Through the Heart

I finished this small oil painting that I'm calling, "Through the Heart". It's another small wood panel painting, (4x6"). I've been in a poker frame of mind lately..My brother is a professional Poker player and was recently in The World Series of Poker tournament in Vegas this past July. He (O.K. a glimpse of the back of his head) was on ESPN Tuesday evening, he was playing poker at Ray Romano's table (from "Everybody Loves Raymond"). He's a phenomenal gamer and extremely competitive..perfectly wired to be great at Poker. I would lose my shirt...What am I saying...I chose to be an artist and lose my shirt at the easel instead. I don't think my brother or I would have it any other way.

I was told early on that if you want to be an artist, be prepared to have the life and blood sucked clean out of your heart and soul. ("Oh my God, relax dude, I just want to paint some cool pictures")...As dramatic as it is, there is probably some truth in this statement for anything that you put your heart and soul into. I swear my brother has a few more gray hairs in his head upon returning from the World Series of Poker.
Some days you get the Bear..and some days the bear gets you.

This painting is about the days when the bear gets you. I got an email from someone asking if there were visual religious references here..(A spike through the heart...stains that maybe suggest the shroud or Turin or dripping blood) hmmm, no, I don't think I'm that deep..honestly. I really do just want to paint some cool pictures. I liked the aged surface of the wood and the worn playing card. Weathered and tattered textures appeal to my interest in objects that suggest ambiguous narratives. Great fun to paint.

Highlights Hi-Five "Riddle Me" Illustration

I just finished another small assignment for Highlights Hi-Five magazine. This one will be in February 2009 issue I think. It will accompany some text that will challenge children to come up with riddles for things they find in my illustration.

I love working for this company, very professional and great fun.

Robert J. Foti (1959-Sept 11,2001)

This is a drawing from my sketchbook of Robert J. Foti. It's my way of taking some time to draw and reflect on the faces of the people who lost there lives on 9/11. Robert Foti was a firefighter with Ladder 7 and responded to the World Trade center on September 11, 2001. He perished in the collapse of the south tower, his remains have never been found. I didn't know him but have been reading some heart felt words about him from people who loved him dearly. I read that when Robert was 12 years old he saved a boy from drowning on Lake Hopatcong. It seems he was destined to devote his life to serving and helping others. He served so bravely and gave the ultimate sacrifice on 9/11. Robert J. Foti is in my thoughts today.

Muddy Cove Dory

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"Muddy Cove Dory" (4x6") Oil on Wood.
I finished this small oil painting I'm calling "Muddy Cove Dory". I took a short drive along part of the Maine coast about two weeks ago, looking for something to paint and I almost got whip lash when I drove by this dory sitting in the mud in an Ogunquit, Maine cove. This is just the kind of imagery that excites me lately. The filth, the mud, the fog...sweet love.
I pulled the car over and glopped through the very wet and sticky mud out to this dory and immediately thought of a story that's haunted me for almost eight years. I watched a TV show that reenacted the real life tragedy of a young girl who died when her feet got stuck in some mud flats. She drowned when the water eventually returned to the cove where she was stuck. How horrifying. She was a newlywed. She and her husband were going across these mud flats in an ATV when it's rear wheels became trapped. They got out and tried to lift the wheels out, that's when she burrowed her own feet deep into the mud. The more she tried to loosen the grasp, the more it swallowed her. Her husband went for help as the water began to come into the cove ..emergency personnel arrived and tried all day to free her. They became more desperate as the water slowly rose. The emergency team almost became stuck themselves, it was a real nightmare. When the water rose to her chin they gave her a tube to put in her mouth and attempted to raise it out of the water like a snorkel. Her head eventually disappeared under water. This was Alaska. Even though it was summer, the water is frigid. The tube eventually popped up and eerily floated away. My God..The horror.

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"Blue & Red Oars" (6x4") Oil on Wood.
Just finished this small oil painting that I'm calling "Blue and Red Oars". The more I look at Andrew Wyeth's work, the more I discover and appreciate his affection for filthy surfaces. He tells the truth in his paintings, nothing saccharine sweet or hokey...instead, lots of filth and reality. Like it or not. Rembrandt did that too. Reality and truth were important to him and it shows in his work. In his early self-portrait etchings he knew he was ugly and portrayed himself with an almost humorous, self-deprecating acknowledgement. How can you not get on board with this kind of honest approach. I write this because I've discovered something about myself as an artist and art appreciator. The pictures that have always turned my head or paused my breath have been the ones that portray this honesty to some degree. I think it's why my subjects in my recent paintings are getting filthier surfaces. I didn't realize it until I scrolled through my blog. There is something really beautiful in filth.

Bosc Pear

"Bosc Pear" (6x4") Oil on wood panel.
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"Vrooom" (Tin Blue Car)

""Vrooom" (4x6") Oil on Masonite.

When I posted my oil painting of the red toy car "Vintage" last month, my friend Nina sent a comment that said, "Vrooom". I said to myself, "That would have been a much cooler name for the painting". Thanks to Nina's comment it became easy to title this one.

The rusty paint-chipped patina is what originally attracted me to this subject. To me, it suggest the stories and history that lie deep in the venerable spirit of this object.

First day of the rest of your life

I finished this oil painting last week and I am just getting around to posting it. it was a commission for a fellow who turned 40 on July 20, 2008. I put his birth date on the boat where the boat ID number would normally go. He is from Massachusetts and the boat tags in Mass always start with "MS" and then the number. In this case, "M" and "S" happen to be the initials of this man and his wife (the one who commissioned the painting) Perfect! Just for fun, I added the initials of his two sons in Morse code somewhere in the painting ("N" and "T") can you find them? The most important thing to me is the finished piece, it trumps the intentional placement of added elements like dates, Morse code and initials. In this case it just happened to work out.

This boat is from Chatham, Mass (on Cape Cod) and is resting on shore in the early morning hours, about 6am. The sun is beginning to rise from the east and casts a reflective shine as this boat begins a new morning. This element helped to give this painting it's title and the appropriate message to any man turning 40.

Overall, I am really pleased with the minimal pallet and the warm and understated feel of this painting. There are a lot of dabs of paint on this that I feel helps to add interest to the surface and unify the piece.
If you would like to commission a painting, feel free to shoot me an email at tmbonita@gmail.com. Click the image for a larger view.

Vintage (Cast Iron car) finish

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I finished this small painting of a Vintage Cast iron toy car. I love the chipped paint and over all worn look of this little antique and was excited to paint it. My idea was to add drama to it by the use of the faded dark background contrasting the almost-spotlight effect on the car itself. My way of elevating this ordinary object to iconic status. This also simplifies the design and focuses on the car and chipped paint..it's character. These small compositions (in this case 4x6") force me to become more intimate because of it's scale. A totally different experience than painting a larger canvas where I'm standing and stepping back. These small ones require me to almost hunch into this little micro world...I love them.
*SOLD*

YouTube Video Slide Show of my Paintings

I put this together through my Daily painters gallery for YouTube.

Key #6 (finish)

I finished this small commission of "Key #6" in the series.

Three Cherries (under painting)

I completed this small oil under painting of three cherries.

Toy Car

I bought a bunch of old antique toys on Ebay with the intention of doing some oil studies. I was looking for aged surfaces and worn patinas. I found this wonderfully paint-chipped, tin car for $3.95...I love Ebay.

Anyhoot, this is the first of the small oil studies of toys. This is the monochromatic under painting (what's that?)....The monochromatic under painting is the first stage of my painting process. It's where I use only one color, in this case, Burnt Umber to establish my values (lights and darks) and to get a feel for the overall composition before I add a full range of colors. I used this stage to also explore some varied brush work (note the soft lost edge on the top of the car as apposed to the harder line at the bottom of the car) It's a compartmentalized way of doing things that divides the process into thoughtful little steps. I didn't make it up, this process is more than 500 years old. I'm looking forward to slapping some color on this when it dries.

The New Day (under painting)

This is a monochromatic under painting of a boat I'm currently calling, "The New Day"...unless I change my mind and call it something else. I'm thinking of painting this almost entirely in earth warm colors like Andrew Wyeths pallet. It's almost there but if you look at Wyeths work, you'll notice there are plenty of cools and blues beneath the surface to give it a balance...whatever works really but I'm feeling a strong pull towards a minimal pallet statement here. The piece is sort of dictating that as it evolves, we'll see where it goes.

Key #6 (under painting in progress)

This is a commission of a Key painting, number 6 in the series...this time, I'm pushing that chipped paint look in the back ground. So far, I have transferred the drawing, did the monochromatic under painting and just started to lay down some blue in the back ground..that's it so far and it is already beginning to take shape. I like this stage but sometimes come to a screeching halt not knowing how it will evolve...this is a good time to put it away and start something new before I finish it.

The Young Trapper

This is one of the paintings I did for the Diamond Newman Gallery in Boston. It's an 11x14" oil on wood panel painting I'm calling "The Young Trapper". Another painting in a series of lobster men and fisherman in their small crafts.

Botnay Bay poster illustration

I finished this digital painting/design for a local computer company poster. It was great fun to temporarily switch gears from paint brush to digital paint brush.

Key #5

I just finished this small commissioned oil painting I'm calling "Key #5". It's (4x6") on gessoed board (My official favorite surface). I'm attracted to old wood with graphics or lettering on it as a background element in my paintings. I went on Ebay to find some old wood boxes with advertising on them and they are not cheap...I'm not the only one who likes them evidently. I may have to get lucky at flea markets or yard sales.

Makin' for the Bay

This is one of the pieces that I did for the show at the Diamond Newman Gallery in Boston. "Makin for the Bay" is an oil on canvas, 10x20". I like the odd size of this work. I also learned that I prefer working on wood panels rather than canvas. Actually, I know I should give some tighter weave canvases another try before I make this declaration.

The painting is a lobsterman rowing toward the bay. A theme I've painted before and will continue to do until the images stop haunting me. I came up with the title from rewording a line from the Steven Stills (Crosby, Stills, Nash) song, Southern Cross; "She was making for the trades on the outside and the downhill run to papeete"...I love the nautical imagery in that song and thought part of that line would be cool if I simply reworded it to fit the fella in my oil painting who was "Makin' for the Bay". The love is in that gritty slang "Makin". It's exactly how this lobsterman would phrase it.

Diamond-Newman Gallery Boston, Massachusetts.

I'm very excited to have begun a relationship with The Diamond_Newman Gallery
in Boston, Massachusetts. They were on my long term radar and coincidentally, they contacted me about a month or so ago and asked if I would put some work together for the "First Friday show" this June. I have been a fan of many of the artist in this gallery for a while and I am thrilled to hang my work on the same wall. Below is the notice for the show, which opens tomorrow evening in the SOWA art district in Boston at the 450 Harrison avenue studios. I will be there with Alison and then maybe have some dinner in the North End, I'm really looking forward to it. Come by if you can and say hello. There are so many talented artist in this building, it should be an inspiring evening.