01/15/2005: "Dick Blick / I Support Salmon!"

Well, I'm waiting on a big shipment of acrylic paints from Dick Blick, I used the package's tracking number and it says that it's "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" but the location says "Anchorage" and you can't drive to Douglas from Anchorage so what the hell?

Which reminds me, the debate here is still heated regarding building a road here from Skagway which would allow people road access to Juneau, which there currently isn't. Half the residents want it and half don't. Two popular bumper stickers here are "Build the Road" and "If you want more roads move down south".

"Down south" means, you know...Seattle or Portland OR. Another of my favorite local bumper stickers simply says "I Support Salmon and I Vote". This means they support *wild* salmon and are anti farmed fish which is tantamount to the devil in these parts.

But I digress, back to my shipment from Dick Blick, they have a sale right now, 70% off of their brand of artist grade acrylic paints, and since I want to start trying acrylic for the underpaintings, I bought up a huge amount for super cheap. I'm a little nervous though, as I've never painted with acrylic and I don't have a clue how to use them. This book I've been reading "How to Draw and Paint" by Stan Smith, has a whole section on how to use them so I'm going to try and do some step by step practice before I get into the work for my show.

In the same shipment are the mediums I'm going to experiment with:

DORLANDS WAX MEDIUM
RESIN AND GEL MEDIUM
W/N BLD/GLAZE OIL MEDIUM
W/N ARTGEL MEDIUM
W/N ARTISTS PAINTING MEDIUM

One thing I think any of us who order from dickblick.com should do, is send emails to their web developer and make the suggestion that they set up a review feature ala amazon.com That way artists could try out a brand of brush, paint, canvas, medium, etc. and then review it with the star system to let other artists know how it really handles. Maybe if they get the suggestion from enough customers they'll find a way to implement it?

In other news, I have my model coming by today for me to take source photos. yeah! I should probably give her a ring and confirm though, as she was supposed to be at a party I went to last night and she never showed up...of course, I left early. I'm not much for parties these days but I like the fact that I'm still invited to a lot of them. I'm going to throw my big winter bash in Feburary and I'm already kindof looking forward to it. I haven't thought of a theme yet but something will come to me.
An art related theme party would be fun. Any suggestions?

Replies: 2 Comments

on Sunday, January 16th, RR said

How about 'subjects from famous paintings'? You might get a few Mona Lisa's, or a Sunflower', or a Dancer etc. That way people could pretty much come as whoever or whatever they liked and it keeps it open :-)

on Sunday, January 16th, Elise said

Hmmm, interesting idea. I never thought about costumes but that could be really fun.