True Blue Art Supply

True Blue is proud to present Bob Martin, an artist who merges East and West aesthetics through his sumi-e works and other art. The influences of Japanese techniques and sensibilities can be seen woven throughout much of his work. 

In addition to his sumi-e works and landscape paintings, Bob has done frescoes and illustrated books.  He teaches palette knife techniques and sumi-e painting and participates in “quick draw” and “plein air” painting demonstrations. Bob is also a retired kilt maker, a historian of the kilt, and a member of the Scottish Tartan Society and the Guild of Tartan Scholars.

Asked about his art, Bob says, ”I paint to please myself.  I have nothing to prove with my painting, no theory to expound, no revolutionary ideas to give to the world.  I give myself, using my talents to the best of my ability.”

True Blue was proud to present Brent Martin as our January Local Artist of the Month.  Brent lives in the Cowee community of western North Carolina, in what is known locally as the “Doc Clark house”. He paints Mason jars and related esoterica on pressed tin that he is removing from the ceilings of this old farm house.   Brent also writes poetry and essays, and has published three chapbook collections - Poems from Snow Hill Road; A Shout in the Woods; and Every Breath Sings Mountains, with writers Thomas Rain Crowe and Barbara Duncan.

Brent’s essays and columns have been published in Wildbranch: An Anthology of Environmental and Place Based Writing, North Carolina Literary Review, Pisgah Review, New Southerner, Mountain Express, Smoky Mountain News, and elsewhere. Brent first got hooked on blue ball Mason jars while watching his grandmother can Brunswick Stew each summer, after their annual July 4th family reunion. He also spent a lot of his childhood digging through trash piles behind old abandoned houses looking for them and other interesting glassware.  Brent currently serves as the Southern Appalachian Regional Director for The Wilderness Society in Sylva, NC.

True Blue is proud to welcome Taylor Cort as our local artist of the month for October, 2011.  

Taylor is best-known as a tattoo artist, having originally apprenticed in Boone before making his way to Asheville.  His artist statement is short and sweet – “I like to paint skulls.”

Taylor will have several pieces available for purchase through the end of the month – oils, acrylics, colored pencil, and even small polymer clay figurines. Taylor’s horror-themed imagery makes an eerie backdrop for your October visits to True Blue.

Come by and see for yourself! Can’t make it by this month? – See more of Taylor’s artwork here.

True Blue is proud to feature the work of our staff for our Local Artists of the Month for July, 2011.

Gavin Post has recently returned from a stint as a studio assistant at Penland School of Crafts, where he continued his painting studies. Skilled in watercolors, acrylics, and oils, Gavin’s most recent work explores surreal subterranean landscapes.

Joshua Spiceland’s work is becoming more and more a part of the downtown Asheville experience, as evidenced by recent murals near Izzy’s on Lexington Avenue and paintings for The Watchmaker’s Shop inside the Haywood Park Hotel Atrium – in addition to his work on the I-240 bridge murals and numerous shows around town. Josh’s vibrant multimedia works explore archetypes and symbols and evoke the old masters through his exquisite renderings of the human form.

Faith Callaway may be best known around town as the mercurial keyboard and banjo player from indie-folk group The Neopolitan Children, and her starring role in the award winning video for “Skeleton Crew” by Kovacs and the Polar Bear. But her paintings reveal yet another facet of her artistic personality. Faith’s paintings are sometimes purely abstract, while others depict delicate, contemplative female images.

Chris Ortega, our newest staff member, studied studio art at UNC-Pembroke, where he explored painting and illustration techniques. His work ranges from cartoons to politically-charged paintings, combining abstract color patterns with elements of realism.

Jason Ross Martin has been involved in the music scene in Asheville for more than a decade, including his current role as co-host of Blend, Hookah Lounge and Gallery’s Wednesday Acoustic Night. His watercolors and acrylics focus on these musical themes, as he infuses portraits of music icons with visual representations of the sounds they produced.

Please stop by the store this month and take this opportunity to get to know our team from a different perspective!

True Blue is proud to welcome “AFTP” as our local artist of the month for June. “AFTP” is the alter-ego of one of our regular customers, who wished to remain anonymous during this show and let the pieces speak for themselves.

The following artist’s statement/origin myth was sent to us by “AFTP” as an introduction to this month’s exhibit:

“Once upon a little while ago a lonesome idea was born in the rusty, corrugated tin shack margins between a dead end and a bottle neck. Stray dogs barked at its scrap-metal body and alley cats sharpened their claws on its wounded pride until there was barely a twittering stump of its former self left. But nothing lasts forever and one fine day before the idea had disappeared completely, a big clumsy itinerant troll with a soft spot for wounded birds, tripped over this shrinking violet, picked it up, opened up his skull cap and put that little bee in his bonnet like it was meant to be. From that day forth, the big nobody felt like a somebody, the little idea flourished and the two spoke as one.  And the many words that were spoken became the images you now see in the four walls that make up the somewhere in the middle of the nowhere we are all going.” – AFTP

True Blue welcomes Lindsay Bryant as our Local Artist of the Month for April, 2011. Lindsay’s multimedia creations are also featured at The Circle in West Asheville.

From sewing, jewelry and graphic design to painting, assemblage and paper construction, her work has a quirky and sometimes dark undertone but always with a delicate and whimsical approach.

Several of Lindsay’s pieces on display at True Blue were made using our own handmade papers!

True Blue is proud to feature Paul Nealon as our Local Artist of the Month for March, 2011. Paul makes landscape paintings which combine realism with a powerful sense of the serenity and ambiance of his environments.

His artist statement  details his journey: 

“After forty-five years in the business world, doing financial management for businesses and trusts, I retired and returned to painting. While I had not painted in thirty years, I had worked in clay doing pottery on the wheel and hand building of Irish cottages.

I paint realistic scenes of places I have visited. My hope is to share my experiences with those who see my paintings so they too can enjoy the beauty as I have. My Irish pictures feature the landscape and buildings that characterize the country. The mills and other buildings are found throughout the rural America. My coastal paintings are from the South Carolina lowlands.”

Paul’s work can be seen at True Blue through the end of the month, and also on his website.

True Blue Art is proud to feature Molly Courcelle as our Local Artist of the Month. Based in her studio in The Wedge building in the River Arts District, Molly creates dynamic oil paintings with abstract images suggestive of flowers and other natural themes. Please come by the shop this month and enjoy her work!

“I have always been fascinated by paint… the feel of the medium, the effects of the brushes, the push and pull of line, plane, and form. With this in mind, my work is as much about the process of painting as it is about the final image. Each painting is its own unique experience.

Inspiration starts with something specific from a natural object, such as the color on a petal, the shape of a leaf, or the line formed with a stem. With a heavy focus on line and composition, the painting shifts and changes until complete. Much of it is spontaneous, much of it is reactionary. The result is a painting that is generally abstract yet essentially organic.”

To see more of Molly’s work, check her website and her etsy shop.

True Blue Art is proud to feature the work of Jeff Pittman as our December Local Artist of the Month. Born and raised in Greenville, North Carolina, Jeff curently resides in Fletcher.

Jeff  uses vibrant oil colors to capture interesting views and familiar places in downtown Asheville and the surrounding mountains.  Bold brush strokes give his paintings a feeling of texture and movement while luminous colors create a natural glow.

Pittman’s work has been widely exhibited in juried competitions and art galleries, and can be seen in private and corporate collections throughout North Carolina and beyond.