More Fly Paper

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go, and the drive is only ninety miles of Interstate. This is the first of three smaller pieces of Marshall-Wells billhead that is fishing related. Since I sold the larger piece before I had a chance to frame it, I decided to not reveal this one until today. It is mounted in my portfolio which is in my car. The Western Heritage Artists Show and Sale officially starts tomorrow evening, but I always goes a day early to set up and settle in. The gallery rooms are not open until 7:00 PM, but I'll have mine open all day tomorrow. If you are in Great Falls for Western Art Week, I'm offering you an invite!

Fly Paper for the Fly Fisherman

Another piece off of the drawing table and headed to the Footprints on the Trail, Western Heritage Artists Show and Sale. Opening on the 16th of March, I intend to leave this one unframed for the show. This piece is dated the 16th of February, 1904, sent from Marshall-Wells Hardware Company in Duluth, Minnesota, to C. W. Rank and Company in Virginia City, Montana. I've not had a bit of trouble finding new homes for the four previous pieces of 'fly paper' I've completed, and I don't think I'll have a problem finding a new home for this one either.

The above image is of the top of the piece which I thought it best to include in this post, as well as the dimensions: It is eight and one half inches wide by fourteen inches tall, and would display nicely in a frame.

Buckaroo!

Another late June order for fireworks for C. W. Rank & Company of Virginia City, this one for the Fourth of July, 1901. It is also going to go to the Western Heritage Artists Show and Sale next month. I'm starting to get into the mood.

Footprints Success

I had eleven Thank You cards to send after the Western Heritage Artists Footprints on the Trail Art Show and Sale this year. This first one was not a sale, but a gift. These folks bought the very first piece of old paper that I framed up and sold off the wall at an antique show here in Helena. They've been patrons ever since. They came to my room this year and gave me a color proof sheet from the second printing of "Good Medicine", which was a compilation of illustrated letters and envelopes by Charlie Russell. The proof sheet is old and brittle and stained in a couple of places, but it is like gold to me.

The second is to the patron who purchased My Brownie Baking Company piece which I did for the Quick Finish on Thursday evening, and a fun piece it was! He wanted the Chocolate as much as Uncle Sam did.

The third is to the patron who purchased My Breakfast Brownie piece on Saturday evening at the Art for Causes Quick Finish and Auction. And a lively auction it was! Our primary cause this year was Breast Cancer Awareness and we raised over $11,000.

To call this year's show a success is an understatement. And to top it all off, we welcomed a new grandchild to the family at 11:00 AM on Sunday, the last day of the show. Her name is Celine.

Cannon Crax for Virginia City

C. W. Rank & Company prepared for the 1904 4th of July celebration in Virginia City by ordering some 'crax' from the Passmore Paper Company in Butte, Montana. Don't you always go to your stationery store to buy your fireworks? Just another piece that I'll have in my room for the Western Heritage Art Show and Sale in Great Falls, Montana, from March 18th through the 22nd.

I Want Your Chocolate!

For this year's Western Heritage Art Show & Sale, I will be participating in two events: The Quick Finish and Auction on Thursday evening, and the Quick Finish and Live Auction on Saturday evening. I have not yet decided which one of these I will be doing for which event, so I could use some assistance from the audience.

I realize that  these images are not really 'finished', but that's the idea behind the Quick Finish events. Potential patrons get to watch more than twenty of us put forty-five minutes to good use.

The Thursday evening event supports the Western Heritage Artists by raising funds to defray the cost of putting on the five day show. The Saturday evening event is called Art Competing for Causes, and this year we are supporting Breast Cancer Awareness along with other worthy causes.

Indian Motocycle Rides Home on a BMW

I completed two pieces of Indian paper before going to the Western Heritage Artists show in Great Falls, Montana, the 14th through the 18th of March past.  Bob (and his wife) purchased a piece of Winchester paper in 2010, and they didn't find anything in my room last year that piqued their interest.

My theory is that if you offer a little bit of history with some art in the mix, people sooner or later will fall for a nice dose of both.

Bob liked Contact Point #2, which I tied with a leather thong to a BMW badge from a 1923 BMW motorcycle for his Thank You. Indian paper is not only hard to come by, but hard to hold onto. I love it when that happens. And thanks to my Brother-In-Law Tom Benson for gifting me the wonderful paper.

Ball Blue Fruit Jar paper

You may recall that I posted an image of a Ball Jar I called The Odd Ball several weeks ago. My art on the old piece of Ball Brothers letterhead was not just an accident. Larry Munson, who lives South & East of where I grew up in Northern Montana, gifted me that piece of paper. I have been waiting for the proper stamps to arrive, after purchasing a sheet of the American Glass stamp issue, Scott #3325-3328 from a seller on eBay. The stamps arrived today, although I had finished this cover several days ago. I will add the address to this cover and get it into the mail to him today.

The other fellow in this equation, Bruce Schank, who has a fabulous web site and collection of Ball Fruit jars (including the Odd Ball) will be getting a similar Thank You from me with a slight delay in it being posted. I have a show opening at the Custer County Art & Heritage Center in Miles City, Montana this coming Sunday. I have been asked to do a live demonstration of my art, and I intend to complete Bruce's cover during the opening reception.

Did I mention that I owe a debt of gratitude to both of these gentlemen? They've been very gracious in sharing with me not only their time, but gifting me the paper and taking numerous photographs for me. I'd like to thank them properly, and perhaps one of these days I will - in person.

The other person I'd like to thank is Marianne Dow. She put us all together in one way or the other.

Western Heritage Artists Show

  

The Western Heritage Art Show begins on Wednesday, March 16th at the Holiday Inn in Great Falls, Montana. It's only my second year as a member, but it's the 30th Anniversary for this show, and I'm honored to be the Featured Artist this year. Hope Good, our Advertising Chairperson has put together a fantastic program again for us this year, and the first image above is of the centerfold page.

I met Christy Daniels at the Blackfoot Valley Art Auction in 2009, and we participated in our very first Quick Finish at that event. You have to see her sculpture to believe how well she captures her vision in three dimensions.  I shared a page in the program last year with her, and I think it brought us good luck.  At least I came out a winner, and it was primarily due to two images - my lobby piece which caught the attention of art fans as soon as they walked into the Holiday Inn, and the major piece in my little quarter page in the program was sold as soon as I hung it on the wall.

I'm hoping for the same results this year. The second image above is of my piece for the lobby show.   The title is "He's A Pinned Ball Wizard". I wish I could have displayed a bit more white space in the online image, but the fact of the matter is - the image just barely fit on my large flat bed scanner. The jar came from my mother in law, as did the antique wooden clothes pins. It's the largest piece that I've done in at least thirty years. I'm so happy with the results, I've decided to start tackling some larger pieces to augment my Old Paper habit.

The Ball jar in the ad above will be hanging in the same spot that the ad piece hung in last year. And just in case you can't read the room number in the program above, my wife and I will be in Room 219  just to your left at the top of  the stairs above the lobby. We met a lot of old friends and made a lot of new ones last year, and you can view a lot of good art (besides my own) in the process if you stop by this year. We also are going to participate in a new event this year called the Paint Around, which happens Friday Evening poolside at the Holiday Inn, beginning at 7:00 PM.  I'm not going to reveal what I'm doing for that event, but I am doing another piece of mail art for the Quick Finish on Thursday, since my piece last year was a real hit. We hope to see you there!   

Studioscapes!

I was asked by Seth Apter to participate in an online 'gathering' of artists called 'The Pulse' less than a year ago. As part of the experience, we were asked to supply a vignette of our studio space for a the third portion of The Pulse which he called Studioscapes. This past Sunday, my little creative corner was included along with four or five other artists.

So as not to give the impression that my studio looks like my desk, I've decided to let you look at one of the walls! Three of the framed pieces hanging on this wall have found new homes since I took the photograph.

The Holdup left the building

We did an antique show this weekend. One of my subscribers suggested that I let folks see it that already have a common interest in history, and he certainly wasn't far off the trail. We were fortunate to get a booth in a venue that had walls where we could hang my work. Instead of a four by eight foot table for a booth, we used a smaller table that I could put my portfolio on toward the front of the space. We added chairs, and draped an easel with several elk hides, and put my largest piece on the easel. My wife added a vase of flowers on the floor under the framed art, and next time we'll put them on a small and tall end table. It allowed potential buyers to get up close to my art work so that they could examine it closely. Many of those that we spoke to were convinced there was a trick to it, or that the images were originally part of the document. If they asked questions, it gave us the chance to do our part to correct wrong perceptions.

It worked.

Saturday afternoon we were approached by a couple who are Charlie Russell fans. They liked "The Holdup", and promptly purchased it. They also agreed to leave it hang until the show was over. It was an eye-catcher, and everyone who stopped to look at what I had on display spent time looking at this one in particular. Photos don't do it justice.

Oh yes - they get a THANK YOU.

Constructing Art

Mary Green has Deconstructing Art, so I figured I could have Constructing Art!

I’m going to participate in my very first Quick-Draw/Quick-Finish event on the 7th of August and my second on the 8th. So where to begin?

I was notified a couple of weeks ago that a couple of pieces of my art work on old paper had been juried into the Blackfoot Valley Art Auction. The notification came in the form of a nice letter and a business envelope with a corner card. They also invited me to participate in the Quick-Draw event, and I reluctantly said yes. The reason I say reluctantly is because I’d never done it before, and I have no idea if I can actually finish something in an hour! Because both letterhead and envelope had a Western Swallowtail Butterfly as part of the design, I at least had somewhere to start.

I decided to do a Mini-Poster because although most of my art work takes at least a day, there are a couple of things I can do fairly well including a generic landscape of mountains and trees. I started with a palette on which I put the particulars for the event using a couple of vintage lettering styles. All of my design and preliminary work is done with a pencil. I did perhaps six layouts in pencil of the palette and lettering before I was satisfied with what I had. I left the day area of the date line blank, intending to do the same basic thing for both events, but change three things: I’m going to use a different Red Rose Tea Trading Card, the day will be changed, and the landscape – trust me – it will be different. I simply can’t repeat it.

I purchased some heavier 30# scrapbooking paper in ivory, scanned my layout, and printed two copies of the layout. I proceeded to complete the lettering on the palette and since I used two different trading cards, the color of the lettering will follow the colors present in the butterfly wings.

Using the template again, I produced a layout on the same ivory paper, and did forty-five minutes worth of ‘landscaping’.

Using the Bog Fritillary butterfly wings as a color key, I finished the lettering on the palette for the Friday Night Event, and using the Western Tiger Swallowtail as a color key, I completed the lettering for the Saturday Night event.

The third image is as close as you or I are ever going to get to seeing what the finished piece looks like, or at least I hope it is. I realized by the time I was done with this one that I need more trees in the landscape, but that's easy to do.

Hopefully, it will walk out the door when the Auction is over!