Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Painting on Walls Again

Bricks for the Bar

Bricks for the Bar

A quick update to show a recent project. My friend Jared is finishing half of his basement and wanted me to paint a small section of wall and make it look like old bricks. He’s putting an 8 ft. bar in front of the little cutout. He already has a little TV up in the corner and the mason jar lights are pretty cool. It should look pretty awesome when he gets it finished.

Bricks Closeup

Bricks Closeup

The photos aren’t that great but I think it turned out pretty well. The wall was already stamped with a brick texture pattern which made it easy to paint the mortar dark gray and the bricks dark red. Then I went back and added a little texture and “age” and added a few shadows under the bricks to add some depth.

Murals at West Noble Primary

Giving Tree - West Noble Primary

Giving Tree in the Hallway

Over the summer another teacher and I were commissioned to paint murals at West Noble Primary.  The school, formerly known as Ligonier Elementary, was becoming a K-1 building as part of the plan to realign the elementary schools in our corporation.  The principal wanted all the old dog-themed murals replaced with Little Chargers.  So Carol and I set out to transform the school before the end of summer.  Carol is quite an illustrator and had already come up with a Little Chargers logo last school year.  It is a cartoon of a boy and a girl in knight armor holding lightning bolts… so that was where we started. [Read more…]

Summer and Fall 2011

Cutting the Cord

Cutting the Cord

Well, according to the time-stamp on my last post, I haven’t posted in nearly 6 months!  Half of a year…  There have been a few changes since then.  First and most importantly my wife and I are now parents.  Quincy Blue was born August 12th.  At first we spent a lot of time driving to the hospital, doctor’s office and medical supply store but now everyone is doing very well.  The only problem so far is that Quin hasn’t learned to type yet so she can’t update my blog for me.  She also doesn’t have enough experience in the clay studio to be a proper apprentice and attach handles to mugs, reclaim clay or mop the floor.  So I’ve had to do all of that sort of thing myself (as you can see from the lack of blog posts).  Luckily my wife let me spend a good amount of time in the studio recently to finish some commissioned pieces and Christmas items.  (She wasn’t exactly thrilled to take care of the kid while I got all dirty but I guess I’ll count it as my Christmas present.)  I just bisque fired everything last night so I hope to start glazing later today or tomorrow.

Mural in Progress

Mural in Progress

The new school year started a few months ago.  As previously mentioned, I’m back at West Noble Primary, formerly known as Ligonier Elementary.  We are now a Kindergarten and 1st Grade building while the other elementary school has grades 2-4.  The “Boss” wanted a new look to go with the new staff and building name so he hired another teacher and myself to paint new murals all over the school.  It was a huge project.  My wife, again, wasn’t exactly thrilled that I was off painting while she was 9 months pregnant.  But she is the best.  I finished all but two of my murals before the kid arrived and then finished the last two in November.  More details will follow in a later post.

As for this site, it seems to have been forgotten.  But that’s not true!  I’ve been working on it behind the scenes a little bit at a time.  I moved the site to a new host as an add-on domain.  (Use StableHost by clicking this link to help support my endeavors.)  I’ve tweaked the Basic Gray theme for the blog and I’ve added content to the process, studio, and artist pages.  There aren’t a lot of images yet, and the gallery isn’t up (which, I suppose, is ironic for a visual artist’s website).  But there will be images.  My goal is before 2012.

Clay Blog Review

Clay Blog Review

I’ve also spent a little time working on a web project: Pottery Making Info.  I’ve started a new series of posts called Clay Blog Review which highlights some of the best pottery related blog posts of the month.  Take a look at the top pottery posts of November.  I have a few posts lined up for December and hopefully another Blogs of the Year post over Christmas break.

Other than all that, a few T-shirt designs, another website, painting large cartoons of half a basketball team, changing a few diapers and coaching cross country it’s been pretty boring for the past 6 months.  I’m hoping to add some more detailed posts about recent projects soon.  And announce some big news…  Stay tuned.

The Finished Dog Mural

Last Friday school got out at 11:00 and my wife was out of town for the weekend.  So, since I was a free man, I stationed myself in the Knipper’s nursery for the big mural finale.  I spent a couple hours adding a dog house, grass, trees, and some dog accessories.  I think it turned out alright.  It was nice to actually do some painting again.  I feel like I haven’t done a real painting in years.  Below you can see some photos of the finished work.  The lighting wasn’t great and the pictures are even worse but you get the idea.  Next time I’m over there maybe I’ll get my flash out and take some decent shots.

Stay tuned for another glimpse of a finished project or two.  I finished a logo design and the kiln should be cooling off as I post this.

Painting Dogs on a Wall

I currently have a project going in just about every medium that I have experience in.  I’m working on a large ceramic project which I just bisque fired and hope to glaze this week.  I’m doing a little graphic design in the form of a small website and a vector art project. 

But the project that might be closest to completion is a mural for some friends.  I’m painting a family of springer spaniel dogs on what is soon to be their nursery wall.  The dogs are pretty well finished and I hope to finish the doghouse, grass, and other dog-related items this week sometime.  Here you can see a part of the work in progress: