Artwork & Portfiolio - Harvey Kane

Still Hokianga Morning

This painting was made from a photo of the Hokianga harbour in the far north of New Zealand, taken outside my parent's holiday home. I gave this to them as an xmas present.

The lower layers are painted thickly with a palette knife, the upper layers painted with thin glazes.

I made the frame from scratch with a wood router and pine timber, then applied oil stain and varnish to finish.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 20x30"
Completed: December 2011
Status: Gift (info)
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This is the reference photo - the boat and shadows were blurred out using photoshop as I didn't want these in the composition.

A Chili Champion is (was) born!

This painting was done as a gift for my friends at the Amigos restaurant in Wanaka. They are currently running a chili-eating competition, whereby contestants must eat a plate full of evilness in as short a time as possible. This panting explores that theme, andI hope fits in with the other fun brightly-coloured artwork at the restaurant. It's intended to be bright, funny, mexican, and unique to Amigos. The beer bottle is a Brewski, being the local Wanaka drop served at Amigos.

I also created the frame from scratch, made using a wood router and plain undressed timber. The frame is finished with black oil stain and brush-on gold leaf for a rustic old-style finish.

Medium: Oil on Board
Size: 106x40cm
Completed: December 2011
Status: Gift (info)
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Mighty Mt Maude

I spent a lovely spring afternoon at the local pool with the kids. While they played in the pool, I painted this landscape alla prima with a palette knife. The view from the pool is stunning.

Shortly after I finished, the All Blacks nabbed the rugby world cup. A great day.

To frame the painting, I created a simple American box frame, finished with redwood oil stain to bring out the warm colours in the mountain. Frame is included in the price.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 24x12"
Completed: October 2011
Status: At exhibition (info)
Price: $200.00
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This photo was taken on a different day and from a different angle, but hopefully the resemblance is clear.

The framed painting.

Flutter-by

I wanted to explore something beautiful, large and orange, and I thought a zoomed-in monarch butterfly would be a perfect way to experiment with some rich oranges.
The decision to leave the butterfly's body out of the composition was to make the piece semi-abstract, and perhaps more interesting.
The light orange was applied with a palette knife, and the black has a thick brush texture.
The blue in the background was intended to give the orange more impact, and the white swirls to make the painting come alive.

Medium: Oil on board
Size: 100x70cm
Completed: October 2011
Status: For sale (info)
Price: $250.00
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Gregor the nose-picking goblin

This is a concept sketch, I'm likely to do more in this series once I have my technique refined.

Medium: Acrylic on Paper
Size: A5
Completed: April 2011
Status: Not for sale (info)
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Amigo's del oasis

This is an interpretation of our local Mexican restaurant, Amigo's, in Wanaka New Zealand. I thought it would be fun to paint the restaurant in a more mexican setting.

I painted this without using a sketch (just some perspective lines drawn directly on the canvas), basically starting with a simple concept and working it out as I went. The vulture was added at the last minute, and I think makes a great focal point for the painting in the negative space between the mountains.

Sold at Exhibition.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 12x10"
Completed: September 2011
Status: Sold (info)
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Vortex

In the interests of trying out all different kinds of art styles, here is my first go at an abstract painting. As with many abstract paintings, I started with a loose concept and let the painting take it's own direction.

I was pleasantly surprised how much fun this was to do. There were originally to be 2 hands coming out of the swirl, but the top one didn't look right so I overpainted. The fingers are intentionally longer than human fingers, although I used my own had as reference for this pose.

Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 24x20"
Completed: September 2011
Status: Sold (info)
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I was considering calling it finished around about this stage. But the lack of colour is kinda boring.

I made a frame for this painting - however the frame was too heavy to ship overseas to the buyer. Looks good though.

Before the storm

Another painting based on Pricilla Hauser's mini-landscapes.

Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 10x8cm
Completed: September 2011
Status: Not for sale (info)
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The Little Lighthouse

I have been reading a most excellent book on painting miniature landscapes by Pricilla Hauser. This is my version of the title painting from her book, and I'm very pleased at how well it came out and how easy it was to do.
More mini-paintings on the way!

Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 10x8cm
Completed: September 2011
Status: Not for sale (info)
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Elephants at Nxai Pan

This painting is based on a photograph taken by Claire Vial who leads safaris around Africa (www.africansafaris.co.nz). I loved that the vague silhouettes clearly suggested elephants, and I thought it would make a great painting.

I started this off with student quality oils, and just couldn't get any strength out of the oranges (which really is the focus of this image). I then overpainted using good quality artist oils, and the difference was clear.

The lower half of the painting is quite texture-heavy, and the texture on the elephant shapes is different to the ground texture, to subtly give them extra form.

Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 12x9"
Completed: August 2011
Status: Gift (info)
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Highly Suspect

I bought some mini-canvases off TradeMe, which come with a mini display easel. They are very cute.
This piece was done for a painting challenge on www.paintingsilove.com - where someone uploads a photo and other artists can submit their paintings of that photo. This looks nothing like the reference photo, but is just my fun take on the subject.
The worm was added at the last minute to give the painting more of a story. Having the eyeballs fixated on something makes the piece more interesting. Previously it was just a goofy-looking fish.

Medium: Acrylic on Mini Canvas
Size: 10x8cm
Completed: August 2011
Status: For sale (info)
Price: $15.00
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Additional images

Some initial sketches for this painting.

1st Son of a 1st Son

I really enjoyed the last oil portrait I did of Emily, and wanted to have another go at the same type of painting, learning from the (rather numerous) mistakes that were made. At about the same time, some friends posted a pic of their newborn on Facebook that I quite liked, so I turned that into an oil painting and sent it to them as a gift.

I am pretty pleased with the results. I didn't rush this one, and built the painting up in layers over about a month. The photo had a lot more of that newborn redness in the face which I found hard to capture - possibly partly due to the lack of a decent quality red paint - but I like the way the green background works (this wasn't in the photo).

Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 12x9"
Completed: August 2011
Status: Gift (info)
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Obey your master

This is James Hetfield of Metallica doing what he does best in Auckland, New Zealand in 2010.

I painted this from a photo I took using my phone. The photo looked crap - but by the time I cropped it right back, shifted the devil hands to the right (they were obscuring Hetfield), removed Lars who was all blurry, and added some green to the lighting it started coming together.

I stumbled across the cool lighting effect almost by accident, and are glad I did.

I wasn't sure whether I should give Hetfield facial features or not - and decided it had more impact without.

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 9x12"
Completed: July 2011
Status: For sale (info)
Price: $50.00
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Additional images

This is the reference photo used for this piece.

Portrait of Emily

This was my first attempt at painting with oil. It's a portrait of my daughter, I didn't quite manage to capture the cheeky smile I was after but I'm still pretty pleased with how it came out.

Unfortunately, I used carbon paper to transfer the image onto the canvas. Once the paint dried (after this pic was taken), the oil paint is resisting the ink in the carbon paper and the sketch lines are showing through the painting. It kinda spoils the painting for me, but most people wouldn't notice unless looking up close.

Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 8x8"
Completed: July 2011
Status: Not for sale (info)
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Additional images

Reference photo. I sat Emily down on a stool and pulled silly faces at her to get the right smile. I love the hat she is wearing, I regret messing with the colour in the painting.

Hold on Tight!

Just a fun little sketch that I thought I'd paint up. This quirky little painting looks great on the wall, and gets lots of nice feedback from visitors. The scene is inspired by one of the fantastic Furry Logic paintings by Jane Seabrook.

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 8x8"
Completed: June 2011
Status: At exhibition (info)
Price: $75.00
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Initial sketches, trying a few different angles.

The final sketch

Portrait of Lulu

This is a portrait of my 5 year old daughter, based on a school photo. This is my first portrait, and was a lot harder than expected. I found it a real challenge getting the right value and colour into the right places, so respect to all the artists out there that do great portraits. I did however genuinely enjoy creating this portrait, so I'll definitely be doing more of these going forward.

Getting skin tone looking right I imagine is something that takes years to master. This portrait looks a bit pale and white to me, and I now know that I should have introduced a touch of blue to reduce the intensity of the red in the skin tone, rather than adding more white.

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 12x16"
Completed: June 2011
Status: Not for sale (info)
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Additional images

Reference photo

Birdie for Baby

Just a quick painting based on a random sketch in the sketchbook, to go in our baby's room. Except in the sketchbook, there was a big evil-looking claw grabbing the bird, which I decided wasn't appropriate for an audience of under 1's.

Medium: Acrylic on Paper
Size: A4
Completed: June 2011
Status: Not for sale (info)
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Initial sketch, including evil-looking claw (which I think is badly drawn, as well as inappropriate)

Final sketch.

Der Nacht Wolf

This was originally going to be an Amazon woman with a large spear facing off with an evil beast. I changed my mind and decided it would have more impact if she didn't know what was coming.

The face showing in the clouds isn't deliberate, and it's annoying me. I have since painted over this part of the painting, will update the pic once it's ready.

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 20x10"
Completed: May 2011
Status: Not for sale (info)
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Additional images

Here is the colour study I did initially. Note how the girl was originally to be fighting the beast,not being ambushed by it.

I got grumpy-boots here to model for me - this really helped get the pose right for the painting.

The Tractor Bumout

So, our family has this thing about bumouts. Whenever someone does something stupid, the bumout is txted around the family so everyone can share the laughs. If it's especially good, then someone will make up a drawing depicting the bumout. These have taken many forms over the years and are affectionately known as "The bumout files". Make no mistake, there are some goodies in there.

So it was unfortunate for brother-in-law Daniel that he chose to reverse over the neighbour's boat in the tractor just at the time I was getting all creative and inspired by art. The drawing I put together looked too good for black and white, so I ran down the road and got some canvas and acrylic paint and by the end of the day, this was what I had created.

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 16x8"
Completed: May 2011
Status: Gift (info)
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Additional images

I spent a couple of weeks working on this painting digitally, before giving up and switching to acrylics. I like the acrylic one better.

The Tireless Beaurocrat

For some reason I like drawing trolls and fat people. This sketch was done for my blog a while back after dealing with months of beaurocracy getting a Paypal account up and running. I decided there must be a fat lazy beaurocrat running the show whose life was fulfilled by making people jump through hoops and fill out paperwork.

Hence the tireless beaurocrat.

In case you are wondering, "Requisition Abjured" is a beaurocrat's way of saying "Request denied".

Medium: Digital
Size: 846x740px
Completed: May 2011
Status: Digital (info)
Price: $10.00
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Additional images

The original pencil sketch, which served on the blog until I added colour a couple of years later.