Coming Soon - Watercolorwhirled, the Experience!

Exactly one week ago I was in the course of filming my first episode of my soon to be cable television show, Watercolorwhirled! I think I am at that point in my life when I just think, why the hell not? Why not me on TV telling you how to watercolor paint? I love to teach, have a lot to share, enjoy painting and talking about it, all the tools, techniques and such that get me jazzed up. I started with a still life - how to set one up and photograph it, how to get it on your paper, and finished with how to paint it. Above is the painting, Still Life with Pears and Books. If you want to know how to do that, I am the girl to show you how!

I am working on setting up a companion web-site that will have episode guides for download. I hope to have links to places where you can download stuff that will make me some money, too - like buy my art here, note cards, coffee cup, tee-shirt. Maybe sign up for my classes. I think big, too, like how about me on Create TV? How about buying Dawn Evans Scaltreto Watercolorwhirled supplies at your local art store, why not take a Mediterranean "how to paint" cruise with me?

Watercolorwhirled, the Ride will be a flume that features flowing waterfalls in bright primary colors, which blend into dazzling secondarys as they hit the pool, an exciting salt effects laser light show and culminate in a steep, stomach churning drop and spash that gets everyone soaked and covered with shimmering color. You exit the ride through the token gift shop where you can purchase all sorts of baubles. DES Signature brush quivers and aprons, cute little bottles of kosher salt, framed, hand signed and numbered limited edition giclée prints, a playset for little boys and girls of my studio complete with a colorful cow. Of course, Watercolorwhirled, the Tee Shirt will be available in every size and color so you have something dry to change into. I know you're laughing now! Poor Bob Ross has been dead since 1995, yet his shows are still in syndication, his books and art supplies sold at every art store all over the world, making millions. You may have thought he was smoking some of those happy little trees, and maybe his style of painting is not my cup of tea, but he has inspired people to paint, made them believe that they could paint, too. That's all I want to do, and if I can make a little money at it, prosperity will be a welcome thing. I'll hang out for a while at that fun little theme park in my head, riding Watercolorwhirled, the Ride again and again.

I have another wild dream, one I have had for many years. My brother, Guy, is awesome. Like all my siblings, he is older than me, and actually he named me. I was supposed to be "Don" but poor Guy didn't end up with the little brother he hoped for. Anyhow, he was a Wellesley firefighter and just retired a few years ago. I have wanted to create a "Mouse Firehouse" as a 3-D installation for the Children's Hospital Boston, and when I told him he got very jazzed about it and started saying, "Oh, it should have a firefighter cooking! And washing the trucks - it could have a hose that squirts!" I get such a kick out of him when he gets excited about one of my projects like that. He was a great artist, even won a Silver Key in the Globe Scholastic Art Contest when he was a kid. I am going to do a proposal of the Mouse Firehouse for installation at the Peabody CHB facility. And I am going to ask Guy to help me with it. It turns out that Peabody has a long and distinguished firefighting history, and even has a firefighting museum and a book published about it. So this is the time! I taught a ceramics class the other day for one of the Arsenal Center teachers who was out. I made this little fella in an oversized firefighter coat and boots. I am going to glaze and fire him as a sample to submit with my proposal. Wish me luck!

Art Stars and Snow Flakes

Today is another snow day for much of the east coast - no exception in the Boston area, but at this time only a few hesitant flakes are falling. I am spending my day at the studio catching up on correspondence and preparing for my project next week - TA DAH! I am filming my first Watercolorwhirled! segment for WCAC, our local cable channel! Yup, Tuesday I'll be rocking, and start what I hope will be a prosperous and exciting journey into the television art education field. I have high hopes for this - as previously mentioned, my 8 minute video is on YouTube in Jerry's Artarama Art Stars Contest. Each viewing is a vote for me, so check it out here:

Dawn Scaltreto's Art Stars Video on YouTube

As of this morning, I have 282 views!!! Not as many as some, but they are honestly come by. Please watch it often, or at least put it on in the background while you do other stuff online.

I am excited about my new cable show. My first episode is "Still Lifes that are Still Alive". I will use my humorous approach to teaching fundamental lessons in watercolor, hopefully encouraging my viewers to experiment and enjoy creating watercolor paintings. I am working on a companion website that I am building on Google. Above is one of my still life paintings, Apple Arrangement - a still life that is hopefully fun, exciting and "still alive".

And in other news - I have a new band! We are called "Perfect Crime", and of course, my husband David is the bassist and one of the lead vocalists, and it also includes Mike Onessimo on lead guitar, Jimmy Honohan on rhythm and lead vocals, and Brian Honohan on drums. You can visit our website at www.perfectcrimeband.com We are even booked for two events in April - we are performing two "unplugged" sets at the Arsenal Center for the Arts on Thursday, April 23, and at the Belmont Gallery of Art on Friday, April 25 as part of the Watertown Belmont Open Studios gallery opening exhibits. This band has some amazing potential. Jimmy, Mike and Brian have been playing together for years, and of course, David and I have been playing with each other for a long time (musically - I know what you were thinking! We've been doing that, too), so we are trying to get in synch with each other. Right now we are just really enjoying the music we are playing and I am really looking forward to sharing it with others when we are polished up.

David and I received a gift from our son, Jake - tickets to see Yes last night at the House of Blues Boston. It was great and a really generous gift so appreciated by us. David is a fan of Chris Squire and we really enjoyed watching and listening to him play his beautiful Rickenbacker bass. HOB Boston had great acoustics, and it was nice to see a show there, very intimate, but, damn, no chairs! We are classic rock people! Average age 50 probably! Give us a chair, HOB, and we will go to more shows there. David and I enjoyed looking at the art - clearly some sort of outsider art David was having a hard time wrapping his brain around. Edgy and weird.

Something that is not edgy and weird is one of David's guitars, his beautiful vintage 70's Rickenbacker 4001. His first one was stolen, but he bought this one used in about '82 and refinished it. Over the years the epoxy in the inlays yellowed and he had other ideas about staining and refinishing it, so he did it again just last year. Neck problems inherent in the design has sent this treasured heirloom to visit the luthier for a while. But here at right is a view of his treasured Major Disturbance Limited Edition Rickenbacker 4001.

And lastly, a follow up on my last post/rant. There was a clerical error, and Fred Dingler's award was mistakenly sent to me. I received a lovely letter from the Editor, Kelly Kane, and she even said, "I went back to our 2007 publication to remind myself of your work, and it’s really quite wonderful." How nice! I would not have minded a prize, though - but as the Red Sox say, "There's always next year!"