Paul Antonson

I’ve been trying out some watercolor-pencils in the sketchbook lately which has been pretty satisfying; especially when augmented with some Old Holland watercolor paint. The sketch above is of my brother Steve lounging in Maine.

Sketches from the Red Cottage of mid-coastal Maine, an ensorcelled world of hidden beavers, lonely loons, vain turtles and buoys; all lurking in the shadows of the Ragged Mountain.

A few nights before Christmas in 2002 I had the great fortune to see Arthur Lee and his band Love perform at Brookyn’s Warsaw. They tore headlong through 21 songs, including the entirety of Love’s brilliant album Forever Changes. Arthur had recently been freed from a 6 year prison sentence due to an erroneous gun charge and the lost time seemed to have instilled a burning intensity within him. It seemed like he wanted to keep playing untill dawn. A couple years after that show he was diagnosed with leukaemia and it ended his life yesterday in Memphis. It was very sad hearing the news and I remembered seeing that battered legend blowing the place out on a cold Brooklyn night. Here’s an ancient clip of Love performing on Dick Clarke’s show.

RIP Arthur. Recent sketches above.

My InvisibleBrother James and I recently did some camping/drawing/hiking/wave-riding in the Watch Hill area of Fire Island. Located on the western edge of the Otis Pike High Dune Wilderness it’s an amazing and uncrowded spot within 2 hours of New York City.

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The above rendering is for this week’s Village Voice illustrating an upcoming screening of Jaws at Pier 54 on Manhattan’s west side. For a shark enthusiast like myself, this sort of illo job is akin to your Alma Mater winning the NCAA basketball championship or perhaps bearing witness to a the elusive Yeti; something you hope for but don’t necessarily expect.

Above are a couple pages from the sketchbook… some scenes drawn from Wash sq. park and my brother playing guitar. Below are some pics from saturday’s Siren Music Festival which was great fun on a beautiful summer day. Dirty on Purpose were the musical highlight of the day for me however I caught great sets by Serena Maneesh, Art Brut, the Cribs and Tapes and Tapes. It was also pretty cool to see an illustration I made printed 25ft tall (upper left photo).

In a previous post I’d mentioned how I had a dream about a decrepit old shark, covered in plants and moss. I thought I’d turn that into an illustration while also applying more watercolor to the drawing before doing the photoshop compilation.

The folks at The Art Bureau have been kind enough to show some of my work in their online gallery: www.theartbureau.org. I created the piece above for a black and white numeric calendar they’re putting together, which by the way has a few available spots if any illustrators or designers out there are interested.

As friends know I’m a bit of a shark enthusiast. The other evening I drew a variety of the shark-related objects I own – most of them of the rubber, squeaky-toy variety. That evening I dreamt of a decrepit old shark swimming about, covered in moss and plants (along the lines of a chia-pet). Anyway, I made a few color versions and ultimately created this image to use in this year’s Siren Music Festival guide.

After a great, steep hike down into the aforementioned Grand Canyon of PA I sketched these mossy banks of the Pine Creek.