Daily Paintress: Paintings + Illustrations by Gayle Wheatley

Iceland, Abstracted: #9

2009-07-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

Watercolor on Paper

Iceland, Abstracted: #8 (Reykjavík)

2009-07-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

Watercolor on Paper

Iceland, Abstracted: #7 (Vík)

2009-06-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Watercolor on Paper

Iceland, Abstracted: #6

2009-06-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

Watercolor on Paper

Iceland, Abstracted: #5 (Akureyri)

2009-06-23T20:57:00.001-07:00

Watercolor on Paper

Iceland, Abstracted: #4 (Krafla)

2009-06-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Watercolor on Paper

Iceland, Abstracted: #3 (Hestur)

2009-06-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

Watercolor on Paper

Iceland, Abstracted: #2

2009-06-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

Watercolor on Paper
11" x 15"

To Iceland and Back!

2009-06-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

I just got back from an amazing, mind-blowing, life-changing, fantastically incredible vacation in Iceland!!! I have always felt a strong pull to Iceland’s isolated strangeness, and have longed to travel there for quite some time. I finally decided to take the journey, and it ended up being one of the best trips of my life!!!

I love Icelandic art, from it's stunning visual edginess to it's bright modernness. I adore Icelandic artists and musicians, and was inspired by so many of the classical and contemporary artists working out of Reykjavík, as well as so many other things: stellar design, colorful architecture, fresh & sustainable food, animals that weren't the slightest bit wary of humans, beautiful Icelandic horses & of course the people of Iceland.

And I was especially influenced by the many diverse landscapes I encountered! It all felt otherworldly, like I was exploring another planet at times. From bubbling geothermic mud pots, to the blue lagoon, to farms full of frolicking goats and sheep, to glacial lakes covered in jumbo icebergs, to black lava sand beaches, to quaint fishing villages located on fjords, to steaming volcanoes, to immense lava fields & craters, to the Arctic Ocean, to vast wildernesses of bouncy moss, to the thousands of waterfalls and rainbows-- and of course the midnight sun that never set.

In short, Iceland inspired me. It changed me, charmed me, and recharged me. Artistically I’ve been flooded with new ideas and have been working on a couple of new series inspired by Icelandic landscapes and my experiences. This is the first piece in my series:

Iceland, Abstracted: #1
Watercolor on Paper
2009

Also I've got thousands of photographs to sort through still, but will post some soon once I get though them!

Skál!
(cheers in Icelandic)

Iceland!

2009-05-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

I'm traveling around Iceland right now, and it's truly AMAZING!!! I love it!! This is definitely one of my favorite destinations in the world. This shot was taken in Reykjavik at midnight! Lovin' the arctic sun!

Photos from the Weisman Museum of Art Show

2009-05-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

My latest art exhibit just came to a close, and it was a big success! It was amazing to be able to show such a large collection of my paintings! Thank you to all those who came out!!!

Gayle outside the Weisman Museum of Art in Malibu, California

Gayle with her paintings

Firenzes!

the artist's reception

with museum director Michael Zakian

with artist Tyson Wintibaugh

with photographer Ron Hall

Strange Day

2009-05-06T22:22:00.000-07:00

I drove up to Santa Barbara this afternoon and ended up getting evacuated because of the fire.

It moved in so fast, and all of a sudden the sky was black all around and above. When I was leaving, to my horror, you could see the whole city burning, right downtown and in the hills too, all engulfed in bright red flames upon the mountains and burning right on top of homes :(

Strange purple clouds over a green ocean...

the glow of a fire sunset

Monster Sushi Art Featured on SustainableSushi.net

2009-05-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

Sushi, sushi, sushi...can't get enough of it? Then you've gotta check out SustainableSushi.net, run by the talented Casson Trenor, who also has a book out that serves as a guide to sustainable sushi and keeping ourselves and our oceans healthy. Casson recently featured me and my artwork on his site, and I was very flattered to read all the wonderful things he said about me!

"Gayle Wheatley is a well-known artist based in the Los Angeles area. She is supremely talented and works in an impressive array of media, including oil on canvas, illustration, and graphic design. Her work is displayed in numerous exhibitions and galleries around the world, and much of it has been snapped up by art collectors who lamentably discovered her before I did.

Gayle spent two years living in Japan, and I’m guessing that this is at least part of what has inspired her to use sushi imagery in her work. What interests me about Gayle’s art is her uncanny ability to depict the connection between sushi and life...

...Gayle has managed to use sushi to portray these undersea organisms as the vivacious, mysterious, beating-heart marvels that they are. Her vibrant, almost monstrous depictions of the animals “behind the sushi” strikes a chord with me. Salmon roe sport teeth, similar to those they would have developed had they been allowed to hatch and mature. A clutch of eels writhe and squirm against a nori yoke, struggling mightily to escape a hackneyed kabeyaki fate. Cold- or warm-blooded, exo- or endo-skeletal, shelled or scaled, pelagic or benthic… it makes no difference. Gayle’s work ably demonstrates that all of the ocean’s inhabitants merit our reverence, as does the amazingly complex ecosystem that they compose."

To read the full story, click here:

http://www.sustainablesushi.net/2009/05/02/the-art-of-sushi-part-1-fish-life-and-gayle-wheatley/

Thanks Casson!

Art Exhibition at the Weisman Museum!

2009-05-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

I’ll be showing a collection of 17 paintings (!) from my Emotional Landscapes series at the Wesiman Museum of Art in Malibu, California.

The Artist's Reception:
Thursday May 7, 12:00-1:30p.m.
Light refreshments will be served.
There is no admission charge.

Museum Hours: 11:00a.m.-5:00p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
(The show will only be up for one week! Tues May 5-Friday May 8)

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
Pepperdine University
24255 Pacific Coast Hwy
Malibu, CA
310.506.4851
http://arts.pepperdine.edu/museum/

Gayle!

2009-04-08T22:58:00.001-07:00

Hand-drawn typography: Colored pencil on paper

Crab Girl

2009-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

colored pencil & ink on paper

Inspirations: astrology, Battle Star Gallactica and my sketches from the oceanography section of the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.

Featured Artist on Lime.com

2009-03-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

My painting Moon Dream was recently featured on Lime.com to accompany an article about gender freedom.

Vine Nymph

2009-03-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

Colored Pencil on Paper

The Green Fairy

2009-03-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!!
colored pencil & ink on paper

Inspirations: Irish luck + shamrocks, Moulin Rouge + absinthe, Thumbelina + Peter Pan

Antler Girl

2009-03-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

Colored Pencil and Ink on Paper
Inspirations: pink lemonade, deer watching in Nara, Japan and Malibu, CA, Native American mythology and "Necromance," the most interesting store I've ever been to in LA...it's on Melrose and is filled with animal skeletons, amazing taxidermy, antlers, preserved insects, sea creature fossils, teeth & shells, preserved animal bits in jars and all sorts of interesting stuff.

Meow.

2009-03-05T22:54:00.001-08:00

Colored Pencil on Paper

Stawberry-Lemonade Rocker

2009-02-27T23:37:00.000-08:00

Colored Pencil and Ink on Paper, Osaka Forever Series

Inspirations: Japanese fashion, punk rock, Shinsaibashi

Cowgirl with Tutu and Lotus Threads

2009-02-21T11:58:00.000-08:00

Colored Pencil and Ink on Paper, Osaka Forever Series

Inspirations: Japanese fashion, Americamura, riding the bull at Saddleranch, Monk & Pantone Rubine Red.

Martini

2009-02-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

Character illustration for the upcoming novel The Origami Oracle.
(watercolor on paper)

Inspirations: the real-life cat Martini (who is gloriously hypo-allergenic, and so sweet), The Origami Oracle (of course!), retro cartooning and watching the movie Coraline in 3D and at the magical Arlington theater in Santa Barbara.

February Featured Illustration

2009-02-10T11:00:00.000-08:00

Wedding Venues & Services magazine, published in the United Kingdom, will be featuring an illustration of mine with one of their feature stories in their next issue! More to come later...