I have to say that last year was one of the most difficult and stressful of my life! I started out the year not liking where I was living, so early in the year I began looking for a house to buy. After viewing 26 different homes, I finally made an offer on one of them in May. I was going to be a project leader for a large mural painting project in Pontiac, Il at the end of June so we moved the closing date out to July 10th. Just before the mural event my father had emergency surgery and was then put in a coma to recover for week.
That was the same week the mural event was scheduled in Pontiac. Some Walldog friends of mine suggested that I go ahead and go to the mural event because I wasn't going to be of much help to my Dad in his condition. I decided that he wouldn't want me just sitting around on his account so I went to the mural event and ended up dedicating the mural to my dad. Unfortunately, my Dad didn't pull through and ended up passing away on July 5th, 2009, His funeral was scheduled for July 9th in Menomonie, WI and I was scheduled to close on my house in Milwaukee on July 10th.
After all that I had to focus on finishing up the programs and slide show for my daughters wedding. She got married on September 12th and the wedding went off very well in spite of all my worries!
In Pontiac I had met a local girl who was painting on the Coca-Cola mural across the street from my project. We started dating shortly before my daughter's wedding and have been hitting it off really well since. We are now planning a life together and are looking forward to many happy years together.
So that's my excuse for being so casual about posting on this blog. But let's get back to the reason for this blog in the first place.
In my last post I was talking about setting up a studio space to work in my basement so I could do some smaller oil paintings. I did get my easels set up and completed a painting for my daughter which I ended up giving to her for Christmas.
Early in January I completed some work for the World of Wheels - Pinstripe Legends Charity event in Milwaukee, WI. At this event, artists from around the country come to the event to paint auto themed art panels to auction off with all proceeds going to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. I painted a couple panels for the event which were donated to be sold at the auctions. Overall we raised over $46,000 at the event.
This is one of my panels....Lettering enamel on painted steel
This panel painted by Ray Drea and signed by Chip Foose ended up bringing over $5000!!!
At the Milwaukee event I was invited to the World of Wheels charity event to be held on March 6th ands 7th in Chicago. I was told that there was going to be several vintage drag cars at the show so I decided to do a fine art style oil painting on canvas for the event. Since there was going to be a few of Don Garlits' Swamp Rat Dragsters at the show I used that as the theme for my painting. I ending up painting a close-up of one of the blown hemi engines used in Don's dragsters.
Here's the finished piece....
I also finished up a couple additional metal panels for the event...
The Chicago event was able to raise over $59,000 for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland.
The next event coming up in my life is the Dog Gone Dandy Walldog mural painting event in Danville, IL. I will be leading one of 15 murals with 165 artists scheduled to attend. My theme for the event is the Illinois Balloon Classic event. My wall is about 29 feet wide by 40 feet tall. This one should be interesting! 15 mural 4 days!
Here is the art proof for my project....
And how I hope that it looks at the end of the Walldog event!
Well, That's it for now. Hopefully I can manage to post again before another 6 months passes by......peace
No comments:
Post a Comment