The last month I have been running around like a madman, working like crazy. Unfortunately it has been focused on paying the bills and not making art. I haven’t managed to pick up a paint brush in way too long but, soon I hope to be back on track and working on new paintings. In the mean time, my studio mate Liz has been working on a project that is sure to inspire nostalgia. When she realized that the scheduled opening at the Distillery Gallery fell on September 2nd, she was inspired to create a show, fitting of the date, 9-02-10. I am not sure I can even do this idea justice so I will just quote the press release here.

“The hit television series Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered 20 years ago. To mark the anniversary of this cultural phenomenon, The Distillery Gallery presents 9.02.10: Teen TV Residue. The exhibit focuses not only on the impact of the 90210 sensations of past and present, but on the impact of teen television as a whole. Artists’ reactions to additional shows like My So-Called Life, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Gossip Girl invite the viewer to fathom the idea that you don’t have to still be a teenager to feel the impact of teen TV.”

It is sure to be a fun show and, afterwards we are having a party back in Studio 11 with a performance by a great Boston band, Hallelujah The Hills. We are all pretty excited to have these guys in the studio (how could I not be excited, the bass player is also named Nick Ward!). These guys are great and have taken time away from actual paying gigs to come put on a show here so, come on out, enjoy some music and maybe even slip a dollar or two into their hat.

As usual, if you plan on attending, log into Facebook and click here to join the event page to help spread the word and get updates.

With a little luck, I will have a lot of new art and Studio 11 events (more concerts) coming up soon so, stay tuned!

So, this is kind of a lot of posts this week but, I have a lot of paintings that have been around the studio a while and are finally nearly completed. You can see the unfinished areas on the arms, shoulder and background but, most of the interesting parts are getting pretty close to being finished. I am thinking about stealing the title “An Understanding of Ones Worth” for this piece… or maybe not. Still a lot of decisions to make. In any case, here it is:

This one is pretty large so I think it deserves a few detail shots:

I was not going to post this painting until it was 100% finished but, here it is anyways. Pretty much complete except for adding more flowers in the grass and final touches here and there.

Recently I had my friends from Papercut Magazine over to the studio to shoot photos for their cover. The shoot was a lot of fun and we all got to talking about and fashion and this crazy city that we all live in.

Click on any image to view the full size version on Flickr.

When it was time for the next issue, it seems they did not forget the little people and they revisited me in Studio 11 at The Distillery to sit down and talk again. Read the interview in this months Papercut.

Also, I was featured in last months Poets And Artists Magazine so, if you missed that, be sure to check it out.

Here is a little preview of the painting I am currently working on. I wanted to wait until it was further along to post it but, it has been a few weeks since I have managed to get a post out and I wanted to keep things up to date around here. This one will be in the studio for a while, it is the largest piece yet at 4′x6′. If you want to keep following along with this piece as it comes together, I will post progress shots on Twitter every few days.

I have been recruiting volunteers to sit for my next few paintings and it got me thinking about how some people have reacted to my paintings. When coming face to face with the pieces they often have the same two reactions. They always ask me, “Nick, why I paint the women so ugly? Why do you put in all the wrinkles and pimples, do you hate these girls?” or “Hey, why don’t you ever blend your colors?” Now, when it is just friends and neighbors hanging around the studio, I am pretty quick to shrug these things off, just some friendly criticisms. However, when more and more people start coming to me with the same questions, I figure it is time to answer the questions.

First off, I don’t blend my colors just because, that is the way I paint. I like a painting to stand proud as a painting with its brush strokes in tact. Really. I like paintings that look realistic when you step back but, explode into chaotic energy when you get your nose into them so, that is the type of painting I try to emulate when I am working. Beyond that these two questions have very similar answers.

In this day and age, everywhere you turn, images of beautiful people stare back at you. Portraiture is now run by photography and now the tools have evolved to the point that nearly anyone can get a decent shot, pull it into the computer and tweak their way to a beautiful image. Polished to perfection and plastic-y, every pore photoshopped shut and every wrinkle magically removed. Dead. Boring. Why would I follow this path with my paintings? I like people with character. I like faces that tell a story, punctuated with a scar (I wish I could find more subjects with scars). I am painting people that are beautiful; there is no need to try to improve on them. On the contrary, I want to celebrate the quirks that make them unique. Just like leaving obvious brush strokes on the surface of the painting, step back and all you see is a nice image, get a little closer and all sorts of interesting and beautiful things start to appear.

I think a majority of the people that look at the paintings understand this. I don’t think anyone that has sat for one of the paintings feels that I have shown them in a negative light? No women have ever asked me why I make the girls ugly so, maybe its just a difference in perspective.

Last weekend (as you probably know if you are reading this) we had our annual Spring Open Studios at the Distillery Building in South Boston. It was a pretty successful afternoon despite some crazy weather and I think there were around 400 people who showed up to tour the building and check out all the artists that live and work here.

My studio, all clean and ready for visitors (including two of Bob’s large drawings).

Open Studios day is always stressful despite being a lot of fun. I never realized it when I was poking through other buildings during open studios as a visitor but, from an artist’s perspective (at least from THIS artists perspective), it is a very exhausting experience to put your work and your life out there for direct public consumption. People are never afraid to tell you what they REALLY think of your work and, while it’s always great to get feedback (good or bad), an entire day of hosting a non-stop critique really wears you out! Of course it is always worth it and I enjoy the chance to meet new people and talk about art.

Like any good host, Studio 11 spent all day Saturday cleaning and setting up (even if it didn’t show!). In a stroke of pure genius, Tony from Chromalab broke out some lawn furniture and set up a comfy little spot (in front of Bobs two large drawings) for him and I to sit, relax and greet people as they came through. We invited Alycia and Valerie to join our studio for the weekend so that they would have a spot to setup and show off their paintings and they thanked us by, as usual, being better prepared, better looking, and selling twice as much as everyone else combined. Jarrett even whipped up a few batches of tasty bloody maries to give out to anyone who was interested.

During a break in the action I managed to sneak away and check out a few other studios to see what they had to offer. Walked over to Dyslexic Press and checked out some of their new prints, really cool stuff. Then went up to see Kenji but, he was surrounded by people, discussing one of his ridiculously intricate stencil paintings so, I moved on. Popped into Scott Chasse’s studio where he had the best snacks imaginable; nilla wafers and fresh strawberries, and of course his bold Burt-centric paintings. Checked out my friends from Rope-A-Dope Press who put on an awesome show. Interesting hand made books, live music, poetry readings and tasty home brewed beer. Finally, I stopped into see James Weinberg and checked out some really great screen prints of his. He had some new prints that had a super clean image printed over layers and layers of test prints, made for an awesome effect… Really wanted to go back and use some of the profits from my own sales to buy one of them but, instead I got ravenously hungry and blew my cash on a big plate of fajitas and marguritas. Obviously I forgot to take any pictures so, check out these photos I stole from the Distillery Gallery Flickr feed.

Click on any image to go see the full size version on Flickr.

Like I said, all in all a really fun day. Met a lot of interesting people and got some great feedback on my new paintings. Sadly, excluding one Mass Art student who wanted to make sure I knew there were still people studying traditional painting techniques in this city, nobody called me out on my ridiculous statements so, I will continue to declare Studio 11 the figurative art capital of Boston (this isn’t true, my Mom made sure to remind me not to forget HER favorite figurative artist in Boston, Vanessa Irzyk). Hopefully everyone who came enjoyed themselves and those who missed out, maybe you will be able to visit in October during our next open studios weekend. If we met and/or you liked my paintings, make sure to drop me an email or, post a comment, find me on Facebook/Twitter and keep in touch.

Before I get into this mornings post, I have a little announcement for those of you getting blog updates in your email. I plan on posting here more often; I want to expand this section of my site to include more than just updates on my artwork and events. So, if you have signed up for email updates for that reason and don’t want my semi-art related ramblings polluting your inbox (I don’t blame you), just let me know. Shoot me an email and I will move you from the blog mailing list onto a new mailing list that will only include updates on completed paintings and upcoming event announcements. For everyone else reading my blog page, expect more postings about whatever half-baked art related thoughts float through my brain.

That said, this morning I was thinking about art.

I was actually a little depressed because it occurred to me that I just don’t know any other figurative painters in Boston. I admit that I am not exactly an authority on the Boston art scene but, as far as I can tell, when it comes to young figurative artists in this city there is Bob (my upstairs studio mate) and there is me. Now, I admit that statement is pretty ridiculous sounding but I have just not been able to find evidence to the contrary.

With that in mind I would like to invite everyone who sees this to prove me wrong. Please! If you are a Boston area contemporary realist artist, speak up. If you know figurative artists working in the area, recommend their work to me. Send me an email, post a comment or even better, come by open studios next Sunday and talk shop with me.

Seriously, come prove me wrong, I would love to find more people around Boston doing this type of work. Until then, I am going to stand up and proclaim Studio 11 the figurative art capital of Boston.

Lately I have noticed a pretty good jump in traffic to this site so I wanted to say hello to all of my new visitors. Maybe you found me in Poets and Artists Magazine or possibly some of you have wandered over from the Distillery Open Studios site. In any case, it is always nice to have new visitors.

Since the last one was so well received, I have been working on another sunbather painting. This has been a slow and steady process because of the amount of canvas to cover but it is really starting to come together. I hope to have it all finished up in time for open studios on Sunday June 6th.

So, this is my 100th blog post on NickWardOnline. It has taken forever since I have only posted updates as new paintings develop or I manage to weasel my way into interesting events or shows but here we are at the big 100th post.

To celebrate I am going to make a new print to give away to anyone who reads my site, here or on Facebook notes.

So, it will be a multi-color hand pulled screen print but, the choice of image is yours.

1. another print based on one of the make-up girls paintings.
2. a print based on one of the sunbather girls.
3. an entirely new print, a sneak peak into the next series.

Anyone who wants can leave a comment on my site or on Facebook, or email me with your vote for image choice.

After that, anyone who reads these posts that wants a print can just send me an email letting me know that they want a copy of the print. I will give everyone a few weeks or maybe a month to respond to make sure nobody gets left out, then I will make a run of prints. Then, I will send everyone a hand pulled limited edition screen print.

Studio 11 will be opening its doors on Sunday June 6th for The Distillery’s annual spring open studios day. We have 8 artists participating from our studio and everyone has new work ready just for the occasion. We are all the way at the end of the open studios tour but we have the largest studio with the most art so, save plenty of time to hang out and meet everyone (or sneak in the back door and come here first (but you didn’t hear that from me)).

As usual we have a Facebook event page that you can join to help spread the word. The official press release is below. For a list of participating artists and more information, go here.

The Distillery in South Boston kicks-off the Summer Art Season of 2010 with its annual Spring Open Studios on Sunday, June 6th, noon-6pm.

As a long-standing focal point of the arts in Boston, The Distillery continues to support a community of high-quality artists and craftspeople. Twice a year, this amazing and unassuming brick building in Southie proves to be a one-stop destination for art-seekers as dozens of studio doors open up to invite the public in. Visitors can mingle with creative types, tour the unique environments in which various forms of artwork are produced, and make purchases directly from the artists. In addition to art studios, live/work lofts, creative small businesses, and corridors which often serve as display space to studio-dwellers, The Distillery is also home to The Distillery Gallery and Proof Gallery.

Spring Open Studios at The Distillery is free and open to the public, rain or shine, noon – 6pm. Public transportation is easy, take the Red Line to Broadway and walk eastward on West Broadway (less than a mile), left onto Dorchester St, right onto E 2nd St. Ample street parking surrounds the property. Click here for more detailed directions from the Distillery Gallery website.