Life, Death and Long-Term Projects

I have always had a strong sense of my own mortality, even as a kid. I'm pretty sure it's because I was born prematurely and my parents always talked about how it was "a 50/50 chance I'd survive." I must have processed that information as 1) I am lucky! I need to make the most of my time here and 2) Maybe I won't live a long life, so I need to make the most of my time here.

It sounds kinda heavy, but I really think it shaped my sense of optimism and enthusiasm for life. Since post college days and to this day, every now and then, when I'm working on something I'm really excited about, I see a thought pass through my mind... "I sure hope I live long enough to finish this one." On the one hand, I'm kind of joking, but also not really joking! I don't take it too seriously, because, yes, one day I will leave a lot unfinished, but I certainly can't let that freak me out.

That being said, I started a new long term project I'm very excited about—a book! The tentative title is: "Bedelia Frothenbutton's Journal of Natural Arts and Magick." It will allow me to continue exploring my world of animals through one bunny, Bedelia who is learning about the world around her. I'm giving myself a deadline of "two years to possibly never" to finish it. 😅 I'm enjoying everything about the process from the collection of reading materials and research, to the brainstorming, writing and drawing. I started with researching information for a few weeks and put off actually starting for a bit, but finally started the actual work. As I sat down to start, my first concern was...but what if I do one page and I'm like...yeah this is a dead end project? (Generally speaking, I dislike working on books because they are long and repetitive). Well, to my surprise, I did one page a week ago, and my synapses basically exploded with glittering possibilities! So I'll either finish it, get bored and abandon it, or die before I'm finished with it. Who knows? But I am enjoying the act of it all immensely so far.

Here's a look at a couple of pages. This project will give me the chance to draw a lot, do studies and make up stories. I intend to do parts of it in color eventually, but we will see how long that takes. I dunno. I almost never work in a sketchbook for actual work (only rough ideas and stuff), but it's a nice moleskin sketchbook, so I'm suffering through working with a binding in my way. (I prefer working on separate sheets of paper so everything is flat).

Early pages in progress for a new personal project.

Evolution of a Bunny

I don’t really post that many early progress stuff on Instagram, because it doesn’t ever seem like it goes over so well? But I know I like to see that kind of thing, so I thought it was OK to put in a blog post!

Here’s a new idea I’m working on for my solo in October. I thought you’d like to see its evolution from mere idea to more fleshed out drawing. Below is just a hair of an idea (get it? hair? hare?) Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Often I’ll leave something like this alone and come back to it the next day, which I did. Remember the acorn on the bottom right, because I’ll refer to it later. (Yeah that’s an acorn).

Early inception of an idea in pencil.

Then the next day, I made it a more specific bun…

Early in the process, but with a cuter and more specific bunny character in pencil.

Then I expanded the background. Takes a while and a lot of erasing and fixing along the way… I suck at ovals and circles and don’t have any large template things (whatever those things are called), so I do my best, which isn’t perfect, and then when I’m far enough along I’ll double check it’s accuracy in photoshop after I scan the drawing. Often I’m not completely off and it’s just a minor tweak here and there. It’s lighter at the top because of my lamps at the top of my desk.

Expanded idea in pencil. Getting the idea across now.

Still rough. These sketches aren’t really meant to be finished art, but I’m starting to get the idea of what I want to convey. If you remember the rough acorn on the first shot above, I was reminding myself that I wanted to play with planes of reality in the piece. So I will have some “real” elements in the foreground above the patterned area and the “window” to where the bunny is living. So the flower and strawberry will be in the foreground. The daisy in the oval frame will peek out into the foreground as well.

Just about done. Or done enough to move on to the painting part of the process.

You may wonder why the strawberry is floating. I could say it’s because it’s just laying on top of the patterned background. (Which, by the way, I’m going to treat like it’s an embroidered texture when I paint it.) But it’s because I intend for it to meet a part of the frame that I will be using. And the frame has a TON of bleed area at the top and bottom. Fingers crossed it will work out OK. It will take quite a bit of testing to make sure it aligns right. (By testing, I mean I print out the sketch and place it in the frame to make sure it lines up properly).

Anyway, I’m not really supposed to post finished stuff for the galleries too far ahead…but this won’t really look much like this when I do the painting, so I think it’s just fine. I like keeping secrets. And I like that my brain knows what this is probably going to look like (basically), but you will have to wait to see! 😆 I hope to start this one soon. I say that with everything I’m working on, though. Because it’s true. I wish I had 36 hours in a day! I have so many ideas and pursuits right now that I’m basically swirling as soon as I wake up in the morning and have to force myself to chill in the evening so I can get a good night’s sleep! Otherwise I’ll be working out details in my dreams.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment here! I hope you liked this post. :)

Laziness, Fears and Crowds

I sometimes recall the early days of my career (just out of college, working on my portfolio) where I could barely get myself to work sometimes. It was part laziness...I would rather spend the evening watching TV or sleeping when I was in my twenties. And it was partly procrastination because I really didn't know what I was doing, attached with a fear of failure. Failure in terms of planning to do a thing, make a thing, and then just making a mess of the thing so bad you hope no one ever sees evidence of the thing. Making pictures is hard and takes a lot of practice to consistently produce good work on a regular basis. (Which is why generative artificial intelligence art drives artists NUTS. It devalues all the practice and dedication we've put into our craft).

I had an experience in college where I managed to pull off a strong book cover for my beginner status, which was proclaimed by my professor, publicly, out loud and in front of my peers at a critique. I was equally proud and a little embarrassed, and soon after that, afraid that I would never manage it again. And for the rest of that year, I fulfilled my own prophesy because I psyched myself into believing it couldn't happen again. Every assignment thereafter that year was a struggle. In reality, the other projects probably weren't that bad, but just a normal stage in learning where you get lucky sometimes as a beginner and everything works out right, but you truly don't have all the skills yet. And I'm not saying I'm the queen of everything now by any means, but still to this day, with almost every painting, I take a deep breath and hope this isn't the time I am not able to make it work. And I've had other artists agree with me that they often feel that same way. I guess staring at a mess of a creation when you are learning is a little traumatic in some ways.

But anyway, that made me think today while I worked on a piece that I can't really show you yet, about an assignment we had in college to illustrate a crowd of some sort. On the surface level it seemed so simple! And yet it was NOT! Hence the reason for the project. Because you learn quite a lot when you try to create a scene like a crowd. How do you make it make sense? How to make it natural? How to create it out of nothing, rather than just copy a photograph of a crowd? (The latter which was not allowed). I don't even remember what I ended up doing, but I remember it being difficult and not great. And now it's my absolute favorite thing to do. Although I don't always have the time for it.

Here's a cropped detail of the piece in progress that reminded me of our "crowd" assignment. It's for the upcoming group show called "Imagine" at Nanny Goat Gallery in Petaluma, CA opening in February. I hope to finish it up this weekend. And of course, I can't wait to share the whole piece. 😊

Cropped detail of “Good News in the Meadow,” oil on gessoboard panel by Gina Matarazzo

Fun with Frames!

I've been wanting to do some frame embellishments other than painting parts of the frame for years now, but never felt like I had that extra time. Well, finally I had an opportunity because my next due date was far enough off that I had time to attempt it! I was working on a new idea and searching for the right frame in my collection. I have a large stash of vintage frames I collect regularly, and there has been a frame I kept skipping over because it always felt like it was missing something, but the size and shape was just right this time. I finally put two and two together and realized that maybe I could salvage the frame by customizing it a bit.

At first I struggled because I don't have much in the way of sculpting tools, and I made a couple poor decisions right out of the gate. So I spent some time and wasted some time. But my new tools arrived and it was fun figuring out which tool would work the best for which thing. It was so much fun figuring that out! I've dabbled over the years and have made maquettes for shooting reference, so it's not entirely a new thing for me to sculpt, but having the right tools is! But the one thing that I still am not a fan of is the patience part. People laugh when I say I don't have patience...how can I say that with all the work and detail I put into my paintings!? But that's one kind of patience that I'm just used to. There's another kind of patience when you are building things. There's a lot of waiting. Wait for this to dry. Wait for that to cure. Wait for this layer of varnish to dry, wait for that layer of paint to dry. Wait for the epoxy to set. Wait wait wait wait wait. Aaaaaaagggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!

But I am happy with how it came out! Sadly, I was having so much fun that I forgot to take a before picture of this one below. Oopsey! But the top mouse silhouette, the bottom tulip and the daisy like flowers were sculpted and added on this one. It added just the right amount of whimsy to the frame I felt it was missing. I can’t wait to show you the painting it’s for! Top secret for a couple weeks yet. Ha!

Then I started on another one that isn’t ready for a painting yet, but it had good solid bones (good wood), but I didn’t really like the frame when it came in the mail. Sometimes they feel a lot different than the photo before I buy it. Anyway, here’s the original frame below.

Then I sculpted some parts and placed them on the frame to see how it would look with changes.

And after I attached the parts permanently, I painted and gilded the finished frame.

Not entirely sure if I’ll end up using this one, but it was good practice. I’ll live with it for a while and see how I feel. :)

But anyway, this will give me the opportunity to use frames in my stash that I thought I couldn’t use! I love being able to use vintage frames rather than buy new ones, so if I can make them extra special, I’m all for it! I used Creative Paperclay on these frame embellishments. The only problem with it is that it dries pretty quickly so you only have about an hour and a half window to work with it. But you don’t have to do anything to cure it, which is good. It’s lightweight which was great for these frames, because they too were lightweight. Next time I’ll try sculpey, though so I can spend more time refining the embellishments. A sculptor friend had recommended epoxy sculpt to me, but I don’t enjoy having to mix the two-part clay together. I’m tired by the time I’m done mixing. It’s probably good for molds, though.

So that’s my side project of late while I’ve been working ahead on 2026 pieces!

Has anyone had experience embellishing frames too? What are your favorite materials to use?

Opening Night and Stuff

Matt and I attended the gallery opening for the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine curated group show, "Reverie" at Haven Gallery in Northport, NY over the weekend. It was so much fun being at an opening event! I am usually not able to attend those due to either too much work to be done or scheduling conflicts or not being in that part of the world. I usually go to the IX convention in Reading, PA every year this time of year, but this year we both realized we weren't going to have enough work to show, so we dropped out several weeks ago. But on the flip side, that meant we could go to something we normally don't get to attend! It sure was a great exhibit—SO MUCH beautiful work in the show. I feel so fortunate that my little animal piece was included and to be hanging in there among so many wonderful works of art. If you didn't see it on facebook or instagram, I’m including it at the bottom of this post. Hard to tell if people see everything anymore with the new algorithms. Hence why I figured blogging couldn’t hurt.

Here’s a work in progress shot of something I'm working on for my next group show. The white lines are from white graphite transfer paper. It’s so helpful when transferring a sketch to a dark background! I can't wait to share this later when it's done.

A detail shot of a piece I’m working on. Transfer lines in the background.

I’d also like to say that the funny thing about going to an opening event is that I chuckle to myself a little bit because my life hasn't change all that much since I was a kid. My Dad had this little photo of me he used to like having by his computer. I was about 5 or 6 and standing next to a little Santa Claus portrait (made with construction paper and cotton balls) at a little art show at school. The mediums have changed, but I'm still standing next to my artwork in art shows forty + years later. I wish I had the photo to show you. I sure was proud of that Santa!

“A Chorus of Stars” from the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine curated group show, “Reverie” at Haven Gallery

Feel free to ask me any questions or suggest a blog post for the future! Have a great Halloween!

xo
Gina

A TIME TO BREATHE!

I totally thought I'd be posting blog posts this year. I only did one. But heck, I have a little breathing time now, so here we go! And I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to just do things because I feel like it!

Now that I have another solo show behind me in 2025, I'm starting to think about the next one in 2026. It's going to be a challenge, as I'm going to need to do more paintings because I think I need to fill up the whole gallery this time. That's at least twice as many as I usually do! As daunting as it seems, I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and work it all out. I do group shows all throughout the year, so I'm constantly working and painting and coming up with new ideas, but there's something distinctly different about having to come up with a body of work for a show. In the effort to not do the same thing over and over again, I think about a balance of what I could do, and of course, always striving to up my own ante and explore new ways of depicting my imaginative world.

There's a time in the beginning like now, where (although I am working on other group shows and commissions) I get excited to be coming up with lots of drawings and ideas, writing down notes, looking at things I'd like to improve, or details I'd like to get better at. It's kind of a sweet secret time when there's a lot going on in my head that I can't wait to get down on paper in some way. Sometimes I just make written notes in words, other times I do quick thumbnails just to get the hint of the idea down where no one but me would know what the heck it is.

It reminds me of a time in my life right after college, where I'd spend time at my drawing table working on different things and thinking about my future. My favorite thing was to stay home on the weekends and work into the night with the TV playing British sitcoms. I'd lie to people and say I was going out like a twenty something should be. But I'd sneakily stay in. Back then it was sometimes hard for me to get myself at my desk. Fear of failure, a tendency to want to just watch TV and nap, often brought about procrastination. But after a while I figured out that if I literally just made an effort to sit in my chair, soon enough I'd get the urge to start working. All these years later, it's harder to get me to just sit anywhere else and just relax!

Anyway, there's something special about thinking about a new collection of work that needs to come about. And I'm super excited that half of my week next week will be dedicated just to that! Woot! Here’s something rough I’m workin’ on…

A Theater for Thomas

I thought it would be fun to do more in depth posts about how I work through a piece. Here is the work progress for “A Theater for Thomas.”

I have a virtual scrapbook on Pinterest, and I “collect” things I find visually interesting. Sometimes it’s not even the thing itself, but maybe the way light was captured, lace on a collar, or how something makes me feel. Pinterest is AWESOME because you can be a hoarder without actually being a hoarder of things…and it won't collect dust!

I just love old Victorian ephemera! I had a few old Victorian paper doll theaters pinned…stuff like this... https://www.pinterest.com/pin/36662184460968737/ 

You will notice that although I use things like this as inspiration, I NEVER copy anything exactly. 1. I honor other peoples' copyrights and would never steal from them, because I wouldn't want anyone to steal from me (Note: Though these designs are so old that they are probably out of copyright, I still would never copy it outright, see number 2). 2. Gina likes nothing more than making things customized to her own ideas. 3. I am much too lazy to copy anything exactly. The general rule is, change the reference enough to make it your own, and I stand by that. Some people think 30% your own is enough. I think that’s dangerous territory. I shoot for 70% my own.

Anyway, I have been wanting to do a piece incorporating one of these old things, so I thought it would be fun to use one for a little theatre backdrop for my little musically inclined fellas. I am sometimes hesitant to try weird things like this out...I wasn't sure I could have it make sense in one of my pictures. Thankfully trying stuff out in pencil helps...I actually think it worked out.

Early sketch

The early sketch, above, is rough and foofy. I no longer work in thumbnail size (which is supposed to be drawings not much bigger than your thumb). I find that a tiny drawing with a gesture that looks FABULOUS, will not necessarily hold up once it's larger, so I go all in and start at almost full size. As I move forward, I almost carve out the idea further with lines. I work a couple hours here and there over a few days to hone the idea, making things more solid to bring the story to life. If I still like it in a few days, that means it's getting there! You can see the subtle progression between the next two sketches below. You might have to look reallllllllly carefully to see the difference.

Mid sketch phase

Late stage with some more things worked out.

Next I do a digital color study. Here's one incredibly rough and inaccurate color study! I scan in the pencil drawing and puff puff puff with the digital paint brush to color over the sketch to get a feel for what I want it to look like. I don't like to spend too much time on this anymore. I used to be so accurate and detailed with this that I felt like I already painted the real thing, and by the time I started painting, I was not only bored, but exhausted. Doing it crazy like this keeps me fresh. It also gives me more freedom to change plans once the real painting begins. Sometimes once it's on the board or paper, it feels differently, so I might make some more changes.

Super rough color study (digital)

You will see below that I changed my mind on a lot of color things by the time I got to the final painting. You know, different day, different feelings, different thoughts. ;)

Next, I transfer the drawing to the board. (I didn’t take a photo of that this time, but I transfer the outlines of the idea in pencil). Then you can see that below, I'm just getting paint on the board to build up some opaqueness because I paint pretty thinly, and work in layers. I use oil paint and liquin as my painting medium. Goofy note: At this point, I'm pretty sure I have no idea how to paint anymore, and worry that I'll never make a painting look good ever again. EVERY. DAMN. TIME. It's like I get transported to middle school when I'd paint and LITERALLY not know what to do and wonder if I ever would know!

Blocking in stage

On the one below, you can see I've built up Thomas some. The upper part of the sky is drying and looks dull. It's because during the day, near the end of the day, the paint is becoming unworkable anymore. I have to oil the painting out with liquin to bring out the shine to see what I've painted the previous session accurately.

Thomas coming into view here.

Below, I've progressed to the front. I have passed over the painting in a few more layers at this point too.

Front going along now too

Whiskers and fuzz!

On the one above, I'm almost there. See the whiskers and other changes? 🙂 Fuzzy furs.

Below, I've added in some additional things, and the final scan is beneath that one.. Can you see the subtle differences between the photo of the real painting and the digital scan? The digital scan flattens the painting a bit and it's near impossible to get the exact color. Monitors vary greatly anyway, so I would never be able to show people EXACTLY how the painting looks, but it's a ballpark. In this case, the painting appears much more warm because of the actual lights shining on it. But the good part is, if you see the painting in person, it's a better experience, because you get the full vividness, the shine of the paint, and you can witness it with your fabulous optic nerves directly! Which is why going to a museum is better than looking online.

Actual painting, pretty much finished

Digital scan of the painting

And here...voilà! Below is Thomas all gussied up in his gilded frame.

Final painting in his frame.

Lastly, Thomas's story is...

Thomas’s uncle Phinneas found an old paper theatre and set it up for Thomas, so that he could give proper performances like all the great musicians do.

And of course, there's more story in my head for you, about how his friend Lincoln (an elephant shrew) hops over the wall and takes over the bongos, and how Elias, Frumple, and Marcy (mouses — my world, my grammar!) pull up their acorn top seats and enjoy the exuberant jam session.

Just because it's not in the painting, doesn't mean it doesn't happen…you just have to tune in and use your imagination.

Any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Or let me know what you think happens after the little ones join the party. ;)

This painting is exhibiting at the LA Art Show on February 19th - 23rd with Abend Gallery at Booth #507. Sounds like a wonderful show to see art if you are in the local area!

Old things are new again?

Back in the old days (the 2010s), I started a blog to get my work and thoughts out across the web, like everyone seemed to do. Then the flash and fancy of Instagram lured me away, because it was easy, fun, and I connected with thousands of wonderful people. I still love it there. The replacements to date are merely, “OK.” Since I feel like the platforms are rather wobbly and unreliable of late, I wanted to go forward with a new blog, share stuff without worrying about algorithms, and get back to it being fun.

Even as I’m writing this, I remember how exciting it was when I started my first blog. Even if no one reads it, it’s my own (and now also Professor Pifflington’s) and no one can deactivate it unless we stop paying the bill. :)

I don’t expect to have lots of entries, but stop back every now and then for some musings, behind the scenes stuff and whatever me and the Prof feel like talking about.