Krüger One-Man Show

A one-man gallery exhibition of the portraits of Sebastian Krüger is on view in Boston Massachusetts through November 30.


Krüger is known for his large-scale acrylic portraits of rock stars, particularly his friends, the Rolling Stones. That’s Charlie, Keith, Mick, and Ronnie above.

The portraits are mostly larger than life-size. They command prices in the five- and low six-figures, and large giclée prints are also available. Krüger delights in the craggy topography of the aging rascals of the pop world, often exploring their wrinkled faces in photographic detail, but he generally reserves other areas of the canvas for a looser painterly flourish.


All of his portraits have a keen attention to what constitutes a likeness. He knows how far to push the exaggeration to make his point. Some of his portraits of Mick Jagger are in-your-face and over-the-top, but others are amazingly restrained and sensitive.

The painting “Keith Richards: The Devil in Focus” (200cm x 140cm) shows the old pirate just as he appears.

Krüger wants to use the term “New Pop Realism” to describe his new direction of subtler interpretation  He’s interested in exploring the intersection between the image of the pop icon and the identity of real person—both the mask and the man. 
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Newbury Fine Arts Gallery Phone 617.536.0210
Sebastian Krüger Publications 
Sebastian Krüger News Blog
Official Krüger site site
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Thanks, Liz and Mike

Spectrum 17

The new issue of Spectrum has touched down on store shelves and mailboxes. The oversize art book showcases 400 digital and traditional paintings by 300 artists in the field of contemporary fantastic art.


The categories include Advertising, Book, Comics, Concept Art, Dimensional, Editorial, Institutional, and Unpublished.

In an essay at the beginning of the book, co-founder Arnie Fenner gives a health assessment of each of those categories. Even though times are tough, the artists overall have managed to produce some of the most striking, memorable, and ambitious paintings ever, making it clear that we’re living right now in the Golden Age of fantastic art. 

Spectrum 17 at Amazon
Spectrum News
Video Flip-Through
Spectrum 18 Call for Entries

Drawing with the Brush

The new December/ January issue of International Artist magazine includes a special feature that I wrote for them about “Drawing with the Brush.”


I use direct painting methods for most of my plein-air work, for portraits, and studio landscapes and cityscapes—any time reality rather than fantasy is the starting point.

Rather than refining the design on the panel with a pencil first, as I would typically do with a Dinotopia painting, I dive right in and establish the lines of the composition with a bristle brush on an oil-primed panel or canvas.


The step-by-step sequence in the magazine takes you through the whole process and the thinking behind it. Also included in the article is a picture of Jeanette that I drew in with a brush on a pre-textured board.

Both paintings (discussed in other contexts) also appear in the new book: Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter.
Other articles in the magazine feature Howard Terpning and Rose Frantzen, and there’s a Call for Entries for “Flowers and Gardens.” 

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Look inside the current issue of International Artist.
Related GurneyJourney post: The Ninety Degree Rule (“Jeanette Sketching”)

Why Stamp Art is Small

The National Institute of Health Library recently held a symposium about sickle cell disease.

Here’s the display they did in the library showing the original stamp art. The tiny oil painting is framed in the lower left of the glass case.

The original oil painting is no bigger than a postcard. There’s a reason that the Post Office asks artists to paint stamp art that small. If you let an artist do a large painting, they’ll most likely put in lots of detail that will become lost when the art is reduced.
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Photos by ED’WW Flickr Pool
Previous GJ Posts: Sickle Cell 1, Sickle Cell 2
NIH Symposium

Fish Dreams

These fish live in a tank in a restaurant. I wonder if they have ever swum in a real stream or a lake.

Are they like the lobsters in the supermarket, kept apart from their home waters? I search their faces, but I can’t tell the answer.

They make me think of all immigrants and expatriates, who cherish memories of a more accustomed world.

Illustration's Fall Issue

The new Illustration magazine has three juicy articles on mid-century American illustration.

The first explores the work and career of J. Frederick Smith (1917-2006), who painted and photographed glamorous women. His first-hand account describes his fast-paced lifestyle, and the challenges in getting the right models for the photo shoots. This article alone has 70 reproductions, including excellent scans original art, photo reference, tearsheets, and behind-the scenes photos.

Another article chronicles the career of Clark Hulings, one of the great illustrators of paperbacks and album covers in the 1950s and ‘60s, before his love of travel led him to a career (that he’s still pursuing) painting gallery canvases of picturesque destinations.

The coverage rounds out with the story of the life of John Fleming Gould, who painted pulp art and car renderings. All three articles benefit from the first-hand voice of the artists themselves.

The magazine announces two other exciting developments. First is the imminent arrival of “Masters of American Illustration: 41 Illustrators and How They Worked,” by veteran illustration historian Fred Taraba and publisher Dan Zimmer. This promises to be a worthy successor to the classic book “Forty Illustrators and How They Worked.”

The other is the announcement of “The Illustration Gallery,” part of the Illustration catalog, a new place to buy and sell original works of illustration art.
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Illustration Magazine
Taraba Illustration Art
Clark Hulings.com (Image above: "Ville Franche")
J. Frederick Smith on AskArt 
40 Illustrators and How they Work (The 1940s classic from Amazon.com)
The Illustration Gallery contact info.

Sickle Cell Stamp, Part 2

This is Part 2 of the making of the Sickle Cell stamp for the U.S. Post Office. Part 1 is here.

Normally I use friends and neighbors as models, but I didn’t know anyone who had the right look for a young African American woman or a baby of the right age. Through a modeling agency, I located excellent models for both characters. Unfortunately, they were no relation to each other and had never met.



That meant the modeling session might be risky because babies of that age often are afraid to be held by strangers. And in this case, the woman posing as the mother was a young dancer who didn’t yet have children of her own. If the baby started crying, the session would be a disaster. To be safe, I scheduled the modeling sessions back to back.

The “mother” posed first, holding a stuffed bear as a stand-in for the baby. Then I photographed the baby being held by a favorite aunt. Finally, we put the baby in the model’s arms. After a moment of wide-eyed consternation, the baby broke into a smile, and the two got along wonderfully.

The resulting photos provided a basis for the final oil painting. I had to change the little girl into a boy, and I changed the pose so that the mother was leaning back more. I also softened the light source to remove the harsh shadows.



Even a photo reference shot from professional models should be regarded as just a starting point, and you should feel free to change anything to make the final result express your initial vision for the pose.
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Sickle Cell Conference at the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD, Nov. 16 and 17
Wikipedia on Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle Cell Stamp, Part 1
Previously on GurneyJourney: Tips on using photo reference.
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Sickle Cell Stamp, Part 1

Tomorrow, the National Institute of Health will host a symposium discussing sickle cell disease. On display at the gathering will be the original oil painting I produced for the 2004 U.S. Postal Service stamp commemorating the disease.

Today and tomorrow I’ll tell the story of the making of that stamp.

Over the years the U.S. Postal Service has released stamps designed to help raise awareness about health issues. When the Stamp Committee decided on a stamp recognizing sickle cell disease and asked me to design it, I was honored to take on the challenge.

I knew it would not be easy to visualize an incurable hereditary blood disease in a way that would be inviting and interesting. The image that comes readily to mind when people think of sickle cell disease is a microscope slide showing the elongated red blood cells alongside normal round cells.

The credit for the design solution belongs to veteran art director Howard Paine, who suggested portraying the scene in universal human terms. Because the disease or the trait is passed down from parent to child, he proposed showing a parent’s love for her baby. Why not show a mother and a child interacting with love and affection? The message then becomes a positive one, reminding at-risk parents to test early to find out whether they carry the gene.

I sketched up several different design ideas in color. The most successful version shows the mother holding up her year-old child in profile and giving him a kiss. The committee approved the design (sans microscope slide) and gave me the go-ahead.
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In part 2, I describe how I went from the roughs to the finished art.
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Sickle Cell Conference at the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD, Nov. 16 and 17
Wikipedia on Sickle Cell Disease

Matania at Work

Archival newsreel film footage brings to life the working process of Italian/British historical illustrator Fortunino Matania.




You can click the image above to link over and see the film.

It shows Matania directing costumed models, who pose as he draws them directly into the finished illustration. He adds the missing elements, such as settings and horses, from his imagination.

Ever the showman, Matania puffs from his cigarette as he draws, jumping up from his chair to joke around with the model. The film ends with him working away, surrounded by a a Bohemian throng, with one of them strumming a guitar.



(Link to British Pathe, where you can watch a small-scale preview or pay to get a full-rez download)
Previously: Matania's Models and Props
Matania: Without a Net
Image: "Goodbye Old Pal" (Man comforts dying horse)
Thanks, Daniel 

The Spell of the Cell

Cell phone users hold predictable poses for relatively long periods. They’re oblivious to the world around them, making them good sketching subjects.

This man in France was talking energetically while gesturing with the non-phone hand. His right hand held a slip of paper and a pen.

The fact that people gesture while talking on cell phones suggests that hand movements benefit the speaker more than the hearer.


When men check messages, they usually stand with their feet wide apart and their pelvis forward. They duck their chin to their chest and hold the cellphone against the base of their sternums.


Children melt into their chairs. They totally relax their legs and feet. The outer world disappears. They fall into a reverie. Their minds link with the machine.

(Note: We’re home now in New York. Many of the upcoming posts will be from places we’ve been over the last two months--western USA and Europe. I’m just catching up from a lot of material generated over the last month of touring. I’ll try to keep the Facebook page updated with what we’re doing and what’s coming up.)
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