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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · 9d

Used more oil than my old 93 Dodge truck as I worked these pieces first two are new and just done, and the 3rd is just a different photo of the big oil I have been finishing up since July #austinart #painting #art #studioart #oilpainting #traditionalart #realism #contemporartyrealism #socialrealism

Oil painting of impressionistic pumpjack. Subject is a lone pumpjack on the right and the rest is shades of tan and grey horizon with a large tan sky implying sand haze

Impressionistic oil painting of a man pulling a cart covered with a tarp towards an intersection of a highway overpass with a modern totem pole marker before the interstate overpass for IH 40

A large oil painting of an overpass with debris assembled around the base of a pillar. The midground has a discarded jeep and TV to the right and boxes and a shopping cart to the left there is a distant overpass in the background and suggestions of two white birds in the upper left corner. There is a red sign with a white arrow facing right in the front center of the image.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · 14d

Fresh off a new show submission rejection, I went to the museum to look at some Velazquez and El Greco paintings and sketched them on site to study and think. I went quickly to not be too in the way. El Greco's Luke had an odd eye too. #sketch #drawing #study #art #oldmasters

Pencil sketches of two Velasquez paintings, Portrait of a Little Girl from 1638, and Portrait of Camillo Astalli, known as Cardinal Pamphila from 1650. The little girl is facing 3/4 to the viewers left and has almost shoulder length dark hair. The Cardinal has a little bowl shaped hat and hair down to around his chin with a van dyke style beard.

Pencil sketch of painting by El Greco named Saint Luke from 1590 depicting a bearded St Luke with eyes pointing in slightly different directions and the hint of a big Bible in front of him

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · 19d

Would like an edit button to correct the misspelling of "Arches" paper instead of "archea" but it is what it is.

Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · 19d

"SH71 Between the Airport and the Car Factory" gouache on archea paper sketch 2025. A bit of a Hockney collage mixed with Charles Demuth via central Texas. #sketch #painting #gouache #art

Gouache painting with telephone lines and cell tower, a yellow school bus in the center, a quonset hut and blue semi-truck cab on the right and a tree on the left with an orange box camp underneath. The sky is Grey and abstracted with light and dark Grey within the polygons in the skyline. There is green in the mid ground and the foreground is a brown and grey street.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · 20d

Me: "ok I'm gonna settle down and work on a trompe L'oeil painting of a bread loaf and work on technique."
Also me: "... Dr Who ooh, Dr Who!"... (Singing while drawing Pen and ink sketch of roadside camp and warehouses) #sketching #composition #art #studioart #penandink

Photo of small yellow toned sketchbook page with a walnut brown pen and ink sketch of a roadside camp and warehouses, school bus, and cell tower and power lines with a tree. A nib pen holder, ceramic inkwell, blue collapsible water container, bottle of ink, and paper towel are visible and the spine of a book that says "Francis Bacon Man and Beast" on it are vivible

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · 21d

"Sweet Nothings" Pentax K-1000, 2005 #pentax #film #blackandwhite #photography

A black and white photo of a discarded fortune from a fortune cookie that is laying in a street gutter full of leaves and twigs. It says "Your efforts will be worthwhile."

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Sep 18

"Getting Ready" 2003 Pentax K1000 35mm. I don't recall but I think it was slide film, found this on a backup DVD. My wife prepping for my cousin's wedding. I used to take photos of slices of life every chance I could. #Pentax #35mm #film #photography #photo #portrait

Black and white photo of a young woman with dark hair looking down while buttoning her jacket.

Slightly out of focus black and white photo of a young woman with dark hair and eyes with face in mostly shadow looking directly at viewer, her jacket unbuttoned over a shirt with pleats.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Sep 18

Self Portrait at Age 25 and now at age 50. Guy on the left was just out of college and just married and in near constant pain, particularly intestinal and extremities from untreated Hereditary Angioedema & guy on the right has been married for 25 years and has healthcare #art #painting #portrait

Black and white acrylic portrait of the artist with long sideburns and otherwise clean shaven face at age 25, staring directly at the viewer. The eyes and sides of face and neck are in deep shadow and the planes of the cheeks, forehead, and bridge of nose in stark white

Gouache color painting of the artist at age 50, looking up to the right of the frame with light blue green hazel eyes. The figure has a full beard shot through with Grey especially around the chin. It is wearing a light tan thin striped shirt

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Sep 14

"7th Street Tent and House Before they Built the Apartments" gouache on paper 2025 #painting #drawing #art #sketch #socialrealism #landscape #infrastructureproject #austin #austinart #realism

Painting sketch of a lone mid 20th century house on a hill to the right with grafittie on the wall in front and a tent on a wall near it. To the left is a makeshift camp and a stair from the streets. Far in the back are mobile homes. In the front is a dirty street. A dormant winter tree dominates the middle of the painting and two electric poles are in the middle ground. The background sky is pale blue.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Sep 12

In middle school when my family would yell and fight before they eventually split up I'd find solace in drawing race cars. I got pretty good at it. I still do find solace in it and there is little pressure for it to be "good" or "art". Just relaxing. #drawing #art #sketch #ink #sketching #sketchbook

Pen and ink and wash black and Grey on white drawing of a Formula Mazda race car going down and to the right from a 3/4 overhead view from the right side with a number 21 on the spoiler and a helmeted driver in a loose style.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Sep 8

"and, "whew", that's when she left"

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Sep 6

"RV Park Open, Somewhere East of Roswell" gouache on paper 2025 #art #painting #gouache #watercolor #landscapeart #traditionalart #austinartist #travelart

Gouache on paper paper bring depicting a frame of a roadside motel sign missing content with a red arrow pointing down toward a low red building with white windows and a chimney under a blue sky with grass growing in an empty parking lot. Under the main decayed sign are three others saying "RV Park Open" twice. There are three telephone poles and an antenna in the background and the hint of low distant trees in green.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Sep 1

Was working fast & loose on this WIP painting to have it ready for a solo show proposal & just realized it is similar to but wouldn't fit in the 10 piece theme I have for the show. Oh well still like where it's going #wip #studiotime #austinart #painting #art #oilpainting #studioart #traditionalart

Oil painting on orange toned canvas depicting a person with a cart covered by a tarp pulling it away from the viewer. There are long shadows from right to left from lamp poles and in the distance is a modernist totem pole like structure and empty streets with an overpass in the background under a pale blue sky with patches of the underdrawing showing. In the middle of the picture is a highway sign with 40 written on it

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 30

I was doing a quick underdrawing for a painting and thought to myself, "this looks a bit like something Giovanni Dominico Tiepolo might sketch except with run down motel instead of a clowns and dunces and saints" and then it hit me what an art nerd I can be. #wip #art #painting #drawing

Burnt sienna sketch on orange toned paper of a run down motel with a sign on the right saying RV Park Open and electric poles in the background.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 29

Love it, I did a similar b&w highway sketch a month or so back, something about road sketches and paintings is appealing

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 23

"Derelict Church or Schoolhouse and Out-buildings Around Park County, Colorado", gouache on Arches paper, 2025. I like to do some painterly sketches and paintings of things I've seen that struck me when traveling. I need to travel more. #gouache #painting #paint #art #landscape #colorado

Gouache on paper expressive painting of a run down church or schoolhouse on the right in red and Grey and an outbuilding in brown black and white on the left in the middle background are blue-green foothills and in the distance purple mountains with snow. In the foreground is a run-down fence and green grass. There is a telephone pole to the far right of the frame.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 22

View of Redistricting Center from Courtyard of Art Museum, conte sketch #sketch #sketchbook #drawing #austinart #blantonmuseum #art #austin

Quick black conte charcoal sketch on white paper of 8 simplified tulip flower cone shaped shade art installation. Loosely depicted in the left background is a sketch of the Texas Capitol with a flag in the center background and a large star in the right background

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 18

I am a bad artist, or CoPilot (w/ GPT-5) is an asshole or both. I thought I'd give a shot at letting the new gods write an Alt-text, because I have hundreds, if not thousands of images that could use it online. Let's just say it doesn't capture how I want to describe my work. #art #alttext #aifail

A screenshot of CoPilot attempting to write alt text for an image of a self portrait I created in gouache on paper depicting a frontal view of the face with a head tilted to the right (viewer's left) and looking upward out of frame to the upper right of the image. It is rendered in brownish and orange tones with off-white highlights. The eyes are blueish-grey and the face has a full bear with a moderate amount of grey and dark hair fading into a dark background. The shirt is tan-orange and lightly striped with thin lines. The screenshot says below the image a prompt for the AI to "Write alt-text for this image". It's response follows: "Alt text: Close-up painting of a human ear and adjacent shoulder area, rendered in warm tones of brown, orange, and cream. The ear shows layered brushwork with highlights and shadows that suggest depth and texture. Draped over the shoulder is striped fabric in muted beige and brown, its folds and creases adding dimensional detail. A deep, dark background contrasts with the illuminated subject, drawing focus to the anatomy and cloth." below that is a hover menu showing the AI settings with "Smart" selected and indicating it is using GPT-5. The screenshot contains the usual AI application things like a prompt entry field and suggestions.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 12

"Overpass at Ben White and IH35" oil on canvas 64 by 64 inches 2025. Still thinking on the name as the paint dries. Gonna let it sit a few days. #infrastructureproject #contemporarypainting #austinart #atxart #contemporaryart #painting #traditionalart #art #socialrealism #landscape #austinartist

Large oil painting on canvas of an interstate overpass support column with gathered items around it like pallets, cardboard boxes, a sign, a shopping cart, and to the right a discarded Jeep and television set. Far in the distance is another overpass with a dangling broken column support on the right. To the upper left two white birds drawn loosely fly.

Close up detail for the loosely sketched shopping cart from the first image. It is black and red and blue

Close up detail of the Jeep and television set in front of the dangling broken support. This is all loosely drawn and painted

A close-up of the birds in flight. They are white and black with some red, barely just hints of birds, executed in an expressionistic loose style.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 9

"Yearly Self Portrait Near My Birthday, Caravaggio Inspiration" gouache on paper 2025. I had a rough day, the AC failed and it was 101 here, so I turned on some fans and painted. It sucked but I could have been less fortunate. #painting #drawing #selfportrait #art #figurativeart #realism #portrait

Portrait of the artist I gouache on orange yellow brown toned paper, looking up to the left (The viewer's right) rendered loosely, with a dark background and a striped shirt. The subject has a full beard, unruly dark hair, and light green blue Grey eyes and a fairly large nose with middle aged bags under his eyes.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 7

Coming up on a "major" birthday, I am doing my yearly self-portraits. This little graphite sketch captures my boundless optimism & eternal youthful essence. With the underlight the claw-hammer scars in my forehead from youthful adds some character. #drawing #sketch #sketchbook #entropy #art

Self portrait of the artist in graphite on paper looking slightly right with long hair, a beard, and overall decrepitude. When he was young he saw that Rembrandt did a lot of self-portraits and with typical hubris decided to do something similar.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 5

If painting this painting were smoking brisket, I'd say I'm "pushing through the stall". It's big (5.5 ft by 5.5 ft) so I took a photo and worked on a variation drawing on my tablet for some ideas. I feel like I made some progress coming at it from a different angle. #mixedmedia #painting #sketching

Large work in progress oil painting sketched over on a digital tablet to experiment. Depicts pallets and signs, debris and shopping cart gathered under the support pillar of a highway overpass with a distant highway in the background and some birds in the air.

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 2

It kind of does. Cool observation/connection :)

Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 2

"Construction Cone on Red River near Hargis Hall" gouache on cotton paper 7 by 10 inches, 2025 #painting #sketchbook #gouache #atxart #austinart #sketch #sketching

Loose gouache painted sketch on paper with an orange construction cone front and center and a street and traffic lights in the middle ground with trees in the background and some old Victorian style buildings behind that under a pale blue sky

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Paul Moncus @pmonk.com · Aug 1

"Concrete Sky at Ben White and Arby's" 1/2 inch oil pastel on paper raw and simplified composition so makes it look like a kid drew it but there may be something to in the plane flattened stacked perspective. May do some serious abstraction studies #drawing #sketching #painting #austinart #atxart

Rough drawing in oil pastel of a red and a grey tent near trash cans under a huge Texas highway overpass with light blue sky in the background

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