finished mural

The last three days I've been working at The Harvesters church off of Transit and Seneca completing a Children's themed Noah's Ark mural. Just finished this mural yesterday and still washing the airbrush paint off of my body. This mural was created with acrylic and airbrush paints and was designed to match the original mural that was destroyed when the room was renovated. I have to say this was a fun mural, it didn't take too long to complete and it should makes some kids happy. I also got to paint a little portrait of my parrot Smeagol in the design. The funny thing is he is the only animal in that whole mural that does not have a partner. If you know Smeagol, he doesn't get along with many things and would never board a ship with another parrot of his kind. If you are looking for him he is on the up most top of the giraffe's head on the left.

new Halloween mask

Here is a new edition to my Halloween costume collection. This mask should be finished soon and will be for sale in my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/jdhorst in the next few days, if I don't decide on keeping it for this Halloween. The little pumpkin guys on top light up with tea lights. I still have to name the mask.

back to oils

I had a long run with acrylics and found some great advantages with the dry time of the paint and the ability to do washes and layers. Recently I just ordered over 100 tubes of some really good Grumbacher pre-tested oils to divert away from acrylic and go back to my roots in the oil paint world. I just finished a portrait which was the first oil painting I've done in about 3 years. Now that I have worked with the oils again I don't think I'll go back to acrylics.

Erie County Fair Plein Air painting contest

Thanks to all that came to visit me while I was painting at the Erie County Fair in the Plein Air contest. I had between the hours 11-4 to paint something on the fair grounds. I was going to paint the midway, but thought there may be too many people painting in that area, so I painted the cows. I really never painted cows before so I thought this would be a nice change. I made some nice farmer friends and got to learn a little bit about the behind the scenes of farming. It was way too hot of a day and even a few of the painters dropped out. I battled through the heat and finished a pretty decent cow painting. After all was said and done I placed 3rd which was fine I guess. The painting will be displayed in the creative arts building till the fair ends.

The Weekly Sketch

This had been a busy week in the art world. I've decided to post another finished piece that you may see the next time you visit your local Buffalo based library. This piece was created for Read to Succeed Buffalo, a local organization that promotes reading. I'll try to keep a better track record for my weekly posting, apologies!

Another Goonie Adventure

Wow, my plan to keep posting about our Goonie adventure failed when I realized there was no physical way I could keep up with all the stuff going on in Astoria. It was 4 days straight of me wearing a Sloth costume running around town taking pictures with hundreds, possibly thousands, of fellow Goonie fans. My brother, wife, and myself had the best times of our life. Seeing the Goonie house and Haystack Rock was truly inspiring and well worth the thousands of miles driven. I never would've imagined the town of Astoria to have become so saturated with the movie. I ate Goonie themed food, drank Goonie themed beer and couldn't walk into a single Astorian business without hearing something about The 25th. I felt at home and made many friends. I was blessed to have my artwork used in the event and all the positive emotions felt in this trip will fuel future works of art.

David got signed by Jeff Cohen,"Chunk," Sean Astin, "Mikey," Corey Feldman, "Mouth" Richard Donner "director," and will now retire on my coffee table until I can get the rest of the Goonies to sign him. My Sloth mask will be packed away until the Astorians decide on having a 30th, I may have kids by then, but you can damn well rest assure that they'll be well versed in the classic!

Another Goonie Adventure

Dave is getting around and is excited because in another day he will be in the Goon Docks...he doesn't like the truckers looking at him though.