Ohio Riverscapes Show, October 11, Noon to 7pm

I would like to point out that with the economy in the state that it is in, there are few safe place to invest your money. What a great time to invest your nest egg in fine paintings by Cincinnati's best painters (I am mostly referring to me).
My paintings are worth the same amount of money, if not more than they were before the recent stock market crash. Participate in your own economic bailout, pull your remaining cash out from under your mattress and come buy some art work.

Noon to 7 pm is a long time, so you had better at least come and visit to help the time pass. You know what else makes the time pass? People buying tons of paintings!

(I had written 12am to 7pm, which is even longer- I really need to proofread these things.)




I was going to type all of that out, but just read the above image that Brain Joiner put together. I did replace the image with one of my paintings- even though the painting will not be in the show. It just fit the spot so well. Paintings like that one will be in the show, only smaller and cheaper. That is the ole bait and switch, but instead of doing it with price, I am doing it with quality.

As you can see, refreshments will be provided by Hyde Park Biggs. Nothing sell art like cubes of cheese.

In case you are confused as to were this is, I am supplying a photo of the building, it is on Riverside Drive, which used to be Eastern Ave I think. It is near the Koka coffee shop.





There is a view of the river from this building, so you can take the art outside to compare it to the real thing if you like.

Sketch Group Visitor

There is a select group of artist friends of mine that I meet with every Tuesday evening at one of our studios to sketch from the figure. Lately we have been meeting at my studio. It is a great opportunity for us to study the figure, in an attempt to understand form- in addition to a lot of discussion. It also helps to share the costs of a model (we pay $12 and hour if you are interested in posing email me). Much of the discussion is random thoughts peppered with insults and cheap shots. Occasionally something profound is said, but usually that is not the case.

A few weeks ago we found out a local artist who is studying traditional painting in Florence Italy. Eager to meet a new talent, we invited Shane Wolf to sketch with us. It was great fun to meet a new local painter that is getting some good training and doing such great work. While the methods and techniques are sometimes different, the goal and the results are the same.
Though I do question his abilities as a painter, he did refuse my challenge to wrestle.

I took some photos of the group that night and thought I would post them.
This lovely group shot was taken by our model, Allison.



Group from the back, left to right is of course-me first (I look fat here), then Shane Wolf, Carl Samson, Carolyn Manto, next row is Joe Slucher, and Clem Robins and in front is Ulysses J. (Ully) Marin. It is a handsome group, though Clem has that "cat that ate the canary" look to him.

Please note: Before emailing me to ask if you can be in this group, we have limited space and allow other artists to draw with us only if they have very special qualities. Usually they are hand picked and have to go through a rigorous hazing period. If you are thinking you would like to contact me to ask if you can be in our sketch group you had better have some amazing skills- or at least be willing to bring lots of alcohol.

Top 100 Secret ArtWorks

If you are not familiar, Secret ArtWorks is a fundraising event featuring the exhibition and sale of 5” x 7” works of art from local, national and international artists. All works of art sell for $75 each. The ‘secret’ behind each piece is the identity of the artist – which is revealed after the work is purchased.
Second year in a row, my work was selected to be published in the Secret ArtWorks top 100 Catalog. I did 3 secret art cards for them, and oddly they picked my least favorite, but it got in there. Here is the one that was chosen for the catalog, which will be on sale at the next Secret ArtWorks event on November 14.

My Secret Card from 2007, Selected for the top 100 cards of last year.

Bunny and his Peeps, 7x5, oil on canvas

Mark your calendar!

Secret ArtWorks 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008

I have 4 cards in the mix this year (note shown for obvious reason), and I think they are some pretty good ones.

Sara Pearce Is Leaving the Enquirer

It is unfortunate news, but the Cincinnati Enquirer is no longer going to have an arts editor. They offered buyouts for many of their employees. So after 25 years Sara is leaving . I think a lot of people are leaving, including Jim Borgman.

I had just this week complained to the paper about how terrible the art blog is. Sara had originally set up a very nice blog, that was attractively laid out, easy to navigate and pretty fast. There was some fun discussion on there at times. The Enquirer had her move it to their painfully unattractive and slow site, with all of their other blogs. After that, the comments were slim to none, as the site was just not very good.
I am not sure why, as papers have to be struggling to compete with all the online news and blogs, they should at least make sure their online presence is a powerful one.

While I did not always agree with Sara's opinions (she likes a lot of "art"), she will be missed. She did write a pretty good review about my last show. Though, I thought the article "lacked bravura and polish" that can be found in some of her other work.

She will still be around on her personal blogs.
http://stateoftheartcincinnati.blogspot.com/ - it's a shell at the moment but she told me to keep looking, as it will fill up.
She also created a second blog about the local crafts scene called "craft lust". For some reason that title seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I generally think it is a bad idea to put "lust" in a website title. You are going to place yourself in some weird search results on google- some freaky people may end up at the site, like those that are sexually turned on by crafts (crafts can be pretty hot), but that will make for some interesting comments on that blog.
blogspot.com (http://craftlust.blogspot.com/) with a mirror site at wordpress.com (http://craftlust.wordpress.com/). Why two of the same blog? She wants to see which site she- - and we - like better.

I will do my best to post my opinionated comments on those blogs when they get running.

I'm not sure how it will work getting local news on the arts now. The Enquirer will probably just have a sports writer do an occasional article on the arts. That should be great. They can use cool sports saying to describe the art, like that it is a "home run", a "Strike out", or just say things like "Boo Ya!".
I suppose we should be happy we still have CityBeat, which is really pretty unfortunate. Unless you are a communist.

Beware: Art Buying Scam! UPDATED

I got an email today that had me very excited. It was an email that asked about two paintings of mine. I was busy, read it quickly and just got the fact that someone was interested. Then when I sat down to answer the email I figured out it was a scam. Still hopeful, I googled the address and found a blog post with a discussion of this very thing. So I thought I would post here to help get the word out.
We rent rooms in our house, and my wife gets similar scams like this all the time, asking about the room and and wanting to send a check right away. Usually the English is not so good, they are short and impersonal, or long and too personal.
The scam is that they send a check for more than the amount and ask that you send them the difference. I doubt many people fall for this, but either way, I can see it wasting a lot of time.
Here is the email I received.

Dear Seller

My name is Brian,I reside at 144 broad street,cumber land,R.I. 02864,
USA? I got your Tired Painter | Oil on Linen | 18 x 14 and Dental
Impressionism | Oil on Panel | 9 x 13
the ad site and i' am willing to purchase it, i want you to please
get back to me with the

LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE THE REAL OWNER
YOUR FINAL ASKING PRICE
THE PRESENT CONDITION AND I NEED MORE PICS

As for the Shipping i will take care of that through pick up .
Best of regards

There are sentences in there that don't even make sense, and one isn't even finished. I initially thought he was so excited about my work, he was typing with a frenzy. Just a foreign scammer.
Also, who the hell says "Best of Regards?"
Just so you know, I answered with this:

Tired Painter is $15,000 and Dental Impressionism is $12,000.
Before this goes any further, could you please write at length why you like each of the paintings. I like to know what it is people enjoy about them before I sent them art work. Your email was short and I would like a lot more information about your art collecting past and the kind of work you like. I would love to see some photos of work you have in your collection or at least to know some painters that you collect.

Thanks
The Seller

If you are interested in those paintings, they are available for a much cheaper price than that. I hope this helps and keeps folks out there from wasting their time.
Best of Regards

_________________________________________________________
Update to my scam buyer. He replied to my email and has said he will buy them. Here is his reply:

Thanks for the mail am still interested in purchasing the ( Tired
Painter | Oil on Linen | 18 x 14 and Dental Impressionism | Oil on
Panel | 9 x 13. ),as for the price i will go for $27,500 to keep away
any interested buyer from buying and please kindly remove it from the
site and count it sold to me,cos presently am off the shores of
Norway for my honeymoon.

So i will have to instruct my colleague in USA to send you a check
drawn from a US bank via a courier service, since that is the only
means of payment I can offer now due to my present location

So kindly send me this information so that you can get the payment

Full Name To Be Written On The Check

Full Contact Address,City,State And Cod

Home Or Mobile Phone #

Permanent Email Address

So that I can instruct my colleague to send you the check to enable me
get it on time. Never bother about the shipping I will handle it
myself. I look forward to hear from you as soon as possible and please
note that the shipping company advice me to include the shipping
funds together in the same check
Many Thanks