My 1st Paint Annapolis Award!

 So this happened…

Maryland Federation of Art

“Art On The Avenue” 3rd Place + SOLD!

2 more MFA PA Paintings

 These are both in acrylic. I feel really good about the house and am going to enter it in today’s architectural/historic Annapolis competition with m MD Ave, which will be closed off for the event in the late afternoon. 

-Sidewalk Surprise (King George St.).  02x16 inches unframed

Rooftop Party (Hillman Garage). Acrylic.9x12 inches

I need a better picture of this one. This was taken on the roof at night and so the colors don’t come through correctly. 

PAINT ANNAPOLIS 2025 Begins

 I can’t believe it’s here but it is! First event = done! I participated in the “Dueling Brushes” QuickDraw event, which is, basically—what can you do in 2 hours?

Here is where I was at the 2h mark. Tweaked some more since then. More pics forthcoming. 

At Play

Yay! Both of my entries got into @mdfedart’s upcoming virtual exhibition, “At Play.” See https://mdfedart-play2025.artcall.org/pages/web-gallery

I’ll be painting at Paint Annapolis 2025 in 2 weeks, so expect more art soon!

Mt. Tabor Etsy Review

 What a treat to get such a nice review!

Mt. Tabor = SOLD

It’s gonna be hard to let this one go. It has become one of my favorites. Painted in my car on a cold January afternoon, I’d always thought this was an old one-room schoolhouse, Nope.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tabor_Good_Samaritan_Lodge_No._59

 

Fall 2023 Update

 I’ve been having a little trouble with the Blogger app and this has delayed my keeping you all up-to-date. We’ll see if this posts all right. What have I been up to? Good question. What a blur since the summer. I’ve done some plein air painting, especially of the old Johns Hopkins Birthplace (Whites Hall) in Gambrills, MD and also played around with some architectural photos taken in NYC.

I was having trouble uploading photos, so let’s give this a shot… Ah, well would you look at that. It worked.

Over the River and Through The Woods
(Johns Hopkins Birthplace, Gambrills, MD)
12x16 unframed
Acrylic on canvas panel

Still Hanging On (Johns Hopkins Birthplace, Gambrills, MD)

12x16” unframed

Acrylic paint and acrylic ink on canvas panel

Treehouse Needed

6x14”

Acrylic on canvas

Apposition (Garment District, NYC)

Digitally altered photograph

Cisterns (Garment District, NYC)

Digitally altered photograph

Eye-Level (Garment District Cisterns, NYC)
Digitally altered photograph

Painting At The Beach

 It’s beach week, as those of you with my 2023 calendar may have noticed (that’s why this week is covered with little beach paintings). Greetings from Fenwick Island Delaware!

I am playing with watercolors on gessoed wood panels this week. It is so much fun to turn the panel and watch the colors swirl and rush from side to side. More to come. 

Paint Annapolis 2023

What a fun week! This is the one week a year when I do not mom and I do not wife, I paint. No awards but I did sell a painting! And that’s plenty reward for me. 

She Left 🔴 | 14x18” | Acrylic on canvas panel ———SOLD———

After Hours  | 12x16”| | Acrylic on canvas

Mozart's Garden | 5x7" unframed | Acrylic on canvas

The Witness | 16x20" | Acrylic ink on paper

Treehouse Needed | 6x14" | Acrylic on canvas

Beach Week 2022!

The first week of august each year = beach week in Fenwick Island, DE. I spent much of my time this year painting on the beach. I am working on learning how to use a palette knife to paint with acrylics in sun and heat and trying to loosen-up my style and not get so bogged down in the details. 

Electric Sunrise. 12x16” acrylic on canvas panel. 

The sun really was a striking color in the sky at sunrise, but more of a fluorescent pink/red. I picked up some new fluorescent paints on my way home from the beach and will give those a try. I realize the sun shouldn’t be darker than the sky. But this is the best I could do with what I had at the time. 

Here it is with the addition of the fluorescent colors. 

A Day At The Beach. 10x10” acrylic on canvas

SOLD! Thank you, Philip Simpson!

Sandpiper Squadron. 8x8” acrylic on canvas panel

I’m thinking I may add more birds…

Detail:

Sandpipers Racing The Waves. 12x16” acrylic on canvas  panel

Cloudy Day. 8x8” acrylic on canvas panel 

Cleaned-up Shop

With the end of Paint Annapolis 2022 (booooo!), the work not sold at the gallery is now available via my online shop, which precipitated some much-needed virtual housekeeping. I had emailed Hats In The Belfry to let them know that my Nocturne painting was of their Annapolis shop and received a lovely response suggesting they'd like to post it to their social media (yay!). So if you are here after seeing a Hats In The Belfry post, Welome! If you're looking for my shop, it is at https://ko-fi.com/fanfarethemedart. I hope you enjoy poking around here and there. Questions? Leave a comment or email me at burzon@verizon.net. I'd love to hear from you.

Turn Me: Maryland Avenue doorknob

Turn me. 4x5” acrylic on canvas 

Originally painted as part of the Maryland Avenue event portion of Paint Annapolis 2022, I thought that with such a little canvas it would be fun to find a small architectural detail to highlight, something that would otherwise be overlooked, and voila—I found this gorgeous door knob with a beautiful grain to it contrasting with the many-layered paint of its door. 

Turn Me took every bit as long for me to do as as a larger painting would. Like I like to say, it’s just that the brushes are smaller. I took some artistic license with the color of the left door once which improved the image significantly over the more accurate beige/tan/cream.

I also tried something new with the frame  I’ve used these little gold frames before, but this time I wanted a floater-style frame that does not cover any of the canvas. So I put the canvas into the frame backwards, making the back of the frame the front  I hand-leafed the sides in (faux) gold and painted the new front black to contrast with the sides and canvas. I am quite pleased with the result.

 I see this quirky little painting as a fun element for a bathroom or nook and a unique momento of Annapolis for the right person. 

 

SOLD!—My first gallery sale!

I had my first gallery sale at the Paint Annapolis reception for public painters! The red dot indicates a sale  

Paint Annapolis—That’s A Wrap

Here are my 3 from Paint Annapolis: Chlöe Lives Here (the boat & dog from previous post), Hats In The Belfry (my “nocturne” = done at night), and Downtime (the Circle Gallery alley. All are viewable at the pop-up Gallery (West St x Church Circle, #Annapolis, #Maryland) this weekend amd avilable for sale online vis https://mdfedart.com/mfaentry/galleryA/inde

It is such a privilege to have my work in the same space as that of all the wonderful pieces from this week. I totally fangirled the juried artists’ work last night at the reception, which was lovely, (tho warm). Big thanks to Matt Barber Kennedy, who took the time to endure my snark, hear a story, and give my nocturne a quick critique. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him and the other juried artists, and had the especial privilege of getting to watch Matt paint one day as a workshop. He’s a good sport and parried my heckling quite as masterfully as he painted. It was a great learning opportunity and a lot of fun. So thank you to Maryland Federation of Art, I can’t wait for next year!

Paint Annapolis 2022—Day 1

I started this weeklong event with a “QuickDraw” contest that was extremely challenging for me. What can you do in 3 hours? I met a lovely and friendly couple living on a very cool boat the day before while scouting-out what to paint for the contest. They allowed me to paint their boat for the contest and then the rest of that day. I of ncourse was not satisfied with what I could do in 3 hours but it was quite the learning experience. I then spent from 12–6 or so trying to improve it. And then of course the next day saw that the top line of the back of the boat is completely wrong. So I’ll go back and fix that maybe this morning. Here is the difference between the 3-hour and 9-hour paintings. The dog’s name is Chloe, and Intiled the piece Chloe Lives Here.” I had a lot of very encouraging feedback from passers by and one guy even slipped me $5, which blew my mind. I ought to put a hat out, lol. 

At 3 hours

At 9 hours 

MFA Studio Tours - What I'm sending to 49 West Restaurant Exhibit

 I'm submitting 3 here. I was tempted to choose apple works, or Herman again but I wanted to put out something different, so I kept with the theme of places and chose these:

Flyby (Fenwick Island, DE)
8x10" acrylic on canvas panel

We Were Here (Mount Tabor Good Samaritan Lodge No. 59, Crownsville, MD)
10x8" acrylic on canvas panel

Halsey from Eastport
7x5" acrylic on canvas

Assembling entries for Paint Annapolis 2022

 I’d love to be a juried artist for this but I don’t know if I’ll

make the bar. I want to do at least one more painting and then we’ll see. Each of these is a 1-session work. The Annapolis one needs touch-ups so no close-up pic yet. 

Plein Air in Crownsville, MD

 

Plein air off 2nd Street in Eastport, MD

 

Here Comes The Sun

Hi all. Have you done your good deed for the day? Yes? No? Regardless, please consider voting for my 2 paintings in Maryland Federation of Art’s “Here Comes The Sun” virtual exhibition. I didn’t realize it was this kind of thing and so am late to the mark rallying the troops. Of course what is really measured is largely people’s connectedness but I sure would like to give the established favorites a run for their money! Thanks!

https://mdfedart.com/mfaentry/galleryB/artgallery.php?client=20&event=232