Festival Season

This time of year, across the South, you cannot drive 30 minutes without hitting some sort of street festival. Today, just around Atlanta, there are 7 events vying for your attention, you can head up to Marietta for the Sweet Ps Arts Festival or the Buzzard Blast in Louisville. Me, I will be biking over to my favorite, the Inman Park Festival.
These street fairs play an important role in the art market food chain. I know artists that got their start by selling their wares on the festival circuit and I wonder how many young collectors bought their first painting or sculpture from a booth at one of these events? I bet most. At the larger fairs, like the Inman, you can find work that would not look out of place hanging on the walls of most Atlanta galleries, (for a fraction of the price). So, don't turn up your nose you "art hipsters", grab a funnel cake or some Dippin' Dots and join the fun.


Top: Inman Park Festival 2010, an artist I admire, Mr Hooper, had a booth this year, check out his work here.

Earth Day-Torrit Grey

Each spring in honor of Earth Day, the folks at Gamblin gather the pigments that have accumulated in there air filtration system and create a tube of paint they call Torrit Grey (available the month of April and free as a promotion). The color is named after the Torit air filters used in their Portland Oregon factory. From a dove grey to an earthy black, the color varies depending on the dominate pigments used in production that year. The "color-geek" in me wonders if the resulting hue symbolizes the mood of the populace. Out of the tube, this year's Torrit is almost black, as you add white there is a slight hint of red...uh-oh, have at it Mr. Beck.

Above:The 2010 edition, I picked up mine at the Utrecht store on Peachtree. Do a better painting than above and enter it in there Fall competition, win prizes.

Roadtrip,Chattanooga

This past Thursday we took a day trip to Chattanooga, home of the "Choo Choo", Tennessee Aquarium, MoonPies, Walnut St. Bridge, and The Hunter Museum of American Art. Walked the bridge (despite the threatening clouds), bought some MoonPies for the ride home (thumbs-up for new peanut butter flavor), but spent most of the afternoon at the Hunter and the surrounding neighborhood. The museum is located in the Bluff View Arts District, scenically perched on a rock cliff 80 ft. above the Tennessee River. The collection is outstanding, ( thanks for the suggestion Clayton), you can preview it here. The following are just two of the many works I studied at length, (family patience was appreciated).

Thomas Hart Benton,"The Wreck Of Ole '97", 1943, egg tempera on masonite, 28x44, fantastic color and narrative.

This painting is a mystery, date and artist are unknown, they gave it the title of "Oh!". What is going on here?, the scale of the basket items are whack, the men in the background, with the coordinating arm gestures, are involved in some sort of incident, I love it.


Top: The Hunter Museum, original mansion on the right, new wing on the left.
Bottom: View of the Hunter from the Walnut St Bridge. I have more photos on Flickr

Spring Cleaning

I initiated a personal program last month, I call it the, "Throw something away everyday project." My name is Charles and I am a "pack rat". You reach a stage in life where the junk starts cluttering up your mind, the rationale of I can fix or use "that" begins to nag. This liberating exercise has picked up steam as I have begun to recognize its value. Luckily, in my neighborhood, whatever you place on the curb miraculously disappears by the end of the day; a TV set, lamp, lawn mower, chalkboard, metal pipe, books, shoes, VCR tapes, bathroom fixtures...gone within hours. Who picks up this stuff up?..wait, that used to be me!

So far, my only snag has occurred in the studio, specifically, what to do with old paintings? I have attempted weeding out the racks before, but as I start the process I get caught up in "looking", I know the story behind these pictures and there place in my development, nothing gets tossed, yet.


Above: one from the racks, not bad, WESTERN SONG 22x18 oil canvas,1998