Irises

This was painted a while ago when I was doing a lot of mural work. It is a field Iris flowers on gold leaf...it 1s about 20 by 30 must re-measure... I am holding for an interested client then will release it is she passes on it.

alex

detail number two of previously mentioned painting.

detail of sad eyed lady

Here is a detail of the face from my painting described in previous entry.

Sad Eyed Lady

Here is a watercolor of mine my friend found in his basement. I made this in 2000. It is a portrait of my ex girlfriend. She was my only "bad" breakup as I managed to keep at least a human connection to every other girl I ever dated.
She was very wealthy and the idea of marrying into money was nice and tempting but It did not feel right. In the end the house of cards fell and I made for the high roads. Wealth is a strange animal and I think sometimes it tweaks people as much as poverty if they you are not careful. This piece is already nicely framed and the glass makes it hard to photograph without reflection. Serous inquiries only on this piece as I would like a minimum of $700.00 for it and I am not sure I even want to sell it....I will post more details of image in a moment.

26 x 34 w/ frame watercolor...

saturday

hello,

I will be back up today...took a breather yesterday...new work up as well.

alex

madonna with horsehoe crab

Here is the latest update on my glass design. It is the madonna with a horsehoe crab. I am not an athiest nor am I anti-christian and my work is never meant to be heretical. I think the horseshoe crab is a sacred "animal" and has been around in the same form long before mankind ever showed up on the scene. I think a man like christ would have felt the sacredness of suchanimals, especially something as ancient as the horseshoe. I am very excited to make this piece in glass once I perfect the drawing. I must study hands to get them perfect or all is lost. In the davinci masterpiece "virgin on the rocks" One can almost feel there should be a crab in the lower corner to complete the picture. I will have a cala-lily inspired border to frame this piece.

quote of the day

"genius is concealing your sources." S. Dali

Blood of eden

I found this in my parents garage today. It is a painting of the garden of eden. I find it interesting that the ancient sumerians also had a garden of eden and that there are many things in the bible that have history long before the bible was written. joseph campbell wrote a lot about this...This is a large painting about 5 foot long by 18 inches high.

oil on masonite...

Glass Art

SOLD

I will be spending the next three months or so working on glass art. I will be selling the original drawings (there will be many of them!) I think they will be very nice collectible pieces. I am trying to take my glass to a new level of perfection and I will share the entire process with you from beginning to finished piece. The glass pieces are for galleries and will sell for around $3,600 and up, so buy buying my original sketches and designs you will be helping me get the work together as well as getting some nice drawings--- and you will be invited to my eventual opening night. Please support me in this task as I really want to get an entire body of work together! There will be some paintings as well but mostly works of glass inspired by lalique, steuben, tifanny and dali. This is the first piece I am going to carve in glass (It is the first sketch for the first piece. I have much design work to do on it but I will be selling each stage on here. I am starting with this head and working "outward" as my intuition guides me.


This is a large drawing 22 x30 (pencil on strathmore paper)


ebay:

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=87404769&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=290143308842&lk=URL

Picasso

Whether or not you like picasso, (I personally prefer his early work) It is undeniable that he was a true genius. If you read his words carefully and what he had to say about art and philosophy, If you listen carefully, you pick up the crumbs of his genius. I find quotes of his that cut right to the bone of the matter and make things clearer for me in how I see art.

quote the raven:

"what does it mean...for a painter to paint in the manner of so and so or to actually imitate someone else? What's wrong with that? On the contrary its, it's a good idea. You should constantly try to paint like someone else. But the thing is, you can't. You would like to. You try. But it turns out to be a botch...And it's at the very moment you make a botch of it that you're yourself."

work space

here was my work desk today. I could have a desk thirty feet long and still make a mess of it.

eyes (detail)

I see the doorway to a thousand churches.

great words..

as a kid I messed around with writing a lot..eventually you have to choose your battles (so I chose the visual route.) I still like good writing and good lyrics and such...I fell that the following words paint an amazing and clear picture of a surreal, distinctly American reality. They are by roger waters. (The actual song is equally as fine as the words.

In truck stops and hamburger joints
In Cadillac limousines
In the company of has-beens
And bent-backs
And sleeping forms on pavement steps
In libraries and railway stations
In books and banks
In the pages of history
In suicidal cavalry attacks
I recognise...
Myself in every stranger's eyes
And in wheelchairs by monuments
Under tube trains and commuter accidents
In council care and county courts
At Easter fairs and sea-side resorts
In drawing rooms and city morgues
In award winning photographs
Of life rafts on the China seas
In transit camps, under arc lamps
On unloading ramps
In faces blurred by rubber stamps
I recognize...
Myself in every stranger's eyes
And now, from where I stand
Upon this hill
I plundered from the pool
I look around
I search the skies
I shade my eyes
So nearly blind
And I see signs of half remembered days
I hear bells that chime in strange familiar ways
I recognize...
The hope you kindle in your eyes
It's oh so easy now
As we lie here in the dark
Nothing interferes, it's obvious
How to beat the tears
That threaten to snuff out
The spark of our love

feedback

my assistant left ebay feedback for about one hundred people today...If anyone who has bought art would be kind enough to return the feedback (good or bad) please do so! trying to square away the details...

danke

thank you

merci

Dream Shine

The phenomenon known as planetshine occurs when reflected sunlight from a planet illuminates the dark side of one of its moons. Typically, this results in the moon's dark side being bathed in a soft, faint light. The best known example of planetshine is Earthshine, which can be seen from Earth when the Moon is a thin crescent.

I used this concept loosely as basis for a painting that is a dream state, a place where the heavenly brain is illuminated by the soft under belly of the unconcious during nightly slumber.

22 x 30 --inks, watercolor and white acrylic.

ebay:
http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=87404769&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=290143071278&lk=URL

girl on the beach

see below for description.


charcoal and watercolor on paper.

22 x 30


ebay:
http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=87404769&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=290143056670&lk=URL

a day at the office

I drew this big picture today. I sometimes push my ideas of what art is and what my style is to the point of breaking. Working big is great for the soul, I like to draw outside on big expensive sheets of paper. I have a divided nature, part of me is quiet and calm and reclusive and other part lives very large and loud. You get to be physical when you work large. You get to get involved in the process on other levels instead of just a cerebral one. I met a nice artist- girl at the beach and realized this is probably an unconscious snapshot of that moment.




If you know where you are going then your are lost---gardega

new work

I painted this today when I was thinking about how everything comes to an end...relationships, summers, life...even the bad things in life come to an end..

jim morrison wrote these words about the same idea.

I love you, the best
Better than all the rest
I love you, the best
Better than all the rest
That I meet in the summer
Indian summer
That I meet in the summer
Indian summer
I love you, the best
Better than all the rest



ebay:
http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=87404769&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=290142980149&lk=URL

still life

I picked a lily from my landlords garden...(hope she doesn't read this) I haven't done any still lives in a long time and would like to do more. sorry for bad photo of work...


15 x 20 watercolor


150.00

great video!

to all my people "out there" you must watch this video it is a great look at reality vs. perception. I hope if you are work you can still watch it! It will change your whole day, I promise.

Note: I did not know that it gets religious in the very end (I posted it before I watched the whole video)--the "perception" part is what interests me...

link below:


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4232897377629019446

color of the day! cobalt blue

Believe it or not the name cobalt comes from the german kobolt (underground goblin) it is a very costly and very stable color. The great artist maxfield parrish was known for using cobalt blue in his skies so it was also sometimes known as "parrish" blue. Cobalt is often used by gardega when I am in need of the "swirling skies of genius." I often use cobalt for one part of my sky and ultramarine for another part. They are close friends and never quarrel on the canvas. Maxfield Parrish painted in glazes, I will explain glazes in next post!

alex

website is up

Okay...www.gardega.com is up. It is a bit rough in spots and there is mostly older work up (the site was built in 2004 and never really used much, so there is some old crap up that makes me cringe. ...I am getting rid of the illustration work up now and there will be no cartoon work...the site will be a work of art I hope and make life easier and less "linear" than just a blog...please forgive any shortcomings, they are being worked out ASAP.

update on website

My new website will be up in a few hours...the structure is there with just some "filler" art I will be working on it and uploading new work each day for you to see as well as keeping the blog alive. I love the layout of the site and will share it-- but will have to start adding content asap. it has a few bugs I am working out also.

cover art

I do pro bono work (book covers) for citizens against government waste. I believe the government has two purposes--- to take away personal liberties and tax us excessively so it can spend our money like a drunken sailor. Citizens against government waste is a DC based entity that wants to reform earmarks and make the government spend money more responsibly. I cant see anything wrong with that notion. I choose no side in politics except responsibility. Anyone want this original pen and ink? the color was added in photo shop....the original is 25 dollars. now back to our regular programming. Here the little swollen piggy cant get under the low poll numbers of a limbo bar.

after goya

Goya has always been a hero of mine....he spent his last days in darkness exploring the dark underbelly of mankind's soul.


pencil on pastel paper.

ebay:

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=87404769&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=290142288833&lk=URL

nude--sketchbook page

Another sketchbook page from moons ago...hard to look at my older stuff sometimes, other times not so bad.

alex

ebay:

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=87404769&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=290142290597&lk=URL

oil paints

thanks for the oils, clay...I was all out of white and cerulean blue!

sketchbook page---butterfly

Here is a sketchbook page of mine. I think I will work her up into a finished canvas. If someone wants to buy this I will finish it (if you wan tme to) and sell it for 75 dollars or best bid...


alex

ebay:
http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=87404769&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=290142287419&lk=URL

artifacts

I was driving down the road on the way to my mom's sixtieth birthday party. On the side of a road was a file cabinet (out for the trash) something told me to pull over and look in. My whole life I have collected arrowheads ( I have some american indian blood in me.) In the bottom draw I found a wooden box and inside the box I found these american indian artifacts. The larger stone has some symbols carved into it.

set her free

MARSEILLE, France — A woman has been arrested on suspicion of kissing a painting by American artist Cy Twombly and smudging the bone-white canvas with her lipstick, French judicial officials said Saturday.

Police said they arrested the woman after she kissed the work on Thursday. She is to be tried in a court in the southern city of Avignon on Aug. 16 for "damage to a work of art," judicial officials said.

The painting, which is worth an estimated $2 million, was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon. It is part of an exhibition slated to run at the museum through Sept. 30. Officials did not provide further details on the painting.

Twombly is known for his abstract paintings combining painting and drawing techniques, repetitive lines and the use of graffiti, letters and words.

Born in Lexington, Va., in 1928, Twombly has lived in Italy for nearly a half- century. He won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2001.