studio at night

these days, i wish i could be drawing&painting all night and all day
without getting tired.
ah, to get older!

old faces

Everyday I Think of You. Acrylic, charcoal & crayon on Wood. © Stella Im Hultberg. 2006.

an old piece i did back in 2005 or 2006 for a group show when i first started showing at galleries.
i was obsessed with faces then (and when i was little too) then the whole figure,
then circled back to focusing on faces again in recent months, it seems.

► speaking of old work, here's a post from last year about work "evolution".

faces, eyes, faces

some paintings in progress.
some for shows, some for the hell of it.
been more focused on lots and lots of faces & eyes (and some patterns) lately.
hmmm... wonder what this means? @__@

Big Bang Big Boom by Blu

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

this one is the most epic one i've seen so far. amazing.
by blu. (more videos by blu here)

studio miscellany

throwing paint around. figuring some things out.
experimenting. drawing a lot.

some things...

► working on a couple group shows that's coming up fast...
Love Conquers All (anti prop 8 show) at Thinkspace Gallery next month,
and Sweet Streets 2 at Gallery Nucleus in September.

► finishing my blue sketchbook, which i only had for a little over a month.
i must've been starved for sketchbooks - will dump soon.

► always a conundrum to figure out how to transfer the raw energy
into a larger surface and turn them into a finished piece...
the reconciliation never happens well for me.

► 10% of the sales from the shop will be donated to charity.
( Gulf Restoration Network & Save the Children for now ).

► pondering a studio cleaning painting/drawing sale of some originals i have...
maybe.

Mathilda : Crazy 4 Cult Group Show

Mathilda. 6"x12". Mixed Media on Wood. © 2010. Stella Im Hultberg.

Crazy 4 Cult show opened in LA at Gallery 1988 this past Friday,
and above is my contribution for the film-themed show - as i've mentioned before,
it's Mathilda (Natalie Portman) from The Professional (1994).
(here's my last contribution to the show -Marla from Fight Club in 2007).

the show runs till July 30th, 2010, so please check it out if you're near.
otherwise you can view (& purchase if you'd like) all the pieces HERE online.
(mine here).

here's a framed view :


and some earlier stages :



i've always been inspired by the character (i made a painting based on her back in 2006).
the face changed the most as i harshened and softened the expression
back and forth... i debated whether or not to make it more of an accurate
portraiture and decided against it and to go with the feel for her instead.

it was hard to capture a young girl with a bruised innocence that still
held on to her vulnerability as a child.
i got a little tighter at the end than i'd liked but that is okay.
i learn with each painting.

mathilda is spelled with an H

so i finally made a decision,
and she's gone off to LA now, for Crazy 4 Cult show at Gallery 1988.

it turned out a little tighter than i'd liked, but that's okay - i was running out of time.
(looseness actually takes a lot more time/thought/planning to pull off, for me, at least).

so i went on to loosen up last night :

blue sketchbook 2010 : dump 2

continued from my last blue sketchbook dump.
june 12th - june 30th, 2010.



















ballpoint, ink, pencil, paint pens, markers, acrylic in Hand•Book sketchbook. © 2010.