Introducing North Carolina Artist David Starbuck

We are spending a rare weekend at home instead of in the mountains, and yesterday was a wonderful day.  Friends Tom and Pauline, Charlie and I went to the Fourth Annual Art Fair at the Dockside Marina at Lake Gaston, North Carolina.    Usually I would never include the words Art Fair and my husband in the same sentence, as that is much more "my thing" than his.  However, we especially wanted to see our friend David Starbuck's original artwork on display at the fair. 

David is a very successful engineer who has recently developed a passion for painting in acrylics.  He is self-taught, and has rendered amazingly realistic paintings of North Carolina lighthouses, mountain and lake scenes, houses, and wildlife. 

In the picture below, David is standing next to a gorgeous painting of a sunset at Lake Gaston.  This painting is also featured on the home page of his website, dstarbuck.com.  I am blocking the view of his painting of a lake house, but you can see it here.

His newest painting was displayed on an easel in his booth.  It is a sunset painted on a topographical map of Lake Gaston.  He will make more of these types of paintings available by commission on your choice of six maps.

In addition to his newly-discovered talent as a painter, David has mastered the art of carving wooden duck calls.  He demonstrated the duck call for us in the tent, and I fully expected all the ducks on Lake Gaston to come flying over to check us out!   Here David is showing one of his duck calls to Tom, Charlie, and Pauline.  I am not interested in duck hunting, but I would love to own one of these works of art!

 

Some people are just good at everything they try, aren't they?  David would love to do a commissioned painting or duck call for you.  He also has some limited series signed prints available for sale.

And of course, you are wondering about his last name.  No, David does not own a coffee shop empire.  He is, however, descended from the Starbuck family of Nantucket, whose last name was given to a character in the famous Melville novel Moby Dick, and it was first-mate Starbuck whose last name was borrowed for the famous ubiquitous coffee house chain.

You can learn more about this very personable and talented Raleigh artist on his website, which also lists his contact information. 

Introducing Violette

Yesterday I almost finished quilting my current project, a bed quilt for my granddaughter Lily's room. I am kind of proud of myself for sticking with this to get it done. I hope to finish the last three borders today. I just got an e-mail coupon for a fabric discount at my LQS, Quilts Like Crazy, so I will probably head over there tomorrow for some binding fabric. Quilts Like Crazy is owned by my friend and founder of our quilt bee, Nancy Pease, who is a very artistic person and fabulous quilter and teacher.

Speaking of artistic people, I have added links to Violette's website and blog. I found her through an article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. Remember my little art quilt, named A-Muse-ing Violette? That quilt was inspired by a line drawing by Violette Clark of British Columbia. Check out her website for lots of colorful inspiration, including her painted house which was featured on a Canadian TV program. Too bad they did not feature her painted and glittered van, as well!

A Tribute to my Artistic Father

In previous posts, I have shared some fabric postcards. This time, I would like to show off some watercolor note cards created by my father, Peter C. Turner. It is always a delight to receive something from him in the mail. My father spent his life as a commercial artist, both in New York and in the Raleigh area. He was talented enough to support his wife and seven children through his art, and that is not easy to do in the competitive world of art! Later in life, he had more time to devote to fine art. His portraits and paintings hang in many homes and offices, and he also has done a series of prints on tobacco farm heritage, mountain scenes, and others. He is now retired and living in the North Carolina mountains, not far from where we are building our cabin. Although he is still technically at the top of his skills, big paintings seem a bit daunting to him as far as time management. However, he is enjoying painting small watercolors just for fun- and I love to be the recipient of them! The Beautiful Blue Ridge is an original painting, and the card with th colored horses is a print that he made into a card for Mother's Day. Thank you, Dad, for your love, for all the great Halloween costumes you designed, prize-winning science projects and spirit week displays you helped us create even when you were swamped with deadlines for your own projects! And how fortunate we are to have all the original art that beautifies my home and others'. One painting I found when I was helping him to move out of his big house in Cary after forty years. It was under a bed in the guest room, being flattened out under some big books. I had to claim that forgotten treasure immediately- a lovely scene of a shrimp boat in Calabash, NC. Another favorite is a painting of the marsh and dunes from the deck of the house we rent every summer in Sunset Beach, NC. Dad, you are not only a wonderful artist, but an amazing person, with knowledge and interest in so many things- planes, sailing ships, wildlife, you name it! And keeper of so many wonderful and humorous stories. I just want to tell the world how much I love and admire you! And thanks for any smidge of artistic talent I may have inherited from you.