out I've had to divide my studio into a drawing/painting space and a framing/stretcher shop.  It works out to be more space on the whole, but the division has some limitations.  I'm glad to exchange some horizontal space for the additional headroom I've gained.  I can actually lift the masts of my larger easels to their full working height.  Which is good because I've recently picked up a commission for an additional painting to be installed at Aviva USA's headquarters here in Des Moines along with the grouping they picked up last year.  They're tall pieces (72") and with my previous setup I wound up crawling around on the floor whenever I needed to work on the lower bits.  Not complaining... just saying. As always I'm glad for the work.

I'm very happy to be done with this piece.  It was a lot of fun, and it was also a major challenge.  It stretched my ideas about creating scenes and putting elements together in such a way as to appear natural.  It gave me a few ideas for future work.  It's coming up on time to start getting some studio work together again and I'm looking forward to employing some new ideas.


Off to pick up a new taboret (read as rolling tool chest I found at the hardware store) and bust out the oils.  Enjoy your day.  I plan to.


Cheers,

R

What's In A Name Anyway?

Hey all.
I wanted to post a quick note letting people know that my domain, www.robreevesstudio.com, due to a cockup with my provider/host has been dropped and summarily picked up by a person in Japan.  One Kazuko Ishida.

Here is the WhoIs info:

Registrant:

   Kazuko Ishida
   6-6 Nishi 19 Jyo Minami 5 Chome
   Obihiroshi, 01 080-2469
   JP

   Registered through: Go Daddy
   Domain Name: ROBREEVESSTUDIO.COM
      Created on: 11-Jan-06
      Expires on: 15-Nov-12
      Last Updated on: 30-Dec-11

   Administrative Contact:
      Ishida, Kazuko  wataru@internal.co.jp
      6-6 Nishi 19 Jyo Minami 5 Chome
      Obihiroshi, 01 080-2469
      JP
      +1.55336344      Fax -- 

   Technical Contact:
      Ishida, Kazuko  wataru@internal.co.jp
      6-6 Nishi 19 Jyo Minami 5 Chome
      Obihiroshi, 01 080-2469
      JP
      +1.55336344      Fax -- 

   Domain servers in listed order:
      SNS25.WEBSITEWELCOME.COM
      SNS26.WEBSITEWELCOME.COM

I can only assume that since he's erected a bare-bones WordPress site on that domain that this is some weak-assed ploy to get me to buy the name back.  I'm sure I'm not the only one he's done this to.  I was considering a change anyway so this seems like the kick in the pants I was needing.  He can keep it.  Good luck to him.  He can kiss my lilly white arse.  

So for the meantime my personal website is down and my domain name is in flux.  If you've got any good ideas for a new one I'm all ears.  In the meantime I'm going to finish moving into my new place.  Take time for some careful consideration and start rebuilding.  Thankfully I keep a sync copy of my web site files so, in the end, nothing was lost.  

If you're interested in a painting feel free to contact me at RobReevesStudio@gmail.com.  Prints are still available online at ETSY.com and FineArtAmerica.com.  

Cheers,

R

Who IS that Masked Man?

I spent a good portion of the Summer working on a number of charcoal drawings.  My studio space, up until the last year has had a lot of headroom and good airflow.  I didn't have to worry too much about dust accumulation in the air.  My current digs, while dry, are a little shy in the area of ventilation.  I'm pretty sure I was about a canary short of a coal mine.  As a precaution I've been keeping my dust masks handy.

Making Art safely is something you're (hopefully) taught when you go to school.  You hear the lectures and anecdotes, but many times you don't take them seriously because when you're taught these things you're typically young and indestructible.  This is not the case.  Ok?  Good.  Wear gloves or barrier cream if you paint.  Wear a mask if you work with aerosols or high-dust materials, and always work with good ventilation.  There's nothing cool about hacking up magenta lunch biscuits because you've been hitting the pastels.

At any rate I really need to get those pieces photographed.  Since I was a little rushed getting stuff framed for the last show I'm stuck with the task of having to pull the glass out of a bunch of frames.  Thankfully this round I stuck with metal.  

Needless to say I'm glad to be back working in oils.  Here's another detail from some of my current work, a mashup of one of my favorite cities, Chicago being created for a client who's on secondment from the UK.  As soon as I'm done writing this I'm headed down for another session.  Mixing all of these landmarks together has been challenging.

I like a challenge.  Hopefully I'm rising to it.  It feels like I am.


Cheers

R

I Keep Trying to Get Back to Writing but...

Boredom is something that doesn't visit my place very often.  With a relatively new full-time day job fixing bleeding computers at a local university, two growing boys, and an after-hours Art career there's not much time for anything else.  Not to mention house cleaning.  Seriously... I try to get a little help from the cat, but frankly he's useless. I keep trying to get a new post started.  I've got loads of drafts, but nothing of note.

So here I am.  Home sick.  No time like the present I guess.

After wrapping up the last show, Oil and Dust, I dove into a handful of commissions that had been waiting.  I'll be posting some more pics in the near future, but here's a small sample.

I'm happy to say that I've landed a couple of other projects and I'm looking forward to getting started.  Funny thing is I've got this idea in my head that I can't seem to shake.  I was sitting up working on my commissions the other night and took a little break to contemplate the over-sized charcoals I put together for the last show.  I got to thinking about the construction and it led me to thinking about machinery.  The boys and I had been watching a documentary about animation and it hit me: I had an idea I had to run with.  All things considered it will have to be a side project that I work on it what little spare time I can muster.  I won't go into details yet since it's only the beginning of an idea, but I think it's a good one.  It's a huge departure and that's something I've been looking for.

Cheers,

R

Allow Me to Correct Myself

I just realized that I had the wrong time listed for the opening reception on the postcard image for my new solo exhibit, "Oil and Dust" opening at the Iowa State University Memorial Union Gallery tomorrow.  The corrected time is Saturday, July 23rd from 4-7.  Here's the updated postcard:

Sorry for any confusion.  I should really wait until morning to post things.  

Cheers

R