This was one of those ideas that came from having some bits and pieces from taking apart past projects hanging around. The rusty old wheels were on the beach for years waiting for a home. The rock slab had a former life on a driftwood base as a table but the base finally rotted out.
The nice weather has finally arrived and I am enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Working on various outdoor maintenance projects and yard work has inspired projects like this one.
They are beginning to ease the shelter in place rules in northern NY and hope that they get to the point we have art fairs this year.
This past week I have started to paint on better and larger paper (300lb 9 x 12). It I had been a wonder to work with and I will be using this more and more. It is easy to work with and ales me to work in layers.
The sad dogs are a reflection of the day times where all art events have been canceled and in NY may not be back this year.
First piece – I found a small pine knot hole in the bottom of my driftwood bin. When i picked it up i could see my palm highlighted thought the hole. A scrap of Arches watercolor board a couple of minutes painting 4 geese with my finest brush and the result is a odd little piece that brings a smile to my face.
The second piece came from an off-cut of watercolor board from one of my driftwood paintings. I picked it up and it looked just like mount Mansfield in the Green mountains of Vermont that I see every day across the lake. Once I saw it, I couldn’t let it go to waste so I painted it, grabbed a scrap of black walnut wood that I cut out for my rock crystal lamps, shaped and finished it to serve as a stand and now I have another odd piece in my stash.
I had some time in my shop and picked up a thin piece of cedar that was an offcut from making picture frames. I thought about how cool it would look as a super thin desk lamp. I had a piece of quartz crystal to use as a counter weight, a brass tube, a short strip of 12v LED lights, a small block of cherry from the scrap bin, a few pieces of connections materials, and voila the Slim-Line Lamp.
Slim-Line LED Table Lamp
This is what happens when I get distracted and have a few pieces of scrap in hand.
The lamp looks cool, works very well over my desk, and its fragile making shiiing a big problem, so it won’t be making the gallery of items. It may make the trip to an in person show, if I ever get to addend one.
This past weekend I finally had a chance to paint in the sun room. First time this year that the temperatures reached higher than 60 degrees. It was a pleasure to enjoy the bright light and do a few paintings of dogs.
I wanted to painting standing up rather than seated, so I had to modify my setup. I used tripod to mount a palette including holders for my brushes as well as my paints and water. I used a second tripod with a Grifity Nootle, a board and binder clips to hold my paper. Below is a few pics of my setup.
I started a few paintings and enjoyed a beautiful morning before heading out to do some yard work.
This will be a short post and recommendation for The Rogue Artist Survival Guide. This week I took time to finish reading a great book for artists written by Rafi Perez.
I look forward to Rafi and Klee’s YouTube videos every week. They are a real inspiration and if you are an artist you need to check it out. Also check out the blog and web site.
This past Saturday the Winter Market in Westport NY, was canceled for anyone not selling produce, it would have been my second event of the year.
This coming weekend, I was scheduled to attend my first outdoor art market at the Hudson Valley Maple Sugar Festival. I would have had my own booth outside. Yes it could be cold, but it would have been exciting as well. I bought a new Easy-Up with walls and build a way to hang my art. This delay will give me time to do more testing and experimenting on how to show my work without being a major paint to set up.
It is kind of early to figure out when I will be able start showing my work since in New York State we are locked down until the middle of May at least. Living in the Adirondacks it is about as far away from the City as you can get, and still be in New York State, but we need to have the visitors to make it work.
Unfortunately I just was informed that the first date for the Essex arts and Craft festival on July 5 has been canceled.
This leaves me with only 1 confirmed date where I will be showing my art. This will be a return to the Essex County Arts and Crafts Festival in Westport NY. The art fair will be held on August 3rd, essexartsandcrats.org. I have been trying to find other events to have a booth to show my art.
Once I know more about new events I will add it to may calendar.
The past week has been spent finishing one last driftwood frame and painting the blue jay to fit. This time it took a couple of tries to get the painting I wanted. I always learn from my less than acceptable work (mistakes). Balance and placement within the driftwood frame is very important to me.
I also spent time finishing another lamp and drilling stones. The process of making stones fit is a lot of trial and error. One of the biggest challenges is drilling on an angle to fit stones on an angle.
Slope driftwood and stone lamp
I also spent some time doing a little drawing, planning for future dog paintings.
I have made several cards from my paintings and the were very popular at the art market I was able to do before the lockdown. These as a few possible subjects I will work on to expand my offering.
On to part 2 of my week of driftwood frenzy – Lamps. I was able to spend some time on the beach collections more driftwood for my drying bin. It takes weeks to prepare driftwood for working into art.
These lamps are special, they were claimed by my wife even as i was making them, and are now in our bedroom on the night stands. With these lamps the I didn’t use normal beach stones, instead I used some of my stash of rock crystal to make the pieces special. The base is a slab of rock crystal on black walnut. The top of the lamp body glows with a large rock crystal ball.
Driftwood and Rock Crystal Lamp 2
Rock and Driftwood Crystal Lamp 1
These lamps are the only ones like it I can build, I have no more rock crystal bases. I don’t have a current resource for more.
Still sheltering in place … and not upset about it.
This past week in the studio had led to a frenzy of new driftwood inspired art.
I completed 8 more driftwood accented frames. With each new frame, I compose new paintings to fit the frame. Its different for me to have to scale my pieces for the frames. When making the frames I look for the right place to blend and fit the connections to the wood used to build my normal frames. Once I have attachment points I will then lay out the scale for the balance of the frame determining width and height to achieve balance.
These paintings are larger than my regular paintings, so scaling up has been part of the challenge.
