The weather is torturing me with spells of warm, sunny days followed by days of bitter cold and wind. I’m so ready for spring. But it’s been busy around here and I haven’t had a chance to make a blog post in a while. So here’s the Wild Ozark Hermit Report of what’s been happening in the holler. First I’ll list the shows/exhibits I’m planning to do. Then I’ll go to the report after that.
RAM Metamorphosis Exhibit
This is ongoing until May 22. Whisper, the Brahman painted in bone pigments, is hanging for this one. If you get out to see it, take a pic and tag me on Instagram, please (@wildozark). Here’s the address and hours:
Fort Smith Regional Art Museum
Open Tues-Sat: 11am-6pm || Sun: 1pm-5pm
1601 Rogers Ave, Fort Smith, AR
Heart of America Artists Plein Air at Hobbs State Park
This is an outdoor plein air event held by the Heart of America Artist’s Association in conjunction with Arkansas Game and Fish. On March 26, the exhibition and sale will be open to the public from 4:00-5:00 pm. It will be held at the Hobbs State Park Visitors Center and over $1,500 in cash and merchandise awards will be announced at 4:15 pm. This sounds like it will be fun and I hope to get to do it! Right now it’s hard to plan without knowing how the weather is going to behave. Sometimes in March we have late snows and hard freezes.
NWA Makers Club Showcase
Mount Sequoia Center
April 30, 2022
150 N. Skyline Drive, Fayetteville, AR
Doors open at 10 am – 4 pm.
It’s a one-day event. This is the first time this event is being held, so I hope there’s a good turnout and the organizers are inclined to do it again.
Master Gardener’s Expo
2022 Master Gardener State Conference
May 19, 20, 21
Holiday Inn Convention Center, Springdale, AR
I think this is an event only open to the Master Gardeners. But if you happen to be one, I hope to see you there!
Ponca Color Fest
October 21 – 22
On the grounds of the Elk Education Center
Ponca, AR
The Hermit Report
horse trough and wind break
We built a wind break for the horses because the cold has been even colder with the winds in these fronts. Then we built a trough to put behind the wind break so they could eat in more comfort. Rob cut a plastic barrel in half and welded a frame to hold it a few inches off the ground. It looked great, nice and heavy, but the horses still moved it out of position. Apparently they’d prefer to have their hay and food fall on the muddy ground.
firewood
Before the cold got here, during the nice sunny days, we took down two deadwood trees and turned them into firewood. The trees had no bark left on them, but I think they were oak, and they burn nicely. We usually leave the deadwood for the birds and critters that need them. These didn’t have any woodpecker holes, though, and we needed the warmth. They’ll last us for a long while and I’m thankful for them.
ArtUp
Last weekend I did a popup show in Rogers and sold a bunch of prints and notecards. The weather was chilly but turnout was low, but still I made enough sales to cover the cost plus some.
Notecards
Since I’d sold a lot of notecards at the popup show, I made more to restock. Good thing, too, because the day after the show I got some online orders for sets of 5. I give a discount on orders of 5. They’re usually $5/ea, so when someone orders 4 they’ll get a 5th one free for every 4 ordered. My notecards are all printed on archival paper with archival inks. You can mix and match. Just email me to let me know which ones you’d like and I’ll send an invoice.
New gift package
I’m working on creating a custom order for one of my collectors. I think I’ll make it available at the shop when I get time to create the listing. It includes a set of 6 watercolor pigments, samples of my favorite watercolor papers in 5 x 7″ sheets, and a booklet showing how I created one of my paintings. As I am not a trained watercolorist, I’m hesitant to do any ‘painting lessons’. My techniques are ones I’ve developed when I learned how to use the paints I make. But I don’t mind showing others how I do it. If you’re interested in something like this, let me know. The gift sets are $125.
NFTs
I’m still working in NFTs. But I’m still also making paintings and working my art biz in the real world. I really like this other dimension of art and art marketing. I’m focusing more on the Solana blockchain now, though. It’s more environmentally conscious, and a lot less expensive to work with. I can do for pennies what it costs do do in tens on Ethereum. You can keep up with the NFT stuff if you’re interested in that, by following me at Twitter or checking out my NFT project page.
That’s it for the Hermit Report
Now it’s sleeting as hard as a good rain. I went out to bring hay to the horses when it started and it stung my face. It reminded me of the day last week when I picked up some of the grandkids from school. They saw snow flurries starting, and the youngest asked “is it the hurting kind?”. Yes, sweetie, this is the hurting kind. So make sure to wear your hat! They have farm animals and chores to do even when it rains, hails, sleets, or snows.
That’s it for the Hermit Report!
I’m going to get back to work now and finish up that gift set so I can get it shipped out by the end of this week. I hope you’re all staying warm wherever you are. Once spring gets closer, I’ll be working on getting my garden ready to plant, foraging more rocks, and holding the paint-making workshops. There are already two booked for April and May. I’m only doing private workshops now, because it’s too much to cover with a group if we start and finish the whole event in one day. For groups, it would be better to spread it out over a couple of days.
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