Discount Folk Art Enamels

Museum Acquires Major Private Collection of Works by Self-Taught Artists

PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Approximately 190 works by self-taught artists have become promised gifts to the Philadelphia Museum of Art from Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, who have assembled over the past three decades one of the finest collections of outsider art in private hands in the United States. Their donation, which the Museum will celebrate with an exhibition and catalogue in spring of 2013, will increase the Museum’s holdings of outsider art by more than sixty percent. Sheldon Bonovitz is a member of the Museum’s Board of Trustees.

“Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz have been pathfinders in this field,” said Timothy Rub, the Museum’s George D. Widener Director and CEO. “Their dedication to the work of self-taught artists and the exceptional vision they have brought to the development of their collection will now benefit the public and enable others to understand and appreciate this important, but little known aspect of modern and contemporary art.”

The exhibition planned for 2013 will focus on American artists active between the 1930s and 1980s, many of whom are African American, and will feature works by such iconic figures as William Edmondson, Bill Traylor, and Martín Ramírez, as well as by somewhat lesser-known but widely respected artists such as James Castle, Howard Finster, William Hawkins, and Elijah Pierce.

“Self-taught artists use a wide range of inventive working methods and often employ unconventional materials, including house paint, wood scraps, roofing tin, and shirt cardboard,” said Ann Percy, Curator of Drawings. “The individuality that characterizes the work and the artists’ methods of conceiving images independently of familiar styles, trends, or movements will appeal to a diverse audience interested in exploring new terrain in the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.”

Among the highlights of the Bonovitz collection are six works by William Edmondson (1874-1951), including the stone sculpture Horse. A retired janitor from Nashville, Tennessee, Edmondson took up carving tombstones and outdoor stone ornaments in his mid to late fifties, sometime in the early 1930s. Over the next decade and a half he filled his back yard with small figures of birds, animals, and people, which he sculpted from found chunks of limestone using an old railroad spike for a chisel.

Keep Calm and Craft On: My experience with Folk Art Enamel Paints ...

The Plaid company   Folk Art Enamel Paints are created specifically for painting non-porous surfaces (any glass, metal, ceramic).  Folk Art Enamels are non toxic and dishwasher safe (once cured).  Before they are dry, the paints can be cleaned up with soap and water which makes working with them easier. This is a completely different type of paint so do not mix or use water with these like you would with acrylics. Additionally, the manufacturer directions say to bake finished items in oven for 30 minutes at 350° or let dry for 21 days to cure completely.  After which the piece becomes dishwater safe if put in the top rack of dishwasher. The kit came with Folk Art Enamel brushes which have special soft bristles for using with the enamels so you get better results when using them to paint on non-porous surfaces with the enamel paints. They look and feel like the one-stroke brushes but they serve a different purpose.  Look for the light green color (instead of the dark green) on the handle in the painting section of the craft supply stores. The kit came with these fun floral and the butterfly stencils.  They have a sticky back and stick to glass, ceramic, and other non-porous surfaces.  They are re-useable at least 20 times.  The packaging recommends cleaning them between uses and store them on the mat provided in the packaging.  You can use the Plaid daubers  or the special paint brushes with these stencils, which makes using them easier to use.   My first project is to paint a simple picture frame.  I just wanted to see how the paint, peel-and-stick stencils, and the daubers would work on a simple frame.  The first thing I did was wash the surface of the frame and let it dry.  Then I cleaned it again with rubbing alcohol to remove any oils that might have been on the surface. Additionally, there is a small learning curve with the peel-and-stick stencils.  You should practice on a different item with a similar surface until you get the results you are looking for.  Basically it is all about how you load the paint onto the dauber or paint brush.....and how you apply it to the surface.  Truly the simplest results are by utilizing the traditional tap technique.  Just tap onto the surface, the first tap will be translucent.  However, if you want a more opaque result, then you can keep adding layers of color.

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