I did a mural on a dolphin for NS Casino via Dolphins on Parade (a project for Easter Seals),.and today my dolphin appeared on the cover of Halifax Metro News.

You will see another dolphin mural in the next month. I’m looking forward to painting it, and to having a six foot tall dolphin sculpture in my living room again for the duration.
I will post good pictures of the dolphin from different angles when I get down to the Halifax Waterfront to see it and have a working camera in hand.

“Mingling at the Lord Nelson” - 11×14″, acrylic on stretched canvas. 2009.

A couple weeks ago (May 17th) I painted a live painting of the vendors and minglers outside the room with the catwalk for the Victoria’s Secret fashion show at the Lord Nelson Hotel.  I was invited at the last minute and painted a quick piece before the fashion show began.

[I need a new digital camera.]

“The Spot” - Acrylic on canvas. 18×14″. 2009. Not available for sale. (better photo pending…)
I was invited to paint the benefit concert for The Spot, a new youth center coming to Halifax region to help youth with mental disorders make the connections they need to get help, live well, and blossom as people. From what I understand, the center will have a strong artistic/creative bent when it gets going. (I will post more details as I receive them from the good folks at The Spot).

The benefit concert was held at North St Church here in Halifax. The staff of The Spot pooled their money together to buy the piece outright so that no other bidders at the event could snag it, and they say they will be displaying it within The Spot once it’s up and running. I will post pictures of it at that time! (I need better photos of this one than I have, anyway.)

Two years ago, I painted a piece called Death of the Dollar. I was obsessive about reading economy and financial blogs and became convinced that the US Dollar was going to “die”, so I created the concept piece based on that..

Here we are two years later and the collapse is in progress.

Today that painting was referenced by juniordeputyaccountant.com in a blog entry on - guess what - the death of the dollar (the real one): http://www.jrdeputyaccountant.com/2009/05/dollar-sucks-harder-than-euro-breaks.html

Check that blog out!

I’m the Artist of the Week on CustomCanvasArt.com.

Check it out here:

http://customcanvasart.blogspot.com/2009/04/myspace-artist-of-week-sharon-hodgson.html

Again, my artist friends on myspace and beyond should send messages to this blogger regarding features and interviews for yourselves. Tempt fate habitually.

I have been interviewed for an artist review blog by Steve Gray.

My interview is here: http://stevegray.com.au/blog/sharon-hodgson/

He is actively seeking artists to interview, so if you are one of my artist friends and you are reading… by all means write him and tell him you’d love an interview. Tell him I sent ya.

“Eight Years of Word Iz Bond” - 12×14″, acrylic on stretched canvas. 2009.

Well, the good folks of the Word Iz Bond spoken word collective keep inviting me back, so I keep painting them. I followed them to their new venue after Ginger’s Tavern & Granite Brewery closed.
This is from Thursday evening at 1668 Lower Water St, downtown. It’s a smaller bar with mirror walls, but the place was quite packed, and the change in atmosphere evoked some warmer colour choices. [I’m quite happy with the contrast between the blue and it’s compliment, the patches of orange on the walls.]

Raw Canvas is a poetry/creative event in Vancouver, BC and they are using one of the live event painting I did a couple years ago as their event artwork on Facebook. (Hence the reason I found out about them! How serendipitous.) at one of Word Iz Bond’s many evenings of poetry here in Halifax. It’s on tonight.

I’d be there painting it live if it weren’t far away. (Can’t make it to British Columbia from here that quickly…)

Please do check out this event if you’re closer to it than I am! I love the way their event name itself invites artistic expression beyond poetry and prose. Maybe there are painters down there who are looking for an event to paint?

Let me know if you check this out. Say “hi” for me!
http://raw-canvas.com/

I bet that last piece made you feel dizzy! Maybe you would prefer a still life? I rarely ever paint still lifes. So here you go. Not sure why the “movement painter” is painting stills? Blame it on the sun’s lack of sunspots over the last few months. (Supposedly to blame for everything from economic recessions to ice ages: Al Gore eat your heart out.)

“Record Man” - Acrylic on stretched canvas. 100 cm x 80 cm. 2009. AVAILABLE FOR SALE.

I haven’t posted a new work in a while, but I have an excuse - I misplaced my digital camera. Found it again, so here we are!

This is one that I’ve been working on in my home studio over the last three months, but it’s only in the last week that it’s really come together and started to feel “complete”.

“How do you know when a painting is complete?” someone asks me once in a while.

I don’t know. Same way I “know” when it “needs more orange”, or blue, or whatever emotive colour springs to mind and therefore my palette at the time.

I like to paint DJs as a theme, and that hasn’t changed much over the years. I was starting to feel predictable in my rendering of the subject, so here’s a movement abstraction of the subject to shake things up a bit.

Any requests for the record man? Or me, for that matter?