Inman Park Festival in Atlanta

This weekend I'll be at the Inman Park Festival in Atlanta. The parade alone, Saturday at 2:00, would be worth the trip. Fun, fun, fun!

The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver

I found the most fantastic brush cleaner by chance at Utrecht while I was standing at the register. It was there as an impulse buy and I impulsively bought it. It not only cleans and preserves paintbrushes, but will recondition that brush that you left out overnight. Then I got thinking, if it can clean dried paint off a brush, maybe it will take fried paint of clothing. Yup, it did, though with a little bit of scrubbing.  Check it out: The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver

Skyline [$75]

Red, always my favorite painting color. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to photograph. That said, I think this turned out to be true to the original.  It's completely palette knifed and has a lot of texture, especially at the horizon.  It's 12 x 12 x 1.5 and because of the gallery-depth canvas would not need framing.

I finished this encaustic weeks ago, but something about it wasn't quite right.  One good thing about encaustics is that, because it's wax, any time you want to change it, all you need is your heat gun.  So, today I decided to work with the clouds and I'm definitely glad that I did.  While there's always that fear that you'll mess up something that you really like, this was not the case here.

I added bold brushstrokes of white and then used the heat gun to carefully fuse wax and white pigment to the layers of wax beneath. All the while, diffusing the white and letting the blue show through to give them the airy look I was going for.  Anytime you liquify an area, you have to blend the surface in with the surrounding wax.  This got a little tricky when I was near the horizon, but a soft touch, something I'm not known for, made it work.

Here is the second sculpture that I received in a trade. Trading art at a show is a delicate situation. I've often been asked to swap before, but didn't want to.  In this case, I initiated the trade and was pleased that Lloyd Hughes, the metalsmith, was all for it. Below is what I bartered for these sculptures.  To me, it was the best kind of trade, a win-win.

This is one of the two sculptures that I swapped for at Artsapalooza in Atlanta.  They're both by Lloyd Hughes, a talented metalsmith from Lexington, Kentucky.  I'll post the other one tomorrow.

Monday, April 14, 2014
The past weekend was spent in Atlanta at the Artzapalooza show in Sandy Springs, GA. I was next to some favorite artists, Janet MacGregor Dunn, Chris Strawbridge and Suzan Buchner. I met some fantastic new artists too: Jennie Henley and Loyd Hughes. In fact, I traded a painting. "Saguaro" for 2 of Lloyd's copper wind sculptures, one of which is already set up and spinning away. I'll have to wait until it stops raining and I will post some pictures.

Speaking of pictures. Pictured nelow is one of my favorites, "Fleurs Sauvages." which was bought by a very charming lady from South Carolina, I believe.

Today will be a day to get some rest  and start getting some paintings ready for the show at Inman Park in Atlanta.  One of my most fun shows of the year.

April 11, 2014

Here's one of yesterday's last-minute chores before leaving in the morning for Artsapalooza in Sandy Springs.  I'll be seeing old friends there (artists also in the show) and I'll be staying with other friends, so I'm looking forward to a weekend of fun

4/6/14 Returning from Savannah

Yesterday, the Art Show on the River was fun, as always.  I also some sold art and had fun with the buyers.  I was surrounded by fun artists, including Nicole and Aunt Deb, who I know from Chattanooga.  Coincidentally, some other folks I knew were going to be down that way and they dropped in.

4/3/14

Setting up for a show is a tremendous amount of work, but because of the show's schedule, I can put it off until tomorrow.  Meanwhile, i can make the most of tonight and enjoy Savannah.  Will post more photos later.

Savannah 4/3/14

While setting up for a show is a tremendous amount of work, if you get there a day early with friends, you can worry about it tomorrow.  So here are some initials photos of Savannah.

4/1/14
It was a beautiful day in north Georgia...almost a bit too warm to be using a heat gun and standing over an electric griddle full of hot wax.  I'm thinking of building an "encaustic shed," which would provide shade.  It would have to have good exhaust fans and lots of light.  I wouldn't mind being able to use it in the winter too.  More on this later.