Friday, August 30, 2013

King of the RAY GUNS!



RAY GUNS!
12x16inches, acrylic on canvas
$120.00 each
Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, I'm shooting stuff in the basement as I finish it and the bulbs down here throw everything off.
A.Shay Hahn
 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Girl With An Axe VS. RAY GUN!


Girl With An Axe 12x12 inches, acrylic on canvas $160.00
RAY GUN!, 12x16 inchces, acrylic on canvas $120.00
In today's Wednesday challenge over on face book, returning champion, "Girl With An Axe" was beaten by the new challenger RAY GUN! by a score of 6 to 4. RAY GUN! advances onto the next round, who will the challenger be? Man, I'm working on so many different things right now I don't even know.
Friday is the last day to see my work in the YUMart Group Show, "And the Living Is Easy" just scroll down on the blog to find the address.
Dang it's so humid out I can't even contemplate walking to the beer store
A.Shay Hahn
 

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Deep Sea Diver with Accordion

Deep Sea Diver with Accordion
10x12inches, acrylic on canvas
for the Cameron House is November
$160.00
This is the second DSD with an accordion that I've painted, the first was seated in a chair staring up at the sky. I couldn't paint this and not think of James Gray, my friend and great musician who passed away a couple of weeks ago. He used the other painting as his profile picture on Facebook, he took the photo with his phone when the painting was hanging at the Press Club, the photo was crooked, which I found kind of charming.
James and I shared a lot of bars over the years, I can't count how many times I have seen him play or just sat and had a pint with him. He was a great musician, just a wonder, he often had dinner at the Press Club before heading out to play somewhere and they hung the fork he always used on the wall in his honour.
A.Shay Hahn


Deep Sea Diver (with flute)

Deep Sea Diver (with flute)
10x12inches, acrylic on canvas
for the Cameron House show in November.
After the final relaxing weekend out of town we are back in the studio and starting to finish some work. Yes, the Divers are back and here's the first.
A.Shay Hahn
twitter @madcraftshoppe
facebook A.Shay Hahn (the mad craft shoppe)


Friday, August 23, 2013

The View from the Studio

We run a pretty tight ship down here in the bowels of the house and every day at the same time my assistant meets me at the top of the stairs for his walk.
A.Shay Hahn
twitter @madcraftshoppe
facebook A.Shay Hahn (the mad craft shoppe)

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Cameron House, planning the invasion

I have over thirty four canvases planned for the November show at the Cameron House, this may be my biggest show yet. I've had a good few days/nights in the studio working off of sketches and references and things are really coming along nicely.
I have yet to finish anything, even the Axe Girl and Pitchfork Woman are not yet complete, I'm working on two or three pieces at a time, switching them out and working on two or three more. It's so crazy that I've started using some older canvases as palettes.
I've also received a few contacts for other work, commissions and designs, two of which were very interesting to me and two that would be impossible to fit into my schedule right now but hopefully could come back to in the spring.
It feels great to get busy again, if you have any questions I am always available at the address below.
It's time for a cold tinny of Beck's on the back porch
A.Shay Hahn
twitter @madcraftshoppe
facebook A.Shay Hahn (the mad craft shoppe)


we do not tolerate failure

Things have been going really well down in the studio, of course sometimes mistakes are made.
That's what Big Daddy Box Cutter is for.
A.Shay Hahn

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Girl with an Axe VS. Woman with a Pitchfork

Girl with an Axe
Woman with a Pitchfork
12x12inches, acrylic on canvas
$160.00 each
Over on fb today I ran the first Wednesday Challenge, I used to do them once a week when preparing for shows and I thought it would be fun to bring them back. To participate you tag yourself in whichever photo you'd like to vote for. Today it was Girl with an Axe vs, Woman with a Pitchfork and the Axe painting won 8 votes to four.
The Axe painting will go onto the next round and the next challenger, you'll have to wait until next week to see who wins the contest.
cheers,
A.Shay Hahn

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Mask, The Pearls and the Muckity Technique


Sometimes things get a little stale in the studio and I need to shake it up in order to get my day started. Luckily I have a whole pile of 12x12's to play with so I'm not too worried about marking up a canvas and then hating what I've done, I can just move on.
To begin the muckity process I take two or three colours and then just rub them around, then take one of the colours and make a few lines, usually with my eyes closed. It's pretty self explanatory if you look at the first photo. Sometimes I get lucky and find an image right away and the second photo is what I ended up "pulling" out of one the canvases.
We'll see what comes out of the others.
A.Shay Hahn


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Flying hats, Chernobyl and Final Destinations

Working away down in the basement on a beautiful Sunday with on On Demand to keep me company and what poor company it is. I watch a lot of horror films, I love'em to bits I can't help myself, today I watched "Chernobyl Diaries" which is not a horror film, not at all, it's supposed to be, but there isn't a single scary movie in the film. I did like the mutated fish, but that was all. Also, if I recall correctly there were only two lines of dialogue in the whole film that were repeated over and over, "We have to get outta here." and "Have you seen Chris." please do not approach this film thinking you'll have the least bit of fun, you will not.
You will however have a great and gory time watching "Final Destination V" this franchise knows how to have a laugh and each film actually gets more gory and more funny than the last, so definitely drive straight past Chernobyl to your Final Destination, see what I did there ?
Okay onto Goseph Jordan Lovitz riding a bike.
A.Shay Hahn
follow on twitter @madcraftshoppe
facebook A.Shay Hahn (the mad craft shoppe)
 

Friday, August 16, 2013

Studio Assistants, World View and the Amazing Spider Man



I bought four 30x30's awhile ago and some 30x40's I was in the mood to do some large work, but I didn't ever start anything, they have been sitting in the studio for months, with the show coming in November I figured that it was time to get back to them. I've always loved the two "World View" or globe pieces that I painted two or three years ago and wanted to do something new with them, as luck would have it I was asked by musician Jason Chesworth if he could use the above "the Painter's Assistants" for a digital ep he was releasing on band camp with some of the proceeds going to the Actor's Fund of Canada, we have many mutual friends from theatre so I figured why not, here's a link to the ep, check it out. http://jasonchesworth.bandcamp.com/ 
The top photo is my dog, who spent most of the day sleeping under my chair in the studio, it was hard not to move around too much and disturb him, but I managed it.
I've had two films playing today, the first, Men In Black 3 was fine if you like the series, I thought Josh Brolin did a great Tommy Lee Jones impersonation and of course enjoyed the supporting role by the brother from Orange Is the New Black,( I'm sorry Sir I don't have time to google your name), the movie itself wasn't that engaging, it followed the MIB formula to the letter with just certain plot changes (time travel! which they did nothing with) and a different villain, the very talented whatshisname from Flight of the Conchords, if you listen you'll hear him under the makeup.
I'm just winding up watching the Amazing Spiderman, the best choice they made was to keep Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone riffing together, they're great as Peter and Gwen Stacey, and of course it was great to see Dennis Leary and Martin Sheen but at two hours twenty minutes, it's way too long and because of this fact has no forward momentum what so ever.
It was very nice to see that Spider Man was created by Stan Lee AND Steve Ditko, because he was, two men created this great character, read all about it in the wonderful "Marvel Comics the Untold Story" by Sean Howe.
Alright back to it,
A.Shay Hahn


Thursday, August 15, 2013

Axe Women as the day goes/ Axe Women all night long

A.Shay Hahn

Axe Women, Flying Hats and the Late Night Easel


The late night easel, I'm doing double duty these days, trying to write the books or do notes and edits from eight in the morning until noon and then breaking and painting down in the studio until it's time to crash. Here's what's on the board right now (top left) beginning block in for a new Axe Girl, (top right) an old damaged flying hat painting that I'm using as a refresher for the new hats, (bottom left) current Axe Girl Block In and (bottom right) a dinged up canvas that I'm using as a palette. Behind this stuff is a large 18x36 that I hope to start blocking in on Friday.
I was going to take the rest of August just to write but I'd like to get a head start on twelve block ins just so I feel I won't be completely in the long grasses when September begins.
A.Shay Hahn


Thursday, August 08, 2013

Flying Hats, A Return



Black Hats, White Hats
12x12 inches, acrylic on canvas
$160.00 each
all of the above have been SOLD
I rarely return to old ideas, I use certain symbols over and over again in my work but since I work in series sometimes I get burnt out on an idea and leave it. Yesterday evening I was out with friends and I was thinking about the hats that I painted for "Lost Houses" way back in 2006. Wow, that's a long time ago, I had just moved into a new apartment on Crawford Street and was painting for my annual Cameron House show at the same time amidst the piles of boxes.
I thought about the hats all the way home to the East end and by the time I got home I knew it was time to bring them back. The above are three pieces from 2006, which all sold, I have a few things that I want to add to the pieces this time around, you'll have to wait to see what comes out.
If you'd like to commission some hats for your home, just holler at me at the email below, actually it would be really nice to get an email today to let me know folks are out there reading.
Also don't forget to go to Yumart, 101 Spadina, Suite 210 on Saturday for the reception for the group show that I'm participating in.
A.Shay Hahn
 


Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Yumart Summer Salon Show




Top to bottom
A Song by Lyle Lovett, 10x12inches, An Elliott Smith Song, 10 x12 inches $200.00 each, The Sisters (the White Glove Test) 11x14 inches $250.00, Girl With An Axe, 12x16 inches $300.00
all works framed, acrylic on canvas
prices to follow
This month I am participating in a group show at Y.M Whelan's gallery, located at 101 Spadina, Suite 210, the opening reception is this Saturday from2pm-5pm here's the blurb and a link to the event on facebook.
Showcasing 30+ artists at the first annual yumart Summer Salon: Deirdre Tara Whelan, SpiteClassic, Robert Chandler, Stephen Forsyth, Richard Bonderenko, Wayne Moore, Dawn Mourning, Karen Miranda Augustine, Les Paterson, Tim Deverell, Gabrielle de Montmollin, Tony Calzetta, Lee Lamothe, Susan Szenes, Andrew James Paterson, Erin MacKeen, Tim Noonan, Janis Warren, Y.M. Whelan, Betty Kaser, Blaise deLong, Barry Coombs, Caroline Ross, Sheryl Dudley, Sandra Lewis, Joseph Lammirato, Kevin McBride, Larry Dickison,
Peter Templeman and Andrew Shay Hahn.
 
 
I'll be dropping off the work today, not sure which pieces will be chosen to be hung or the prices that's up to Yvonne. I highly recommend checking this out, Robert Chandler is a great painter, love Wayne Moore's work and Kevin McBride does some great work too.
A.Shay Hahn


Friday, August 02, 2013

The Chairs By Day, Last of the Large Frames

The Chairs by Day (III)
20x20 acrylic on canvas, framed
$400.00
This is the last 20x20 frame that I have in the studio,many thanks as always to Theatre Passe Muraille for the use of the shop, and since I posted the life jackets yesterday I thought it would be nice to repost this piece as well. I'll be putting up some shots of older work for the rest of the summer, specifically ones that have a summer feel to them. I'll be back in the studio at the start of September.
A.Shay Hahn