STAMPINGTON'S 2010 ART JOURNALING CALENDAR
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Edit This 4 Comments »
WOOHOOOOO...I am published in the calendar. You can order/see the preview HERE.
ACCEPTANCE INTO MY FIRST GALLERY, HOWARD FINSTER FOLK ART, AND NEW PAINTING!!! (LONG POST!)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Edit This 12 Comments »
Good Morning!! WOW..the past two days have been a blur. This is my newest painting.
Let me start with Sunday at the Chattanooga Market. We arrived, and set up, and the day went pretty well. Nature Boy and I ate too much sugary goodies, and both of our heads were swimming...but the day went ok. Not one of the better days that we had there, but thanks to Nature Boy's robots--we had an ok day of sales.
Late in the day, this woman walked up to us, and was going nuts over our art...and asked if we had ever heard of Howard Finster..well, we HAD!! Years ago, when we were heavy into buying antiques and collectibles, we would go to a Flea Market on Tuesday mornings in Summerville, Georgia. We ran across someone that started talking to us about folk art, and outsider art, and they mentioned Howard Finster. We came home, and looked him up on the computer, and read everything about him. We made plans to visit his home, gallery and museum one day...well..time went on, and we never did get around to making that visit. But, this discovery did start us in our love of primitive folk art.
Fast forward to the Market on Sunday (about 5 years after first hearing of Mr. Finster), and this woman was asking us to put our art in the Howard Finster Paradise Gardens Gallery!! I took my art to her on Monday, not really knowing what to expect, and being a little more than nervous, and she choose 10 of my pieces, and 3 of Nature Boys!!! He's been doing art about what?? 4 months MAYBE, and he's in a gallery!!! I LOVE IT! So, here's the gallery. It's a wonderous place with many, many different things to see. Please go HERE, and read about Mr. Finster. He has an interesting story. He was a preacher, and he combined his love of God with art. He used his art to talk about the Lord, and he held his church services on the same grounds. The Paradise Gardens are under renovation, and are being restored right now. I hope you find the following pictures as interesting and wonderful as I did.
This is the outside of the garage, the first thing you see when you drive into the parking spots.
Then the gallery. This use to be the Finster's house where they lived.
There is art EVERYWHERE. It's amazing!!!
Here's Nature Boy!!! He followed my directions when I said "MAKE A GOOFY FACE!"..LOL..(he really doesn't look like Howdy Doody on steriods most of the time...LOL.
The Mission Statement of the gallery.
A painting on the outside wall. All pictures are outside, none are allowed inside the gallery, because it houses Mr. Finster's original works..(he did over 46,000 signed pieces in his life)....
Let me start with Sunday at the Chattanooga Market. We arrived, and set up, and the day went pretty well. Nature Boy and I ate too much sugary goodies, and both of our heads were swimming...but the day went ok. Not one of the better days that we had there, but thanks to Nature Boy's robots--we had an ok day of sales.Late in the day, this woman walked up to us, and was going nuts over our art...and asked if we had ever heard of Howard Finster..well, we HAD!! Years ago, when we were heavy into buying antiques and collectibles, we would go to a Flea Market on Tuesday mornings in Summerville, Georgia. We ran across someone that started talking to us about folk art, and outsider art, and they mentioned Howard Finster. We came home, and looked him up on the computer, and read everything about him. We made plans to visit his home, gallery and museum one day...well..time went on, and we never did get around to making that visit. But, this discovery did start us in our love of primitive folk art.
Fast forward to the Market on Sunday (about 5 years after first hearing of Mr. Finster), and this woman was asking us to put our art in the Howard Finster Paradise Gardens Gallery!! I took my art to her on Monday, not really knowing what to expect, and being a little more than nervous, and she choose 10 of my pieces, and 3 of Nature Boys!!! He's been doing art about what?? 4 months MAYBE, and he's in a gallery!!! I LOVE IT! So, here's the gallery. It's a wonderous place with many, many different things to see. Please go HERE, and read about Mr. Finster. He has an interesting story. He was a preacher, and he combined his love of God with art. He used his art to talk about the Lord, and he held his church services on the same grounds. The Paradise Gardens are under renovation, and are being restored right now. I hope you find the following pictures as interesting and wonderful as I did.
HAPPY HAPPY HUMP DAY!!
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Edit This 4 Comments »
Whew!! Hello!! I have been a bit busy this week, and finally got out of my "couch potato" mode..This is some of what I have done..there are more--but, several of the pictures did not turn out. This first one is about 8 x 10 on wood.
This is a cut-out of a fish that Nature Boy cut out for me.

This painting is on that glued together kind of board..I don't know what they call it, but I like the texture that it produced. It's about 11 x 11.
This is done on a 12 x 12 piece of birch. It's very bright in real, and has a lot of depth. I used a ton of plaster on this, painted the different layers, and then sanded it off for the effect. Then I coated it with a glossy varnish. It's really cool up close.
This is a cut-out..with doll arms attached. She was fun to do!!
This one is a house shape piece about 10 x 10.
And THIS is my WORK IN PROGRESS!! I am loving this piece! It's titled " EAT YOUR VEGGIES BEFORE THEY EAT YOU."
I think that I have 4 others, but I will show them later. I have been wonderfully productive this week, and it's only Wednesday!!!WHOOHHOOOOO..
This painting is on that glued together kind of board..I don't know what they call it, but I like the texture that it produced. It's about 11 x 11.
Now..onto more stuff. I am sorry if the story about killing the rattlesnake bothered anyone. Someone emailed me, and said that they were no longer following my art, because I needlessly killed a rattlesnake. Well, for ONE...my husband killed it, not me. TWO... it was on our street, where we have many small children that play regularly outside, and Third..IT WAS A RATTLESNAKE FOR GOD'S SAKE! It wasn't like the innocent black snake that we smooshed with a bathroom plunger two years ago..LOL LOL LOL (LAUGHING OUT LOUD)..Anyway...
On with the work..back to the art room...I made clay heads this morning, so I can do some assemblage dolls. Hugs..and Live Artfully.
Suzan--wife of the evil rattlesnake slayer.
A COUCH POTATO WEEK!!!
Thursday, July 02, 2009 Edit This 7 Comments »
Hello!! Did you all think that I had disappeared?? I have had a busy first half of the week, and a lazy second half..Let's go back to Saturday. I had to go to the store, and as I was driving down our road, there was a HUGE rattlesnake. (Relative to the Alabama Anaconda that lives in our woods)..so, I turned the car around, and went and got Nature Boy to kill the rattler. He grabbed his elephant gun, and his older brother, and off the two of them went to shoot the snake. Luckily, the snake had just eaten some huge animal and was moving slow, but the brothers got to it when it's body was still out of the weeds, but couldn't see it's head. One snake + two country-raised men + an elephant gun =annihilation. LOL..they got out of the truck, and started shooting..LOL..it's so strange to me to live somewhere where a gun going off isn't even noticed. No one even lifts an eyebrow at two grown men outside in the middle of the road, shooting a shotgun...crazy if you ask me.Then on Sunday, Nature Boy and I went to the Chattanooga Market to sell our art, and we had a FULL booth!! It looked SO GOOD!!! We did really great there, had fun, met some new people, bought veggies, and came home...I have been asleep since then. I can't seem to wake up. I have been "piddling", but nothing serious. I did get 4 angels, 4 folk art crosses, 6 small abstracts, and these two paintings done, plus I reworked a 12 x 12 painting, and made it different...but that's not a lot.The one with the moon guy is a rework..remember that I painted the moon guy, and could not decide what do with it?? Well..I finally got around to re-doing it...and I kind of like how it came out.
Well..that's about it..just a boring week..relaxing, sleeping, and watching a mother bird sit on her eggs daily. Waiting for the babies to hatch out...not a bad week after all...Live Artfully!!~~Suzan~~







