I’ll let you in on a little secret. What I really aspire to is that when I die, one of my paintings will turn up on Antiques Roadshow and the expert will explain that Hal Mayforth was a humorous illustrator who appeared in many publications during the late 20th century and the early 21st century, but upon his death, his paintings have become extremely popular with collectors. This example at auction would be expected, conservatively to go for 50k. Hey, one can dream can’t one? Anyway, here are 350k worth of watercolors.
Burning Off the Weekend Fog - this painting inspired the print I featured in my last post.
My finished print. Registration was a bit difficult and minor discrepancies were touched up with watercolor.
A couple of months ago I was invited to participate in a print show/ auction that would commemorate the 30th anniversary of Flynn Center for Performing Arts and Burlington City Arts for the benefit of both organizations scholarship programs. The idea was to have 30 different artists/celebrities create prints that would be available through a silent auction. These are two wonderful organizations, and I was honored to be invited, but it would have meant that I would have to make numerous trips to Burlington (about 50 minutes each way) to participate. Given my work schedule, I was on the fence a long time about this and finally decided that I should throw caution to the wind. It just might be good for me to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.
At my first meeting with printmaker Jennifer Koch (Love her work, check it out) it was determined that I would create a woodcut, and when we looked at the image I was thinking of doing, we figured that it would be ideal for three colors. The last time I had done a woodcut was in college and I had forgotten how much fun it was. In subsequent meetings we proofed the master block and Jennifer cut a second block with a band saw for 3 color shapes. When it came to printing the color all went smoothly except for the fact that we printed on the wrong side of the block, so for the price of an extra trip to Burlington, I got 7 color block prints that were useless to the project, but provided me with some color prints to draw on. Aside from that minor glitch the rest of the project went smoothly.
The opening last Friday was packed and it was very interesting to see the what everyone else had done. To check out the other participants, click here.
Celebrity participants included Ben and Jerry of ice cream fame and former governor Madeline Kunin.
Fog One. The next four images are the backward printed color images that I went back in and drew on with pen, color pencil and watercoler.
Fog Two. It was terrific working with Jennifer and at the end of the project I gave here a choice of drawings as a gift and she chose this one.
I have had a long troubled relationship with mathematics. I had my share of math teachers whose expiration dates were long past due and the result was a quickening of the pulse and hives when confronted with any problem dealing with time and distance and what would happen if Timmy left 20 minutes later than Sally but was travelling on his bike. This stuff would kill me. But it does provide for some pretty good material. Here are are a couple of personal paintings along these lines and owing from the response they've received when I've shown them, I get the feeling there is a huge untapped mathphobe market out there.
The Arthop in Burlington has become the premier art event in Vermont with over 500 artists showing at 200 venues throughout Burlington's old South End. I happened to grow up right around the corner from this, so I always look forward to this event.
This year sculptor John Brickels asked me to show my work in his gallery/studio and I jumped at the opportunity. I had met John a couple of times in passing at various art openings, but didn't know him very well. I certainly knew his work which I admired for it's sense of humor and craftsmanship. Last April during my residency at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson, Vt, John and his wife, painter Wendy James, happened to have a studio right across the hall from my studio we were able to hang out for an extended period of time. Getting to know John was like meeting a long lost brother. Albeit a long lost brother who is very sarcastic.
I think John's claymobiles are particularly cool. He scours EBay for old pedal car bodies and tricks them out with suspensions and hemis, all in clay. He completed the presentation of '41 Chrysler by including a bag of oregano in the open glove compartment. Nice touch. Here's what his work looks like. Check out more at his site.
