Mariachi, kick ass palette

Mariachi (fiddle)

8x10 inches, acrylic on canvas, framed

eighty maybe one hunnert dollars

Hanging the Cameron House show tomorrow at noon and then going to build frames for a bunch of new work and then adding that new work to the Cameron House, it never ends. As always I can't stress if you see something you like pick it up early, February is a quick month and my shows at the Cameron House attract alot of buyers, which makes me a very lucky man.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Press Club, West and East Walls, Feb.2011

East Wall- A Quiet Place to Call My Own $160.00, Boy With Trumpet $160.00, An Idea is Like a Storm $180.00, Baseball Goon $160.00, Rescue Dog $140.00, A Cup of Crows $160.00, Rescue Dog $160.00, Man with Hammer $200.00
East Wall -The Sisters (the White Glove Test) $180.00, Rescue Dog $140.00, Canadian Girl $180.oo, Hot Love Cold Taps $60.00, Prometheus $240.00 (I think)

. West Wall- Last of the Snake Killin' Girls $340.00, Fencer $100.00, Deep Sea Diver $100.00, sign with my name on it, not for sale

West Wall- Raised by Plastic Wolves $340.00, Last Adventure of the Dog Faced Boys $340.00, Prometheus $340.00

the back wall at the Press Club has the crows and foxes and some kids letters all are $40.00 each you can see those if you scroll down on this blog.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Cameron House Records, T-Shirts are here!

Cameron House Records T-Shirts are now available at the Cameron House $20.00 each, they come in a variety of sizes (don't ask me what those sizes are) and look exactly like the photo above. On the back of course is printed, "This Is Paradise".

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

p.s let me add to those who follow along a great and easy way to see my work, without all these words is to joing my group on facebook, "the mad craft shoppe" it's mostly just photos of paintings and will quickly let you see prices and locations of paintings.

Mariachi!

Mariachi (Guitara II),Mariachi (Drums) Mariachi (guitara), Mariachi (accordion)SOLD

8 x 10 inches, acrylic on canvas, framed

eighty dollars each, can be commissioned

I always have paintings of musicians at the Cameron House, I'll be bringing down the remaining Deep Sea Divers and the "Bremen" (Fox and Crow on bicycle) pieces to put up and I thought I'd do these smaller mariachi/Day of the Dead folks to keep them company, there will be two more posted, with a possible fifth either later on today or tomorrow.

UPDATE 2:55pm Here's the drummer!

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Hanging the Cameron House on February 1rst

Untitled

12 x 12inches, acryic on canvas, framed

$160.00

Sorry to have been away so long last week was incredibly busy with running back and forth to the many places I have art hanging to get some pieces together for a private showing. When you have work hanging in three places it can get a little crazy travelling all over town. But that's (almost) finished now and I have the weekend (thanks J.B) to get back to finishing work that is going up at the Cameron House on Tuesday.

Here is the first of three pieces from the sketch pages I had posted below. I don't have too much to say about it right now, but I did enjoy using some colours that I usually avoid, yes green and untainted blue and yellow I'm talking about you. I quite like the tones of the piece and the vibe.

I'll be posting what is currently at the Press Club later this eve and then photos of the Cameron House on Tuesday eve. Many thanks to Mitzi's Sister and the Wilson 96 for the chance to have some work hanging in January.

best,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

The Wilson 96 and sketching....

I just wanted to write a few notes about my process,preferences, artistic peccadilloes etc. this came up out of a conversation I was having at the Wilson 96 while the Steelers killed the Jets in the ground game. I was talking about why I love to do posters for bars/bands/ TShirts etc. (see the label "Pub Life Sketches or the blog ANY HOW TOWN) why I don't charge that much for it, why it doesn't seem to happen enough. The main reason I love doing these poster is that it's a chance to really draw, my friend S.Power said, "but when you're here, you draw all the time". No, no I don't.

A comparison is in order. The Top illustration "Exhibit A" is a drawing of a Tiger playing guitar in the reeds, this fulfills my criteria of what a drawing is, I rarely if ever, get do to drawings because when I go out to sketch I produce about seven pages of "Exhibit B" in about 2-3 hours. This short hand is much like a comic book artist's "Thumbnail" pages, which are breakdowns of what size panels, what action goes onto one comic page, for me this is how I compose my paintings. What you see above are several sketches of people sitting in trees, mostly trees that have fallen into the water, or are growing out of the side of a river bank.

If there is a check mark, chances are I'll give it a shot when I'm in the studio. These sketches were done on Wednesday of last week I hope to be posting at least three of the finished works at the end of this week. I wanted to do something different from my usual grounds, introduce some new colours and character to my palette/language, these "tree folk" have been running around in my head for awhile and I couldn't concentrate on any Tom Waits project stuff. Any notes included on these pages either relate to what the images should feel like or make absolutely no sense at all.

Why don't I spend more time on sketches ? Then you'd get to draw more ! These thumbnails get me to where I'm going really fast, since I usually work in series if I can draw about 40 of these squares I have a bunch of stuff to choose from, drawing takes too much time and I'll probably change something in the composition when I'm painting anyway so these guides are all I need.

When I finally get some time to draw it will be for my Graphic Novel/ Kids series, "ANY HOW TOWN" which you can read about if you follow the link, in the links section. I've been going crazy looking at Peterson's "Mouse Guard" series and the comic,"The Stuff of Legend" that size of comic would be perfect for Any How Town.

The sketchbook size that this page is from is 8 x 11 " which is so cool looking it has become a favourite, the pens are micron 0.3 I think, I grind those poor bastards down into nubs, but really they're $3.00 each, so who's the real poor bastard ?

Expect alot of posts this week, for warm ups I am painting a skeleton mariachi band, so expect one of those a day and hopefully at the end of this week I'll have three or five nice 16x16 or 18 x 18's to show you, that will be hung at the Cameron House for the month of February.

(If sometimes these posts make no sense it is because I never go back and reread or edit them.)

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Aflockalypse, Apocafish, etc

Here are some scans I did a couple of weeks ago when all the birds were falling from the sky and the fish were washing up all over, I'm going to add a new scan every couple of weeks, developing positions and scenes etc. it's good fun.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Tom Waits project, palettes and fun

The Shadow Boys (are breakin' all the laws)

10 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas, framed

$160.00

I currently don't have any 10 x 12 frames, I'll be building them at the end of the month and then transporting everything to the Cameron or the Press Club or wherever it looks best, I am sure that this type of stain won't be used with pieces that have this palette because it looks like balls. I'm thinking something in a deep ebony for stain colours, hint of red maybe, or cobalt, oh I like that idea.

I am enjoying this palette immensely, it brings me way back to when I was painting in oil at the Blyth Festival, I would do grounds of black/blue bushes with extreme yellow/white flowers in them, I'll probably do a bunch for this show, which will have it's preview at the Cameron in Feb. and then an Opening at the Cameron in May.

Of course I intend to sell all of this work before I even show it, so maybe I should go with the idea of a subscription series, that I'd discussed so long ago with my friend A.Yates (let's see if he's still following me on Twitter) . order your Tom Waits painting now for $160.00 and pick it up Feb. 1rst. just like my girl Sam Phillips http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/sam-phillips-changes-the-music-game-with-online-experiment/article1872767/ or read about how Amanda Palmer made $11,000 on Twitter in two hours http://www.webinknow.com/2009/07/yesterday-i-enjoyed-spending-some-time-with-amanda-palmer-lead-singer-of-the-dresden-dolls-and-punk-cabaret-force-of-nature.html .

I need people to invest in me like this, the work is there, You can order 10 framed 10 x12's, (which would be $1600.00) and I'd do them for $1500.00 (half in advance/ half on delivery in May) , if five people did this I would be out of debt and working steadily, go go Internet!

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Tom Waits Project, 500 Posts

"Dontcha Know There Ain't No Devil..."

10 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas, framed

$160.00

"Heart Attack and Vine" was my introducion to Tom Waits so long ago at University, because of that I've always preferred his more simple and straight forward blues/ folkish work and especially the percussive stuff.

I am at home this weekend working pretty bloody hard on a number of paintings so I celebrate this 500th post at the mad craft shoppe alone, can of Grolsch in one hand, brush in the other.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

(p.s. if you add the alphabet shoppe blogposts and ANY HOW TOWN together, the total is actually 614 posts over three blogs, but five hundred, though a smaller number, does sound better.)

Mitzi's Sister Extension, Theatre in the city this weekend

Fisherman (Pisces)

11 x 14 inches, acrylic on canvas, framed

$180.00

I really like paintings and photos of fishermen/people, I've done two women carrying gigantic fish in the past and I thought it would be nice to do another, this time a man, it's not going to be all Tom Waits Project all the time here, I call myself a "diarist" painter, if while I'm sketching a certain idea takes over I just follow it, chances are it has something to do with my moods. I believe this was inspired by the artist's life, alone out on the sea, making your own way, canned tuna etc. I had thought at one point of doing a series inspired by the Zodiac, but so many of the signs are just so stupid looking, I passed, I'll just stick with the fish.

We have been extended at Mitzi's Sister until the end of January, so you have two more weeks to see my work there, and then in February we're moving to the Cameron House for a month.I am currently working on about eight new pieces for the Cameron, hope to get up to ten finished for the end of the month, so I am spending the weekend inside working. I will have to extensively photograph the Cameron House and the Press Club fow what is going to be at either location, it may get confusing.

If you want to get out and see some theatre go check out the Fringe Next Stage Festival happening right now at the Factory Theatre, I saw, "Tom's A-Cold" it was a whip smart 65minute. show with strong performances from Matt MacFadzean and Shane Carty, here's a link to the Next Stage site,since I have to do everything.

http://www.fringetoronto.com/nstf/nstf_shows.html

If you really want to go bananas, you have got to see "Assasins" at the Theatre Centre, it was so incredible, it's the kind of theatre that I love, bare brick walls and just a minimum of props (not great if you're a scenic artist trying to make a living, but aesthetically what I like) and some amazing performances, here's a link to that too, because once you start you have to add links for everything.

http://www.birdlandtheatre.com/

You can see my work for the month of January at The Wilson 96 (615 College), Mitzi's Sister (1554 Queen West) and the Press Club (850 Dundas) if I am unable to meet with you and you want to purchase from the bartender you must pay cash, you can see what is posted where by scrolling down to other posts.

there you go,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Tom Waits Project and other news

Time I & II

12 x 12 inches, acrylic on canvas, framed

SOLD.
Here are the first two pieces from the T.Waits project based around the song "Time" from Rain dogs, I've been reading and sketching Tom Waits lyrics for a couple of hours every day now and have gotten things started. When going through the songs I first plotted key words and images that reoccured in his work, trying to find a good starting point. the dominant words being, "Sleep", "Memory" and "Dream"and "Time" so I think if people start to float around in the air in the work ala Chagall that's just fine.

SHOW STUFF These two pieces are hanging at the Wilson 96 (615 College Str. across from the Royal Cinema) until the end of January. This is the final week for the "Unframed and On Sale" show at Mitzi's Sister, that work comes down on the 17th of January, you can see what's there if you scroll down a bit.

UPCOMING I will be showing work at the Cameron House for the month of February, there was a cancellation and yes, I did ask a couple of other artists if they were interested but both weren't quite prepared. I am going to move some work from the Press Club, reframe some of the work from Mitzi's and the Wilson 96 and also add about eight new pieces, so it should be a pretty cool looking room.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

The Wilson 96

Here ya go folks, if you want to go somewhere for a drink after work that's so lovely it makes your knees hurt, I reccomend hitting up the Wilson 96.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Grand Trunk Winnipeg

Here's a design commissioned from Winnipeg, once I get the full info on what it's for and where you can get it, I will post that here.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Pilots at the Wilson 96 Group Show

Pilot I & Pilot II

16 x 16 inches, acrylic on canvas $260.00 each

Hey there we're getting back in the swing of things at the studio just completed the final highlights on these two Pilots which will be hanging at the Wilson 96 (615College) for the month of January as part of a group show, after that if they don't sell, I'll move them down to the Press Club. I really love this 16 x 16 inch size and also the "boy and his dog" posture that the figures have. Here's the info, love that it's called, "the Group of 96"

Sunday, January 9 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
the Wilson 96 , 615 College Street
Our first group show is up and it is quite something. Please come on by to check out some beautiful work by our artist friends and stick around to hear Danica Leigh bring us some Sunday night jazz at 9:30.

the Group of 96 Art Show- painting and photography ,January 4-31, Shannon Blackie, Therese Cilia , Andrew Shay Hahn, Meaghan Lynch, Farid Rezzaoui, Hieram Wientraub, Sean Waisglass

In other news we've been reading pages and pages of Tom Waits lyrics and writing copious notes for "the Tom Waits Project" which is my next series of paintings that I will be working on from now at least until April, there will be other work but the T.Waits stuff will be a regular weekly posting.

Expect a couple of designs to pop up here soon, lots to do.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Last Year's Resolutions...oh those, right.

Instead of making a bunch of new resolutions, here is the follow up on my super smart resolutions from last year....

1. Buy a ukelele, perhaps learn to play it (record ep):

FAILURE

Despite the good natured reminders from my friend K.Hudson, I did not buy a ukelele and learn to play it, I think building models filled that "new hobby" part of my brain.

2. Dig out Spanish Language Cd Rom and get back at it:

FAILURE

"This is the resolution that I drop every year, I say I'll do it and then I don't, hopefully this year, since I spend so much time "listening" to movies, I'll be able to get back into learning Spanish." That's what I said last year, I'm obviously never going to teach myself Spanish, it's a CD-Rom for god's sake, who even uses those any more ?

3. Reduce Smoking 50% by April:

FAILURE

My smoking has not increased, I'm pretty sure it's gone done a bit, not too much but some.

4. Go to Montreal for the weekend.

FAILURE

Had plans to do this,completely forgot,we were also going to go to the Finger Lakes,we are going to Cuba in March and I resolve to add another vacation in the Spring.

5. Finish One of Three Illustrated Books for Children: I am committed to getting three of them finished and published by the time I'm Forty.

HALF WAY THERE

All the notes and rough sketches are done, I still have some time to achieve this goal and I will

6.Buy More Plants:

FAILURE

We did, they died,moving on...

7.Reduce Clothes, DVD's and Books by 30% by the Spring:

SORT OF SUCCESS

This is no problem, I've given away three boxes full of DVDs and a bags of clothes to the Scott Mission,this spring I will work on the CD's and Books, Idon't know if I want tohave a garage sale, I don't mind just giving the stuff away.

8.Spend More Time with My Friends Children:

SUCCESS!!!!!

9.DON'T Explain/Apologize for the shitty habits of others.

SUCCESS!!!

so there you go, come back soon I am finishing a couple of NEW paintings to hang at the Wilson 96 for a Group Showing, I'll post pics here on Tuesday. New boards on the easel, new warm up canvases ready, 2011, let's make some money.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

P.S Art is still up at Mitzi's Sister and my show at the Press Club is up until the end of February,I have to post an update photo soon as lots of stuff has been changed and moved around,I'll do that later this eve.

Stolen December 20th from the Press Club

Fall Fashions, 10 x 12 inches acrylic on canvas, framed

Stolen

I've already had my rant about this, I'm not here for that, just to post some info. this piece was stolen from the Press Club on December 20th some time after 10pm. From some information gathered the thief may be a bike courier or have a courier style bag big enough for this framed piece to fit in. The Thief may be associated with a new bike shop on Dundas West, "Ride Away Bikes" that has recently opened, I do not mean that the shop is in any way involved with the theft of this piece.

Any information can be emailed to me at the address below, there is no reward, you're just doing the right thing by contacting me, many thanks.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com