This past Wednesday night I joined the Artists of Bristol on the Delaware artists group. Nice group. The meeting was their holiday party and I was welcomed with open arms. I knew there was going to be at least one familiar face, John, from ETS. It turned out I knew a few people. Some were from the Artists of Yardley group. And others were people I have crossed paths over the past fews years at shows and other types of art events. Looking forward to the upcoming meetings.
I got an email asking if I paint commissions. He had found my website and loved my work. He showed his wife and they decided the wanted to commission me to paint two large paintings for an addition they were adding to their house. They wanted one to be 2' x 3' and the other needed to be 2' x 5'. They didn't want to impose any restrictions on my creativity other than they requested the subject matter be of scenes in Bucks County. I decided that I wanted to paint the Washington Crossing Bridge and Bowman's Tower. As I scouted both places, I decided to paint the gazebo and bridge for one and the Thompson-Neely house in the foreground of Bowman's Tower (and the sheep pasture and towpath bridge).
My new cool venture has been to get involved with Art-O-Mat, the vending machine art group. This is where old cigarette vending machines have been refurbished and set up to sell original artwork. I fell in love with the concept as soon as I saw the article about it. I contacted them and they told me to send three pieces of artwork (per spec) as samples/prototypes. I followed the instructions on their web site creating art that was the size of packs of cigarettes. I choose to cut wooden blocks to that size, gesso them, then proceed to paint a smaller version of one of my paintings. I used oils so in essence, each piece is a real live archival oil on board painting. They received the samples and contacted me to tell me I was on board. At that point I had to mass produce 50 more (requirement is that artists send lots of 50). I couldn't bring myself to paint 50 of the same subject matter so I choose 5 later pieces of my art and did 10 of each. My paintings have been distributed all over the country. Detroit, Virginia, N. Carolina, Pennsylvania, and even as far as Canada. They contacted me to ask if I'd want to send more. That's where I am at now, knocking out my next fifty. Here's their site: www.artomat.org
Saturday, June 2, the Langhorne Council of the Arts held it's first annual Garden Tour. The Artists at the Farm group were asked to participate and paint at the different locations. 123 Maple Avenue was one of the gardens. This is the painting I did, and the homeowner bought the painting. The Bucks County Courier Times had some pictures and a nice article covering the event.
From the outside, it is very unassuming. But on the inside, it is insulated and sheet-rocked, painted white and furnished. Very comfortable. Good stereo. And available 24/7. I have air conditioning and heat. It is my sanctuary. It was just finished and already it's full steam ahead with work.
I joined a new art group, the Artists of Yardley, or AOY. AOY is a much larger group than the Artists at the Farm. I believe membership is over 70+ at this time. This group has a very organized structure and is very active with shows and gallery exposure. I mentioned I could code, and became the assistant webmaster. Shortly after that, I was passed the torch and became the webmaster. Check out their site:
http://www.artistsofyardley.org/