A sneak peak!

This month is dedicated to painting the hundreds of porcelain pieces for my Night Portal series. They will be exhibited at Childhood's End Gallery 9/25-11/15 in a show called 'Nocturnal' with two other talented artists, Liza Brenner and Jonathan Happ.
Above is one of the night birds I have in process, a night heron. These pieces are difficult to paint in a way that represents the bird acurately so I just paint it the way I want to! Amazing blues and reds are exagerated from the real bird.
Moths are a big part of this series. I have made about 100 moths caterpillars and cocoons for these pieces. Some to be shown in their own boxes and some incorporated into the bigger pieces.
I chose elaborate moths that almost clash with each other, but the painting is exciting! Each one gets a minimum of three coast, fired in between. Some will get up to 7 layers.

China painting is one of my favorite things to do in the studio. Using mixes with fine pigments and essential oils is so pleasurable! I add layer after layer to animals, flowers and insects. There is a whole array of bats, moths, nocturnal flowers in the studio right now.
The work I do is very elaborate in it's assemblage. First one has to come up with the concepts. Once this is cohesive, I then sculpt the birds, animals and plants. Cutting out dozens of leaves and parts for each plant and then braising the copper foliage. Once big rings are made, I proceed to gold leafing. Every week I am picking up carved wood discs from the engraver while ordering last minute supplies.
And now finally once some pieces are fired in their porcelain high fire, I can begin one of the best parts of the process...china painting!
Today I painted bats, moths and nicotiana and datura blooms.