September 7, 2011 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under Chris, For Sale, Life, Our Artwork, Sweet Ride
Big thanks to Olivier and Marc for reaching out and highlighting some Sweet Ride art in the new issue of Steel magazine! BEAUTIFUL publication. I could thumb through it all day if I didn’t have to draw so much. Cheers!
August 26, 2011 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under Artist Love, Chris, For Sale, Friends + Family, Life, Like + Love, Our Artwork
As many of you probably know by now, I’m a pretty big fan of Scott Tuma, whose music has filled the Koelle family headquarters for years. If you’ve ever spent any decent amount of time at our house or studio, the chances are you heard Mr. Tuma’s music playing in the background, perhaps softly, perhaps loudly. The thing is, the beauty (and I don’t use that word lightly–real, tangible, audible, heart-aching beauty you can almost touch with the tips of your fingers through the air in the room) of much of Scott’s music is that even when it’s turned up loud on the stereo, it’s still as soft as the freshly made bed sheets you covered yourself under as a child with a warm-to-the-touch see-the-lava-red-color-of-blood-through-your-fingertips-pressed flashlight to light and warm the self-made gravity-laden cavern tent in the night with the lights out in your room, in your bed.
Last year I had the joy of creating the artwork / limited art edition for his last solo record Dandelion (Digitalis) and I’m so happy to have created all new artwork for this essential vinyl / cassette reissue of Not For Nobody (originally released in 2008 on CD also by Digitalis) presented by the always wonderful Immune Recordings.
I created as part of the reissue a very limited art edition book, bound by hand, featuring 16 pages of new drawing and collage artwork inspired by Scott’s own kaleidoscopic photographs of his surroundings–ravens, weather vanes, church steeples, barren branches.
Each hand-bound book (measuring 8.25×8″ folded) is printed full-color on thick card stock and individually signed and numbered in a limited edition of only 44 copies.
These limited art edition LPs will likely go fast. Pre-orders available now at Immune! $44 shipped in the US.
February 4, 2011 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under Annie, Art Shows, For Sale, Life, Our Artwork
. . . for neglecting the blog for so long. Suffice it to say we’ve been working nonstop, me on a ridiculously insane graphic novel, and Annie on whatever awesomeness she sets her mind to, and Narshall on saving the world, oh, AND the laptop was dead for a good long while (thanks, lousy off-brand charger) so that kind of put a pause on Annie’s usually frequent posts here.
But hoo-ray, the laptop is back in action and we never stopped actioning, so there are plenty of things to catch up on. First off, there’s a show tonight at Art & Light, and there shall be tons of beautiful new gems from the heart and hand of Annie. Sneak peek here…
November 2, 2010 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under Art Shows, Chris, For Sale, History of Redemption, Our Artwork
This weekend is Greenville Open Studios 2010, joy! Annie and I are getting our studio and gallery all nice and pretty for the public, along with Jason Waggoner here at White Whale Studios. Things are crazy busy but we’re so excited to all be in Open Studios this year!
Check out the Facebook Event page HERE
I’ll have a ton of brand new prints from the History of Redemption book illustrations, some of which are shown here (and they look awesome! I’m so pleased with them). More sneak peeks at Dribbble too.
Annie will be showcasing a ton of beautiful pieces as well, all lovely little gems…
Oh, and we’re taking credit card payments now. Yep, making it reeeeal easy for you.
If you’re mobile device savvy, be sure to visit www.greenvilleopenstudios.com on your smarty-phone for your oh-so-helpful Open Studios guide this year! Sweet.
Come out to visit us and all the other amazing artists around Greenville! It’s going to be an awesome weekend.
October 1, 2010 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under Artist Love, Chris, For Sale, Friends + Family, Life, Our Artwork
Well, the reason it’s been so quiet around here is because our Macbook charger died and so Annie hasn’t really set foot on the internet lately, except for the occasional email check on my computer here at the studio. Still waiting on a replacement charger. Rest assured, Annie will be back to posting again soon.
Meanwhile, earlier this year I was honored to be approached by a brand new record label, Desire Path Recordings, about doing art direction, design, and limited edition artwork for exclusively vinyl-only releases. Uh… yeah? Dream job.
So after all this time, the 12″ vinyl LP is finally ready for the world. Ritual is Solo Andata’s third full-length offering and the inaugural release for Desire Path Recordings.
I created a Limited Art Edition (akin to the Scott Tuma Dandelion LP from earlier this year) that includes a hand-drawn, hand-inked etching strictly limited to 49 copies (images below the cover art). If you want one of the etchings, don’t wait because once they’re gone, they’re gone. An ultra-deluxe Edition of One box set will also be available for purchase very soon, pictures coming soon…!
Sure, the “dark ambient” genre may likely not be your cup of tea (sorry mom and mom-in-law and fellow now-worried church members), but man, I’m really pleased with how the whole release turned out: seriously stunning sounds (essential headphone listening!) and art I’m really happy with… (Textura’s review complimented “a cover illustration that distills the material’s essence into a single image.”) It’s always such a pleasure when music, art, and design go together like cold weather, coffee, and a pipe. Yum.
Thank you Michael, Paul, Kane, Aaron, Annie, and Marshall.
More pictures to come VERY soon…!
June 15, 2010 | Posted By: Annie
Filed Under Annie, Art Shows, For Sale, Our Artwork
Today, packed a suitcase full of objects and rushed them into setups at the studio for my paintings, new ones and some from the last White Whale show. Here are some sneak peeks, I’m sure you’ve already seen these here before, but in other environments. Given my affection for antique stores and the like I thought I might attempt to style just such a background for these little ones. Still not quite happy with the lighting. . .
You’ll see these come up in the shop over the next few days. . .
April 23, 2010 | Posted By: Annie
Filed Under Annie, Art Shows, For Sale, Our Artwork
I know that I may have promised certain people more owls for the WW May show. . . but the proliferation of botanical specimens in my yard distracted me. More owls for the fall show and Indie Craft Parade, thats a promise.
This newly finished one, Luna, Mystery Weed and tribute to the Schiele Girl in the Striped Dress? Ok, so maybe that’s not the real title, I hate picking titles. I’ll just say that this is another milestone for me, a return to my former true art self. (weeeeeirdo. . .) What I mean is, I realized, that as I was finishing this one that it looked so much like my oil work in college ( I had been oil painting at least six years by then, I’ve been in acrylic about five now). The thick loose brushieness over glazes. And the color palette (yes, the obsession again) I can’t tell you how familiar it feels, I think perhaps these colors were in nearly every painting I produced from that time period, tubes and tubes or cerulean and the siennas. And I don’t mind actually. I guess returning to old techniques can be a good thing sometimes. We’ll see what the public thinks about it.
Below, another painting of the mystery weed, and a thank you to Paul Flint for tipping me off about this gray/blue paint was in the oops stack at paint store. A gallon of it for pocket change, yay.
April 20, 2010 | Posted By: Chris
Filed Under Chris, For Sale, Our Artwork, Sweet Ride
Behold, the time is nigh! The Bike Snob book will be out any day now!
I feel so thankful and happy to have my work be a part of the Bike Snob’s new book. A big thank you, first off, to the Snob for being the Snob, and for writing such a hilariously perceptive book about the wonderful world of cycling (and beyond). And many thanks to Chronicle Books for asking me to illustrate it! I honestly could not be more happy with how the whole book turned out. I was especially excited about doing lots of hand-lettering, including a hand-lettered typeface for the cover title and other headings throughout the book. The art direction of Brooke Johnson at Chronicle and the design and layout work of Gregory Klein were an absolute pleasure to work with, and I’m just so thrilled with the final product (gah, it’s a golden hardcover!!!) Cheers all around!
It’s funny… for the first time, seeing all this on the blog, that silky golden-tan color for the book (nice pick, Greg) matches perfectly with our blog… ha! I didn’t plan that, I promise.
And, to celebrate the release of Bike Snob, we’re doing a promo sale at the Sweet Ride shop!
Just mention “Bike Snob” at checkout, and you’ll receive 15% OFF your order! (Discount will be refunded through PayPal after you place your order.) Promo runs through May 31.
So GO BUY THE BOOK for you and a bike-loving someone you love (if you pre-order now you’ll get 20% OFF + FREE SHIPPING!) and visit the Sweet Ride shop for more bikey art!
Here are a few of my favorite illustrations from Bike Snob (there are about two dozen in the book). Enjoy!
