I have my hands full

I'm doing two shows this summer. An art fair in June (details later) and the open studio tour. I sold 7 pieces during the tour last year and 3 or 4 since. I haven't been doing a lot of 'finish' stuff mostly studies and life work. I think I have to get my butt in gear. I need to do up to 30 pieces before June 1 just to get 15 or so good one for the first show. I don't expect sales to be brisk. The fair market is pretty much a thing of the past. But I need to show my stuff.

Here's number one. sorry quick photo.

no titile yet Oil on 12 x 9 linen

Heres a 'Work in Progress' called Barn Clock 18 x 24

Barn Clock  18 x 24 Oil on Linen

I love art supply stores

There ws a time when I lived in Boston that there was almost nothing I couldn't get at one of the local art supply stores. My everyday store was Newbury Paint on Newbury Street. I was above the paint store. They had really good stuff and I got a nice discount. There was EJ Arden over by Mass Art School.. That's where I got the big stuff. An easel a drafting table and my big Artograph Lucy. There were other stores, Charrette in Harvard Square. The school store at The Art Institute where Mike Driscoll worked. 

After I moved to New York. I lived at 31st and Madison where  within 5 blocks I had 4 top notch art supply stores. Charette, Plaza, Iving Berlin and Sam Flax. I wanted for nothing in the way of art supplies. From the high end architect's tools to a kneaded rubber eraser. There was everything. I could tube down to Canal Street and visit Pearl Paint and climb the rickety stairs to find anything and all things art supply. I could go to NYCentral where they had every part for my Thayer Chandler airbrushes. 

Alas today real art supply stores are as rare as good government. What there is now are well manicured and understocked big box craft outlets where the smell of potpourri is enough to kill a rat and the house brand product just plain suck. Today to get quality supplies we are left with  online mega art supply web sites, Jerry's, Joe's, and a endless list of hard to use online catalogues. A few are rising to the top as far as ease of use but still.. I miss the smells and the creaky floors of Newbury Paint. I miss Louis at Plaza Art Material. I miss fondling the paint brushes. It was such a part of life.

Fear Not! For all you art supply geeks out there here is a great resource for when you need a hot wax or rubber cement fix. The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies. A great trip down to the Canal Street of the internet.

http://www.forgottenartsupplies.com

I have many of the items in the museum and still use some today. In fact I think I'll go use the Proportion Scaler right now. 

The site was created by the mad illustrator Lou Brooks, the lost son of Our Miss Brooks.

Update Saturday 12.13.14

The impetus for my writing this entry was having had to shop for basic materials on the internet. The art suppled online guys for the most part art pretty clunky in the ordering process. It's sort of like going to the dentist online. Anyway I placed an order which I was supposed to receive Friday via FedEX free shipping on the several hundred dollar order. Now let me explain that I live in the country. Not just the country but the country that high speed internet passed by. Asphalt passed by. We barely have a zip code. I don't expect an art store within even 20 blocks. There aren't any blocks. Here it is, late night Saturday, and no package. The tracking button from the online biggest art supply biz in the land says that the package could not be delivered because of weather conditions. Yes the sun was not shinning. I guess the driver was pissed because he/she had to work while all the pre-christmas bargains were awaiting them at the mall. Anyway I canceled the order. I'll drive to Hobby Lobby on Monday, about an hour away, to get the Gamsol I need. I won't let the political views of the owners of Hobby Lobby get in the way but I will be pissed that they only have third rate products for the most part. Just enough front line stuff to warrant the trip for a quart of thinner. I'll have to wait until I get into NYC after christmas to buy the dozen plus brushes that only this big store sells. After the Hugh Jackman matinee before the sushi dinner. Did I mention there's no sushi where I live either. If I had a time machine I could go back to Plaza art materials on Madison and Louis would have all my stuff for me at a nice professional discount. Then I'd have sushi.

 

 

A little show

A little show on this Saturday December 13th. We are a small group of artists who have met regularly for the past 5 months. We discuss, critique and encourage each other to paint from our hearts

Paradise lost

Me at Cap's Lighthouse Point, FL

Higgins Beach Resort

 

I was just down in Florida for a few days. It's off season and my buddy Jim Higgins had a room for me before things start picking up down there. We did the usual folky scene. Higgins is an old So. Fla. folkie. We saw a old singer, Panama Red, at Cafe Luna in North Miami. An odd little 'coffee house' atmosphere right out of 1960s Harvard Square. Red was great a unique character and musician.

We went to the South Florida landmark restaurant Cap's Place in Lighthouse Point. When I live in Boca for a short while back in 1975 we were there a lot. I did a painting of the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse back then. I hated it and left it behind. Higgins took it to Cap's and paid a bar bill with it. It still hangs in the dining room 40 years later. Its a pretty good painting. The food at Cap's is still outstanding. The key lime pie is the best I've ever had. www.capsplace.com

I was posting a few thing on Facebook and my old studio mate and publishing partner messaged me that he was just down the coast in Ft. Lauderdale. We had lunch the next day. Hadn't seen him in more than 20 years. He is now a renowned international yacht photographer. Check him out at jimraycroft.com.

The fishing sucked and the the weather was chilly and damp but it was 10° in Wayne County so I didn't mind. Everything was nice and green and the ocean was beautiful and blue. 

Higgins Beach Resort
Deerfield Beach Florida