Theater J and the Second of 8 New Illustrations

In April, I was hired by Theater J, housed at the DC JCC, to create 8 illustrations; one for each play in their 2013-2014. 

 

The second play of the season is The Argument by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros:

"This newly commissioned 2013 edition of The Argument chronicles the arc of a relationship with humor, passion, brutality, and up-to-the-minute relevance."
From the co-author of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize-finalist Omnium Gatherum.

 

Rough Sketch

Final Illustration

Theater J and the first of 8 New Illustrations

Theater J, housed at the DC JCC, just opened their 2013-2014 season so I thought it was a good time to share with you some of the things I've been working on for them.

 

In April, I was hired to create 8 illustrations; one for each play in their 2013-2014.

The first play of the season is After the Revolution by Amy Herzog:

"A bold and moving play from the Award-winning author of 4000 Miles (The New York Times - Outstanding Playwright), staged by the director of Body Awareness and the recent benefit hit, Love, Loss, and What I Wore."

Rough Sketch

Final Drawing

Final Illustration

Snapshots of Work in Progress II

I've already started working on ideas for new paintings for my next solo show, A House of Cards,  slated to open in November at The Dunes, Washington, DC. Below is a quick look at the first step of the process.​

Supersonic Electronic

Happy to learn that I was featured on the fantastic art blog Supersonic Electronic yesterday. You can see it here.

The Collectors - Where Are They Now? #4

The 4th in this series of blog posts is Confundido from the Spanish 101 series I created in 2006 for a group show I was in at Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, MD.

To read more about the origins of this series, please go here.

Collector Jean Beebe
 

Gregory is a genius at capturing the true human condition with all our foibles. He exposes what we try to disguise through manners but shows through on our faces anyway. I LOVE "Confondido" on so many levels, not the least of which it cracks me up whenever I look at it It hangs in the bathroom with other small works for company, so we can see it often ( ! ) through out the day. Greg's work achieves the ultimate goal of every artist: It continues to interest, draw one in, and stimulate mental exercise. I often wonder about the full extent our little guy "confoundedness". Thanks for making these amazing paintings. Like the owner of "Aboriddo" I would have owned them all, but people beat me to them. Every time Gregory produces an original Ferrand, we know we are going to be in for a "fantastico" time.

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This series came about during an explosion of creativity; I painted 12, 11"x16" paintings in 30 days (a record for me).

The paintings were inspired by the holiday theme of the show and a short stint I had as a substitute teacher for an elementary school Spanish class.

Rough sketch and final drawing

Spanish 101: Confundido

11"x 16", acrylic on canvas

The Collectors - Where Are They Now?

-POST#1 Andrea Paipa and Ben Feldman
-POST#2 Christine Cordner

-POST#3 Rachel and Eddie Eitches

New Website and other News

After a long time of promsing myself I would do it, I've finally made a new website that will (should) work in all media formats and browsers.

The other news is that after many years here at Blogger, I now have the ability to house my blog on my site, so this will be the last blog post here. To see the new site and stay in touch with this blog go to www.gferrand.com.

New Illustration

The following commentary illustration was done for Education Week and accompanied an article that explored the idea that the best way to improve or reform eduction is to put aside competing interests and plans (put forward primarily by government, unions, and teachers) and then work together on a unified goal that gives meaningful support to teachers and most importantly the children in the system.

First rough sketch

After some input from the art director, I came up with these next two.

This was the rough sketch that was given a go.

Final illustration (color added in Photoshop)