Black and White sketch idea during first stage for a "land meets water" painting

Finished oil on canvas, "borders"

 Photoshop sketch stage 1 for a water and west coast inspired image

 Black and white pencil drawing, developing more composition and layout

 Oil and acrylic washes on illustration board for further development of composition and sketch

 Final, oil on canvas- left panel

Final, oil on canvas- right panel

 Black and White sketch idea, first stage for an abstract two color image.

 oil washes on card-stock, developing color and composition.

Finished oil on canvas.

Over the summer, I finished my biggest oil painting to date. It is on two canvas' that are each 4 by 3 feet long. It was commissioned by my friends at The Reel Thing, Inc. which is located in downtown Santa Monica. Summer 2013 was a busy one, with a lot of long days spent laboring over this large painting in a really hot studio. It was nice to get back into oil painting after using a lot of acrylics for smaller, quicker pieces that I was selling in street markets in Grand Rapids. I decided to take the opportunity to relocate to the Los Angeles area after wrapping things up with my endeavors in Michigan.

Driving across the northern region of the United States, there were times I became completely overwhelmed by the unbelievable beauty of this country. Now that I'm here, in Los Angeles I've had a lot of time to discover all the areas of this big city and take advantage of the hiking trails. So far, I've hiked Mandeville, Runyon Canyon, Hollyridge, and Charmlee Wilderness park. Its great to be in a place that can offer both an excellent art community and the California vista.

It is turning out to be one amazing summer so far! 2013 is going to be my year, I can feel it. I will be flying out to LA on July 2nd to do a site visit for a large scale painting. I have lots of other smaller projects lining up quickly. This coming Saturday, June 8th, there is a street market downtown on Division Ave. Festival of the Arts will also be taking place so there is lots to do and see in Grand Rapids this weekend! Click here for a link to the Facebook event.

 

 

Here are some in-progress photos of the jewelry boxes I painted for the Market. So, I have some functional items for sale and there will be a few small paintings, several prints and some framed artwork. All created by yours truly!

Other news: I am currently obsessed with Lana Del Rey. The first time I heard her was a few years ago, the song "National Anthem" was my first listen and I just thought 'meh'. I have to give my sister credit for playing her album around the campfire the other night and it just... dawned on me. Holy. Crap. This is some amazing stuff! She is an artist and a poet. I love her whole persona and image she has created. Her and Joana Newsom should go on tour together and then, well- I'd die happy.

Come support your local artists!

Happy, happy May 1st! Here is an image of my latest painting. It is oil on canvas at about 14" by 36". I've been recently inspired by formations of rock, sand, and water in nature. I am enjoying the challenge of putting a surreal aspect into the pieces.

Next up for me is the Market presented by Avenue for the Arts. I'm getting together some original, smaller, functional, and affordable pieces. The event will take place in June on Division Avenue downtown Grand Rapids. You will find myself and other fellow creatives from 820 at a booth. Exact location TBA :) Thanks for checkin it out.

Behold, new studio space. Photograph taken with the iPhone 5. Good things to come from within these walls!

Hey all! It is a lovely, rainy day here in Michigan and also a perfect opportunity to update the blog. I have some exciting things going on for spring. Firstly, I wanted to mention that any of my work is available in print format. All you have to do is send me an email at Margaret.Larabel@gmail.com for a quote. It's best to check here for any updates on upcoming work as my website is a more 'formal' representation of my portfolio. My blog is where you can see any in-progress work in addition to whats in my permanent collection.

Speaking of staying up-to-date. Make sure you follow me @mega_bel on Instagram. I know I've already mentioned this smart phone app but I cannot stress how much I really think this tool is incredibly handy for artists and art fans alike for seeing what all of our peers are up to around the world. A huge part of being an artist is being informed about our industry and Instagram is one of my favorite ways to do so. I am constantly posting sketches, progress shots, studio stuff, and completed works. DO IT.

Which brings me to my next point... new studio space soon that I am beyond excited about. I am feeling pretty fortunate to have found not only great studio mates, but now a great space. Once we get all settled in I will probably post some pictures and hopefully links so you can check out my fellow work space buddies.

 Lastly! art.downtown is quickly approaching and yours truly is a registered artist. The oil on wood painting below is an in-progress shot of one of the three pieces that will be on display. I will be posting again soon as that work comes along and as April 12 approaches. I don't have a venue yet, more on that later! The oil painting on canvas also posted below is a commissioned piece- in progress. Thanks for all the love and support. Happy Sunday.

Here is a progress shot of the oil painting I'm working on! It has surpassed the, "hm. I'm not really sure where this is going but I'm just going to keep working on it" phase, and is now in the "starting to come together" phase.

In other news, I'm completely obsessed with Instagram. Yes, I bought the new iPhone 5 about a month ago, and its crazy how much it affects the everyday nuances of my life. About Instagram though, I love how you can follow your friends, or creatives, and its all completely visual. I am also a sucker for 'vintage looking' things and the photo effects are reminiscent of 60's and 70's film photography. Ok, I know I'm late on the Smart-phone train but heres my insta-grammed photo :) When the painting is finished I'll show it minus the affects.

As part of the Avenue for the Arts, the Free Radical Galleries are open all week long on Division Avenue. You can see my work at Vertigo (the record store), called "The Feminine Taboo" dealing with the language of societal expectations of women.

I wanted to post about other work that I viewed at the 601 Gallery. Most of the works there were objects and artifacts originally intended for Found Magazine. For one, I am a big fan of the written word- traditionally. I'm talking pen and lined paper. I have a pen pal that we've been writing letters back and forth for probably 3 years now. I'm also a hopeless romantic and have been thinking recently of how I can weave these things into my own work.

As I post these three letters I'm reminded of how they all struck a certain chord with me the moment I read them. It reminded me of a time when love was really innocent, it reminded me of my first loves and how love and relationships morph and change with each new phase of your life. It reminded me of young love. And then there is the letter about a marriage proposal. The way it's written is so simplistic and honest and relevant to this time. How the dynamics of family and marriage and dating have changed and still are changing- very rapidly- is something I think about all the time. It astounds and scares me and is exciting to me all at the same time. It really made me think, and maybe it will do the same for you.

This is a picture of me holding up an idea for next painting project, its oil on illustration board. Yes it's abstract. Yes it's totally different than anything I've done in awhile. And this took me 4 hours to complete, if you must know. I took a little advice from an experienced graphic designer who told me 'Always log your hours!'. This sounds like the most mundane, tedious, boring thing to do. However, I've learned the importance of tedious mundane things thanks to a (rather boring-but learned a lot from) desk job I had for a brief moment in time.

Sometimes, you have to crunch numbers to access certain valuable information. Ok, enough about crunching numbers, I'm kind of feeling like a geek on a Friday night blogging about time tracking and new studio spaces. Peace out!

Oh, PS- I'm also at my new studio in this picture!

Finishing touches for the San Chez Bistro ads.

Based on my recent posts, its clear that I've been working on some promotional materials for San Chez Bistro. This restaurant has been around for 20 years now (ancient in restaurant years!) I'm honored to have the opportunity to be responsible for the 'look' of their upcoming advertisements and promos for their 20th anniversary. The project is still in progress, but see above for the recent developments.

This is a vector-based image that was once hand drawn. This is the first vector illustration I've worked on in a looooong time. I've always favored Photoshop over Illustrator because it won't ever lose the hand-drawn look that I love so much. However, I've really been yearning to branch outside of my 'line drawing-ink on paper-color in photoshop' process. I become really antsy when things start to feel routine or monotonous. This project will give me a good way out of that.

In other news I've been studio shopping around. Currently my dining room is my studio. There are two kinds of artists in this world, those who enjoy working at home, and those who do not. For me, it is definitely a struggle to find that space, at home, where I can let the messes and distractions of everyday life fade away far enough for me to produce some solid work. But I've had to force myself recently. I'm really looking forward to what other people, projects, and quality of work that can unfold from studio life. Stay tuned for that update, and more illustrator projects :)

Here is the finished poster for the "A lot of Art" event coming up in September. For this, I integrated the Avenue for the Arts logo directly into the design- the logo being the very top part of the sandwich. For those of you who aren't familiar with Avenue for the Arts, it is a non-profit organization here in Grand Rapids that promotes arts and culture in the West Michigan area. I'm really excited to be a part of this association. The event itself is an excellent opportunity for artists and musicians to showcase what they've got to our community. Looking forward to seeing some great art and great people!

Here is the black and white ink/pencil drawing for my next commission. Now, I get to separate the linework and have lots of fun in photoshop!

Sketching stages for my next commission. The final drawing is inked and more progress photos to be posted soon!

This is the finished tattoo for Katie. Ink on paper.

 

Ink on watercolor, coloring in photoshop.

 

done. :)

Cat's Cradle

And this is what painting dandelions in photoshop looks like.

This is the final inked drawing for my current photoshop project. Color is almost done and completed illustration will be posted soon!

This is the final sketch of a tattoo design for a dear friend. Dragon fly with Cherry blossoms. please contact me via email for commissioned tattoo designs: meggyjune@gmail.com.