Peacock Descending A Staircase

Peacock Descending A Staircase acrylic on canvas 48 x 48 x 1.5 inches 2020 $6000

     I finished my peacock painting! It took a good 3 to 4 months. Here is my little write up off my available for purchase pages: 

     Like Picasso's Nude Descending A Staircase, but way more flattering, this peacock's showing off his fancy tail in cocky fashion. A stand out animal, this bird knows exactly how to remain most colourful in a room. Speckled with hidden lizards to snack on, this painting's patterned with his own feathers, an ode to his vanity but in all his fabulousness, this bird's got something to brag about. You'd be lucky to get to go home to him! Part of a series of 10 giant animals adapting to different rooms that together comprise my own personal dream home. All paintings are one of a kind originals and with all four sides delicately painted, they do not require a frame. Complete with hanging wire, it is ready for you enjoyment. 

     Available for purchase here or inquire within: https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Peacock-Descending-A-Staircase/672002/7628191/view

     More personally, why did I want to do a peacock? My brother asked me! and he's always been such a big supporter of my work. He's also one of many people close to me who consistently lecture me on how I need to promote myself more which I found suiting, because peacocks are a little vain, and attention seeking, especially when they shake out their big fancy tails to intimidate their enemies, or when they're attracting a mate. There's something about the "look at me, look at me" aspect of the cocky peacock I could probably learn from.

     Originally, I had planned to have the peacock standing out from a yellow background but when I was playing around with peacock feather pattern in the background I discovered black and white made my peacock stand out better, which is exactly what peacocks like to do. I thought it not only looked visually appealing but exemplified his personality too!

     Most people don't realize peacocks have a mid section that is brown and white similar to a Canadian Goose (see older post on The Big Goose), I didn't know either until I started studying pictures of peacocks as reference photos. The cascading tail was the trickiest part, first painting in the pattern and then making it look light and fluffy. Basically you start with thicker brushes in darker greens then highlight using thinner brushes and lighter greens.

     I like to add hidden hearts to my paintings and this was no different, early on I knew I wanted to hide it in his tail.

     Pretty darn happy about the shadows and marble tiling.

     Peacocks are vain so I added a portrait of himself. At first I painted it in colour but then thought it took away from the colourful peacock so I changed him to black and white and couldn't be happier. I like how it both blends in and stands out, something about black and white that makes everything look punchy. 

     Peacocks also eat lizards and flowers so I included a few. I love painting camouflage lizards! 

     Another hidden lizard and picture on the wall of a landscape.

     The painting in my bedroom so you can see its massive scale! 

     Signing and dating my paintings in the bottom right corner there and showing you their painted sides.

Gordon's Gohn & The Perks Of A Road Less Travelled

I sold my Gordon Gohns painting to a collector in Austria off my Singulart website awhile back: 

https://www.singulart.com/en/artist/lisa-ng-7919

Gordon Gohns acrylic on canvas 16 x 20 x 1.5 inches 2014 In private collection.

I'm doing really well in the current. I got my health worker's raise at work and I'm averaging a painting sale a month since the pandemic started and selling prints too! The most steady it has ever been. To be fair, it's been a long time coming. When things weren't going so well a little over a decade ago I took a chance to go to nursing school to eventually, hopefully support myself. After landing steady part time work as a nurse, I spent the past half decade building an online presence, managing my own website, accessing online resources to reach a global market and painting a lot. My closet is stacks of rolled up, painted canvases, I have 4 different locations of these. It has been a long journey of picking and choosing my own path and for awhile there it always felt like everything took longer than my peers. I wasn't sure I fit in any camp having a foot in both camps. It took longer for me to become a nurse and find my first job because I wanted to continue painting and it took longer to find success in art because the paintings take a really long time and I had to cut back on promoting because I was studying to be a nurse too. For awhile there I was working all the time and going crazy trying to be 2 things at once (like Gordon!) and not knowing if I could really be good at either and today I realize, I am doing well, at both! and it IS paying off, it just took a really long time. I am Gordon, seamlessly 2 things at once and proud to be. This all has been a very interesting and windy path where how I feel about things have changed and what I thought things were and how things operated weren't what I thought they were and in this weird and strange time while many find themselves struggling, I find myself uniquely thriving! I feel blessed to remain productive and to have acquired ability to contribute in more ways than 1.

I'm backlogged on new paintings and art sales on here but I'll try to keep this post more about Gordon and post the rest later. Here he is hanging out in his new home checking out the other works of art. 

In case you have a Lisa Ng painting, I would love to see how it is hanging. This collector was generous to share these images with me. I've never been to Austria, all I know is that it is responsible for a couple of my favourite artists, Gustav Klimt (big on patterns and who also walked to the beat of his own drum) and his protege Egon Schiele (the way he draws and no subject matter too outrageous), right now Austria seems to me like a far away magical land where the art is beautiful and the people divine! 

Gordon before I re-stretched him, this is how I store my paintings, as flat canvases to save on space. It also allows them to be well protected from the elements that is my cluttered life. When they sell I pop them back onto a stretcher and off they go! ✈

My last selfie with Gordon Gohns, we had some really great times together:

Gordon Gohns is the Canadian cousin to the great famous contemporary American painter, Jasper Johns. Gordon is half black and half white because although America may be a melting pot, Canada is a cultural mosaic. 

One of my best portraits, I'm most proud about all the layering skin tones.

A recurring symbol in my work, the camouflaging lizard, what does it mean? The hidden creature of wonder.

I painted this piece as a funny joke I couldn't help myself and although always loved the piece, I wasn't so sure anyone else would share the same sensibility. Figured I'd just keep it forever and neglected to sign it until well one day, someone did buy it! They say Da Vinci neglected to sign work until he sold it too, to deter those darn art thieves. Hey 2014 was the year I passed my licensing exam. I painted this 6 years ago and only sold it 6 years later, what is it with me and my relationship with the number 6?

Fur Fields Sprout In Austria!

Things are warming up. I sold another painting off my Singulart website, a big one to Austria! This painting holds personal significance, I painted it around the time I got married and hung it at my wedding. It's my veil and my husband's shoes there in the bottom right corner. The newly weds are out frolicking in a field of pink fur, in Austria now it seems:

 Fur Field acrylic on canvas 48 x 24 x 1.5 inches 2016

The one and only time I exhibited this painting in Rosedale, Toronto.

A last selfie before I packed it up and shipped it out!

Mouse In Da House

Mouse In Da House acrylic on canvas 48 x 48 x 1.5 inches 2020

There's a mouse in the house and it's gone for the pantry! Eating a piece of cheddar and celebrating the Chinese New Year 2020, year of the rat, red is the lucky colour of the lunar year and as people give out money, the 20 bill seemed perfect. Bottles of wine and other food stuffs, this mouse has gone through the cupboards and there's rice spilling over. Leaving the pantry in a mess, don't clean it up now or you'll clean your luck away in the Chinese New Year, one of the many happy Chinese New Year superstitions. Surrealistic touches involve a floating grape in the sink, a cloud floating in blue sky in the cupboard and shadows of mice, but where are the mice? There's also a nest of mice in the cupboard and the cat and the snake have been safely put away. All paintings are one of a kind originals. This one is signed in the bottom right hand corner. All sides of the painting are painted and does not require a frame. Complete with hanging wire it is ready for your enjoyment! 

The painting is available online here: 

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Mouse-In-The-House/672002/7279007/view

Prints can be purchased here:

https://society6.com/product/mouse-in-the-house2602702_print?sku=s6-13328529p4a1v45