Mad Hatter Remains & the Wet Paint Project
Chris Dingwell asked me to participate in the Wet Pain Project at Mad Hatter Remains this year. It was definitely an honor to be included in this group.
Of course, as I am sure you would know by now, I was very nervous about going and painting not only directly in front of the public – but also alongside such talented and mostly professionally trained painters. Knowing that Holly Azzara was going to be there helped a lot. I love Holly to pieces and she and I play nice together. While we have never painted together, I knew that just having a friend there would help keep me grounded.
As it turns out, the entire weekend was a wonderful, relaxing inspiring time. I’ll post some pictures here of what each artist was working on and then just throw a whole mess of random pictures up on facebook.
It’s a pretty long drive from here to Maine – fortunately Paul had been looking forward to breaking in his new truck a little bit better and he is much better at driving than me (and even actually LIKES it). We left first thing Friday morning and headed East (much to Paul’s dismay nothing required four wheel drive or off roading between here and there).
The room at the Merry Manor Inn (yes, really) was nice enough and had massaging chair and a lobster there to greet us.
I figured that after all of that driving that Paul would probably spend the entire weekend in that chair. I have never seen a hotel room with a massaging chair – I think it is a great idea and they should all start doing it.
After finding the space that we would be painting in – I realized that I had forgotten my easel. I just figured that I could duct tape the canvas to a chair – but Deana came to the rescue and found one somewhere in the hotel.
Deana Lippens is the promoter of this show and also the promoter of the Women’s tattoo convention in Florida that I used to attend every year. I haven’t been able to get to that one for quite a few years now – so it was wonderful to see Deana and her husband George again.
I had some time to get set up and start trying to lay out my painting and meet up with Holly before Chris’ seminar started.
My original intention was to have this piece horizontally arranged so that I could get some extra arms in there:
but fortunately I realized right away that wasn’t going to be the way to go and switched it around:
tightened it up just a touch more:
and went off to Chris’ seminar. While I have taken this one before – it is always amazing to hang out with Chris and watch him work. He is a source of inspiration and has taught me far more than I think he knows.
From there I get a little fuzzy about who did what on which day, so I will just show you what everyone was working on:
Holly:
Chloe Vanessa who was only able to join us on Saturday:
Diedra who was both painting and working the tattoo booth in the other room:
Annie Johnson:
Johnny Thief:
Matthew Lukesh:
Chris Dingwell:
CanMan:
and more work on the piece that I started way up at the top of this post:
That’s about as far as I felt that I could take it in one coat. Once it dries enough I will be going back into it.
Overall the weekend was a wonderful experience – got to meet and hang out with some extraordinary people as well as spend some time with some old friends.
thank you one and all – most especially Chris and Deana for making this weekend possible.
Sorry about the blue text. As soon as I figure out how that happened, I will fix it.
Just TeeJay's Blog 
Tee Jay, loved your painting!!!