News From Home

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we're home and have decided to stay home for the winter and spring seasons. So we'll not be touring during the first half, and most likely the first 9 months of 2011. We're gonna miss everyone at the spring shows!

The Tourmaline painting featured below also sold during our tour, so it's no longer available.

We enjoyed a stunning fall this year while traveling through West Virigina and Virginia. We've never seen a fall as beautiful as this one. Both of us were especially taken with West Virginia, as well as the the mountains above Stewart, Virginia.

Lastly, we were invited to show and sell art through a fine gallery at Colonial Williamsburg--and we accepted the offer! So we are proud to partner with Steve King, owner of Gallery on Merchant's Square, located at 440A Duke of Gloucester Street in the heart of Williamsburg, Virginia. See the Gallery website at www dot galleryonmsq dot com. We met Steve during the Stockley Gardens Art Show at Norfolk and are delighted he asked for us to come see his gallery on our journey home.

Available Small Favourite

Tourmaline
Soft pastel with watercolor on rag board
Copyright 2011 AB Word
6.5 x 7.5 image size
Framed original painting available for $1,250.00

New Painting and Frame

Our War at Home

Soft pastel on rag board

Copyright 2011 AB Word

Shown in it's Rails and Ties picture frame

Copyright 2011 Barrie Lynn Bryant

Framed original painting available

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We are especially pleased with this painting and frame combination. On one hand we hope it doesn't sell during the tour, but on the other hand we hope that it does. As with any image on our blog, click on it to see an enlargement. WOOHOO!

Recent Awards & Show Notes

We've had some great success with several shows, including winning awards at Con*Stellation, Monte Sano, and Lincoln (not pictured, Award of Excellence). Sales have been a bit sluggish this season, but Monte Sano was pretty good since we sold the AT THIRTEEN original piece pictured downthread on our blog.

FALL 2011 SCHEDULE

We are attending six art shows this season and will probably exhibit artwork in two fantasy and science fiction conventions with further probability of attending one of those on two days. See our schedule below and come see us at a show!

SEPTEMBER

10-11 Colorado Art Festival at Castle Rock, CO
13-15 Con*Stellation 30 at Huntsville, AL (attending art show Friday & Sunday)
14 Monte Sano Art Show at Huntsville, AL (attending booth 16 all day Saturday)
24-25 Fall for Art at Lincoln, NE
29-01 Archon 35 at St. Louis, MO (probably mailing art to the show)
30-02 Longview Art & World Music Festival at Longview, MO (Kansas City)

OCTOBER

07-09 Highland Art in the Park at Highland, IL (near St. Louis)
15-16 Stockley Gardens Arts Festival at Norfolk, VA

New Painting...

At Thirteen

soft pastel on rag board

5.5 x 9 inches image

copyright 2011 AB Word

original and limited edition print available

call Barrie at (307) 864-2697, 8:00-8:00 MST

BEST IN SHOW at Tifton, Georgia

We're delighted to report that we've won Best in Show during The Love Affair Art Show at Tifton, Georgia held this past weekend. The winning artwork, Neither Here Nor There, is pictured below in its 23kt gold leaf picture frame with stained glass panels.

Two of Our Most Popular Paintings

Day of Endless Wonder is always an art show crowd favourite. The original framed soft pastel painting is available for purchase for $5,500. Come see it and our others we will feature in Lake Wales Art Show at Lake Wales, Florida March 26 & 27.

Also available during Lake Wales Art Show are the original framed soft pastel painting of Only You Beside Me for $4,000 as well as a limited Edition Reproduction for $89.

Sometimes it's hard to tell which painting gets the most attention during an art show since each time we exhibit a group, several paintings compete with one another for patrons' most popular. However, we feel that our most popular painting during the Fairhope show this past weekend was Only You Beside Me and most popular painting and picture frame combination was A Day of Endless Wonder.

BEST OF SHOW at Gulf Breeze

We were flabergasted when AB Word was called to receive BEST OF SHOW at the 2011 Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts art show held March 12-13. Judge for the event was the attentive and personable Carol Malt, PhD, a scholar, author, and professor at University of West Florida.

Thank you for admiring our art, Dr. Malt. WOOHOO!

NEW PAINTINGS for SPRING 2011

Now that we are on the road touring, we are delighted to present 10 new framed paintings to our spring 2011 art shows. Five of these new ones are part of AB's new series she calls War Portraits, and four of them feature United States Civil War subject matter in honour of our history and the sesquicentennial year of the War beginning. Included herewith are some from the War Portraits series, all copyright 2011 AB Word & Merglenn Studios.


War Portrait #6: Recruit

This artwork features the famous recruiting poster from 1921 in Barrie's frame of steel, weathered oak barnwood with red paint, and brass screws.

War Portraits #4 & # 7 features gold leaf and fumed oak frame with

hand carved columns and ionic order capitals.

This is my favourite image and frame combination and it shows what can be done with leftover pieces of wood. Frame features leopard, padauk, and macassar ebony wood and iron adornment.

War Portrait #5: Sparrows

PICTURE FRAME MAKING WORKSHOP

We are delighted to announce that Barrie will be teaching a picture frame making workshop for the Museum Academy in Huntsville Museum of Art on May 19 & 20. The course is designed to improve student ability to unify the picture frame with the artwork as well as personalize the picture frame so that it better represents the artist's intention.

For more information about the course or to sign up, contact Barrie at (727) 686-3176, or Laura Smith, Museum Academy Director, at (256) 535-4350.

Course Title:

Art + Frame = A Complete Work of Art
Unifying the picture frame with the artwork it contains


Philosophy:

Picture frames and artworks go together like couples do with marriage. Creating meaningful relationships between my picture frames and my wife's paintings is my goal. The ultimate compliment is when someone says, "These paintings couldn't be framed any other way. They are complete works of art."


Course Description and Objectives:

Students will become familiar with picture frame history through a lecture and visual aids; they will learn how frames are made and with what materials they are made, such as types of woods, gold leaf techniques, and non-traditional materials such as steel and stained glass; they will consider creating more meaningful and artful picture frames that unify themselves with the artworks they contain; they will use their imaginations to design and draft a unique picture frame on paper and then share the designs through group discussion; and students will take home a gold leaf picture frame that they have embellished with sgraffito design by applying hand made egg tempera (egg yolk + pigment powder) and then removing part of the tempera to reveal the gold leaf underneath.

SPRING 2011 SHOW SEASON SCHEDULE

Come see us at the following art shows and events

March

• 5-6 Frisco Art in the Square at Frisco, TX (North Dallas area)
• 12-13 Gulf Breeze Celebrates the Arts at Gulf Breeze, FL (Pensacola area)
• 18-20 59th Arts & Crafts Festival at Fairhope, AL (Mobile Bay area)
• 26-27 Lake Wales Art Show at Lake Wales, FL (Central Florida)

April

• 2-3 Renaissance Fine Arts Festival at Ridgeland, MS (North Jackson)
• 9-10 Santa Fe Spring Arts Festival at Gainesville, FL
• 15-17 Atlanta Dogwood Festival at Atlanta, GA
• 30-01 The Love Affair at Tifton, GA

May

• 13-15 Artisphere at Greenville, SC
• 19-20 Huntsville Museum of Art at Huntsville, SC (picture frame making workshop limited to 12 students, so contact Laura Smith, Museum Academy Director, (256) 535-4350, for details and enrollment.)