Art Adventures in California

In August I took a trip to California to see family, friends and to get arty farty.I was able to document most of my art adventures and I would like to take a moment to share them with you!
I did a "Meet the Artist" pop up live painting event inside Mystic Journey Bookstore in my hometown, Venice Beach.

 

I just loved painting in their patio garden! It was a warm evening with a nice breeze, I was surrounded by big buddha statues and some of the biggest crystals I had ever seen. People trickled through and I had a wonderful time painting and talking to everyone.

The painting I was working on is inspired by the Triple Goddess: Maiden, Mother Crone. I depicted each aspect of the trinity, but as mermaids.

I have not finished the painting yet but here are some progress photos taken during my live painting:

So yes….I am looking forward to finding some time to finish this one up. I will post an entry when its all done! 

I had a couple tables set up full of artly goodness like small original paintings on wood, stretched canvas prints, button pins, stickers and more:

See something you have to have. See if you can nab it in my etsy shop.

The next art adventure took place in the Arts district of Downtown LA. I met up with my friend and fellow artist Jennifer Korsen at her studio and we proceeded to paint a super secret collaborative mural in the Alleyway:

work in progress photo

finished photo

My final art adventure took me to San Diego California to a place called Writerz Blok. Its a community art space with a huge lot full of walls covered tip to tail in spray paint that are open to any artists interested in leaving their mark. 

And so I did...

Work in progress, laying down base colors

Fine tuning with highlights and shadow

Got the outlines in and now its all done!

So there is a glimpse into my arty shenanigans during my Cali trip. 

Watch a video I made with footage from the trip on my You Tube Channel, Here. 

I would love to do more traveling and paint/create/collab in new places with new friends because the experience was very inspiring! 

More art updates soon. I have a huge amount of new creations to show you. 

In the mean time, catch up with me on my Youtube channel, Periscope, Instagram and see what sort of art goodies are up for grabs in my Etsy shop. 

Much love!

-Chelsea Rose

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The Long Ride Home acrylic painting

I have been so preoccupied with painting on non traditional surfaces such as cow skulls, walls, recycled materials and the human body, that I had forgotten to share with you my most recently completed painting on canvas. Oops!

So without further adieu:

"The Long Ride Home"
12"x16"
Original acrylic painting on canvas
by Chelsea Rose

This painting is the first in a series I plan to make involving placing my strange creature ladies in fairly mundane places/doing fairly mundane things. Such as, this first piece, commuting home on a train. Other ideas include waiting at bus stops, eating at a restaurant, working an office job, taking a bath and so on. I have sketches of many of these ideas at the ready, I just need to buckle down and begin to pump out paintings for this series.

Now, since I am a fiend for work in progress photos I will share the creative process involved in the production of "The Long Ride Home." Enjoy!

It all began with a  rough concept sketch in my drawing book. I felt confident enough with it that I went ahead and projected my sketch onto to canvas and proceeded to transfer it (using an india ink marker) while adding more dimension and detail.

 I then began to add the first layers of color. I hadn't done a color study for this painting so I was making up the color scheme as I went along which was mostly fun, but a bit nerve racking at times.

By the time I went through with my 2nd layer of color I had made some big decisions about the interior of the train car as well as the outside sky/cityscape. My favorite movie of all time is a Studio Ghibli animation called "Spirited Away" and if you are a fan of the film, you should be able to tell right away that I recreated my own interpretation of the iconic red seated, wood interior train. If you have yet to see this movie, you must go watch it. Now! Seriously…
I also changed the sky to a dusky/sunsety affair, while pushing the city scape farther back.

During the final layers of color I added small details like her leg hair and shoes.

And to cap off these work in progress photos, here is a nice wide look into my lil art factory.

I think my next painting in this new series of mine is going to be one of my creature ladies eating a bowl of ramen at a lil restaurant.

Here is a lil sketch of the ramen painting concept. Next step is to select a canvas and get to work projecting my sketch onto it so that I can begin to paint. I will keep you posted on its progress.

Much love and light,
-Chelsea Rose 

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Tree Goddess Commissioned Interior Mural

I can feel myself evolving as a Muralist with each new project and thus I certainly had a blast creating my most recent mural:

The above was commissioned by a local Portland Oregon patron of the arts who gave me complete creative control of a section of the bedroom in his new home.

It all started with a concept sketch:

Once the concept sketch was approved by the patron I began work on the wall:

I started by using a paint marker to rough out the concept sketch directly on the wall.

And then I started mapping out the color!


And then cleaning it all up with some fine details

All done! 

What am I doing in this photo you ask? Why, I am being a tree lady too! Wasn't it obvious?

Is your bedroom next? Got a nursery or living room that could use some color? How about the chicken coop or the shed out back? Contact me if you are interested in talking about commissioning a mural!

Hope you enjoyed seeing my creative process in the creation of this project.

I have plenty of other things to show you soon, namely this past weekend I finished a custom commissioned body painting portrait session. Photos and details on that will be posted soon.

Much love,
-Chelsea Rose

P.S

I will be in SoCal come August, so if you are interested in commissioning a mural or body painting portrait session and you are out that ways, don't hesitate to set something up with me.

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Mother Of Faces acrylic painting on canvas

Today I finished a tribute acrylic painting for my favorite animation of all time: Avatar: Last Airbender.

"Mother of Faces"
16"x20"
original acrylic painting on canvas
by Chelsea Rose

This painting is inspired by “The Mother Of Faces” a spirit who only appears in the Avatar Last Air Bender graphic novel “The Search.” As with many of the characters in the Avatar world, Mother of faces is a fascinating and strong female archetype (IE: Compassionate Mother Protector and Gentle Giant) that shows great heart and generosity while still commanding respect and awe. The mother’s ability to emerge and become mightier than the very mountains around her sacred pool was especially inspiring to me. I enjoyed exploring and expressing her tremendous scale within my painting, while also aiming to capture her surreal beauty and grace. As an artist, I usually gravitate to subject matter related to the sacred feminine, warrior women, and the paranormal or metaphysical. I saw all of these things in The Mother of Faces and felt she would lend herself well to my painting approach as well as my existing body of work.

And...It all started with a pen and ink sketch:

Once I had the pen and ink sketch I projected it onto canvas and then began to load the canvas with color.

And then today I added the final touches:

I was in a bit of a rush to create this because only a few weeks ago did I realize that there was an open call to artists for the Legend of Korra / Avatar: Last Air Bender Tribute Exhibition showing at Gallery Nucleus in early March. The deadline for art submissions is Feb. 20th. Yikes! I submitted my painting today and I am crossing my fingers that they pick mine to exhibit( they are only choosing 15 pieces of art from all of the open call submissions. Eeep!)

In other news, I am currently working on creating a astrology sign series which has been lots of fun so far. I began working on the series because I am going to be a featured artist for Splendorporium's March show, which is Zodiac themed. I am also working on a painting for an upcoming "Sasquatch" themed group show at Good Gallery, opening in March. Oh! And, I will be doing a month long art install at The Bike Bar during March. Soooo, March is shaping up to be a pretty busy month! No complaints here. More updates and photos soon.

Much love and light,
-Chelsea Rose 

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The Last Mermaid new original acrylic painting

Meet my newest acrylic painting:

The Last Mermaid

36"x48"

original acrylic painting on canvas

by Chelsea Rose 

 Its my first painting that features an obvious reference to death. While I was not aiming to create a melancholy piece, I was exploring "tender aches" that present themselves during times of loss. The loss represented here could be a metaphor for a loved one passing, or a loss of belief or even a loss or dyeing out of tradition, tale, dream or magic.

 If you look closely, the pink figure holds the mermaid close, her head bent to the side, the corner of her lip turning up in a subtle smile. I was hoping to capture a calm warmth in her features that spoke of the sweetness of love, honor and remembrance. I placed the mermaid and her mourner amidst a cityscape, hinting at the possibility the mermaid could no longer survive within the modern day Babylonian way of life. Perhaps her death can be attribuated to pollution by the city, or perhaps the city's simple lack of belief in her existence.  

Anyhoo, those are some of my personal intentions, or perceptions of the painting. I invite the viewer to read the image in any way they wish, eyes unclouded by my own musings! 

Now, on to the creative process! I did a fairly good job at documenting the creation of this painting so I thought it would be interesting to share with you. 

It all began with a drawing in my sketchbook: 

I drew this concept sketch over 4 months ago! I used a mix of india ink pens and paint pens as well as some watered down acrylic paint.

I finally made up my mind to paint the concept, thus I started the painting in early April.

By April 15th I had everything roughed out in a the first layer of color.

Now I started to add another layer of color for skin, refining the design by adding highlights in the forms while using black to explore the details of eyes, hair, face and costume.

By May I had begun more work on the background cityscape, adding details like streetlights and a bridge.

Here is a compare and contrast comp I made. The top is before, the bottom is after. I added another layer of color, highlight and shadow to the skin of both figures. I also made some changes to the corset and skirt design of the pink one. I changed up the hair colors of the mermaid as well. In the background you can see before, and after the addition of the bridge and a second closer layering of buildings.

Here is a studio snapshot of the painting in its "work in progress" state.

And this photo was taken this past weekend, June 21st. You can see I added some drastic changes to the sky, with many pulsating orbs, somewhat akin to "Starry Night", as well as the final layer of color, highlight and shadow on the main figures. And that was that!

I am excited to debut her during my solo show at Future shock in September!  I will be offering prints in my etsy shop as well, so keep an eye out for them!

I hope you enjoy the finished piece, and found it interesting to see it's process of creation.

Thanks for the support!

With love,
-Chelsea Rose 

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Spray Paint Mural Experiment at the Eugene Oregon Free Wall

Finally having a good stretch of time off from my day job I was able to make the drive out to the Eugene Oregon free wall ( since Portland doesn't have one, which is a total outrage!)

My comfort zone with painting is using a brush, and I have painted several murals in this method as you can see here. However I have recently developed an interest in spray painting, especially after becoming a member of the Murals and Girls team. Before my trip out to Eugene I made a few experiments with the medium, by doing so on pieces of scrap board which you can see here. But I had never done any large pieces on a wall, so Eugene was my first big spray painting experiment. Have a look:

I began without a set concept sketch on paper but with the idea of painting two opposing goddess/alien/faery creature girls, with their hair sort of swirling together mid wall. So, first I sketched out a rough outline of the first character and began to fill her in.

My first creature lady filled out pretty quickly and so after I felt most of her color had been roughed out, I put down the black lines and moved on to start roughing out her sister's outline and color.

Once I had both of them roughed out, I went back in an added some final highlights and details, and then went back over everything with black...that is, till I ran out of black! Lesson learned: bring triple of every color and perhaps even quadruple of black and white!

And then I was all done! Here I am feeling a lil tired but mostly happy and accomplished.

All in all, I spent around 2 and a half hours painting, had lots of fun and learned so so much. I hope to make another trip out there soon to continue my experimentations with spray painting. Maybe next time I will do a mermaid creature lady! We shall see.

In other news, my art will be showing at Nectar Cafe for the next month and a half, and will also be on display at the Tea Zone & Camellia Lounge for the month of June. And come August, I am pretty excited about a solo exhibition at Future Shock gallery! Will post more on all of this soon.

Also there are plenty of new items in my online shop to grab up!


(a photo from this past week's Last Thursday Art walk on Alberta, showing off a bunch of new art goodies)

I added some art prints of several of my recent acrylic paintings and there are now 10 of my handmade art pendants listed and ready to go to a good home!

 So go visit my shop, and support the arts cuz mama needs some mo' spray paint ;)

Much love always,
-Chelsea Rose

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Body Painting Praesepe SG

I recently branched out a ways from my Earth Goddess body art series and did a colorful body painting session on the traveling SuicideGirl, Praesepe. We had so much fun!



Between tea, cookies and much fun chit chatting It took around three hours to paint her.

I painted one mermaid on the front, in addition to a third eye.



and two on the back in addition to a large floating vertical eye between her shoulders.

I am hoping to do a small series of body art photo sessions like these where I paint my creature ladies with bold color on women. I already have quite a few models who have volunteered, so It will be a nice way to do some body painting this cold rainy Pacific Northwest spring until the seasons turn and I can resume work outside on my Earth Goddess series.

In other news, I have posted a few more of my hand sculpted, hand painted art pendants for sale in my etsy shop!

Here are two of my favorites, that are up for grabs currently:


I call her "Space Empress Spiral Buns" and her third eye is a laborite bead. She is $35. See the listing for more photos.


This is a large "Third eye" which is available for $30. Check out the listing.

I have lots more to update on( including the Space Lady mural I got to paint for Sticker Nerds 3!!!) so much has happened recently I have been having a hard time finding moments to write out a post! But certainly more updates coming soon.

Much love and light,
-Chelsea 

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