Planet Arlington 2008 is in the history books now...And new Still Lives

This year's planet Arlington was not as well attended as last years (and the first year we had to deal with hurricane Ernesto...) but all in all it was a good show. As you can see, the World Playground Drops complement the Iwo Jima Memorial quite nicely (in this photo you can see the memorial just to the right of the center banner)

The crowd was pretty into the music...(viewed from the SR Monitor Mix Tent)

Once it got dark, the last band (of 4 total), Solas, hit the stage and got everyone excited for some good ole Irish music...

Despite the pressure of having to Stage Manage a 10,000+ concert I found time to get some painting in. I stretched some larger canvases with velvet (16x20) and set up two still lives:

Head Hunter Still Life
Acrylic on Black Velvet, 16" x 20"

Studio Still Life
Acrylic on Black Velvet, 16" x 20"

(Here is the usual disclaimer that the photos don't do the velvet justice)

These canvases are yet another example of the discoveries I am making with the new medium of velvet. I am finding that I am being very careful (someone at TikiCentral said that it was like artistic tightrope walking) and that is affecting the quality of the outcome. I must say that I enjoy reproducing objects directly from life, however, I have started to stray from my original thesis of making the paint sculptural in places...I only have one more good painting session scheduled for between now and Adams Morgan Day, so I still have one more shot at making some work that fulfills my original intentions...(I only have one more session because I am closing in on the last days for painting Forum's set...after load in on the 11th, I will only have three days to get all of the "non painting" stuff together for the tent...BTW does anyone have a Wi-Fi Internet card for a laptop that I can use on Sunday the 14th? I'd really like to offer credit cards as a payment option, but I don't have a good way to get Wi-Fi to my laptop out on the street...)