Getting Ready…

It’s a lovely cool rainy day here in the neighborhood and Pat and I are starting to get things in order for our next visitors. The Follansbee family is coming !

Regular readers will remember our adventures with Rose and Daniel and Mama Maureen here in the studio over the years…and the many references here on the blog to Peter’s woodworking and our overlapping interests in all things traditional that produce shavings.

On Peter’s blog today he has the announcement for the DVD that he has been working on with Lie-Nielsen. It will showcase his extraordinary carving abilities and the 17th century techniques, tools and patterns that he uses in his day job at the Plimoth Plantation.

It’s scheduled to be available this fall but he has a preview posted on the blog… I thought you would enjoy it as well. Can’t wait for my signed copy…I’m sharpening my chisels now !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9HBXBnt-e4

Having a heat wave ?

Take full advantage of nature’s drying oven and….make panels !

The studio yard doubles as workshop in order to get a jumpstart on a batch of smaller panels.   Day one – Dibond cut to size.    Day two –  Portrait grade cotton canvas wrapped and adhered with acrylic matte gel.    Day three (morning) – Call Pat on her way home from market and ask her to detour to pick up some Liquitex acrylic gesso… use plastic putty knife to paint backside of panels.    Day Three (afternoon) – use same putty knife to paint front side of panels.    Day Four (today) – second coat on front with Liquitex.

Let the sun do its thing today and they will be ready tomorrow for the first coat of ArtBoard Gesso. I’ve written about it before when first trying it out and after months of working with it…it’s become my gesso of choice. The beautiful chalky surface is easily and quickly worked into a smooth paste using a fine sanding sponge and a little bit of water. I can control the texture and even when it’s glassy smooth there is still plenty of tooth to hold the first coat of oils. It is pricey enough that it would be wasted on the primer coats, but well worth the expense for the finished product.

I’ve got two more shows this year and want to have new works in both so there is no down time in the studio for this artist.  I’ll be posting the expanded exhibition schedule soon…but in the meantime mark your calendar for these two dates…

1261 Gallery     Denver, CO.

Group Show     Opening October 15th

and

4 Women Paint   York, PA

Opening  November 13th, 14th

Artist Talks the following weekend.

Back to the easel for me… stay frosty out there !