New Art! New Medium!
While shopping for art supplies recently, I came across some tiny 5″x5″ wrapped canvases. They were so cute, I couldn’t resist buying a handful.
As a digital artist, cameras and computers are usually my main tools, but I’ve been itching to expand my palette and experiment with various media, including paint and canvas.
Detail: “BETTY B. GOODE”, acrylic on canvas, 5in. x 5in. ©2010 Nikolas Allen
I had just been invited to partake in the holiday opening of Local Patron, a pop-up boutique selling the works of Bay Area artists.
I figured it would be a good time to create some small, affordable pieces of art with holiday gift-giving in mind.
“LUCY MEDUSA”, acrylic on canvas, 5in. x 5in. ©2010 Nikolas Allen
I had been sketching a lot of female faces for my “FACE TIME” series (which is still in progress), so that theme seemed to continue when I was deciding what my new mini series of paintings was going to be.
I have dabbled in acrylic paint in the past, so I was familiar with it, but there is definitely a learning curve when exploring a new medium.
Detail: “JENNA SIDE”, acrylic on canvas, 5in. x 5in. ©2010 Nikolas Allen
I love mixed media, so I added glitter and rhinestones to the finished pieces for a little extra pizazz.
When it came time for titles, I had fun coming up with names that were befitting of my badass cadre of SuperBabes.
“OPHELIA FLAME”, acrylic on canvas, 5in. x 5in. ©2010 Nikolas Allen
For the Local Patron opening, I also created a dozen “PopRox”, which are rocks that I plucked from the coast of Oregon and painted with cute, animé-style, pop characters.
“POPROX” ©2010 Nikolas Allen
These affordable art items even got a little press! SF Station, a blog detailing the arts & entertainment scene in San Francisco did a great writeup on Local Patron, including this blurb:
“Painted rocks might sound dull but those by Nikolas Allen are anything but, and fans of pinup/hotrod culture will love his mini painted canvases ($50).”
- Jailin Luh, SF Station writer
While I won’t be giving up photography and computer manipulation anytime soon, I’m excited to continue experimenting with a variety of mixed media in the coming year.
Welcome to Nikolas Allen Art dot com. I am a Contemporary Pop Artist with a background in music, advertising and video production. 
Comments
What gorgeous images. I love the painted rocks, too. I’d use them to make jewelry.
If you were to work just a bit smaller, you would be working in Artist Trading Card style. The images are just a bit smaller, the size of a standard playing card.
That would be cool; to see your images used in the mini-collage style or even just reduced to ATC size. I bet they’d be popular!
Paula
>> Paula - Thanks for the feedback. The artist trading card idea sounds intriguing. My work translates well to postcards and greeting cards, so it would be interesting to see how well it works on the playing card format.
And to see my little skull rocks as earrings would be awesome!
I’d love to see your jewelry. Feel free to post a link to your site if you have an online presence. Thanks again for your comments!
~Nikolas Allen
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