Coming Soon!

Get "The Art of Man" Quarterly Magazine, featuring my cover and an article

"I believe that the human male form is the greatest, most beautiful and most transformative machine ever made. I'm here to celebrate it at it's best from the mundane to the erotic to the heroic."

Cody Furguson has been called "one of the world's best gay-themed artists" by Men on the Net. His work is featured in The Gay Art Forum, Tom of Finland, Gawker, Gay Business World, WWAR, Lamda Business, BGay, GayPaintings, QTMagazine and many other publications, including the 2013 book Capolovoro di Uomo (Masterpiece of Man) a collection of the best gay artists from around the world.

View Cody's Website: CodyFurguson.com

Join Cody's Mailing List For Future Auctions! cody@codyfurguson.com subject "mailing list".

I started painting the male form in 2003. I like the beauty and complexity, so I guess it was natural that it would become one of my main subjects.

My training included a few High School classes with great teachers and two years of graphic design. I'm a certified graphic artist and have done plenty of web design, advertising, sign painting and the like but my real love is painting.

I named this painting "Bricks" because the solid structure of the body echos the brick wall in the background.

I think my love of art probably stems from the time I bought the Maurice Sendak book “Where the Wild Things Are” when I was a kid. I saw the cover in a Weekly Reader at school and it was one of the few things that ever lived up to the hype. All that fine-lined pen work really drove me nuts and still does. I’d be a cartoonist if I thought I could make a living at it, and that was actually my first artistic goal. Since I put this in my bio I've seen a few others credit the book as an inspirtation in their life, but dammit, I was the first!

Later on, in my teen years, I went crazy for the airbrush. My Mom brought me back a painted T-shirt from Florida after a trip and I got absolutely obsessed. I was doodling on cartoons then and couldn’t believe it when my Mom actually shelled out the cash for an airbrush and compressor. I took some classes and bought all the books I could. I still like that smooth blended style, and you can still see it in my paintings. Now I’ve switched mostly to oils and sometimes watercolor because they’re much more portable and you don’t have to wear a ventilator to stay healthy.

My first oil painting was a portrait of Queen Victoria that I copied from an album cover that told the story of her life. I got it from the bargain bin at Target when albums were still in stores. It took me seven years to finish. Of course I just worked on it now and then and I didn't know what I was doing. I could do the same painting now in a few days and it would be much better, but, at the time, it seemed impressive.

Through exploring the works of the old masters, I realized that everything I wanted to do with the airbrush I could accomplish with oils, without cutting all those damned frisket masks and using all those x-acto knife blades. That stuff gets really tedious.

The guy who bought this painting "Sungod" wrote to me and said he was inspired enough to start a few art college classes, which is very cool! I asked him to send me some photos of his work and he did. Very talented! He's a nice guy and I wish him a lot of success.

Oils are the most economical medium you can use. Some colors seem to last forever. You have to buy tons of white though. I try to convince my friends using acrylics to switch because it’s also a much easier medium to use, but for some reason people get intimidated. Acrylics are damned expensive and you just go through tube after tube. Watercolors are so-so; the paper is expensive. Oils do take a lot longer to dry but other than that they're fun.

My favorite artists for the human face and figure is John Singer Sargent. I was also influenced by a book on Norman Rockwell as a young man.

This painting, "Aqua" was purchased by a college student in Singapore. My artwork gets around a lot more than I do.

I believe that the human male form is the greatest, most beautiful and most transformative machine ever made. I'm here to celebrate it at it's best from the mundane to the erotic to the herocic.

I have a pretty high IQ but only because I work on my brain he same way I work on paintings. Constantly trying to improve. I'm still incredibly flawed, but that's human. A perfect person would be perfectly forgettable. It's the flaws that make us interesting. Sometimes I go totally off the rails. I need that in order to be interesting to myself. Who is this person? What is his story? Does he have a story? Trust me: I have stories (it wasn't always that way).

Really intelligent people have a healthy fear of being boring. (why do we care about some Historical figures more than others? We tend to like the ones who do what they want. Or at least we dwell on them, good or bad).

This painting I called "David" because the model and his stance reminded me of a younger version of Michelangelo's famous statue, except instead of a slingshot he's got hold of his swimsuit!

Packing is my least favorite part of the process. They don't make boxes the right size and you always end up having to cut up a large box to make it work. Oh well, that's life, as they say.

View Cody's Website: CodyFurguson.com

Join Cody's Mailing List For Future Auctions! cody@codyfurguson.com subject "mailing list".