Illustration Friday: Drifting

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Drifting" is one of my Marisol Hidden Treasure greeting cards. It has a gift certificate inviting the recipient to dinner. So after you drift, you have dinner, how perfect.

copyright 1994 Valerie Walsh/Marisol

Illustration Friday: climbing

Climbing to the top of one of the tallest buildings she saw the message written in the stars.

My submission for Illustration Friday's "climbing" theme is a very old painting featuring my dog Yote. She was the star of many of my older works and I loved her dearly. I am busy working on a new houscape and preparing work for an Art House project.

copyright 1988 Valerie Walsh

Illustration Friday: wide

My submission for Illustration Friday's "wide" theme is a work in progress and one of my signature "Houscapes". This seems like a very wide house to me, I would not want to have to clean this place... it has a lot more detail that will be added such as total landscaping, everything on the house will be detailed out with scroll elements on all the railings and front door, light fixtures, etc. When I initially draw the house I delete all the landscape and add in the dirt and cement even if it gets totally covered up by plants, shrubs, trees, flowers and pottery. I just like it to all be there. So this will be totally different when I post it again. There are two very tall and phallic cypress trees that adorn each side of the doorway and lots of beautiful bushes and trees flank the home. I am working on a few jobs at once, I designed and painted a School House diecut candy box for a confectionary company, it will be filled with candy and given as gifts from students to teachers for the end of the year Thank You's. I will post it soon. I enjoy working on one type of work for a few hours and while that one dries I move to the next one.

I did see this guy and 4 of his buddies moving towards my neighbors garden... and I saw a beautiful young bobcat making it's way through the yard. Rat always lets me know when there is wildlife in our vicinity because he has a unique muffled bark reserved for wildlife and all the hair on his back stands up, it is hilarious!

Illustration Friday: "Emergency"

My submission for Illustration Friday's "Emergency" is a colour-pencil study for the painting "Homeward Bound" featuring my dog Rat. The emergency that we are all faced with is over building. Yes, I love buildings but all of this constant building, subdivisions and mini mansions and the like are pushing all the wildlife out and wiping away the face of our towns. I'm afraid it is a big emergency! I posted a painting of this for IF here but sometimes I make a colour pencil version first to flesh out the idea. I find using pencils a soothing form of relaxation. You can listen to a movie or music and colour away. I also reversed the image which I love to do so I can see it both ways. Happy Friday!

Venetian City

It was a once in a life time art job. I have a feeling I might not have the opportunity to create something quite like this again. I guess we will just have to wait and see...

This was created in a bedroom, for a man that owned the largest poster company in the United States. The format is as follows: The ceiling was painted my signature sky with stars, this art project was for the space above his closet so that when he lay down in his bed he could look up and see this Venetian City above him. It is 12 feet long 5 feet high and 2 feet deep. It does not end there, it follows around the room where his very tall bookcases lined the walls so I created more buildings for that area too. I build each building individually with inverted windows and doorways,
where sculpted people reside, a sculpted cat sitting in a chair, icon style paintings on an easel, a laundry woman hanging out the days washing, a lady in a gown standing on a balcony,a statue of a nude female , hanging vines with dimensional grapes and on and on. The patron spent several grand lighting it so that it looked like water glowing off the buildings and to cap it off it is replete with 3-d gondolas and barber poles.

Several years later my Mom and sister treated me to an Italian holiday and when I got to the real Venice I couldn't believe my eyes. It was an inspirational trip and it made me feel good about my creation. This job took 7 months and it was one of the best times and the most difficult challenges I have tackled. I learned a lot about myself and it goes along with the valgal rules of no job to small or to tall or to big if you know what I'm saying. The gentleman and his wife would throw these elaborate parties with interesting people. I would get to visit the installation and hear and see the reaction to the city in the bedroom. It was not something that you would see every day. At that point I could separate myself from the critical voice within and just say wow what a unique and amazing experience! For me art is where dream and fantasy come together.

This is a digital shot of a photograph, the only way I could show you the room. The white thing on the ceiling is the fan it had a glowing orb that looked like the moon, this is a shot of the closet (kinda cut off ) with 12 ft. of city. This project was commissioned in 1994.