In my last Enewsletter I announced the two workshops that will be held in Barrie, well they are finally booked! Two workshops will be run with a limit of 15 participant in each class. I hate to limit the numbers, but I found that anymore and I can not give everyone quality one on one time. The First is the Snow Textures workshop were we will be painting “Into the Briar”. This workshop will be a three day workshop held on June 22, 23, 24, 2012 at the Barrie Art Club. Space is limited to 15 people and there is only 6 spaces left as of today. If this workshop fills there will be a second set of dates announced.
The second workshop is the Moving Water workshop schedueled for July 13, 14 & 15, 2012 again at the Barrie Art Club. This workshop is almost full with only 4 spots remaining. Again, if class exceeds 15 people a second date will be schedualed. I have created a full day by day detailed descriptition page on both workshop. The information page is available here.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or inquires about the workshop, my dorr is always open!

 

On The Easel   As the painting for the Celebration of Wildlife Art original is almost done I will be moving on to a couple of new commission that a few collectors have been patiently waiting on. The next painting is one several of you might remember from last year on my blog. It is a composition of a male Cardinal in a winter setting. I am really anxious to start this painting, I think I might even film the painting and make a “Start to finish” DVD from it. I will post its progress to my blog as it comes along. Derek Wicks Cardinal Comp.

Have you ever had one of those weeks were everything just comes apart? And to top it all off these bad weeks always come at the most inopportune time, Murphy’s law, right? Well the last two weeks have been the poster boy for Murphy’s law. I had the second Hard Drive failure of the year for me. Usually this is not a big deal as all my files are backed up. Here comes the but…. but I just bought a new Apple with OSX Lion operating system on it and guess what…. it hates me (LOL). Now do not get me wrong in the end I have found Lion to be a fantastic operating system, it is the delivery of the operating system that sucks! Let me explain. Apple has decided that the operating system for their new computers will be a download instead of having an operating disk in the box when you get your new computer. To make a long story short I had to download and reinstall the OSX 4 times and each download is 6 Gigs big. Apple does not save the OSX as a download so if you start installing again, it is an all new download. Of course all this comes as I am trying to meet the May 1 deadline for having my new painting to the Celebration of Wildlife Art Show in Kenai, Alaska. Despite the severe mental hardship that I have to overcome this last to weeks (feel sorry for me yet?), the painting is coming along nicely and should be completed in about three days. I will post the finished product to my blog on completion.

 

 

 

In my last Enewsletter I broke the news of my inclusion in the Alaska research trip to collect reference for the  “Visions Of The Boreal Forest” show at the Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian, well I have the itinerary, 6 weeks of hell (lol). I am a member of both the Alpine Team and the Kobuk Team, what can I say, I am a gluten for punishment. This trip is such a once in a lifetime honor and opportunity that I figured I would bite the bullet and push the limits traveling the full 500 miles of the trip. The trip will start with a helicopter drop in the Kobuk Mountain range and end 500 miles down river in Kotzebue Alaska. The trip will range from traveling the alpine rapids by canoe to paddling the Grizzly filled shores of the Kobuk river and end with a maritime paddle of the coast in the Bearing Strait. Below is the simplified itinerary of the trip.

 Here is a link to a Google maps page that shows the trip stops: Alaska Trip Map. I will also be landing in Alaska a few days early to make an appearance at the Celebration Of Wildlife Art 2012 show in Kenai, Alaska. Making this trip just short of seven weeks long! I can not wait to go, I am like a small child waiting for Christmas! I plan on presenting my trip in a video / slideshow at my studio during the Images Studio Tour. I want the people who have supported me over the years to be the first to see the trip and the ideas I have for the paintings to be made from the research trip. I will post more info closer to the show in October.

 

Another wonderful year at the SouthEastern Wildlife Expo in Charleston, South Carolina. I had the chance to visit with old friends and new friends and spend a little time with my Cousins from Florida that come up to SEWE over the weekend. It is always nice to see family you don’t get to see very often. Above is my good friend John Hoffman, Maureen and I in my booth posing for our glamour shot. John is the proud owner of “African Penguin Study”. This is John’s second original of mine, he also owns “Sport Of Kings” African Lion. I always have a lot of fun with John at ever show, thanks for being such a great guy!

I would also like to congratulate Don Rambadt on his purchase of “Water Study”. For those of you who do not know Don he is one of the most talented sculptors I have ever had the privileged of knowing. Not only is he a world renowned sculptor who was the featured sculptor at the SEWE show this year, he is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. Thanks Don and congrats!

 

I also want to thank Collen & Dave Stewart for joining me in Charleston, I had a lot of fun with both of you and look forward to our “art” conversations in the future, you are always welcome at my place.

Charleston really is a great time every year. There is no show as grand as the SEWE show and I hope every art lover has the opportunity to experience it at some point.