The Little Trailer

The heartwarming tale of a mermaid and her Vacation Of Adventure!

This painting represents what happens when I try to do more "postcardy" subject matter.  I get a couple seascapes or barns done, then a mermaid finds her way in while I'm not looking.  Before I know what's going on, she's got herself a vintage aluminum trailer.  And now she and her friends are ganging up on me.  I'm completely surrounded!  They're corrupting everything!

Painted in oil on panel, 8x8 inches. 

Sold.

The Primitive 2

The Amazing Sequel to The Primitive!

In the far flung future, long after the collapse of governments, infrastructure, and fast food joints, Amazons roam the earth.  They have developed a nomadic culture, scouring the shattered remnants of civilization in ancient survivors in their endless search for food and octane.

Watercolor, 14x26 inches.  The original is available on my website.

Robin's Egg

Presenting something a little different this week.  A photograph.


This is part of a project I started earlier in the year, the aim of which is to improve standard digital photos by making them a bit worse.  I was inspired by my discovery of the toy camera movement.  Basically, you take pictures with a cheap plastic camera with a plastic lens and loaded with expired film which you may develop in the wrong mixture afterward.  All this adds up to an unpredictability and texture you just can't get with point and shoot digital equipment.

But I'm trying.

This piece represents several layers of color adjustment, blurring, light leaks, and blotchy texture.  I create my own blotchiness with watercolor paper in various stages of distress painted with browns or grays.  I then scan the result into the computer and scale as needed.  I added the red streak on the right partly to add some color contrast, and partly to help obscure the license plate.

This is one of my favorite pieces from the project so far.

Photo © 2011 Matt Yost, all rights reserved.

Sunday Driver

Driven by a little old lady who only used it to go to church on Sunday, bought for cheap, and transmogrified into a fire belching, track burning monstrosity.  It's still driven on Sunday, only much, much faster.

This is part of my search for the unusual. 

When you see a gasser style hot rod, most often it's either a '40'sWillys or a tri-five Chevy.  Why not a Cadillac, or a Packard?  You're pretty much guaranteed to stand out from the crowd wherever you are.  What are the odds that there's going to be another 1955 Packard Gasser at any event you go to?  Think of it this way; according to my crude math there were twice as many Chevrolet Del Ray club coupes produced in 1955 as there were Packards.  That's the entire Packard line versus one lowly Chevy model.  And how many of each survive today to be converted into gassers?  I don't have figures on this, but I can only recall seeing one fifties Packard in 20 years of car shows, versus many hundreds of Chevys.  Admittedly, I live in the sticks, but I don't imagine the ratio changes much in Los Angeles or New Jersey.  As for the Willys, you can pretty much make your own from scratch these days.  How exclusive is that?

Painted in watercolor, 14x21 inches. 

The original painting is available here.  Prints are available on ebay.

Lucifer's Hot Trophy Wife

Sometimes, you get a lot of little ideas, and all by themselves, the ideas are a little weird.  Then you start putting the little ideas together.  The weirdness multiplies.  Sometimes it multiplies exponentially, and you end up with a painting depicting a woman with wings and horns posing next to a Dodge Power Wagon set up for a ten second quarter mile up a vertical rock face.  It's sort of like a photo you might snap on a road trip, only with a hefty scoop of "what the...?".

Painted in watercolor, 14x21 inches.  The original painting is available here.  Prints are available in my ebay store.

Early Evening

We're presenting something a little different this week, a change of pace.  Something without merfolk or disguised tentacle-y mind control beasties.  No, today we present a perfectly ordinary, everyday scene.

This truck's been floating in my reference pile for about eight years.  She almost made it into my Space Hitchhiker painting, but I decided to go another way.  Now she's here, for your viewing pleasure, basking in the early evening sun.

Painted in Glorious Watercolor, 9.75x22 inches.  The original painting is available here.  Prints will be available soon.

V-Sub

Introducing the Busmarine!  The ideal transportation solution for hardcore surfers and marine biologists.

This is the second painting that Meriwether has appeared in.  He's the shark in the foreground, clearly amazed by the V-Sub's deep sea maneuverability.  The shark in the background is Daedalus, and this is his first appearance in a painting.  Don't ask him about his eye patch, he's a bit sensitive about it.

Painted in watercolor, 9x12 inches.  The original painting is available here.