Just a couple of posts ago I showed you a small nebula piece I did in early 1990, called "Red Star Rising." I liked it so much that I decided to do a larger version. This is the second picture. It's called "Red Secret," showing the new red star hidden in the filaments and clouds of nebula gas. This picture is almost all airbrush work. You can get quite a lot of small details if you use the airbrush just right.
I was still new to the Washington, DC area and I was looking for art opportunities. I joined the Alexandria, Virginia "Art League" and submitted this painting and another space picture of similar size to a juried show. They were promptly rejected. Looking at what had been selected for that show, I should have painted a damn lighthouse, 'cause that's what kind of pictures got into the show. I don't think there's much of a market for space art in Northern Virginia. I finally sold the pictures at a science fiction convention. But I'm a more versatile artist now, I can paint sweet Virginia landscapes with soft green hills and cattle munching in the fields, or I can paint abstracts with just enough color and energy not to disturb the viewer. Maybe I should try the Art League again.
"Red Secret" is acrylic on illustration board, 16" x 20", February 1990.
2 comments:
I like the picture. As for trying again with the Artsy Fartsy who rejected your stuff before...yes you now have stuff more in the style they like, but you are WAY better than them so why bother. You don't need then to accept your work for you to have value as an artist. And besides, it might make them think you changed your work to what THEY considered "good art" and that would be bad! You have a wide range and ALL of it deserves to be accepted.
I second Tristan. Don't waste your time with the Art League. A painting my sister did of the Masonic Memorial got rejected by them, so you aren't the only one.
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