Old Spice!

Here's an ad that we painted together for Old Spice. We just heard that it's being featured in the 2012 Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated!
--Boris and Julie

Wildlife Art!

I wanted to let all of you know that I've opened a new website that features my wildlife art. As many of you already know, it's something I've been working on for quite a few years and now I finally feel ready to put it into a showcase by itself. Painting animals is very addictive because the more I look at them, the more I love them! I've also noticed that the fantasy creatures in my fantasy art have taken on a new life in the last few years from spending so much time thinking about fur and feathers. Plus, the fact that we now have two amazing dogs just adds to the feeling. So please check out my new site at www.juliebell.com and let me know what you think!
Thank you!
--Julie

New Prints!

Someone wrote to us and asked whether we have these images available as prints and we realized that they weren't posted in our website. To find them in our website, click:
Ecco The Dolphin
Ecco II and
Ecco III

Libra Izze!

Izze's not really a Libra, but I thought she'd be a great model for my newest personal project--Astrology Doggies! Years ago I got really interested in creating astrology birth charts for friends (before computers!). I'm really intrigued by all of the symbolism and mythology surrounding the astrological signs and it provides great visual material for art.
--Julie

Boundary Waters

I just finished this painting a week or so ago. Boundary Waters is an area between Minnesota and Ontario that is packed with beautiful wolves. Since I lived for about 5 years in Marquette, Michigan, which is also on Lake Superior, painting this background gave me a great feeling. I love Lake Superior and I really love wolves!
--Julie

Rubber

We painted this poster for the French horror comedy film, Rubber, directed and written by Quentin Dupieux. We very much enjoyed the crazy surrealistic sense of humor in the movie and we enjoyed being asked to bring that feeling across in this poster.

Big Oscar

I just finished this painting of an awesome dog that lives in our neighborhood. The painting is 3x3 feet, and since it's a close-up of his face, it looks huge in real life! I love having it in the studio because he looks like he's about to tell me something really important and I like to think of what it might be.
--Julie

New Meat Loaf Album Art by Julie

Here it is! Meat Loaf's new album, Hang Cool Teddy Bear, with a brand new cover by me, Julie! As you may have guessed, I'm pretty excited about this cover because its evolution was such a fascinating experience of creativity and because everybody is so happy with it. In addition, in the interior booklet that comes with the CD, Meat Loaf has featured art by Boris as well as two of our sons, Anthony Palumbo and David Palumbo. The Deluxe Version of the CD is actually a book with a short story by Kilian Kerwin, the art I've just mentioned, and a bunch of really cool photos. Also, the single, Los Angeloser, features David's painting X-Ray Vision/These Things Really Work on the cover.

I was excited when I did Meat Loaf's Bat III cover a few years ago, but this album breaks new ground for everybody involved. You have to hear the music! It's new and it's fantastic!

MicroVisions!

Here's your chance to help future artists as well as to own an original piece of art! The Society of Illustrators Scholarship Fund is holding an auction of 12 miniature paintings (5x7 inches) by 12 different illustrators, of which I am privileged to be one. The paintings will be on exhibition at The Society of Illustrators in New York City through the month of May. The bidding will begin the first or second week of May. This is an annual event (each year featuring different artists) which was the creation of Irene Gallo and Dan Dos Santos. Irene, who is the senior art director at TOR Books, has posted all the paintings in her always-inspiring blog, The Art Department. Check it out and get ready for the bidding!
--Boris

Horse!

For a while now, I've been expanding my painting territory to include wildlife art, mostly focusing on wolves. At the suggestion of Scott Usher at Greenwich Workshop, I've decided to try out painting some horses. It's interesting--I miss painting the fur that wolves have, but the muscularity of the horse, being similar to a muscular human, really appeals to me. Good thing I don't need to choose between horses and wolves--there's plenty of paint for both of them!
--Julie

Cool Painting Video!

Our son, David Palumbo, made this video of himself painting one of his "Postcard Nudes" from start to finish. He's done over 100 pieces like this now (50 of them featured in his first book, "Quickie"; more in an upcoming book yet to be titled) and still manages to stay enthusiastic about painting nude ladies. How does he do it?

Wolf Business Meeting

I still have a few more touches left to do on this painting, but it's close enough to being finished to show it here.  I just love wolves.  Their energy is so wild!  We took the reference photos that I used to paint this at the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ.  I couldn't believe how cool it was when this group of wolves started doing this biting thing with each other.  Apparently, they're reinforcing their hierarchy--making it clear to all involved exactly who's on top and who gets their nose bitten.  I guess anybody in the business world can identify with it!

--Julie

Priestess of the Sun

This is our most recent painting. It was commissioned by a client in the Ukraine. Both Julie and I worked on the painting and it was especially appealing to us because our client wanted to have a scene depicting an ancient Peruvian scene. Lots of fun!

Boris and Julie

Window to the Soul

I just finished this privately commissioned painting. It is a companion piece for Julie's "A Rose For Peter", which appeared in this blog a few months ago. It was so much fun to do our own versions of the same character. We are so lucky to do art as our job!

Boris

Tarot Cards

Our latest installment is in the May 2009 issue of Heavy Metal Magazine!  

Big Bird

This was a still life set-up that I painted from life one silly afternoon. I don't usually work on canvas (we normally use illustration board), so the surface was pretty different. It's always good to try new and different things!
--Boris

Red Fox Revisited

Now I like it! Pushing through the trees all the way to the sky brought back depth that had been taken away by darkening the forest so much. Also, as was brought up in previous comments, the strong verticle lines of the trees is a great compositional tool to be used with care. I'm happy with the color change from the first version (too much green). It's more lively and unexpected. Anyway, I'm going to try to put this painting away and leave it alone, although I admit I've become a bit addicted to changing it now. It's like eating potato chips (which I never eat) where you just keep seeing one more tempting little bit and, before you know it, you're 50 pounds heavier.
Thanks for all the helpful comments and suggestions!

Julie

Fox--Before and After

Here's a cute little fox who lives in New Jersey at the Lakota Wolf Preserve. Her name is Red (of course!). I started this painting a few years ago and thought it was finished in 2007, but I always felt uneasy with it, so it sat in the studio for all this time against the wall. I'd look at it, turn it upside down, look at it some more...Then, a while back, I just painted out the entire background and let it sit around for a few more months. Finally, I figured out what it needed so that the fox would be better integrated with the background. The orange/red leaves were necessary to balance the colors, but the fox still stood out in a funny way. I saw a dog at the park with shadows on his back and it made me realize that shadows would be just the thing to help.
I still look at the two versions and can't decide which I like better, but that's just the way it goes!
Julie

John Carter of Mars Painting!

At long last, here is the finished painting of John Carter of Mars. During the holidays, due to various ice storms and cold viruses, we were able to get plenty of work done. Not a whole lot of partying, but lots of painting. Well, you know, the farmers say to make hay while the sun shines...artists say to make paintings while you're housebound!

Happy 2009!

Boris and Julie

John Carter of Mars

Here is Julie working on the last stages of a painting based on ERB's John Carter, a private commission from a friend of ours. We are taking turns in our usual unplanned way, There is no "you do this and I do that". One of us just takes over when the other is ready to stop. At the end of the day the only important thing is to divide the working time as evenly as we can and to have lots of fun!
The drawing below is the preliminary sketch for two of the white apes in the right half of the painting.

Boris