Shop Closed

Won't be posting here anymore. It was a good run. Instead, see my simplified portfolio at www.holnagel.com.

Ghost Bear

This was the last of the individual paintings for the Feedback project.  I ended up using a significant amount of colored pencil on top of this one - which is something I rarely do - but I like how it softened the painting a bit.  In the end, I reckon I like the design more than the execution on this one.  

Time to stop posting already-finished work and start working on new stuff, I guess.    

Kids are pretty cool

Without even trying, you know? Their little clothes are cool, their little toys are cool, and their facial expressions are particularly cool.  They haven't looked in as many mirrors as grown-ups have and they lack that persistent mental picture of themselves to be self conscious about.

My baby is a model

An art model, anyway.  Thanks, kid.  

Who needs 2011 anyway?

NEW WORK:

First in a short series.

City reference of Tokyo - 1962.  Gouache on board.

I will post the others in the upcoming days.

Bozak!

I am not exactly sure what a Bozak is (some sort of sound mixer I assume), but the readers of Wax Poetics magazine probably will. Huge thanks to Josh Dunn for hooking me up with this opportunity. Look for it in the next issue's "Analog Out" section.

View from Leland

Boats are nice. So is Northern Michigan.

Special thanks to Erin Johnson for the reference on this one.

Tired of Trees and Sky

New painting based on simple creatures that have haunted my doodles for years. I think they are friendly, but they might just want me to think that.

Above: Watercolor/gouache painting from November 2010

Below: Tempera resist from 2004

View from Lake Lansing North

Painting done from some photos I took while hiking the Lake Lansing North Park trails. The sun was super low and was casting one of the longest shadows I have ever seen. I just couldn't bear not rendering this amazing scene somewhat realistically.

Kentucky Portraits

In the spring of 2009, my two brothers and I took a road trip to Georgetown, KY. These portraits are from some of the photos taken on the trip. The first is a self-portrait, followed by my brother Neil (who is now in the Air Force) and his twin brother Dan (in college). Work (as usual) done in watercolor, inks, and gouache.

Back to Back Peninsula Posts

Traverse City sunset(?) over the Lelanau Peninsula. If you don't know you better ask somebody.

Deep, Deep Swamp

Here is a detail of a painting I was working on a couple weeks back. For those of you who might not know, the lower peninsula of Michigan is essentially concrete-covered boggy wetlands. This is one area that remains uncovered near my home. If you look close enough you can see the plentiful mosquitoes (okay they are just paint splatters, but we can pretend).

For all the gamers out there.

One of my old friends recently asked if I could paint him a picture for his AV room. After talking with him, I learned that he wanted something atmospheric and realistic (relatively, of course). That is not something I have done in a while, so we compromised and I was going to paint the subject he wanted (Metroid stuff) in the style I wanted (expressionist inks). But as I painted, I was having so much fun painting real light and atmosphere that I went all out. This is the result. I have to thank my college painting instructors for this one.

Note: Composition compiled from various internet reference images, of which I did not dream up.

Saginawesome 03 - Da Police

According to FBI statistics, Saginaw ranked as the number one most violent city in America from 2003 through September of 2008. Cities like this need tough SWAT units, like the one seen here planning their next move.

Saginawesome 02 - Downtown

Recently, 'bandit06' had this to say about Saginaw's downtown district:

"There is no downtown Saginaw. There is only an area and a few remaining buildings that used to be downtown Saginaw. It's been thirty or more years since there was a downtown Saginaw." (2/19/2010)

This is one of those buildings.

Saginawesome 01 - What's in a name?

The name Saginaw is believed to mean "where the Sauk were" in the Ojibwe (American Indian) language. So now applied to our new term, it is "Where the Sauk were awesome".

Saginawesome

I am beginning a mini-series taken from aspects of my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan. I know the imagery above isn't necessarily a groundbreaking spin on Saginaw, but when something as powerful as violent crime envelopes a city for so long it is hard to get away from it. I promise to include some more positive and/or funny subject matter as the series progresses.

REWORKED!

For those of you who used to subscribe to Neomu and happened to see the little Play-Doh piece I did for Neomu #7 back in 2003 and always wished that I had painted it instead.....this is for you!

Tribute Complete

Rememember: This is not the greatest painting in the world, this is just the tribute.

The Tribute

Finally, I have posted something unfinished. See if you can follow this story (it's kind of like that Tenacious D song):

This is a sketch of a tribute painting to the greatest painting I have ever worked on (which is M.I.A.). The original work was a large-scale collaboration created for S.P.P.'s Hidden Paradise show/dance event in Saginaw a few years ago. The title: "Two Celebrities Puking into each other's Mouths". It was a stark stroke of perfection...

I hope to work on this and complete it in between baby feeding sessions.