Crockett Pouch for the movie "The Alamo"

    

I had the great privilege of providing several prop items for the movie "The Alamo," starring Billie Bob Thornton and Dennis Quiad, among others. I made the hunting pouch that Davey Crockett (Thornton) wore in the movie. Actually I made three of them in case one became damaged. I also provided ink wells, writing journals, pens, pencils and pencil boxes.  Below is a close-up of the pouch.

                                          

                                                
    Below are two other examples of my pouch work.
    More pouches are shown in "Older Posts"

 

I made this pouch and based it on

"The Dark Day in New England, May 18th,1780."

On that date, the sun was obscured at sunrise. Extraordinary darkness occurred shortly before noon. Peak obscurity was reported at noon. The blackened sky remained for the remainder of the day. The sun became red, the sky appeared to have a yellow cast and the moon became as red as blood. Schools were closed, children sent home. Cattle lay down to sleep, chickens went to roost, and many people believed  that the world was coming to an end. Communications of the day were primitive and most people thought the darkness to be inexplainable, so they applied religious interpretations to the event. Many thought that the Dark Day was a supernatural event caused by God. The cause of this phenomenal event has yet to be throughly unexplained.

Fort Pitt

This painting of Fort Pitt was created as a commission for a customer. It is done in ink and watercolor. It is unframed.

New Fraktur: No King But Jesus

Here is an antiqued version of one of my "No King But Jesus" prints that I hand watercolor. The customer who bought this wanted me to add my antiquing touch to it. While this one has been sold and delivered, others are available for sale.

"We Have No King But Jesus", was a common colonial announcement during the time of the Revolutionary War.  This art is printed on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, printed and then painted with watercolors, like a lot of the colonial announcements were done. It can be framed as is, or can be trimmed down to fit an 8 x 10 inch frame. $65 antiqued. $45 not antiqued.  Both are priced unframed.

A New Title Page

Here is a part of a recent title page that I created in one of my large size journals for some friends and customers. It is to catalog the wonderful things that he and his wife have collected over the years. In years to come this catalog, along with the collection, can be passed on to their children.

A Wonderful Day in Marigot, St. Martin

One of the things that I enjoy doing is talking to other artists.  Hearing how they think. Learning about their process. Seeing how they work. Recently I had the great pleasure of being in Marigot, the capital of French Saint Martin.

Saint Martin is the smallest island in the world ever to have been partitioned between two different nations, St. Martin/St. Maarten has been shared by the French and the Dutch in a spirit of neighborly cooperation and mutual friendship for almost 350 years.

My wife and I had the pleasure of visiting the gallery of Sir Roland Richardson, The father of Caribbean impressionism, He took time to show us around, asked us to visit his garden, take photos and enjoy the brief time that we had with him. He talked at length about his process. How he paints everything “Plein aire”. If you are ever in Marigot, stop in. I’m sure that you will enjoy it as much as we did. When you get down there....be sure to have breakfast at the Patisserie near the Post Office. Wonderful French pasteries!!! Later in the day, enjoy lunch at La Vie en Rose. As they say, “when in France....

Sir Roland Richardson in his garden

 

Check out Sir Roland's plein air style of painting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHN2-P6mX6I

RIck Bartow & Ken in Bartow's Studio

My wife and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Oregon when I put on a Hunting Pouch workshop and gave a talk on the History of the American Hunting Pouch. Wonderful time. The Northwest coast is simply magnificant with the surf and sand, haystack rocks, fur trees clinging to the rocky shore.

We visited Rick Bartow, a Native American artist, affiliated with the Wiyot and Yurok tribes of Northern California. Bartow works with pastels mostly. His work can be found in several museum collections including the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Arts in Indianapolis, IN, That’s where I first met him. A delightful person and a very talented artist. Look him up at the Froelick Gallery on the internet.

Here is a super video on Bartow and his work.

http://media.opb.org/clips/3032-american_indian_artist_rick_bartow