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.)

More Winter Studio Renovation

Here are a few more photos from the renovation project.

Carrying gypsum board (a.k.a. sheet rock) from the
lower to upper studios. 5/8 firecode gypsum board is
2.2 pounds per square foot, making a full 4x8 foot
sheet weigh 70 pounds. I used 20 sheets for the project.


How does anyone make money manufacturing and
selling sheet rock? These cost me just $8.80 per sheet
at the local hardware store, Owl Lumber, and that's a
better price than what Home Depot quoted. We do have
a gypsum plant just 90 miles north of us, so maybe that
has something to do with the lower price. The price per
pound is 12.5 cents!

Stapling R-19 insulation to 2x6 studs. This amount of
insulation is necessary in Wyoming. I went out to the
new space earlier this morning and discovered that my
900 watt radiant heater I am using has the temperature
at 46 degrees farenheit, and the temp outside is 15 below
zero! Not to worry. We also have a propane gas vented
stove in the corner to my left in this photo. And when I
turn it on, it takes about 30 minutes to heat the room to
mid-70's! Once I get everything sealed tightly and install
the floor insulation, it'll stay warmer in there. WOOHOO!

Winter Studio Renovation

Adding a new circuit to the service panel.

Stripping new 12-2 Romex wire to install new receptacles

Running Romex wire through studs

and ceiling plates.

Barrie in the attic

In the attic installing wall nailers between joists.

We came home three weeks early from our tour and immediately began interior renovations to our main studio building. The 30x60 concrete cinder block building was built without wall insualtion, and when Wyoming weather drops sub-zero, no one really wants to be in there. Barrie does use the lower half of the building for making frames during the winter, but it's awfully cold.

So Barrie has renovated the top-half of the building (the half that AB also uses to create paintings in when the weather is right) so that the couple could also be together doing their work in a warm and cozy room during the winter months. That room is approximately 15x17 feet and has R-19 wall and floor insulation, and R-38 ceiling insulation. Walls are framed with 2x6 studs and finished with 5/8 gypsum wall board. The door to the warm room is an exterior type door even though it is located within the interior of the building (remember, it's cold out there in the rest of the studio). Barrie did the entire job himself, including running a new electrical circuit from the service panel to throughout the room. WOOHOO!

Florida Tour CANCELLED

We have cancelled our appearance at both Florida locations. We will not be at Winter Springs or Ocala.

Everything is going well on our tour, but we are returning home to Wyoming as of October 11, 2o1o.

Fall 2010 Photo of our booth...AT NIGHT!

We took this photo of our booth during the Friday night reception for Highland Art in the Park at Highland, IL. We love the way the picture lights make everything look at night. We also won one of the top two awards, the Nona Weder Abbott Special Award. WOOHOO!