Blog
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Rahisha Bivens
08 Sep 2018
Keeping with my momentum on portrait paintings I started a series of paintings on my girlfriend, Rahisha. She is a dynamic and charismatic woman with many talents. Rahisha is a serial entrepreneur, creative director, activist, producer and many other things. I wanted to create a small series that would convey…
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Dandy in The Bronx
05 Sep 2018
This is my fourth time illustrating Diego Leon aka Dandy in The Bronx. He’s multifaceted, inspiring and the life of the party. I have enjoyed watching him grow more successful since I met him at The Tie Bar’s Pop Up shop in Nolita. I went with a painterly style to…
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Childish Gambino
24 Aug 2018
My friend, Chris Ortiz put me onto a rapper by the name of Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover. Glover acted, performed standup, created music and also wrote for 30 Rock among other things. I thought his music was cool but lacked polish. This was before his first album, “Camp.” As…
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Rihanna
22 Aug 2018
It feels good to be getting back to portrait art. It’s one of the cornerstones of the paintings I create. With that in mind I created this series inspired by Rihanna’s cover features on Vogue and New York Magazine. I experimented with different brush and blending settings to challenge myself…
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Ironheart
06 Aug 2018
One morning my girlfriend, Rahisha wore a red top with black pants to go to work. She sported a large Afro and it sparked an idea. I would illustrate her as Marvel’s Riri Williams aka Ironheart. I was fascinated by the character when she debuted in Iron Man before taking…
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Manhattan After Dark
02 Aug 2018
A Manhattan is a classic cocktail that was invented by Dr. Iain Marshall in the early 1870’s at The Manhattan Club in New York City. During a recent visit to the legendary Anchor Spa in New Haven I became inspired. What emerged was this painting of the cocktail. I used…
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Rebrand
31 Jul 2018
iPad Art by Ra is simply “Raheem Nelson”. With a new focus on creating art I overhauled my website. With ease of use in mind I decided to switch to a gallery style format where my viewers can simply slide from left to right to view my art. The catagories…
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WTNH 8 Interview
10 Jul 2018
On Sunday I was featured on WTNH 8 on Good Morning CT. The topic was about my collaboration with Amanda Bakes on the cookbook, Sweetie Bake Your Day. You can view the interview here and the piece of art I illustrated of Amanda’s Lemon Pound Cake can be purchased here…
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Paris: The 5th Arrondissment
07 Jun 2018
I arrived in Paris on the Eurostar Train around 9 or 10. I stayed in a section of town called The Latin Quarter. Having my first impression of Paris be at night was very interesting to me. Everything had a quiet, slightly humid feel to it since I arrived in…
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Paris: Place Monge
05 Jun 2018
While I was visiting Paris, France last year I stayed in The Latin Quarter. Specifically a neighborhood called Rue Monge. It was easily accessible via the Metro. The stop was called Place Monge and was on the same line as the stop for The Louvre which made my first morning…