This Weekend! Vale Arts Show THIS Friday-Sunday!

Happy Monday Everyone!  Don't forget to come on over to the Vale Schoolhouse this weekend!  There will be fantastic original art as well as prints and note cards from nine fabulous artists (if I do say so myself :-P).

Doors are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., with the opening reception being held Friday from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.  

As always, it is free and open to the public, so come on down!  There is a kids craft table outside and plenty of fun to be had.  Hope to see you there!!!!

ValeArts Spring Show & Sale

Vale Schoolhouse

Corner of Fox Mill Road and Vale Road

Oakton, Virginia

 Hope to see you there!

Fun with Winnie the Pooh!

Well I just wrapped up a really fun project, a Winnie the Pooh mural for a twins nursery in Maryland.  If you haven't seen much of my other mural work, it's because I really don't paint walls very often since I'm an oil painter by trade.  That said, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to paint this large scale mural.  It scales three walls, with the name of each baby on the fourth wall over their cribs.

We decided on a classic Pooh theme, and connected the three walls to make it feel like one large scene with the oak tree in the middle.  Above you can see Pooh being pulled out of Rabbit's House.

Here is a close up of the scene!

On the far wall, Roo hangs out with some butterflies.  Like most commissions, it was really fun, and painting that large was a great challenge, in addition to painting in acrylic as opposed to oil.  Acrylic dries very fast, so shading can be really tough sometimes.  I'm used to putting paint on canvas and being able to play with it for days!

So what do you think?!  I would love to hear it!

Hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying this gorgeous weather!  Ahhhhh I breathe a sigh of relief when I see the first Spring blossoms!!!!

Quick Fix! The Dreaded Dented Canvas

Photo Courtesy of Laptopstolullabies.com

Whether you are a professional artist, hobby artist, or art lover, you may have encountered the absolute dreaded canvas "dent," when a stretched canvas is inadvertently rested on something that creates pressure on a particular part of the canvas, creating a bubble or dent in the canvas like in the picture above.  This may have happened to you as an artist, or even as an art owner, moving art around for hanging.  So now what?  A ruined canvas?  Not necessarily!

Simply take a very damp paper towel or sponge, and wet the back of the dented part of the canvas (not the front!!!!).  Make sure that the dented part is wet, although don't feel the need to totally soak it.  A spray bottle of water also works well in this case.  After you dampen the affected area, simply place in front of a sunny window and the fibers will naturally tighten and in most cases, the dent will disappear. In some cases, there may still be a slight ripple, which can be removed by simply re-stretching that part of the canvas (a frame store can also do this for you if you aren't experienced in stretching).

Voila!  This works for both linen and cotton canvas, so have no fear, a solution is here!

Did it work for you?  Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you!