new collaboration works

 I have a new series of collaborative works with good friend Kirsten Moore of Piper Ewan. Recently she has been working on a project where she draws a bird a day to fill her calendar book for a year. Though she is known for her insanely intricate garments and clothing designs, I have always been a big fan of her charming and delicate pen and ink drawings. I recently approached her about painting backgrounds for some of her drawings, and after a couple of trial pieces on birch boards, we found they were turning out quite nicely. Several months later we have enough works to do a little show, which is now up at Johnny Sole, located at 815 SW Alder St. in Portland. If you would like to see all the collaborations, go here. All the originals are for sale at Johnny Sole, or contact me for pricing if you live out of town. Oh! and there are also prints available here.

                     Here are a few progress shots of one of the collaborations:

Springtime art sale

It is that time of year when I start digging out the clutter collected from a winter spent holed up in the studio. I have noticed I have a great deal of random paintings laying around and would like to make room  for new stuff, so I'm having a little spring sale for May and June. most of the small stuff is posted in my online shop, and the larger stuff is available for viewing at my house in Portland. Sorry, I am not posting the really big stuff online due to shipping costs.


Again, If you live out of town, you may purchase smaller works to be shipped at brentwear.etsy.com

Thanks and hope you are having a lovely spring!

Holiday/winter sale time.....

If you are wondering where to find my sale work for the holidays:

first off.... for all you out of town(or in-town folks) I have put everything in my online(etsy) shop on sale: select abstracts and almost all of my critter-themed paintings have been marked down through January. Check 'em out  here

Another place I will have sale work up is at JoLa Cafe, located at 5915 SW Corbett Avenue. I have a wall in  the left side of the Cafe filled with discounted paintings...some very reasonable!

A visit to train nerd heaven

    Most folks who know me well know that I LOVE trains. It has been an affliction ever since ...well pretty much as far as i can remember. I grew up just a stones throw from railroad tracks- so close the house would shake every time a freight train rumbled past. I have a special soft spot for the steam locomotive, they have always fascinated me...with all their moving parts and sounds. Seeing one up close, they almost seem alive.

   Here in Portland, there are some truly fantastic steam engines and they are in top-notch working order...owned by the city and lovingly cared for by a group of dedicated volunteers. Every year, for a few weeks in December they fire them up to run along the Springwater Trail, pulling a holiday passenger train. On chilly, clear nights their lonesome, haunting whistles echo far down the valley. Occasionally they go on longer trips, up to Seattle, down to California, or East through the Columbia river gorge.

Recently the engines were moved from an old ramshackle building to a brand spankin' new facility where they will be more accessible to the public....lucky me, its just down the street! Fair warning.... I am about to throw down some serious train-dorky facts:

Arguably, the star of the show is Southern Pacific engine #4449, which pulled the famed Coastal Daylight train between Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1940's and into the 1950's. Streamlined and painted in a brilliant orange livery that matches the passenger cars, many of which are stored at the site. (some say it is the most beautiful train in the world) She is operational and was under steam for the opening.

 Equally impressive(though a bit less flashy) is Spokane, Portland and Seattle engine # 700. Fully operational and built around the same time(WWII) as the #4449, they are both "Northern type" 4-8-4's...which basically means they are super-burly, powerful locomotives. It is hard to grasp how gigantic they are without standing next to them.

And last but not least is Oregon Railroad and Navigation engine #197, A much smaller (and older) engine. she was built in 1905. Currently she is partially dismantled for restoration, but in a few years will be back to life.

So yup, this concludes my adventure into train nerd-dom. I'm sure I will put up some more quirky, random train-related posts on down the line.....oh, and to learn more about these fabulous trains, visit http://www.orhf.org/

September at Case Study

For the month of September I will be showing new, larger-scale abstract works at Case Study Coffee, located at 5347 NE Sandy Boulevard. I had my first show of abstract works back in 2008, and have been producing them ever since. I don't show them very often, but I finally had a nice group and thought they would work well in the environment at Case Study. No opening reception for the show, but the paintings will be up all month, hours are Monday-Friday 6am-5pm and Saturday and Sunday 8am-6pm

This May I will be having a show at Redux, a wonderful little shop located at 811 E. Burnside, Right across from the Doug Fir/Jupiter Hotel. Brand new paintings featuring many of my creatures in new and exiting situations! The show will Run through the Month of May with an opening reception on Friday, May 4th from 6pm to 9:30pm. If you live in Portland, I would love to see you there!

It has been far to long since I posted on here, so I decided to revamp a bit and plan to be posting way more frequently! At the moment I have a show at Equilibrium, located at 1706 NW Glisan #5, through September.