Monsterbation 2 Show: Monstrously Erotic

Just wanted to post some pictures of the recent "Monsterbation 2" show at Pony Club Gallery in Portland. Jason Fischer has assembled a great group of artists once again for an erotic art show of monsters and creatures.









Here is a scan of my piece for the show. I paid homage (or parody?) to the famously bizarre painting "Gabrielle d'Estrees et une de ses soeurs" by an unknown artist. Ironically, the painting to which I am giving nods to has nothing to do with eroticism, but more fertility and motherhood. You can read more about that HERE if you are interested. Below is what the original painting looks like.


To see more pictures of the show, go HERE.
To purchase works from the show, go HERE.

Upcoming NY show

This is the flyer for an upcoming show at the end of this month in NY. It's an exhibition of artwork on skateboard decks (definitely new territory for me). I had fun painting my deck and am excited to see what all the other artists came up with. All the boards will be auctioned on ebay, so if you have any skate art enthusiast friends, give them a heads up!

http://www.corpsecorpsboards.com/
http://www.coatofarmsnyc.com/blog/

Saints Commission

This is a drawing I was commissioned to do by a relative. He wanted an image of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, with specific symbolic elements included. The bricks and the birds are examples of this. I looked at many different references for the figures, including statues and paintings of the saints. With the trees, I wanted to create a reference to the medieval arch that appears in much art from that period.



"Saint Francis and Saint Clare"
India ink and watercolor on paper
8" x 10"
2011

Shows! Shows! Shows!

Just a reminder that 3 shows are opening this week. "Monsterbation 2" show opens tonight in Portland, as does "Nature of the Beast" in Seattle!

Tomorrow "Bewitching" opens in Albuquerque.

See previous posts for details and info.

My work in Blanket Magazine's 1st printed issue!

I got this in the mail today! Bec Brown did an amazing job of putting it all together, and I am very grateful for having been included in it! Can't wait to see future issues :)













http://blanketmagazine.com/

UPCOMING SHOWS

Just a quick post about some upcoming shows/receptions:

Monsterbation 2, Pony Club Gallery, Portland, OR - Oct 6th - 6-10 pm (I have 1 piece in this show)

Nature of the Beast, Flatcolor Gallery, Seattle WA - Oct 6th - 5-9 pm (I have 4 pieces in this show)

Bewitching, Stranger Factory, Albuquerque, NM - Oct 7th - 6-9 pm (I have 3 pieces in this show)

"What a Strange Thing to Say" - SOLD

This one found a home :)

Got my work cut out for me

Been drawing like a madman lately, usually about 15 hours a day. I think it may be taking a toll, but it won't be for much longer so that's good. I sent off two shipments of art today. One box is going to Oregon and the other is going to New Mexico. I just finished a pretty intricate piece today for a show in Seattle at Flatcolor gallery, where I have enjoyed showing before. So pleased they asked me back! I will be sending then 4 pieces very soon (probably another trip to UPS on Monday). So I still have to scan this sucker and I already cut plexi glass for it (not risking it with the real glass this time). I have been hurrying to get it done because the show is quickly approaching. In fact, the three shows I have mentioned are all in the first week of October (two on the 6th and one on the 7th I believe). Not only that, but I got a freelance job to work on this past week and I knew I would have to get this gallery stuff done first because it has to travel across country. But the freelance job deadline is pretty soon too, so I guess I have my work cut our for me after I finish scanning and framing this piece. By the time that freelance job is over, I should be just about ready to leave on a trip for Louisiana. I hope that's how it all works out anyway.

Post on "Ballad of..." magazine

Thanks to the lovely folks over at 'Ballad of...' for showcasing some of my work! I have some stuff coming up in the print issue as well, so stay tuned for that.

http://balladof.co.uk/2011/09/jon-macnair/

Interview on BLKFRMT

I did this interview with BLKFRMT recently. It's an awesome illustration/design site with lots of good interviews with other artists. Be sure to check it out if you have a chance! Thank you to the kind folks at BLKFRMT :)

http://blkfrmt.com/interviews/interview-with-jon-mcnair/

My Illustration Mundo Interview

I'm excited to share this interview I did recently for Illustration Mundo. If you're an illustrator, it's damn near impossible that you have not heard of this site before, as it is a great resource for illustrators. Nate Williams sent me an email and asked if I'd like to do the interview. I of course accepted. A big thanks to Nate!

Hope you find the following an interesting read.

http://www.illustrationmundo.com/wp/7787

Sneak Peek of piece for Oct show

This piece is already finished, but I though you'd like a sneak peek of it. It's going to New Mexico this month. Stay tuned....

Things have been so crazy lately with projects. And it doesn't help that I have been getting these waves of afternoon sleepiness where I just want to lay my head on the pillow. And there's no good reason for this. Maybe I have a vitamin deficiency (even though I take vitamins). I've been invited to partake in quite a few shows lately, with a bunch coming up in October. Perhaps this is because it's the month of Halloween and a lot of these shows have kind of dark themes (?). I'm grateful to be in these shows, but I just need to put the nose to the grindstone to get the work done. I always do in the end, so it should be fine.

Debut of my brand NEW website!

Alright folks, the time has finally come to let you know that I have a new website up! It was WAY overdue, and after about 2 years of feeling guilty for my sadly outdated and dead looking site, I got it together and worked long and hard to put this new one up. I had a ton of help from my friend Reid who thankfully knows all about these things. Thanks Reid! We live in different states, so we were doing this all on the phone and via skype. But after about 6 sessions we finally wrapped things up late last night.

I made a site years before, but that was purely in the design view of dreamweaver and there were many little things that were never quite right. I was also using some horrible tables and framesets, pop-up windows, and bad fonts.......ugh, the list goes on and on. Every time I would see that I was getting traffic to my blog or flickr from my site, I would cringe a little. Not only did the site design need to be updated, but the content did as well. Here is what the old site looked like (note the outdated pop-up window):

The challenge with making the new site was learning styles, html and getting comfortable looking at code in general. It wasn't my cup of tea for sure, but I did learn a lot in the process. That said, I don't need to hear the word "div" for a while.

I have a lot of new content on the site. The illustration page (which is the homepage) pretty much has all new content on it. The info page has a bunch of links to interviews I have done and sites of nice people who have featured my work online. There's also a few links to places where you can buy my work as prints, a flickr link, and a totally updated resume you can download. The overall look of the site is very simple. I wanted it to be easy to navigate and streamlined, with a white background to make the artwork the focus and plain black and gray text. No frills.

As soon as I get some more content I am going to switch out a few of the illustration pieces, but I am pleased with the way it looks at the moment. At least my phone number is correct now!

Here is what the NEW site looks like.

By the way, the "coming soon" piece in the upper left-hand corner is an album cover that is soon to be released. I will of course post about that on here when it comes out.

In the meantime, please check out the new site! www.jonmacnair.com

Just because....

Just thought I'd give a brief update as to what has been going on lately. I finished the patterns I was working on earlier and I'm happy with them (being a first attempt and all). I am working on a piece right now for an October group show in New Mexico. It's going pretty well so far. I've been trying not to get too distracted thinking about the other pieces I need to do after this one. Just concentrate on one thing at a time here.

Oh, on a different note, I'm really excited to say that Blanket magazine's first printed issue is coming out soon (and I'm in it!). I need to order myself one asap. There's a great lineup of talent included (5 of the artists I recognize and am fans of). This is my 3rd time being involved with an issue of Blanket (twice previously in their PDF format). Head over to their website to have a look at what is to come!

BLANKET MAGAZINE

ANNALEMMA Magazine

A while back I did some freelance illustration for Annalemma Magazine to accompany a work of fiction. I just got the issue in the mail today! I was pleased to see how nicely it was printed and designed, and was also happy to feast my eyes on the work of fellow illustrators Paul X Johnson and Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo. My thanks go out to Chris Heavener and his team for making it such a great issue, and inviting me to take part in it :)

Here are some pictures I snapped today.

below are some better images of my contribution to the issue:

Visit Annalemma online: http://annalemma.net/

My art for sale at The Mammoth Collection!

Hey everyone,

just wanted to mention that two of my drawings are available as prints over at The Mammoth Collection! Prints start at $20!

The two works are "The Unexpected Guest" and "The Night Visitor".

Click to buy!

Click to buy!

Mid-August update

I haven't written a post in a while, so I just thought I would give you all a heads up on what's been happening. I got back from vacation a few weeks ago and have been working on some new self-initiated illustrations. See, I'm trying to get my website updated because it's been grossly neglected for a long time now and I need to do something about that. Because I had some major problems with my hard drive earlier in the year and my computer had to be wiped clean, I'm using this as a good reason to start over and redesign my website. I could download the old files, but I want to try my hand at learning some html this time, as daunting as that seems. I already have an idea of what I want my site to look like, and now I am concentrating on creating more content for it. Most of the stuff on there now in terms of illustration is going to be removed because I want to project a slightly different style with my freelance illustration, more similar to my fine art style. That seems to be what more people gravitate towards anyway. I'm working on 8 pieces right now, 4 of which are pattern designs (something new to me). All that will go up on the site after it's completed. I also have some collaborations to work on and a personal project I have been invited to do from an illustrator friend. Crazily enough, in the last few weeks I have been invited to participate in 5 group shows (3 of which are in October). Some are galleries I have worked with before, and some are new to me. I also have a personal commission put on backburner at the moment (for a relative) and some publications I want to submit work to. I'm just trying to focus right now and make a list detailing all this with dates etc. My head feels full.

Curious Collection No. 9

Here is my most recently completed drawing. It's a bit larger than the ones I have been doing lately.

detail shots below:

Curious Collection No. 9

India ink on colored paper

12" x 12"

This work is available to purchase for $325 + shipping. If you are interested, email me: jon@jonmacnair.com

thanks!

New Stuff for sale!

Here's a picture of some recently completed works for sale. I've been posting about them on my blog for the past few weeks. Check out my flickr set to see everything I have for sale!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonmacnair/sets/72157615868225122/

G40 Art Summit sales

I've been getting a lot of artwork back from shows lately. For some reason, all the galleries decided to send stuff back in the last few weeks, so I've been trying to get an idea of what pieces I have and what is still out there. Anyway, I was happy to see that I sold a few pieces at the Art Whino show (G40 art summit) in DC. I know that it was a huge show located in a warehouse space, so I didn't know if my work would get lost in the shuffle or not (I had all small works). But luckily some people liked the work enough to give it a permanent home. Always a happy feeling when that happens. Two of the pieces were very small and a couple years old, and the other was larger and more recent.