Random thoughts and bits of life of a coffee loving artist

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Car Demo for Amador County Artists Society

"Sultan's Prize" by Dawn Star Wood 

Back in November I was sent a message by a woman named Leslie, a member of the Amador County Artist Association, letting me know that she and another member of the art group had seen my painting Sultan's Prize at last year's KVIE Art Auction Preview Gala. As she describes to me how fascinated they were of my work, I was surprised when she asks me if I wouldn't mind speaking and doing a demonstration of my work at one of their monthly meetings for 2013. Thinking things over, I really wasn't sure what I should do since I have never explained to a group of people how I paint and in all honesty public speaking has never been one of my strengths. After nearly an entire day of conflicted feelings and uncertainty, I emailed Leslie back and said that I would do it with the thought in the back of my mind that I really had nothing to loose.

After months of email correspondence between the two of us and my surprisingly increased work load for this year, we settled that I would be the guest artist for the month of April. With that hurdle jumped, I found myself having a new dilemma: What in the world was I going as a painting? Leslie had suggested doing another peacock but I really didn't want to do another piece of the flamboyant birds. After bouncing ideas around, I decided on showing how I do the reflective surfaces of vehicles. I think it was either in a moment of madness or perhaps brilliance, I went through my folder of classic vehicle photo references that I have on one of my hard drives and spent an hour scrolling through each picture I had saved to it to find the right picture. The winner? A photo titled Autobahnkurier by Dennis Matthies of Mechanicman.deviantart.com (Germany) who is a member of a club I'm in on dA that focuses on classic cars. According to Dennis, the photo was taken at the Classic Gala Schwetzingenn and states:
"Autobahnkurier" by Mechanicman

The Isdera Autobahnkurier 116i, at the Classic Gala Schwetzingen

The beginnings of the project date back to the year 1984 the Autobahnkurier was persented in 2006 and is powered by two Mercedes-Benz V8 engines - one for each axle - from the W126-500SE.

Only this one car were built which also uses some VW Beetle parts (doors and roof).

The reason why I chose it is because I had so many people the last couple of years ask me how I paint cars. I also wanted to work on a vehicle that wasn't blue, red, green, brown, or black to save on time. Another attraction to this particular car is that the curves and unique form that is has.

"Car Demo" by Dawn Star Wood 
At the meeting, after being introduced to the wonderfully cheerful members of the art group, I went about doing my demonstration after apologizing ahead of time in case I stuttered. Silently I did curse in the back of my mind when I started because the day before I had picked up a sheet of Hot Press paper since the art supply store near me was out of my usual Cold Press. So why was I having such negative things going through my mind while politely chatting and explaining what I do? For the simple fact that I discovered that 140lb Hot Press watercolor paper, though smooth, did not give me enough time to work with the paint before any and all moisture was sucked into the paper like a desert taking in a drop of rain. So here I was essentially experimenting with a product I've never used before while attempting to act as if everything was fine. The meeting itself went well and though I didn't finish the painting there, I had told those who were there that I would finish the painting at home and share it with them via email so that they could see the end result. It took 2 days at home to work on the painting to get it to a point that I'm satisfied with and can say that
it's finished. Still uncertain of how I had done at the meeting, I was pleasantly surprised and grateful when I checked my mail Monday afternoon and found that the group had sent me a card thanking me for taking the time to present to them and that they had enjoyed what they had learned. So I thank the wonderful members of the Amador County Artists Society for inviting me. 

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