by Michael Whelan | Dec 13, 2018
Executed with leftover Raw Umber oil paint, this is a riff on painting from some time ago called “Cristate” (included below). Both sprang from my fascination with the shapes made by Cristate cacti. I fancy trying a third that will be more along the lines... 
by Michael Whelan | Dec 3, 2018
Like most palette gremlins, this was just something I happened to “see” in the blobs of paint on the paper. The night before, I was talking to Bob Mellilo (friend, helper, and huge Phish fan) about a riff he kept hearing in a Phish set. Auds and I agreed... 
by Michael Whelan | Nov 13, 2018
This one grew out of a splatter of raw umber on a sheet of gray palette paper. I fiddled with it almost as an afterthought and liked where it was going enough that I took a photo before adding anything. Over the weekend I spent time bringing it into sharper... 
by Michael Whelan | Oct 8, 2018
I had a quantity of the pigment left on my palette while working on an HP Lovecraft painting in Payne’s Grey and white, so I fished a canvas scrap out of the wastebasket in our print room and sketched this scene. Painted mostly this past Spring then finished off... 
by Michael Whelan | Oct 2, 2018
When I came in for lunch a few days ago, I saw on a section of palette paper on my work table what looked like the face of one of the man-apes from the “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I couldn’t resist going in with black acrylic... 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 25, 2018
A small study for a larger planned painting that never happened. I began working on this at the same time as the cover for Words of Radiance back in 2013. I felt it needed another element to seem “right” to me so I set it aside until last week when the... 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 21, 2018
This began as a demo piece, working from a doodle done by an audience member. It went unfinished until I discovered it in my studio last week. Completed with oils leftover from another painting. 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 14, 2018
While washing out a Japanese sumi brush at the end of a painting session, I snatched a scrap of paper out of my wastebasket. Before rinsing off the brush, I executed strokes with the soapy acrylic paint and enjoyed playing with the bubbly textures that came out of it.... 
by Michael Whelan | Sep 4, 2018
A smear of acrylic paint on my palette looked kinda like some sort of alien animal to me, so… 
by Michael Whelan | Aug 29, 2018
It’s a big idea on a small scrap of canvas! A couple of months ago, I glanced down at canvas on the floor as I walked by. It was just a scrap cut off a print, but I couldn’t shake the vision it evoked in my mind. Afraid I might forget, I sketched it out in... 