Facebook!

We've opened a page on Facebook! Yes, we're still figuring it out, but we are there and that's something.
Here's the address: http://www.facebook.com/borisandjulie
See you there!

Contest!

How cool is this? The people at Calendars.com want you to win a free calendar! One of OUR 2012 calendars with 13 pieces of all new art! The same one we featured in our last blog post. Click here to learn more!

Barn Time

We've just come back from our annual trip to The Barn. Every year about this time, we pack up our paints and easels and head out to the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts to meet up with a group of our fellow artist friends. We spend a week working together, sharing inspiration and silliness, making campfires, eating s'mores. It's great because we can have a refreshing get-away while still getting our work done. The internet service is sketchy and phone service is practically non-existent, so we can really concentrate on good old fashioned painting.

This is an example of the inspiration/silliness part. Photographed by Marc Scheff. Drawn by Tony, Dena, Boris, Julie, and Winona.


Arkady Roytman, Dave Seeley, Justin Gerard, and Boris


Cyril Van Der Haegen, Dena Obeza, Barn, David Palumbo, Arkady Roytman


Winona Nelson, Anthony Palumbo, Lars Grant-West and Dilly, David Palumbo



Justin Gerard, Kerry, Marc Scheff, Jordu Schell, Julie, Dilly, Scott Brundage

And The Winner Is...

Sebastian Rice! Congratulations Sebastian! This was really tough to judge--there were lots of guesses that had some parts
right, but other parts wrong, so we had to balance it all out by taking into account more rights and
less wrongs. Thank you, everybody, for taking part--you really made this fun for us all!

Here's the actual breakdown on who did what:

The original concept was figured out between Julie and the client.
Boris did the original sketch and laid the main elements out on the board.
Julie painted the background and foreground-- all of the sky, foliage, rocks, trees, etc.
Boris started the wolf, Julie made adjustments and final touches to him.
Julie painted the head of the front horse (on the right) and Boris painted the body.
Boris painted the back horse (on the left).
Boris painted the woman’s body, Julie made some final touches to her face.
Julie painted the woman’s halter top, Boris painted her skirt and boots.
Boris painted the sword in the foreground.

There is no particular formula of how we work together because every painting is different. The decision as to “who paints what” is mostly based on convenience. We are usually working on several different projects at any given time and, in the interest of efficiency, we try to both stay pretty busy. Sometimes Boris will do the original layout, sometimes Julie. Sometimes Boris will paint the figure, sometimes Julie. Same with the background, whatever. If there is any particular part of the painting that one of us really wants to do, we will say so and do that--but we do sometimes have to arm wrestle to come to a final decision. Just kidding! :) There are times when one of us starts a face, then has to stop for some reason, and the other one will pick up where it was left off.

It’s a really fun way to work and we don’t run into ego battles about it. We both respect each other’s vision and ability equally. We do recognize that it’s an amazingly unique situation and that we’re luckier than our wildest dreams could have ever come up with!

So, Sebastian, send us an e-mail at bjart1@imaginistix.com!

Contest! Win a Prize!

As you all know by now, Boris and I often work on the same painting (or drawing) together. When you look at our signatures on the paintings and you just see one signature, you will know that the painting you are looking at has been created entirely by the one who signed it. And whenever you see a painting that has been signed by the two of us, you can be sure that it's one we've done together as a team. We feel that it's a pretty seamless transition and most people don't notice that it's been done by two artists. We like to think of it as a "third artist".

This painting, "Temple", was commissioned by someone who wanted us to paint it together. When we do these paintings together, we often get letters from people who want to guess as to who painted what (Harrison and Jen, you know who you are!). So we decided to make a contest for you to guess!

Whoever comes the closest to guessing how we worked on this painting together will win an 18"x24" print of your choice.
A hint to keep in mind: we never follow any set formula to decide who works on what element. For instance, sometimes one of us works more on the figures and, for the next painting, we switch places. Sometimes we even work on the same figure together. So you can't base your guess on any other paintings! Please post your guesses in this blog by August 25.

Updated Home Page

It's that time of the year again and we've updated our website. So if you haven't checked out our new home page, please do so! Coincidentally, this image just so happens to be on the cover of our upcoming 2010 Calendar (which you can pre-order right now from Amazon)We've got 13 all-new exciting images with a new take on text by Anthony Palumbo.
If you're at Comic Con, we're totally jealous, but we hope you have a great time!

Boris The Spider

You know that song by The Who called "Boris The Spider"? And you probably always thought that it was a made-up story about a fictional spider. Well, ha! Now you know the truth! So next time you're cleaning out your closet, be on the lookout for the super-scary Boris Spider!

Last Spring

Sigh!  We were just looking through some pictures we took last Spring in Paris and

thinking that it was really fun to be there.  We had been at Elf Fair in Utrecht, Holland,

and we rented a car and drove to Paris.  Yay for road trips!

Julie at 60 degrees Farenheit

Sorry, not trying to brag or anything, but I was just in Texas this past weekend and, at least for part of the time, the weather was great!
Julie

Boris at 6 Degrees Farenheit

Yep, it's really cold out there! We go for a walk just about every morning. Today we each wore 3 pairs of pants, 3 or 4 shirts, a down vest, coats, multiple hats, and insulated mittens. And, yeah, we looked like we each gained about 50 pounds, but so what?
We realize that it gets much, much colder in other parts of the country (as well as the rest of the world) and we have the deepest respect for people who deal with it! There's a great saying, "We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not." Whatever, it's a gorgeous day out there!

Peter Workman's Birthday party

Peter Workman of Workman Publishing (the folks who publish our calendar every year) had a birthday recently and we were invited.  The party was aboard a really cool yacht in the East River in New York and we cruised all around the city from a viewpoint we'd never seen before. We were all sitting around eating cake and listening to a live Dixieland jazz band and someone said, "Wow! The Statue of Liberty!" We thought, "oh, we've seen it before, but let's go take a look anyway." But, whoa! We were really close and at night with all the lights on it, it was truly breathtaking. Really gorgeous.  And huge, too.  That is one huge statue.

Boris, Peter Workman, Regina Pereira, Julie, Suzanne Rafer

Workman Publishing has published Boris' annual calendar for 29 consecutive years now (think about that!). Julie signed on to the calendar in tandem with Boris in 2000. Suzanne Rafer has been the art director since 1983 (25 years!).  It's definitely our favorite project every year to paint 13 paintings of exactly what we love to paint--beautiful, heroic people in fantasy settings doing magical things.

Happy birthday, Peter!  We love you!

Just for Fun!

These are two 60's covers from memory lane.
I had so much fun doing those comic covers! Much more so than doing barbeque grills and refrigerators!

Boris

Placemat Art at Lunch

Firing up the crayons!

A pretty girl in Paris by Rebecca Guay

Portrait of Boris and David by Anthony Palumbo

Some intricate mandalas by Irene Gallo

My Pal Walter at the barn by David Palumbo

A devilish collaboration by Scott Fischer and Greg Manchess

 

Pumpkin faces

It was brought up by one of us that the combination of carving pumpkins in the fall in a barn in New England was kind of outrageously cliche, but it sure was fun!

Some Barn Moments

Irene Gallo climbed up really, really high in the barn regardless of the fact that there were screeching bats as well as serious evidence of mice,
and Scott Fischer brought an amazing robot that he built.

Julie and Rebecca Guay looking like sisters,

Arkady Rothman hanging out,

and Dave Sealy talking painting with Anthony Palumbo.

Cristina and Uno Dos Santos

Happy moments in our hike to the waterfalls before we broke off into small groups on the way back and got a little bit lost in the woods.  We felt like we were in an episode of "Lost".  

Julie overlooking a breathtaking open vista on the left.  In the group shot are (L to R) Greg Manchess, Scott Fischer, David Palumbo, Dan Dos Santos, Lars Grant West, Dave Sealy, Irene Gallo, Steve Stroud, and Anthony Palumbo.

Did you know that you can melt beer bottles in a campfire? It happened right here.

Thursday

Left:  Boris 

Right:  Arkady Rothman with blood oranges

Clockwise:

Dave Palumbo chatting with Lars Grant West

Eric Fortune, Arkady Rothman, Scott Brundage, Anthony Palumbo creating fire

Dog at the art supplies store with Anthony Palumbo

Scott Brundage

Day 3

Wow! Time is flying by and we're already on Day 3. Last night we all gathered around the TV to watch the debate and then toasted up some marshmallows around a huge fire. An interesting science experiment followed the marshmallow toasting and now we're all back to work today! Hiking up to the waterfall is planned for this afternoon.

Till next time,
Julie and Boris

The Barn

Tomorrow morning we're going to our annual (third year!) artists' retreat.  Every year, in an undisclosed location (shhh!) at a really cool barn in the mountains, we meet up with a bunch of our fellow artist friends and all spend a week painting together, hiking, and having a blast.  It's a perfect way to get away and relax and still get our work done!  

We'll try to post highlights of our week as it goes along.

See you,

Julie and Boris

Walter

What does this have to do with anything? Go to My Pal Walter and find out!

Boris and Julie

First Friday in Philly!

Our sons, Anthony and David Palumbo, had a show last night at The Artist's House on 2nd Street in Philadelphia...
Alana Bograd, Anthony Palumbo, and Don Riggs


Anthony Palumbo's painting at The Artist's House Gallery, Lilia


Molly McIntyre, Dave Palumbo, and Boris


Dave Palumbo's painting at The Artist's House Gallery, Pink Man Blue Bird


Alana and Julie


Boris, David, and Anthony


Street Musicians singing "Waterfalls" for us.