Art Studio Tour

If anyone is in Western North Carolina anywhere near Leicester, North Carolina on August 16th and 17th, check out this wonderful Studio Tour. One of my friends, Pat Calenda is showing her pottery and photography along with 21 other artists who will be showing their work in a variety of media. Here is a link to the website about the event: http://www.cometoleicester.com/index.htm

Enter with a Happy Heart
Acrylic
16" x 20"
Available as a print through
Fine Art America website.


This old bicycle was leaning against a white picket fence outside a B&B where some friends of mine were staying. They took the photo and suggested I do a painting. It was an interesting study to do and reminds me of days gone by - although these days I am riding a bicycle more and more due to the high gas prices.

Fish Traps
Watercolor.
16" x 20"

I painted this by first blocking out the area of the boat - just using tape and tinfoil to cover the area. I find it is a lot cheaper than using the mask that is found in art stores. Then I used a wet on wet technique to rough in areas of different shades of blue, green and lavender letting the paint blend and move around on the paper. Then I placed wrinkled up saran wrap down over the wet paint. I left it to dry and then removed the saran wrap and the masked area of the boat. You can get some great accidental effects that way. I then painted in the boat and "bumped" up some of the areas of color around the boat and the spit of land.
If you do any traveling down in the Bahamian chain of islands off the coast of Florida or even further south in the Caribbean, it is not unusual to see fishermen going out in all sorts of boats - some like this fellow with his crab traps piled up in the bow of his boat. The sea and the way of life of the people that work their boats to eke out a living - fishing and catching crabs - call to me.