Consider the Cupcake…

One of our favorite Saturday indulgences – The Cupcake Cottage 5015 El Campo Ave. Ft Worth…

Read:  Happiness is the Icing on Cupcake Business
Amy Culbertson
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Enjoy,

-Mark

Neal’s Hats Painting Demo Part 2

Step 4 – (Upper left) – Wednesday evening I started filling in the top and four lower hats. When I paint, I mix on the canvas – scumbling in one color into another. In this painting I am applying one color to each hat, then adding another darker color, then a lighter color and white.

Step 5 – (Upper right) – Saturdays I paint at Adobe Gallery and greet gallery visitors. Today we several international travelers – I met people from Britain, Germany, and an artist from Denmark, I believe. I added more color to the hats, then the black, and the upper right. Looking at the original photograph, you won’t see the upper right hat. It was added it to balance out the top of the composition. You can also see that I corrected the curve of it’s brim. There is now a small problem in that two hats of similar color are together. In the next session, I will darken the top hat with a darker blue gray that is truer to the color of the photograph. This will help to balance with the lowest dark hat. It might be a good time to remind folks that as a color blind artist – I chose to change up colors to my liking. I am not a realist painter, so exact color representation in not critical. As I paint, I load up my brush to get thick strokes of paint. For my brushed paintings, I feel texture is equally important as color in telling the story of the subject on the canvas. Today’s colors include Grumbacher Indian Red, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt and Raw Umber, and Naples Yellow, and Ivory Black.

Step 6 – With each of the hats blocked in, I painted the background white. The paint again is brushed on thickly, but loosely – blue beneath is allowed to show through. This will be the 2nd of (probably) 3 layers of color. I like to layer backgrounds with color allowing each layer to peek through here and there. It allows the color to blend optically. In the next session I will continue working with the hats.

[Back story] Neal – the owner of this collection of hats – is retired after 20 years from the United States Border Patrol. Neal has worked his share of hot days and cold nights doing a job that many wouldn’t do. His temper can get up, and he’ll “spit his bit”, but he is a solid guy – he’ll let you know where you stand in no uncertain terms. He recently returned home (Lubbock, TX) and fell deeply in love with his high school sweetheart Deb. Up there on the Caprock, under a sky full of stars, they are both living large as Texas.

- Mark

Neal’s Hats Painting demo Part 1

I recently was re-acquainted with a friend from high school on Facebook. Looking through his photos, I came across this picture of his hat rack. I thought the arrangement makes an interesting composition, and decided to paint from his picture. I probably should get his permission – but – somehow I don’t think he would mind. For this painting, I am using a 36 X 48 inch gallery wrapped canvas. I like working big and this composition is just the right proportion for this size canvas, making the hats just a little larger than lifesize.

Step 1 -  Sometimes I grid my canvas and drawing to get as accurate placement possible, and other times I freehand which I have done here. I draw my image with large graphite sticks. Once I have my arrangement, I’ll outline with black gesso, and this gives the painting more of a sense of illustration.

Step 2 -  I applied a wash of thinned Holbein’s Blue Grey oil paint on the background. Layers of color will be added as I continue.

Step 3 -  Again, I applied a wash of Holbein’s Monochrome Tint to the hats. In the morning I’ll study this with my coffee, and may decide to add a second wash to both background and hats. After that – the real fun begins!

- Mark

ARTS GOGGLE, Fall 2009

Rick Bullock’s paintings at Lander’s Machine Shop Gallery

Fort Worth South Inc. promotes ART GOGGLE – twice each year – Spring and Fall. Businesses on the south end of downtown stay open late on Saturday and feature artists and craftspeople – food and drink – and some venues have live music. Mickie, my wife and jewelry maker, displayed her work at Quarles Window Co. on Park Ave. I didn’t show, choosing instead to spend the evening looking at art and visiting with other artist friends. I stopped first at T&P Tavern at the old Texas & Pacific train station to see FaceBook friend Jodi Theodore and her really nice Photography.  Next on my list was DMS Architects. My Twitter friend Kerry Conover curates the show and displays her Photography. Kerry put together a really nice group of artist/photographers. I especially liked Zeena Khalaf’s photographs of Syria. I also enjoyed the paintings of  Hatziel Flores so much – and I bought one.

The south end of downtown Ft Worth is an area of funky old warehouses and soon to be lofts.  One of the more interesting venues last night – and interesting artists was the Lander Machine Shop Gallery and artist Rick Bullock. His work (pictured above) is classified as non-objective expressionism – ranges from colorful shapes and lines to studies of color relationships.  See his paintings at 205 East Broadway. I enjoyed the feeling of his paintings and the “vintage” building vibe but didn’t wander into the next rooms (a band was playing) and I failed to read further on my guide that Ann Eckstrom was showing there too. Major screw up on my part. I’m a big fan of her beautiful paintings and would have enjoyed meeting her.

I can’t finish without a mention of my friend Robert Berry. Robert’s work was at Art On The Boulevard Gallery – the first gallery I joined, several years ago. He and I became good friends – not because of the styles of our paintings – but because of our love of Jazz. His paintings are Jazz based expressions and I often listen to Jazz when working in the studio. Always fun to catch up with Robert – because he is always 3 steps ahead!!

- Mark