For those that don't know... (part I)

Hello new people to the world of my artwork. It just occurred to me that some of you out there visiting and reading this blog (btw, thanks! :-) may not know much about my life and the artworks that I've created. Rather than write a huge long post, or try to include this info in my 'about me' section, I thought I would write a series of smaller messages talking about a single piece of artwork, part of my history, or a little about how/why I work the way that I do.

Let's get things started with a rather popular digital painting that I created a couple of years ago...

"Unexpected First Move"

Playing with the isometric view of the chess board, I tried to create an image that is both eye catching and fun. I have always enjoyed optical illusions and this is certainly theme/style that I plan to continue in the future.

I thought that putting the chessboard onto a cliff face would help to add to the artwork and give it more depth (further enhancing the illusion). While painting the cliffs below the chessboard suddenly faces began to appear in what I was creating; rather than dismiss this or try to hide it, I decided to keep them, add more, and make them less subtle than they originally were. It always interesting to hear people reactions when they first notice them.

There are two comments that often get passed along to me about this image are: 1. It reminds people of M.C. Escher (something that I always take as a great compliment, being a long time fan of Escher myself - more about this in the future) and 2. That they've seen it before, sent via email, and that I must just be selling a copy of somebody else work. This 2nd one always seems very odd to me.... I created the work, but I've never had it accidentally come across my inbox (but one day, that would be great :-)


Hand signed, 11"x14" stretched canvas giclée prints are available direct from me via my www.digitalartist.etsy.com website. They are $60 each.