Ferdinand Frolicking

Ferdinand Frolicking, 22"x30", watercolor & encaustic on panel

Ferdinand is an interesting piece in that he's a little different than the other brightly colored pieces of this collection.  He's much more 3-D than the others. 

When my brother was little, he was in the hospital for a couple of weeks with patches over his eyes from an accident.  My Aunt Jean read several books to him via cassette tape and he listened to them in the hospital.  We also listened to her read those same books over and over on the tape for years thereafter.  Ferdinand was our favorite story and when I saw this little red bull emerge in this piece, he (the little bull) told me that his name was, of course, Ferdinand. VERY special memories rush back to me every time I see him.  Aunt Jean was always very special in my life.

Do my pieces always tell me what to name them?  Most of the time they do.

These brightly colored pieces all have a common process that is utilized to create the image.  I begin with handmade watercolor paper, water and pigment.  I slosh around each color randomly, let the paper dry and then slosh another color on.  Sometimes images are so strong and emerge so quickly, like with Ferdinand, that I feel compelled to include them in the finished piece.  Other times, there is no clear figural image or there is one but I choose to ignore it.  Those pieces generally convey an abstract thought, movement or light.

Ferdinand, as the others like him, continued to be developed further with watercolors until he almost looked like a finished watercolor piece.  Then comes the wax.  Yay!  I mounted the paper to a self-framing board and began the dots. 

I love making the dots of color out of the encaustic wax.  One of the very first things I learned about art was how to mix paint to match any color in the world.  I've carried that over into the wax pigments as well and thoroughly enjoy it.  The colored dots can be larger or smaller, match the paint underneath or be their opposite on the color wheel.  I use them to emphasize certain areas or show where backgrounds are.  Sometimes I make them in patterns just because they're pleasing to the eye.

Ferdinand, just like the little bull in the children's book, chose to be just a little bit different than all the others with the bright colors.  In one of the layers of watercolors, he chose to bend the paper just where his horns are.  I then chose to emphasize his horns.  They are bowed out by the paper as well as thick layers of wax laid down in such a way that the texture almost feels like horns when you touch them.

At that point, Ferdinand himself had to be waxed in a different way.  I applied darker and lighter shades of red wax layers.  The wax was carved through the layers in a stylized manner to create his eyes, muscles and hair and shade his features.  He's truly a very special little bull.

Flip Flop

Flip Flop is mostly a found object piece but is mixed with encaustic wax.  We hadn't been back from Hawaii long when I was throwing away tons of coke boxes and saw a beach in them.  In case you're reading this from somewhere other than the great state of Texas, the term "coke" is used to describe any brand of soft drink. 

The bright, wonderful colors in this piece are made up of lots of different types of coke 12-pack boxes.  They are layered on top of each other and the encaustic wax.  Gravel, sand, broken glass and mirror are also layered in with iridescent blue and gold pigmented wax to represent the feel of walking on the beach.  Larger, thicker pieces of broken green glass represent a broken bottle, littering the beach.  There is so much water and soft drinks at our house in the summer.  This piece is a happy reminder of the bright, happy fun of summer.

Pay Pal Available for The Watercolors series

Have an original watercolor delivered to your door in time for the holidays!  Choose a piece from the blog, contact us, pay via Pay Pal and the piece will arrive, matted and framed on your doorstep right away.   

Call Blake for assistance: 877-877-8766

Ken

Ken  24"x49"  encaustic, toad and videotape

Barbie and Ken are matching pieces.  They're not a traditional diptych because they don't need to be hung together.  They don't match in the traditional sense but rather the thought, age and stage of each piece's concept is the match.  They are both conceptual pieces, one of a female and one of a male at age 40.

The most difficult work of art to understand is often a conceptual piece.  It takes effort on the part of the artist to convey the thought of the piece. Likewise, it takes effort on the part of the viewer to let go of  preconceptions of what a piece of art should be and ask instead what is this piece trying to say.

I'm sure there are pieces of art that seem crazy to the majority of the public and also have nothing to say.  However, I find that if there is a soup can sitting on the floor across from a film projector in a pile of candy, there's generally something that is being said.  Now when you see pieces such as that, you can say, "Ah, I bet that's a conceptual piece of art" and you will most likely be right.

Ken is conceptual.  Ken has 150 or so individually crafted orbs of videotape merged together into a loose rectangular mass.  There are a few manly-hued primary colors of encaustic wax and a bit of dark colored netting hiding amongst the videotape.  Oh and there's a small dead toad hiding in the corner.  A uniform, sensual 1/2 inch thick layer of natural beeswax makes the base.

A toad?  "What would posses a person to do that?" I've had many people ask.  After my previous blog, Frenzy, with the dead bees, I thought an explanation would be helpful.  I found the toad outside one evening while I was working on Ken.  He was already dead and dried out, perfectly posed like he is in the piece.  He's been dipped in the encaustic wax so he's perfectly preserved forever. The purpose of the toad in the piece is to say that even though you're a 40-something man, you still have a dead toad in your pocket, as you would as a 4 year old boy.

Conversely, the videotape, the scale and the smoothness of the wax show how you're a 40-something man.  You are self-assured, you know what you like, you enjoy techno-toys, such as the latest video-flat screen-sub-woofer-whatever-it-is that men need to be men.  Ken is clean and sexy with a sleek, media-room style while still being a little boy underneath his facade.  Ken is a complex man in all the most wonderful ways.

Frenzy

Frenzy is a small work: only 10"x8". I was working on other pieces one afternoon and had the door open for ventilation with the encaustic wax.  A single bee flew in the door, up to the ceiling and then dove, Kamikaze-style, straight down into the hot wax. 

Within a few minutes, there were many more bees in the room. I closed the door to prevent further bees from entering as I wondered how to get the inside bees back outside.  Several more dove into the wax.  I noticed that they were perfectly preserved so I set out to make a piece out of them. 

As I was working at a frenzied pace on three pieces, the bees were in their own frenzy from the scent of the heated beeswax.  My first sting came from me stepping on one of the bees that was walking on the floor. 

My second sting came when I tried to dip a dead bee from the windowsill into the wax.  I lost it from the hand that was holding the bee and impaled myself with its stinger in the palm of the other hand.  After that, he definitely got dipped in the wax!

If you'll look closely at the piece, toward the bottom center, you'll see little white bubbles.  That was the baking soda and water dripping from my stung hand as I continued to work.

Since making this piece and the traumatic day for all concerned, I have spoken to a bee charmer lady named Michelle Pryor.  She instructed on how to safely coexist with the bees that are continuously interested in my art.

I think there are 12 or so bees in this piece, perfectly preserved.  If you look closely, you can even see some of their little tongues.  A one of a kind piece, for sure!

Stacey and Me

My friend, Stacey and I are going to decorate her shop window on the historic Granbury Square tonight.  Details to follow.

The Watercolors

There have been a couple of questions about available remaining pieces from The Watercolors collection. Most of my pieces are under contract with galleries. However, these listed below are currently in my possession. The prices shown are my prices without the commission fees of a gallery.  It's a sale, of sorts :)

For more information, call Blake at 877-877-8766 or shoot me an email at budflad@hotmail.com.

Here are pics and specs for the remaining watercolors: 

Blue Glass   14"x14" watercolor on paper, unframed

$150

Bridge Street 11"x14", watercolor on paper, matted

and framed to 16"x 20"

$250

The Butterfly Mosquito  22"x30", watercolor on paper,

unframed

$400

Nell's Ice Bucket     22"x15", watercolor

on paper, matted and framed to 32"x25"

Awarded 2nd place in Statewide

Bosque County Art Show, 2009 

$700

 The Best Is Yet to Come  30"x22"

matted and framed to 44"x36"

Watercolor and gold pigment on paper

Featured in the group show, Stars of Texas

Brownwood, Texas 2009

$900

Lightbulb   22"x15", unframed,

watercolor on paper

$250

Lures   22"x30", matted and framed to 32"x40"

watercolor on paper

$400

Mexican Purse 15"x22",unframed, watercolor on paper

$150

Mike's Cows (actually Mike Scott's nephew's cows)

22"x30", unframed, watercolor on paper

$400

Pearl Street Station: Granbury, Texas  11"x14",

matted and framed to 16"x20", watercolor on paper

$250

Granbury Square  11"x14", matted and framed to

16"x20", watercolor on paper

$250

Sweet Leilani   22"x13"

matted and framed to

32"x23", watercolor

on paper

$300

Tree of Hope  22"x15", matted

and framed to 32"x25",

watercolor on paper

$300

Art WIthout Boundaries Invitation

I hope to see you all here in beautiful Granbury!  The show will be great fun; the pieces are so captivating in person.  Also, for those of you who don't live here, consider coming down for the day and doing the Candlelight Tour of Homes.  The entire town will be decorated for the Holidays and I've never seen a town down small town charming as well as Granbury does.  Oh, and the shopping!  It'll be a good time!

Press Release for Art Without Boundaries

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Art Without Boundaries: Explorations and Clarity

A one-woman show featuring local artist, Ann-Marie Barker

Show Dates: December 3-5, 2010

CONTACT: Blake Barker (877) 877-8766
 blakebarker@hotmail.com     www.annmariebarker.com

Art Without Boundaries: Explorations and Clarity, a solo exhibition featuring local artist, Ann-Marie Barker, opens December 3^rd. The show will be displayed in Tarleton State University’s Dora Lee Langdon Cultural & Education Center’s Concert Hall, on the corner of Brazos Drive and Bridge Street in Granbury, Texas. 

Meet the artist and hear about her current body of work at a public Opening reception Friday evening from 6:00-9:00pm.

The show and sale begins on Friday morning at 10am and runs until Sunday December 5^th at 4:00pm.  It will run concurrently with Granbury’s annual Candlelight Tour of Homes.

The remainder of the collection will be for sale in art galleries in Dallas and Fort Worth after the show.

Ann-Marie is currently blending encaustic beeswax, watercolor, and found objects into her paintings and sculptures in a unique and exciting way.  The happy brightness of color and texture in the collection appeals to a wide audience of all ages.

Encaustic art includes heat and pigmented wax and has been used in art since ancient times.  Ann-Marie brings a never seen before twist to this ancient tradition that is not to be missed.

Ann-Marie’s art is featured at Your Private Collection Art Gallery on the square in Granbury, TX.  She has been featured locally in the Lake Granbury Art Association’s art shows as well as the Bosque County art show in Clifton, TX and the Stars of Texas art show in Brownwood, TX.  She also shows and sells her work at venues around the country.

Gallery hours are Friday, 10am-6pm; Saturday, 10am-7pm; Sunday, 12noon-4pm

For more information, please visit www.annmariebarker.com 

or call 877-877-8766.

Encaustic Wax

Encaustic wax, in my case, is beeswax mixed with a resin and heated.  The word encaustic means to burn.  It is treated and heated at different temperatues to create different effects.  It preserves whatever is encased in it, forever. There's almost always heat involved but wax for sure :)

The feel and the look of the wax is deep and soft and sensual in many ways, which makes it a great medium.  It is much more durable than it looks and proper techniques are used to ensure that each piece is as archival as it can be.

The abstract beginning

Icicle,   24"x30", oil on canvas


To begin my blog, I thought it best to start at the beginning of the abstract story.  Icicle was intended to be a landscape piece in the style of Thomas Kinkade for my brother-in-law.  It was all going swimmingly until I realized that after years of painting landscapes, animals, barns and other musings of daily life, I had my fill.  I turned the canvas on its side and began a color study which turned into the icicle.  The freedom to experience the materials' colors and textures won me over.  In this blog, I intend to share thoughts about mine and other's pieces in the hope of opening minds to the wonderful, boundless possibilities of art.