August - September 2012

Well after moving the studio I started on doing some "beer cap" art. Here is the first attempt, "Beer Fish".

Since I do all my woodworking projects out in the yard, and it rained for 3 days and I could not work outside. Having been driven nuts by reading books all the time, I decided to put an outside work area off the back of the studio. That way I can do woodwork and not get wet or broil in the hot sun. Also needed a place to park all my tools and in a couple of days....

Lean to off the back of the studio and now I have an outside work shop.

To celebrate  I decided that the cottage needed some stuffed fish/animals etc. but I did not want to go through all the bother, so my recycled "Guy Stuff" trophies came into being.

First up is a 39 inch Northern Beer Pike.

 Cut out the main part from some found old wood.

 Got some sheet metal from my neighbor that was tossing an old Sears tool shed.

 Teeth are galvanized roofing nails cut down.

 My neighbors helped me by collecting more beer bottle caps. I flattened them out since this make them more like scales. (learned from the first beer fish project.)

Pike is almost done.

Hanging the cottage wall. Guy Stuff!

In the mean time since we had no visitors and the neighborhood was quiet, this left me with time on my hands after dinner. So I decided to play with printing again. Started with some simple wood block prints with cheap plywood.

Two plates and three colors "Mushrooms"

Getting ambitious I stared another one.

 "Heading Home"

Doing these two projects taught me a lot about the tools that I was using, not very good, and relearning how to hand print with multiple plates and colors.

Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. August 2012

So I've been really busy and the Blog thing had to go to the way back burner on the stove of things to do.

It funny but there seems to be more activity on my Facebook pages than here.

Anyways here is a brief update.

Summer was spent at the cottage doing many tasks.

Finished off the inside of the cottage and all that's left is to do some minor wood work and put up a backsplash in the kitchen. Don't have a pic of the wall to wall carpet down. I do have a pic of the new Finished my flat rock surround for the wood stove. Looks pretty good for an amateur job! (Just my humble option of course.)

But I was exhausted and needed a break from all the rehab work. So we went out to Wisconsin to visit my wife's brother Mike who took me fishing everyday and look what I got!

Then back home for a bit and off the the Cottage where I had to work on the new water pump and the studio.

The studio was in the wrong place and did not get any light inside since the trees grew up around it. So I got out the tow straps, the come-a-long and my 7 foot pry bar and moved it out ten feet and then spun it 90 degrees.
Working it like the Egyptians.

You can see the bare dirt where the Studio was in the back left hand side.

Well that takes us up to the beginning of August.

Part II Congratulations!

Final inspection for the Time Warner cable box art work.
Approved!

Now to start work on the Traffic Control Box!

Here is what it should look like when done. Well at least when I was done with Photoshop.

Started work on stenciling the outline of all the rivets.

Been working since 10:30 AM this morning and the white on the rivets are done and now to redo the black around each rivet. Then.... I start on the ears!! Yee Haa!

Another hot day in the 90's with no shade. Gear Ears are done and my tan is coming along nicely

Eyes and Nose moving along. Still hotter than heck out there. 

Eyes and Nose almost done and the mouth has been gesso'ed and most of the base paint have been applied.
Just waiting for stencil time!

Met a lot of folks this Fourth of July morning running in the heat and a fan offered to take my pic with the finished Robot work.  Once again another day in the 90's before 10AM. BTW Knee pads are required when kneeling on the rock hard dirt and painting below your waist. :-)

Needed to take a break from the heat of painting Robot head in the direct sun.

Went to my friend Ben's cabin on Canandaigua lake, took the french easel. Hiked down into Tichenor's Gully from Ben's cabin and walked way up Gully to the falls.

Long wet walk but worth it

Setup the easel and got ready to paint.

Twenty minutes in on the painting.

Getting close to being done

Action picture of the old artist painting away

Done

Congratulations on having two of your artworks chosen for the Neighborhood of the Arts traffic utility boxes!

Well tickle me pink!

There was a completion to decorate two TV Cable and two Traffic Control Boxes early this year and I made my submissions and got two jobs awarded.


To do the submissions I went out to the sites and took pictures of the boxes and then came home and using Photoshop, created and wrapped the designs around the images of the boxes. 

Lots of learning, frustrations but it all worked out and I can now do things in Photoshop that I could not do before. Thanks to all the folks on Youtube that post Photoshop tutorials.

Here are the pics that submitted. 

TV cable box seen from the road

Traffic Control Box seen from the road

Dealing with all groups involved with getting permission and engineers was quite involved. The forms and list of materials and rules of how to create the work was also very interesting. I spent more time helping do the applications and dealing with questions than I did doing the work. 

I have a new appreciation for those artists that do public work. EVERYONE has to have input. Amazing.

So I started painting the TV cable box first and I spent a couple of hours just cleaning the box and getting all the stickers and grunge off.

Then the painting started.

Then as I got going a photographer for the local paper stopped by and the next thing we know, Colleen and I are in the paper. 

Utility boxes become public art along University Avenue 

Once an eyesore, a few utility boxes along University Avenue will undergo an extreme makeover.
Three utility boxes along the 1000 block of the street will soon become public art, part of a project by the Neighborhood of the Arts Business Association.
Two local artists have been commissioned by the business association to paint three utility boxes with their own designs. They were chosen after an open call for artists, said Priscilla Auchincloss, president of the assocation.
“It’s an absolutely fantastic idea. Most people are stuck with the utility boxes, and they can get dirty or tagged,” said Doug Steward, one of the artists and responsible for two utility boxes. “They’ll become something to look at when you’re at a stoplight.” Working outside earlier this week when temperatures were in the mid-90s, Steward had to stop earlier than planned because the heat was drying the paint on his palette.
Colleen Virdi is responsible for painting the third utility box. Her design is of silent film actress Mary Louise Brooks, who once lived in a small Goodman Street apartment off University Avenue and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
Artists were given a $400 stipend for each utility box in addition to $125 for supplies, Steward said. Both artists hope to have their utility boxes painted by the end of June. The project was inspired by other neighborhoods in Rochester, Auchincloss said. Other neighborhoods have also painted bus stops.
“The idea is to create interest and appeal from people driving by,” Auchincloss said. “What the city wants, and what we want, is for the public to feel curious and welcome so they will come and explore these neighborhoods.”

I finished the TV cable box and it looks a lot like the image I created with Photoshop.

Then I moved on to the traffic control box and started to paint. Hotter than blazes out there.

The Shoe Factory Art Co-op 2012 August Art Exhibit "Crow Show"

"Crow Show" Call for artwork relating to crows and ravens.

Well I have been thinking of entering this show even though I will be up in Canada. Perhaps I can drop any accepted artwork off before I leave?

Well I have done one quick painting of a crow.

Crow

Now I'm working on another idea so more on that later.

For Katy

Now that I finished up the paintings for Cara, it was time to have some fun. I remembered that Cara had mentioned that she wanted to get Katy a painting of skulls that she saw at the last art show I was in. Since Katy is getting her PhD.  in anthropology and is specializing in bones, People bones that is. I thought that I would jump in and do a painting for Katy that would fit the bill.

Katy's Skulls - 12" x 5"

 More work.

Katy's Skulls - 12" x 5"

Final.

Katy's Skulls - Done -12" x 5"

Lots of work going on. Here is the first piece.

I promised my very dear friend that I would do primitive paintings of her children many years ago. Painted her son back in 2010 in Nov. and when Katy (older daughter) saw the painting she stated she wanted to be a Queen. Bother Matt could stay a General for all she cared.

Matt as General 13" x 13"

I pulled this painting idea from the following painting.

So for Katy I decided to go with a Scottish Queen since she got her Masters at Edinburgh University.

Here was the starting point.

Mary Queen of Scots 

  Had some photos of Katy taken last summer and I used photo shop and got the following.

Love Photoshop!

Then I got the rough tracing done on my 13" x 13" board and blocked it in.

Didn't like the smile so I  looking at the painting I did not think that Katie's smile would be appropriate for the Queen of Scotland. So I decided to change it out for a different mouth. Needed to keep the everything else, so I found another pic of Katy that I took and then cut and pasted the new mouth over the smiling one.

A little tweak here and there and now I have a new design to use. 

Old picture new mouth ready to be moved about and into place

New mouth in place and sized right. Now to blend it in.

Ready to go!

Then I reworked up the rough painting and got to here.

It just painted its self!

I forwarded it on to my friend's husband and he asked that I use Katy's formal name "Kathryn". I translated her name (Greek spelling) to the Latin version to suit the paintings age ... but not a biggie and I fixed that and finished it off.

Kathryn Queen Of Scotland - 13" x 13"