I'm Now Sponsored by TriArt!

I’m really excited to announce my official sponsorship with Tri Art Manufacturing! About a month ago Tri Art reached out to me with this great partnership idea and after using their excellent oil paints in some upcoming works I decided to sign with them!

So far I’ve really enjoyed using their paints for a number of reasons. The first being the excellent paint texture and color. Straight out of the tube these paints mix incredibly well and are very easily workable. Also I personally can get really frustrated with other paint tubes that build up dry paint near the cap but the Tri Art paint tubes don’t do this at all and tend to stay very clean.
Overall I’m super excited about this partnership and look-forward to exploring the rest of their excellent products! 😁

My First Podcast Interview!

My first podcast interview! I'm so happy to have been interviewed by the kind and insightful Christopher Syyap in his podcast the Creative Brick Road! Give it a listen if you have time! You can find it on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher and Youtube!

 
 

Here are the links for Youtube and Spotify!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEHVljpwElI&t=1s

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1YpjIRtdJvXIPsGpw48WTF...

I'm so appreciative to have had this platform to talk about my artistic journey thus far and what I am looking forward to in the future!

EVE Print Release!

EVE prints will be available soon! Please read!

This Monday October 19th will be the long awaited print release of "EVE"! All prints ordered during the week of release will have a special limited time discount!

There will be ONLY 50 limited edition prints created and each is the actual size of the original painting (18"x24")

All prints will be available through Like Minded Productions

Click the button below to visit my store on their website!

Austin Howlett Shop

Throwback Thursday Posts

Hi Everyone!

Here are some of my throwback Thursday posts that I like to put on Facebook and Instagram. They are great opportunities to look and back on my old work and reflect on how far I have come in the last few years. I hope you enjoy!

In this throwback post I thought it would interesting to look at two different styles I implemented in with a single reference. Before creating the realistic version of this painting I decided to make an energetic and expressive study to get a rough impression of the subject and experiment with color. Once I got into it I really enjoyed jumping around the piece with spontaneous brushwork that seemed to add some nice movement to the figure and the light source. Now I don’t always create these impressionistic studies but in this instance it serves as an interesting comparison to the more realistic “final” painting. In the realistic version I worked in sections with a variety of brushes to both apply and blend the paint. I focused on blending and color accuracy to make the piece realistic and nuanced.
I feel like both of these painting styles have a place in my creative practice and in the artistic world as a whole. Being spontaneous and heavy handed can serve as an amazing break from my usual detail oriented process. And I greatly admire fellow artists who can blend both realistic and expressive techniques into a single dynamic painting. Overall I really love how there is so much to explore in the realm of painting and I feel like I have barely scratched the surface!

For this post I thought I would show a triple comparison showing my progression from High School to College and finally professional art! And I want to take this opportunity to talk about the most important thing that I learned in this 15 year process.
Throughout my education I was especially lucky to have much more exposure to art than most and it really worked well for me. But like most children who are artistically inclined I was only rewarded for my "inherent artistic talent." Me and other creative students were told over and over again that we were talented and this choice of words told us that our artistic ability was fixed and couldn't be changed. Now I don't blame anyone for this because as a culture this is how we see artists because we don't understand them. So my time creating art in high school was great overall but I still was not able to shed this preconception that I was "talented" and therefor not able to improve.
My art experience in college was a transition time, I started to make a connection between practice and improvement in my art. My professors were the first people to tell me that art is a skill that can be developed over time. All of the sudden art felt less mysterious to me, I always knew that I was a hard worker and now I was starting to find a place to dedicate my effort.
It's safe to say that my professional career as a painter would not have happened if I wasn't shown that art is a skill not an innate talent. So much of how I work now is based on practice and slow improvement, trying to make every painting better than the last using my own personal growth to measure success. And I look forward to learning and improving as much as I can for the rest of my life 🤗
Thanks for listening

Painting Up for Auction for Charity!

Hi everyone! I'm excited to be donating my original painting "Cascade" to Connected Through HeArt who will be auctioning it off at the end of September! All proceeds will be going to the Humane Society!

Connected Through HeArt was started in May of this year by two precocious Colorado girls who wanted to help their community through art and I'm very happy to be working with them as their first featured guest artist! Use this link to visit their website!

https://sites.google.com/.../con.../featured-guest-artist...

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

New Figure Painting!


I've been meaning to share this figure painting that I made a few weeks ago so here it is! This piece served as a study for an upcoming Terra Human painting that I'm working on right now!
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in this lovely piece, I worked very hard on the lighting and intricate color relationships 

 
 

This piece is currently available for purchase! Contact me or check my online shop for purchase!

New Show Announcement!

Hello everyone, I'm really excited to announce that my two paintings "Walking Giants and "Between Light and Shadow" will be in the Influences Art Show put on by the Loveland Artists Collective!

This show will be open the whole month of September with an in-person opening reception on September 11th. 😷
If you are in the area come check out my paintings as well as the other awesome artwork in this show!

"Flowers and Thorns" Has Been Sold!

I am both humbled and excited to say that my painting "Flowers and Thorns" has been sold!
This piece is incredibly special to me so I really happy to see it going to a forever home of a new collector! I had the pleasure to speaking to this buyer on the phone and I have to say that it's really reassuring to know that this piece will be going to a loving home that really appreciates its beauty. The buyer said that she simply could not get the image out of her head for sever days and needed to buy the original piece!

As always, I'm greatly appreciative of this sale and so happy that something I created will be hanging in someones else's home!

A Very Special Painting

About a month ago my father-in-law lost his dad and my wife had the idea to paint this beautiful photo of their hands during his final hours. Losing a loved one is incredibly hard, but I think it’s especially difficult to lose a parent. I asked my father-in-law about the significance of his and his father’s hands and this is what he said.

“Our hands represent our ability to work, to create, to hug, to wave, to congratulate. They hint at how hard our life was and how fragile we really are.  My dad’s hands are a window into how he lived his life. He was a tireless hard worker and used his hands to build and create many a building, out of bricks, blocks, glass, and wood. The scars and callouses on his hands also give a glimpse that he did not live in fear and was tough enough to do anything he put his mind to. In his final hours, his hands were still strong and yet soft. I will miss dad and his hands.”
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant…”
I chose to name this piece "When Our Work is Done" because Levi was a worker and a problem solver all of his life and now he finally gets to rest.
Levi will be greatly missed and never forgotten.

3 Of My Abstract Landscape Paintings Sold to a Single Collector!

I'm really happy to announce the sale of not one, not two but THREE of my abstract landscape paintings from several years ago to a single collector! While I haven't painted in this style for a while now, I'm so thankful that this buyer sees the beauty and value in these paintings and decided that she wanted them in her home! I'm always appreciative of art buyers but I'm especially thankful that many people are still seeing the value of art in these uncertain times.

My Newest Terra Human Painting!

I'm really proud to bring you my newest Terra Human painting "Flowers and Thorns"
This piece was a huge challenge but a joy to work on throughout! From beginning to end I was able to just let me eye for detail run wild and enjoy soaking up all of the colors, textures, twigs and flowers that this image had to offer. I'm really proud of what I was able to accomplish in this piece and I hope you enjoy it!

 
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Here is a full description of the piece!

✍🏻This piece is a tribute to my love for beauty, in all of its forms.Ever since I can remember, I have sought after beauty. Whether I was admiring a landscape, performing a dance, or painting a picture, my motive has always been to find things that are awe-inspiring and share them.
In a way I think that my search for beauty is my filter for the world and how I perceive it. As I’ve gotten older, I’m realizing that it is almost impossible to perceive something without any sort of bias and since childhood I have always perceived the world as inherently beautiful in its imperfection.
This brings me to the painting you see before you. For all of my life, I have had no issue with saying when I found someone attractive—no matter their gender. I wanted to paint this man because his face tells a story. I feel that his eyes seem to capture an interesting combination of sadness and optimism. He is intertwined with weeds, thorns, flowers, and grass to show that beauty can be found in unexpected places if you are prepared to look.
I believe that beauty can inspire good in the world and the more beauty we can learn to see the better our world will become.

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Throwback Thursdays!

For today's Throwback Thursday I thought it would be a great opportunity to look back at all the paintings I've created so far this year!
Now it's safe to say that 2020 has been a rough year for most of us for a number of reasons but I cannot help by still be thankful for for the people who appreciate and buy art even when our world is so uncertain. I personally think that art can be a powerful catalyst for self reflection and introspection that can make a huge difference in our lives. And I feel like so many of you understand this as well and it makes me really grateful to have any sized following as long as they understand my message.
So as we push past the halfway mark of this year I hope that we can all seek to understand each other to the best of our abilities so that we can progress as a whole. Even though the world can potentially throw even more at us in the coming months I still look to the future with optimism because I believe in the power of art.
So thank you for all of your support so far in 2020! I hope that I can create even more amazing art in the second half of the year as well as connect with more artists and kind collectors!

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For this week’s Throwback Thursday I thought it would be fun to look at two paintings with very similar compositions and subjects that are 3 years apart!
It’s pretty cool to see how my technique and observation of color has improved over the years, resulting in more vibrant paintings with more depth in my opinion. I love seeing these pieces side by side because even though I would consider one much better than the other because I can safely say that each painting was the result of my ABSOLUTE best effort at the time and that is something I can always be proud of.
When I’m creating a new painting it can be a really intimidating process and one of the ways I cope with this pressure is understanding that I don’t need the painting to be perfect, I just strive to make each painting better than the last. And honestly its okay if that doesn’t even happen either. There are many ups and downs when creating artwork and its totally fine when you try something and it doesn’t work.
Over these past few years I have been pushing myself inch by inch to create better artwork, trying not to ask too much of myself but always striving to get better. And its really been working for me and I encourage you do try this as well in other aspects of life. There is nothing wrong with taking small manageable steps towards your goals, it can keep your mental health in check and bring you to some amazing results over time!

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I thought today’s Throwback would be a great opportunity to talk about what I feel is one of the more important themes in my work which is vulnerability in men.⁣
I first started to explore this theme in my artwork back in 2017 with “Shelters Built on Men” a piece that explores the pressures we place on men in our society and how we build upon their backs expecting them to always be strong and unwavering. This piece served as a great transition into illustrating themes that have a strong significance in my life and address issues that are important to me. ⁣
As I’ve explored this theme over the years with several paintings I’ve started to think about the pressures we put on ourselves as men and the societal norm for us to hold in our feelings, fears and troubles. There are so many troubled men in our world who feel alone because they fear above all else the idea of being vulnerable with another person. They choose to suppress their emotions because they are afraid to feel what’s inside of them.⁣
Exploring this theme can be rewarding yet difficult for me, because it not only makes me worry about the mental state of men in our society but also my own mental and emotional state. Am I being real with the people around me? Am I being real with myself?⁣
But when I look outside myself and think about the men surrounding me in my life, they are the ones that brings me hope. When I think about the male friends and acquaintances in my life, I cannot help but see their incredible growth over the years that I’ve know them. These are people who are seeming to push against the perceived norm and are willing to be vulnerable with themselves and with people around them. They are pushing to learn more about what’s inside of them so that they can be better partners and friends. But most importantly they are being genuine with each other, sharing their struggles, anxieties and fears so that these emotions don’t bottle up and change them from the inside. ⁣
⁣
Cheers to these people in my life! You know who you are! Please know that I appreciate and celebrate you!⁣
Thanks for reading!

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"Walking Giants" Full Process Video!

 I really hope you all enjoy this extensive process video showing how I created "Walking Giants." It not only takes a long time to complete a painting but it also takes plenty of additional time to create and edit a video showing how I made it. So I hope you enjoy watching this painting process and hopefully learn some things about my how I work and why I make certain decisions.
Personally it's almost therapeutic for me to look back on how I created a piece and record my thoughts in a video. I feel like I get to fully process the experience and share my insights with you!

This original piece is available for purchase directly from me! CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT IN MY SHOP!

New Prints Available! "Offering"

I'm happy to say that I'm officially releasing prints of "Offering" through Like Minded Productions! 

This was such a special piece for me and I feel so fortunate that the original sold! So I'm glad to now offer high quality framable prints that are all signed by yours truly!

Click here to view them in the LKMNDD shop!

Painting Description: This painting is a visualization for my love for nature and the comforting role it has provided for me growing up. When I initially thought about how I wanted this painting to look and what I wanted it to be about, I quickly realized that I wanted a specific type of tree to be growing out of my hand. I wanted it to be eucalyptus tree because these trees instantaneously bring me back to my childhood. I grew up surrounded by many different types of trees but these trees in particular had so many qualities that I loved. Visually they were always unbelievably tall making me feel humbled but also inspired at the same time. In addition they have an incredibly unique smell to them that always brings me peace and calm.

This piece is titled offering because I like to think that through my artwork I am offering you a new perspective on the way we view our relationship with nature. I hope that my paintings can help you see how incredibly giving the natural world is and how much comfort we all can find in it if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

"Walking Giants" New Newest Terra Human Painting!

I'm incredibly proud to bring you my newest Terra Human painting "Walking Giants." This piece is the result of approximately 185 hours of focused and diligent work and I'm really happy with how it turned out.
Now usually I like to tell you that "I really enjoyed working on this piece!" But that wouldn't be entirely true with this one. Honestly this painting process had a lot of ups and downs with plenty doubt looming around in my head. I had some days when I felt really optimistic about the piece and was convinced it would be my best painting yet. But I also had other days when I thought this piece was too much to handle and it would be a waste of time. I just kept telling myself that if I continued to persevere and allowed my identity to come through the brushstrokes, then the piece would turn into something special.
In the end I think it's okay that this piece wasn't 100% awesome to work on everyday. I think the struggle makes it that much more meaningful to me and I now feel really accomplished to have conquered this project. I really hope that this piece brightens your day and prompts you look inward.
I will be posting this full piece with it's description soon so be on the look out for that!

“Walking Giants” Currently available for purchase in my online store. CLICK HERE TO VIEW IN MY STORE!


✍🏻 This painting addresses the concept of humility. There is so much that we can obtain and achieve in our lives that it’s easy to forget the vastness of space and time as well as our small part in this infinite world.  We are seen in this painting traversing this world with true humility and a willingness to learn. As we walk we take care not to crush even the smallest plants and animals because we understand that all life plays an important role on this planet. As the luminous sunrise bathes the surrounding cliff edges with color and warmth we are reminded of the seemingly infinite amount of time this planet has been alive and changing. And we start to understand that our time here is short yet meaningful and there is much good that we can do if we walk tall and care for those who are both bigger and smaller than us.

Recent Throwback Thursday Posts!

Hi friends, my throwback Thursday posts have continued on my Facebook and Instagram pages so I thought I would share some of the recent ones! These posts have been a great opportunity to reflect back on old work and so how my theme, techniques and concepts have changed and developed over the years. Enjoy!

 
 

Painting for my girlfriend vs Painting for my wife! Haha I thought this weeks TBT would be a fun opportunity to look way back at a painting I made for my girlfriend of just 3months who would eventually become my wife. In the summer after my freshman year of college I was extremely motivated to impress the new girl in my life with a personalized original oil painting! I was clearly still learning but was determined to make her something special. I decided to paint a view of Pikes Peak (a defining feature of her hometown, Colorado Springs) with some colorful and fluffy clouds which we both love.
Flash forward a few years to 2016 when I spent several months painting this enormous 4'x6' landscape painting of Crested Butte in my basement bedroom/studio so that she could hang it in her new home as her very own painting.
Now in 2020 I'm incredibly fortunate to be married to that girl and have this piece hanging in our home as a symbol of our dedication to one another. Just like art, our relationships take patience, dedication and a little bit of luck.

 
 

Here is a great Throwback Thursday comparing the initial sketch to the final product of "As One"!
It's no secret that this piece is one of my best paintings to date and I owe its success as well as many others to proper planning. This comparison of the sketch to the final product makes me think of how much I've come to rely on proper planning and prep for a piece so that I can fully create the image that captures the proper concept and mood.
I never used to plan out paintings very much and while this works great for other artists, I started to find that the more accuracy I could capture in my image, the more it would blend reality with a dream. So as the years have progressed I've done a lot more sketching, photoshop rendering and gridding of my paintings so that I can capture the image properly and then choose to deviate from it if I want. •
Overall the most beneficial preparation tool for me has been doing small painting studies before a final piece. If you follow my process you will see that before each Terra Human piece I will typically do a painting study of the landscape as well as the figure before attempting the final piece. This planning process helps me work out colors, shapes and proportions so that the final product can be beautiful and thought provoking.
I hope you enjoyed my reflections on this sketch to final product comparison!

 
 

When I posted this hand and tree sketch in 2018, it had gotten the MOST social media engagement that I had ever had at the time. And this shocked me because it wasn't even a painting! But I think it shows the strength in simplicity and the significance of a strong concept coming to life.
The hand and tree oil painting was a great achievement for me in understanding lights and shadows influence colors. I'm really proud of the realism I was able to obtain in this painting and I think it really helps the concept shine through.

Featured in Marvelous Art Magazine!

WOW my second publication in a month! I feel very luck to have been featured in the May 2020 Surrealism Issue of Marvelous Art Magazine! (Featured Paintings: “Between Light and Shadow” and “EVE”)
You can use this link to view the whole issue by clicking HERE!

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Friends, I have been very fortunate to have some great exposure and sales lately and I just wanted to say thank you for your continued support! Whenever you like, comment or share one of my posts it helps me expand my audience and reach new opportunities, so thank you! 

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