Above is my newest creation. It is titled Style Station #2, not to be confused with Style Station #1. It was a commission piece I did for a good friend of mine as a Christmas present from his wife.  I tried to make it similar to the first one but added a few subtle changes to the background.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Above is a Holga shot of the Horseshoe Lounge in Austin, Texas.  This is one of my favorite signs around.  Prints in my Etsy shop.  I did a painting of the same sign a few years ago.  See it here.

Above is a photo of the Texan Motel sign in Raton, New Mexico.  It was shot with my Holga back in June.  I've added it to my Etsy shop along with three other new photos.  They can be purchased here.

I just got three developed rolls in the mail today!  I am so excited about the outcome.  I think have some real gems in there.  Most of the photos were taken this last summer on our trip to Colorado.  I'll post a few over the next few days and I'll probably have some in my Etsy shop soon.  Enjoy!

This is a picture of the newest addition to my art collection.  It's a 8 x 10 print titled "Desert Camper" from Leah Giberson. I mentioned Leah in my Junky Trinkets shopping guide a few weeks back.  I received this great print from my parents as one of my Christmas gifts from them.  Great taste! We actually used to have a camper very similar to this when I was a kid.  I remember that we took it to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico one time and when we got there it was filled with dirt! Good times.

Here are few more photos I shot down in Gruene during Thanksgiving.  These were taken at about 7:30 AM. and it was freezing! Good news!  I should be getting three rolls of developed 120 film from the old Holga in the mail any day now.  These rolls contain all my shots from the SUMMER!  I have my fingers crossed that they turn out.  Shooting a Holga is a crap shoot!

I received a postcard yesterday from the Michael Hollis Fine Art Gallery in Pasadena, California.  I'm on their mailing list and get postcards keeping me up to date on new shows.  This particular show postcard caught my eye.  Bottle caps + Robert Townsend = Absolutely amazing painting!  Robert Townsend has been a favorite of mine for a while.  I am blown away at the way he captures such realism in his Americana paintings.  He is currently in a show at the Michael Hollis Fine Art Gallery titled - Inside: Still Life's and Interiors.  Here is a link to a slide show of some of his work from a few years ago. All I can say is wow!

Also, I just set up a Junky Trinkets Artwork Fan Page on Facebook.  I'm planning on posting a lot more pictures on there and giving some sneak peaks of upcoming projects.  I'm even thinking about doing some giveaways to start off the new year. I installed a like button over to the right.  I'd love to have you on board!

This last Tuesday the VAGF had a little holiday get together in which each member brought a small original piece of art to exchange.  We played Yankee Swap as Michael Scott from The Office would say.  We all drew numbers and picked a wrapped gift.  When your number was drawn you could steal another artwork or unwrap an new one.  An artwork could be stolen twice and then it was frozen.  I ended up with a cool little painting from Melissa Winton.  I brought Marfa Sky 2 to exchange and the very talented local artist, Misty Oliver Foster ended up with it after a last second steal!  It was a fun time!

Christmas Elvis has made his annual appearance at the house this last weekend.  We got him as a white elephant gift at a Christmas party a few years back.  Can you believe that someone was trying to get rid of this piece of ceramic goodness?  We slapped a Santa hat on him and made him the "unofficial" mascot of our Christmas decor. I sometimes wish he could stay all year long.

I wanted to show off some of my recent purchases while I was out junkin'.  A few months ago I picked up a U.S. Highway 281 sign at Canton's First Monday Trade Days.  I saw it early in our day and I asked the guy in the booth what the price was....he said $50.  I said okay and walked away.  Knowing that I wasn't going to leave Canton without it I went back about 4 hours later and and told him I'd take it for $30.  He said fine.  It is a sentimental piece to me since this is one of the highways I traveled on a lot back in high school.  The other sign is from Texas Farm Road 2230 which is out in west Texas, north of Big Spring.  I got it for $18 at my wife's favorite spot in New Braunfels to shop - Max's Haus. As you know, I have a thing for old signs and I have a hard time passing them up when I find them for a good price.  They make for an interesting design element in our home.  I also threw in a better pic of my landscape painting from a few weeks ago.

Got some artists on your gift list?  Here are a few ideas that they might enjoy.

Looking for a great starter kit for someone that wants to begin painting? Liquitex is one of my favorite brands of paint. Click on the image to see the wide variety of starter kits.



Every artist needs a place to keep their ideas handy and sketch out future masterpieces. Moleskin sketchbooks are about as good as the get! Click on the image to see all the options.



Matting artwork and photography can get expensive at the frame shop....so do it yourself! Check out the mat cutters below:



Painting with watercolors can be intimidating! Here's a neat product to ease into watercolors. They are watercolor pencils. Draw out your image and then paint water with your bush on top to get a watercolor effect. I use an aqua flow brush pen for this. It's a great item for traveling and sketching on the go....without all the mess and cleanup!



Aqua Flow Brushes


You need something to paint on right?  I prefer the square gallery wrapped canvas.  Tip: Buy in bulk for cheaper rate.  I buy all my canvases at Art Supply Warehouse.  They have the best deals on the web!

If you don't collect original art......what are you waiting for???  There are tons of talented artists out there that are selling their ORIGINAL artwork for extremely affordable prices!  Don't settle for some boring print from Bed Bath and Beyond that 1,000's of people have.  Get something unique and real!!

I know I don't need to say it but the best two places that I've found for great original artwork are:
Etsy and Ebay

Etsy is the headquarters for all things handmade by artisans. 
1) Set up an account (free!)
2) Search the millions of items
3) Add favorite artists / artwork to your profile to keep up with new pieces.
4) Buy something!  You will be surprised at how reasonable original artwork can be.

Ebay can be great place too for original artwork.  The cool thing about Ebay is that many original works are set up in  an auction format.  Sometimes you can get great art for dirt cheap because no one else bids on it!!

Here are a few of my favorite sellers:

Erin Spencer - Great landscape oil paintings - I own two already...with more to come!

Sushipot - Cool little collages on wood and tons of other trinkets!

Veronica Funk - Terrific paintings with bright bold colors!

Leah Giberson - Check out these sweet paintings! - Gotta love the trailers!

Signed & Numbered - Need HANDMADE frames for great prices??

Dolan Geiman - Original panel paintings - $45!  What a deal!

deehop - one of a kind art on Ebay!



This isn't even scratching the surface.....there are thousands of affordable works from great artists waiting for you.  Start collecting original art today!!

I had a few people ask me the other day for some recommendations for some quality gifts for friends.  It got me thinking that maybe I should compile a list of great Texana, art, and music gifts.  So today is the first installment. Enjoy!
















































Texas BBQ - Great book filled with colorful photos of some of  Texas' favorite BBQ joints....reading it will make your mouth water!
















Tomorrow: Affordable Original Art

I had a few wood panels sitting around the studio and I decided to bust out the oil pastels and do a little landscape painting.  These are really fun for me.  I love blending and layering colors with the oil pastels.  I may try a few more of these soon. First, I laid a coat of gesso down and then did an undercoat of red-orange acrylic paint.  I then used Sennelier oil pastels to finish it out.  It's like painting with lipstick. They are the best oil pastels I've found!  The picture above doesn't quite do the colors justice....I need to figure out some better ways to photograph these.  I really didn't make a point to photograph it perfectly but any photo suggestions or tips would be greatly  appreciated!!
Get some Sennelier Oil Pastels here:

Here is an photo envelope I collaged for one of my ETSY customers.  I try to put some of my own artistic flair into my packaging for my customers.  This was one I sent out to Switzerland.....Looks like Junky Trinkets has made it to Europe!