My Latest Work – Pirate Illustrations for the Travel Channel
Last fall, I was asked to do some illustrations for a series on the Travel Channel called "Hidden City," dealing with infamous crimes in places that people like to visit. One of the episodes - which airs Tuesday, January 24 at 9 PM - is about the Florida Keys, and involves a notorious pirate named Black Caesar, who roamed the Keys in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The filmmakers at Crazy Legs Productions here in Atlanta, producers of the series, needed some illustrations of the pirate, since very few pictures had ever been done of him. I accepted the commission, and below are the results. I hope you enjoy them. I also hope you will watch the show next Tuesday night on the Travel Channel. It's very entertaining.
A Ride Through the Forest: Past Work, 1981-1983
In 1980, I graduated from college with a major in painting and moved to Charlotte, NC where I spent the next three years trying to launch a career in fine art; but I ended up, three years later, living in the Midwest and illustrating articles for a Christian publisher. Those three years in Charlotte were difficult but formative. Besides painting, I worked as a bartender and a construction worker building houses. As far as painting style, I call this my "Cutout Period" because I ended up cutting out (as with sissors) a lot of the images - sometimes to create a 3D effect, but other times just to change a background. I hope you enjoy these pictures, some of which have never been shown before.
ABOUT HALF THESE PICTURES ARE FOR SALE. If you're interested, go to the bottom of this article for information on how to purchase.
For the most part, I didn't draw or paint from photographs in college because I wanted to develop the discipline not to be dependent on them. I believe this is the first painting I ever did that was based solely on a photo. Before that, I just worked from life or drawings I had done. I'm glad I waited because I think I retained a liveliness that you usually don't find in paintings done from photos, unless the artist is very good.
The Death of Nannie
This is a detail of a drawing I did of Nannie back in 1983. You can see from her face that she was full of life - so much so, that it took 109 years for her to let go of it. Her body just wore out.
This is the full drawing. Nannie loved roses, so I overdid them in my drawing. They look more like one of her bouquets than roses growing on a bush. The cat sitting at her feet was typical. She loved cats - she had 20! - but this was her favorite - Missy.
My grandmother of 109 years of age died on Easter Sunday morning, 2011. We buried her on the Saturday before Mother's Day, two weeks later. It was appropriate. She was the end of an era.
I know that phrase has been over-used to describe a variety of different national and international figures; but my grandmother really was the end of an era; not only because her life spanned five generations, but also because she saw the introduction of nearly every major invention and discovery since the gasoline-powered automobile:
radio (1901,1916), air conditioning (1902), airplane (1903), plastic (1907), color photography (1907), Model T (1908), talking motion pictures (1910,1912), insulin (1922), 3-D movies (1922), television (1923,1925,1927), liquid-fuel rocket (1926), color motion pictures (1927), penicillin (1928), jet engine (1930,1937), ballpoint pen (1938), helicopter (1939), color television (1940), electronic digital computer (1942), atomic bomb (1945), microwave oven (1946), hydrogen bomb (1952), laser (1958), microchip (1959), first manned spacecraft (1961), audio cassette (1962), compact disc (1965), first manned lunar landing (1969), video cassette (1971), cell phone (1979), personal computer (1981), Apple Macintosh (1984), Microsoft Windows (1985), HD TV (1989), World Wide Web (1990), DVD (1995), etc.
Because she was a voracious reader and a perennial student, I know she read about all these breakthroughs with interest. When my cousins and I visited her house growing up, we always found stacks and stacks of magazines - everything from National Geographic and Smithsonian, to Look and Life. Those magazines were a big part of our education, and Nannie was always a ready teacher to answer any questions we had.
In spite of her many interests - which included art, music, writing, cooking, gardening, teaching and church work - her greatest love was nature: she was a true naturalist. Everything else that she did centered on that love: so when she painted, it was flowers or landscapes; when she wrote poetry, it was about her garden or birds or her neighbor's yard; when she sang, it was about creation or the Creator. Always nature. That was what made her soul sing; and so she began each day with an eagerness to learn, an inspiration about life and beauty, and an expectation of what she would find in her garden.
My Latest Paintings
Here are two oil paintings I did recently. I love knights, castles, swords and all things medieval, so you get a real taste of my world in these.
I call this painting "The Red Knight." My models were 1/6 scale figures.
As with most of my paintings, my favorite part is the sky and clouds, which I based on a photo.
This is a knight from the time of Richard the Lionheart. He wears the king's coat of arms on his chest.
This oil painting is for sale from the artist. For price and details, email me at waitsel@waitsel.com