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 

“Mind The Glass” goes to BWI!

My artwork, Mind The Glass, has been included in the Art Council of Anne Arundel County  in “Exhibit 34: Imagine…” which will be on display between concourses C & D (pre-security) from July 22–November 14 at BWI (Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International Airport, Baltimore, MD, USA). This is my first non-gallery exhibition and speaking of imagination, I can’t imagine a setting where more people might see artwork in person over a period of time than a busy national airport. 🫢 Incredible. For a gallery of all the included work, see https://artscouncilofannearundelcountynew.submittable.com/gallery/7b48ccac-1cbe-49b9-95f2-e282feaaa11e

More progress on “Impact”

I keep chipping away at this one. By the time I’m done there’s going to be paint a cm deep on this canvas. It’s fighting me the whole way. I’m finishing up with the water soon and will begin adding the plants that will frame it.

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