Sketch of the Day, December 28, 2009

A couple of days before Christmas somebody left a bag of taffy on the gallery doorstep. Thank you, whoever you are.

Sketch of the Day, December 26, 2009

Painting again.

Sketch of the Day, December 19, 2009

A man who stopped in at the gallery.

Sketch of the Day, December 16, 2009

The peripatetic chef stopped in today. He was full of great plans and dreams and we wish him well.

Sketch of the Day, December 15, 2009

Callan practicing piano in her coat and hat. It's really not that cold in here.

Sketch of the Day, December 13, 2009

It was a peaceful day in downtown Rapid City, cold, with the snow falling gently. I just kicked off my boots and painted all day.

Sketch of the Day, December 12, 2009

I went to a performance of "The Messiah" tonight. My daughter played violin in the orchestra. Here's Handel.

Sketch of the Day, December 11, 2009

I was at the 5th grade Christmas program today. I had a perfect seat for sketching parents in profile. My son Cole played oboe in the band.

Sketch of the Day, December 9, 2009

Working in a different medium today--frosting. It's Ann's (one of my business partners) birthday today. Her sister, Beth, baked a cake and I frosted it using those tubes of colored frosting you can get at the supermarket.

Sketch of the Day, December 8, 2009

There's nothing I like better than working in the gallery with the snow falling gently outside. It's cold, though--gotta bundle up.

Sketch of the Day, December 7, 2009

I traded an etching to Dan Huber for one of his lovely little wildlife sculptures. It's a one of a kind original in polymer clay.

Sketch of the Day, December 6, 2009

You can always draw hands, if nothing else suggests itself. It's good for you, like lima beans.

Sketch of the Day, December 4, 2009

My son, Cole, at the computer.

Sketch of the Day, December 3, 2009

Max Carlson and Mike Palmer did their concert at the gallery tonight. The music was great, as was the desert supplied by Dale and Regina Jahr. This is a sketch of Mike Palmer.

Sketch of the Day, December 1, 2009

My son, Cole, lying on the floor of the FACES office, listening to a book on CD. I listen to a lot of books, too.

Special Gallery Event!

For those of you who have never heard him, Randy is a great blues harp player and vocalist.

Sketch of the Day, November 30, 2009

A guy at the Verizon store. We go over to Verizon periodically to try to sort out our phones.

Sketch of the Day, November 29, 2009

A tube of watercolor paint from yesterday's project.

Sketch of the Day, November 28, 2009

This isn't technically a sketch, it's a little (5 x 7) watercolor painting of Saint Agnes church up in Harding County. It's been ages since I've done much watercolor and I really enjoyed doing this one. I'd like to do more when I get a chance.

Music a la Mode, December 3rd

Come on down to the gallery for our second Music a la Mode event featuring Max Carlson and Mike Palmer from Corduroy Vinyl. Original songs, great guitar playing, and delicious dessert. See ya!

Sketch of the Day, November 26, 2009

It was Thanksgiving today and of course the gallery was closed. I had a wonderful meal at my brother's house and then came back and painted a few miniature landscapes.

Sketch of the Day, November 25, 2009

M.J. Adams, chef and owner of The Corn Exchange restaurant, stopped by today with a bottle of something I thought was champagne, but wasn't, and we all toasted tomorrow's Thanksgiving. It was fun catching up on downtown news and rumors.

Sketch of the Day, November 24, 2009

Another Christmas tree ornament.

Sketch of the Day, November 23, 2009

Still painting Christmas tree ornaments. They're selling like hot-cakes.

It was beginning to sound a lot like Christmas at the gallery on Sunday afternoon when the popular variety group Top Hats and Roses shared their holiday repertoire while James tried to keep up with the demand for his hand-painted ornaments.

Sketch of the Day, November 21, 2009

We're having our annual Christmas tree ornament event at the gallery this weekend. I'm painting 2" x 3" original acrylic landscapes. They're priced at $35-$45 and they're theoretically available all year around, but they tend to be sold out by Christmas.

Sketch of the Day, November 20, 2009

The Black Hills FACES staff took my parents out for lunch today, which is how we pay my mom for proofing the magazine. My dad is 95 and still works in his yard every day. He's a retired professor of philosphy and religion, and was telling us about a book on cosmology he recently read.

Sketch of the Day, November 19, 2009

On Thursdays I pick up my kids after school and take them to their violin lesson. There are numerous instruments in the room, including this cello, which was leaning against the wall.

Sketch of the Day, November 18, 2009

It's late and nobody will be coming in so I had to draw myself. It's not a good likeness at present but it should be in about ten years. You can't accuse me of flattering myself. The point is, it's better to do a bad drawing than not to do one at all.

Sketch of the Day, November 17, 2009

Lunchtime at the gallery. I couldn't spend much time on this drawing or all the food would have been gone.

Sketch of the Day, November 16, 2009

On most days my kids stop in at the gallery after school to practice violin. Mostly classical music but I usually join in for a fiddle tune or two.

Sketch of the Day, November 15, 2009

This is the back of the Presbyterian church across the street from the gallery. I've been admiring this wild roof-line ever since I moved down here. One of these days I'll have to do a painting of it; I did one of the front of this church years ago.

Sketch of the Day November 14, 2009

The city is replacing the curb in front of the gallery. No parking this week but hey, it won't kill you to walk half a block.

Sketch of the Day November 13, 2009

I was working on a painting of a limestone outcropping when J. Paul Koehler, former American Idol contestant and occasional chef, walked in carrying several grocery bags. He's getting ready to do a major food event at the hookah lounge and wanted the gallery staff to taste-test half a dozen cheeses, along with some olives and salami. We were happy to oblige.

Sketch of the Day, November 12, 2009

Andrew stops in at the gallery from time to time. He usually has his guitar with him and sometimes plays his latest compositions.

Sketch of the Day, November 11, 2009

One of the bonuses of our location is that all the parades go right in front of the gallery. Here's a group of people waiting for the Veteran's Day parade to begin.

Lively Up Yourself

Cole Van Nuys dropped in at the gallery on Halloween night. No candy no cry...

Sketch of the Day

Today I went with FACES advertising director, Ann Henrichsen, to a city council meeting about the proposed new downtown plaza. I sketched several people there, including Prairie Edge manager Dan Tribby.

FACES Fall 09 is now on the stands.

"Reductio ad Absurdum--James Van Nuys Goes on Six Diets and Becomes Overweight" In my latest "Learning Curve" article for Black Hills FACES magazine, I explore the wacky world of diet books. You can subscribe or buy a copy at the gallery, or visit the website: www.blackhillsfaces.com.

"This sky is the limit..." The big Badlands painting is a little over half finished.

James will be appearing on Eric Gardner's morning show on KOTA tomorrow morning (Tuesday, October 27) just before Good Morning America. He'll be promoting JVNG/FACES upcoming "Music a la Mode" concert series, which begins with Donnie Williams and Bob Morgret on November 5, at 8:00. The admission price of $10 includes dessert and coffee. The concerts are scheduled for the first Thursday of each month through June 2010.

Music A La Mode at JVN Gallery

Help us keep the music alive in downtown Rapid City this winter! James Van Nuys Gallery is teaming up with FACES Magazine and a few other brave music enthusiasts to host an acoustic music series at JVN Gallery. These concerts will take place the first Thursday of each month at 8 p.m. for the next eight months. Tickets are $10 per show or $75 for a season ticket. Tickets are limited, so don't wait. You can buy them at the the gallery, or by phone, 343-2449. We also take credit card orders. The first concert, Thursday, Nov. 5, will feature guitar virtuoso Donnie Williams and his Flying T band mate Bob Morgret. As the name implies, the ticket price includes dessert and coffee.

The completed "Hollywood Horror Pumpkin." I thought I was just painting it for fun, but it turned out to be a contest, which I won. Yay.

The bride's head revisited.

Sketching in the Bride of Frankenstien

I brush on the base coat while gallery manager Beth Palmer dries it with a heat gun.

James and the Giant Pumpkin

A friend and I begin painting a 309 lb. pumpkin. If we only had a brain...

The new painting is so large (70" x96") that I had to rig up a scaffold to work on it. Much smaller than the one I used in the Sistine Chapel, but still a bit precarious. Here I'm working my way down through the clouds, applying thick oil paint with a palette knife.

Making a promise on a billboard . . .

Early in 2009, frustrated by a busy schedule that permited little time for painting, James made a public pronouncement of his intention to to pick up his brush--designing an ad for the whole world to see on a billboard in west Rapid City near Baken Park. True to his word, he managed to complete two large oil paintings just in time for his exhibition at the South Dakota State Art Museum in Brookings, which ran from April to August.

James and the Giant Painting

A deal's a deal! Way back in 2006, James Van Nuys met FACES Magazine publisher and editor Beth Palmer when a mutual friend (John Humphrey of Blue Dog Framers and Gallery in Lead) encouraged James to contact Beth about writing for the magazine. The short version of the story is that James landed on the cover of FACES (Winter '07--he works fast! And for the record, co-publisher/sister Ann Henrichsen questioned the wisdom of this....) and the two struck a deal: Beth would help James market his art and James would paint a large painting for the Palmer family's music room. Beth's master marketing plan for the talented and prolific artist culminated in James Van Nuys Gallery, which opened its doors on James' birthday, July 12, 2007. Three years later, James--truly a man of his word--has started on the long-awaited masterpiece. The setting of the painting, appropriately, is an area south of Kadoka in the Badlands where Beth and Ann grew up (off Highway 73 near the Pettyjohn/Prang place). In this video clip, James begins the long process of building the 70" by 96" panel.

James Van Nuys Paints Black Hills Skies

Late summer is the perfect time to start a James Van Nuys Gallery blogsite! This is the time of year James like to head out to the prairie with his canvas and paints.