Want to save the economy this holiday season? Buy Art!

Whether you identify with the 99% occupying Wall St., or the 53% of tax payers who feel that the 99% just want hand outs, and certainly if you are the 1%, buying art is the best thing you can do with your shopping money this holiday season, and here are the top 5 reasons why:

1. Artists are self employed, self sufficient members of the work force who have created their own jobs, which means they are not a drain to the economy in any way, and they are among the few people/companies who are actually creating jobs right now.  By supporting artists, you are creating job security for yourself.
2. Art is green!  Think about all of the junk we buy and resell or throw away after never using it. Art is made to last generations.  Art is a friend to the environment.  Art is truly an heirloom that can be passed on.  Art is one of the only things that you can reasonably afford now, but that will last and be appreciated for generations to come. 
3. Art is an investment.  How many things did you buy last year that are actually worth more this year?  Zero?  That's what I thought!  Art can actually appreciate in value faster than most any other investment, and how many investments do you have that are pretty?
4. Artists are actual people who spend the money you give them right back in the economies they live within.  Where does the money you give Walmart or Amazon go?  Walmart employees can't even afford to shop there, so it's not going to their employees.  They buy everything from economies that are far far away.  They find tax loop holes, so the local cities and states they operate out of don't get the money.  Even the "good" corporations are sitting on their cash right now, continuing to break the economy - Apple has 81 billion in cash on hand.  That's not helping anyone.
5. Art not only stimulates the economy, it stimulates the mind.  As an artist, I am also an avid art collector.  Every piece I have stimulates me in a different way.  Some art initiates an introspective response, some art brings thoughts of social awareness, and some art is so serene, it takes you away to an amazing place.

So join us and change the world, one gift at a time.

For more information, email wetpaintgallery@live.com

Happy Holidays from Wet Paint!

Collector Profile: Alison Ford

Arrowhead Sunset, Chris., 2010

Hi Wet Paint Fans!

We are going to be publishing periodic collector profiles from our brave and willing supporters.  First up is Alison Ford, our top collector!  Check out what Alison has to say, and hopefully soon we will upload a slideshow of her current collection. 

Name:           Alison Ford

Current City:   Manchester, NH

Occupation:     Staffing Specialist

Total HCA/Wet Paint pieces in current collection:

17!

Why do you collect art?  

I have always loved art, I love art galleries, museums etc.  I’m intrigued by the creativity of artists.  I gravitate to the more abstract pieces but I love the detailed pieces as well… when an artist has the talent to truly capture its subject on paper or canvas.  I love vibrant colors as well as more bland bleakly colored works as well.  I feel the same way about images captured in photography.  Art and photography move me; they’re powerful in their messages.  The images can uplift or bring me to a deep emotional and sometimes sad place.  Even if I’m not uplifted by a piece, I still have a great love for art that moves me emotionally.  What a gift it is to move someone so emotionally by something he or she has created… exquisite! 

I started truly collecting art recently after I moved in a loft style home where I now have large areas of wall space for a collection.  It’s been wonderful filling up the space with many pieces by artists Chris. and Kristen Hotham Carroll.  Their work is unique, diverse, sometimes colorful, sometimes stark, some is detailed, some abstract – always outstanding, creative and simply wonderful.

Why were you moved to purchase the pieces you did? 

Mostly, I bought the pieces I did because I love the uniqueness and look of them.  There is one piece in particular that I bought that I think I can call my favorite.  It’s called Arrowhead sunset (pictured above).  First and foremost, the image captured in the painting is a familiar place to me… a place where I have a lot of fond memories so it’s a personal piece but aside from that, it’s simply beautiful.  I love the color scheme of the background, the ease of the transition from one color to the next, looking seamless yet each color distinct.  The trees are all done in black highlighting that it’s early evening.  The details of the trees are more prominent because of the lack of color, in my opinion.  I am not just looking at trees in all their colorful grandeur, rather seeing the details of the shapes, the leaves, the branches… the structure of them… as you would see if you were looking at them at dusk.  It’s an exquisite piece at which I literally couldn’t take my eyes of it for virtually the 1st month it was on my wall.  I still admire it often along with all the other pieces in my house.

Why should people buy art in a challenging economy? 

No matter what is going on with the economy, it’s important to do things for oneself that makes you feel good.  Art is something that can make a person feel good.  It’s beautiful and it’s timeless.  A vacation will come and go but art will last forever.  The art at that comes from the Wet Paint Gallery will always appreciate in value since they only paint originals, no prints ever.  The artists there are world class artists whose works can be found in galleries in many cities in the US and internationally.  Their work is truly an investment.

How does the art in your collection make you feel? 

I love my collection!  I admire the pieces every single day.  Guests in my house admire it as well!  I can’t wait to continue collecting and filling up the wall space in my house with more beautiful works.

Any other comments? 

I own many pieces of Chris. and Kristen Hotham Carroll but hope to soon own a piece by Bonnie Carter whose work is also featured in the Wet Paint Gallery.  Her style is abstract and her work is wonderful!  Vibrant colors, imaginative shapes, free flowing style… and all beautiful.  I look forward to my 1st purchase of her work.

Wet Paint Gallery would like to thank Alison for taking the time to answer our first ever collector profile, and THANK YOU, ALISON, for your amazing support.  People like you help us make our dreams come true...and we hope we do a little of that for you too....  :)



9/11: In Your Words

9/11:  In Your Words is the latest in the ARTicles and ARTifacts series by artist, Chris.  In an instant, we are taken back to that tragic day, reading the words of people from around the world recounting where they were when they heard.  The Twin Towers are made up of flags that represent ever soul that perished that day, as well as their country of origin, all scaled to fit the exact dimensions of the towers. 
Like the paper ridden waters that surrounded the city 10 years ago, the floating accounts in the waters of this piece are a chilling reminder of that day.  This piece not only honors those who have passed on, it promises hope with the towers that are rebuilt with flags.  We will never forget, and we will always honor the memories.

This piece is  must see, and it is currently on display at Wet Paint Gallery, 430 Duval St, Key West.  Wet Paint Gallery is donating the proceeds of this piece to the victim's fund of the buyer's choice.

Ask Not - A Salute to JFK

At long last, Chris's newest piece in the ARTicles and ARTifacts collection is complete! 

Yasmin - by KHC - Featured Piece of the Week

Our piece of the week is Yasmin, part of the A-Z male and female figure series by Kristen Hotham Carroll.  Yasmin is a 24" x 36" acrylic on canvas.  We are extending the 10% featured piece of the week discount to Yasmin's companion piece, Brandon if they are purchased as a pair.

All collectors of the A-Z Figure series will also receive a complimentary signed copy of the complete volume of figures book which will be published in early 2012.

Of her figures, Kristen Hotham Carroll says, "I love the fluidity of the human form.  When I paint figures, I do not try to capture accuracy of form, but rather I'm trying to capture a feeling and a flow.  I think some of the greatest, transcendent beauty on this earth can be found in the human form, and it's that essence I'm trying to give life to in my work."

For more information, please email our Fine Arts Consultant, Antonia.

Featured Piece of the Week - A Woman Rooted

Each week, we will be featuring a piece of the week both in our gallery and online as well.  Each featured piece will offer a description of work, as well as the artist's statement about the piece.  In addition, should you choose to acquire the piece during the feature, we will offer a 10% discount.

The piece above is titled A Woman Rooted.  It is the fourth in a well collected series by Chris Hotham Carroll.  As you can see, the roots spell out the phrase "Strength of a Woman."  Trees are a theme in for Chris, and she has this to say about their striking presence in the majority of her body of work:

"I look at a tree and I wonder why it stops growing...  It chooses its own path just like we do.  At what point does it stop growing?  If a tree is in the middle of no where, it won't grow as high and as tall as it would if it were competing for the light, and that amazes me.  I especially like how their branches choose to grow, in whatever direction they want to grow."

This dynamic piece is a mixed media piece, 24" x 36" on canvas.  For more information, please email:  antonia@wetpaintkeywest.com

Thank you for supporting the arts!

The Bonnie Carter Collection

Wet Paint is proud to have the Bonnie Carter Collection on display throughout the summer.  If you are in town, you must see her work in person.  It is breathtaking.  We also have an online gallery of her work on our facebook page:  www.facebook.com/wetpatintgallery

Carter’s collection on display at Wet Paint includes her most recent piece, Coastal View, a stunning 5’ x 3’ painting that upholds her trademark fusion and abstract imagery capturing nature’s vibrant and transcendent beauty.  Coastal View was several months in the making, as Carter enjoyed the winter in Key West.

Carter’s award winning career spans many decades and continents, and her extensive travel across the globe continues to shape her work as an experimental artist.  Her work is consistently represented in both private and corporate collections nationally and internationally.  Most recently, Carter’s work was displayed in the ‘Let There Be Art’ show in the Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA. 

Of her work, Carter comments, “I love color and the tactile qualities of paint, and like to incorporate texture using a variety of tools…I have been privileged to travel extensively, and the memories of what I have seen and experienced have ultimately been translated into these abstract paintings, which I hope convey the joy I feel when I work.”

Lisa Bentley of NYC’s Art Approach had this to say:  “There is something deeply intense and critical in personal sensibilities and modalities of Carter’s beautiful art works and expressions. Carter’s art somehow manages to muse and fuse the classical and the modern, the flat and the defined-it is personal biography meets movement, passion and a very physiological presence. Exhibiting an impeccable instinct for the emotionally evocative power of color, movement, texture, and shape, Carter shines as an artist whose work relates more to a state of mind, mood or feeling than a tangible object. Amidst a sea of art, Bonnie Carter manages to say something very different.”

An interview with Chris Hotham Carroll





1.       What name do you go by as an artist?       

Chris.

2.       What type of medium/s do you most often use?

I use many different mediums in isolation, but I feel mixed media often brings rise to my best work.

3.       How long have you been an artist?              

I have been drawing for as long as I can remember.  I first started painting and sculpting as a teenager.

4.       How long have you been blessed to be a full time artist?   

Although I feel as though I have been committed to my artwork full time for a very long while, I have been working as only an artist for just over a year.

5.       Why do you create?

I create because I must.

6.       What was one of the most memorable pieces you ever created?

How I created Urban Sprawl (see below) is one of my fondest memories.  I first primed a canvas with bright yellow and dull brown paint (not a typical color choice for me), leaving one definitive stripe of yellow stretching vertically across it.  And then I just set it aside.  I wasn’t sure why I had chosen those colors, or why I didn’t blend the final line of yellow, but I decided to just let everything simmer in my head.  Over two months later I finally picked it back up and finished what is today one of my most inspired pieces.  The rest of the creation shot from my brain and out through my fingertips in a frenzy.  Every movement of my paintbrush was confident and calculated.

7.       What was the hardest piece you ever had to part with?

Broken (see below)

8.       What does art mean to you?

It is how I speak.  To me it language in its purest form.  When I witness someone viewing my art and their expression changes; they smile, or their brow furrows, or maybe they even gasp…that is communication through interaction.  No words do that.

9.       What advice do you have for a new artist just getting started?

Be diligent.

10.   Why do you like having your art in Wet Paint Gallery?

Who wouldn’t?

Pieces referenced in our interview with Chris:

Urban Sprawl

Broken

A Depressed New York

A Depressed New York is a 4' x 4' mixed media work by Chris Hotham Carroll.  This very moving piece chronicals the Great Depression, and it's impact on New York.  The 1930 NY City skyline pictured above, was crafted from NY Times articles unearthed from an antique store in New Hampshire.

The work is widely popular, and it was even featured as a backdrop on Fox News nationally last month, as you can see below:

Chris is currently working on a series of similarly themed pieces over the summer, and we will have an opening exhibit of this series early this fall. 

Figures

 Artist Kristen Hotham Carroll has recently started a collection of figures, 52 in all, with 26 pairs of male and female counterparts.  All pieces will be named alphabetically.  The male figures start with the letter A, and the females with Z.  26 different methods will be employed for each of the pieces.  The first pairing, Adam and Zara, are below. 

Zara is 24" x 36", acrylic on board.

Adam is 24" x 36, oil on canvas.

Both were painted using a palette knife.

What do you think?

Welcome to Wet Paint!

Welcome to Wet Paint Gallery in Key West, FL!

Wet Paint strives to be a unique gallery experience.  We only offer originals.  We do not sell prints.  We do not accept any work into our gallery that has ever been made into a print.  We offer cutting edge art, by internationally collected artists, with a price range that accommodates the entry level buyer to the well established collector. 

All of our artists are passionate about getting art into the hands of the people who love it.  Yes, art can be a tremendous investment, but it also something that evokes passion, thought, beauty, questions and so much more. 

We pride ourselves on a very diverse group of collectors, which accompanies our very diverse body of art work.  In this blog, we will feature artist interviews, in depth piece description, and much more.

Stay tuned!