Rework / Tabernacle Frame

Sometimes, it is necessary to step away from a project for a while and determine what is required to make it do/say precisely what we intend.  That's the case with "Parental Guidance".  I wasn't satisfied with the fledgling's face and and posture.  I thought more about how to create the pugnacious expression that was what I had in mind.  The image above shows the painting as it is now.  This photo also exhibits the stunning custom frame that was created by The Second Artist framer.  It is a tabernacle frame in character with the "iconic" style in which I created the painting.

Several years ago I painted a similar painting on paper.  It was titled "Madonna and Fledgling".  That painting sold in Park City, UT...

 "Madonna and Fledgeling" - Toni Youngblood

I was not crazy about the title of that painting but the imagery was intended to be "iconic", as in Russian icon paintings...

I further developed "Parental Guidance" and continued this somewhat staid iconic background and had the tabernacle frame built to further this formal theme.  However it may appear to have religious overtones, if the viewer does not chuckle at this painting, I have failed.

Kitchen Totem #2

Kitchen Totem #2, 12"x9" acrylic on canvas board, Toni Youngblood  2015

My Two Paintings for Art Access 300 Plates 2015

 Snow Crow, acrylic on panel, Toni Youngblood
 

Tween Attitude, acrylic on panel, Toni Youngblood

Save the date!

300 Plates Fundraiser & Exhibition: Thursday, May 14, 2015 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. 

What is 300 Plates?

Check it out here:
http://www.accessart.org/support-us/300-plates-fundraiser

Kitchen Totem #1

Toni Youngblood Studios

Kitchen Totem #1, 12"x9" acrylic on canvas, Toni Youngblood 2015

Irony: We do not allow dishes to stack in the sink or elsewhere in our household. However, I'm intrigued by the appearance of the mismatched, off kilter and the unsteadiness of stacked dishes and the impending danger that gravity will exploit and ultimately take its opportunity to win in this unbalanced situation.

Press on "Red Winter Sky"

Left:  "Red Winter Sky", 36"x24" acrylic on canvas, Toni Youngblood

I was pleased and honored to have my painting included in a review of Artists of Utah - 15 Bytes e-Zine.

Excerpt here:

The dramatic power of the color is no less evident at Sprague Library, where Toni Youngblood’s “Red Winter Sky” expresses an immense sense of formal drama. It is shaped architectonically in a wooden tabernacle frame, which complements the intensity of the painting. In it is a linear silhouette of bare tree branches upon which two birds, one higher up, two lower, sit. It is bold and starkly set against a red winter sky. The linearity of black, and the ground of red, which shifts in tones from orange to red, is a formalistic approach, using color for its elemental structural values. If one stops to consider this formal value of red, and considers the modes of expression already mentioned — literal, nonrepresentational, psychological, interpretive or compositional — one finds that each is absolutely applicable to “Red Winter Sky” and the application of either one, several or all of these aesthetic expressive modes of utility of the color red only enhances the aesthetic sensible responsiveness of Youngblood’s painting. 

(From the article "50 Shades of Red: Horne Fine Art and Sprague Library Exhibits Examine the Color Red"  written by Ehren Clark - Ehren Clark studied art history at both the University of Utah and the University of Reading in the UK. He is now a professional writer living in Salt Lake City.)

Full article can be found here.
http://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/index.php/50-shades-of-red-horne-fine-art-and-sprague-library-exhibits-examine-the-color-red/

Seeing Red: Works from the Wasatch Women Artists’ Collective is at the Sprague Branch of the Salt Lake City Library through March 13.
Exploring RED, a group invitational, is at Horne Fine Art through March 14.