After being encouraged by Terry Smith, a great watercolorist and acrylic artist (not to be confused with Berry Smith, his identical twin brother and fellow watercolor artist whom Terry has dubbed "The Evil Twin," to which Berry replies that Terry is the ugly one), I have dipped my toe into the waters of miniature painting. While I had been painting smaller pieces lately, some down to 5" x 5", I have now decided to "intentionally" paint a miniature. I picked a barn owl for my subject matter, so we will see how this little adventure comes out. I researched what actually constitutes a miniature painting and according to the American Miniature Artists Society, it has to be no more than 25 square inches. Gulp!

Ever found a great brush only to have it wear out  or worse yet, you forget to clean it...ugh. Turns into a concrete piece of crap, not good for anything except playing darts. I have my favorites, to be sure, especially the Wee Mop and the 18/0 Loew Cornell liner. Great brushes for blending and tiny hair lines. Maybe I will find a way to get them back in shape, as the Wee Mops are especially hard to find. Any help on the matter would be appreicated. Anyone know of a brush restorer that works on hardened brushes?

Bubba

OK, we are about to launch a great new art web site! We are excited about this, we being Frank Baggett (Tennessee), Michael Shepard (Ohio), Dale Waggoner (Illinois) and myself. By the way, I sometimes go by "Bubba" so if you see that anywhere on our blogs, that's me.

The site will feature art as well as hunting and fishing tips and stories, something we can all relate to in one way or another. Thrilled about this, to say the least. We hope to connect with fellow hunters, fishermen, nature lovers and artists all on one site. Will be very cool.

Be sure to see Frank's and Mike's work on their sites, www.FrankBaggett.com and www.FASO.com/MichaelShepard, respectively. We'll get Dale on board with a site soon. Stay tuned!

Bubba