Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo - Page 8 of 661 - Living a simple, creative life in small town USA. Bryson City. A Lifestyle Blog.

The Bryson City Trout Statue Finally in Place

October 9, 2020 by Ashley Hackshaw

My trout statue is finally in place! I had been holding out for an auto body clear coat finish and once that was approved the statue was installed near the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad Train Depot:

A few photos of it being transported so you can see the scale:

My friend Jeff Marley also painted a trout for the town of Bryson City. It’s located at the Farmer’s Market:

Here are some closer shots of the detail in the fish:

I love the scale of the fly:

But my favorite part of the fish is all the detail in the river bed with the rocks and arrowheads:

The cute fish in the river:

The fly fisherman is another tribute to our friend Dennis who brought the idea of the trout statues to Bryson City (you can read about Dennis here):

There are six total trout statues spread around Bryson City right now. Another art update is that Bryson City Outdoors has these stickers now featuring my barn quilt!

There’s a lot going on right now with our One Twenty Main Restoration, running the store and also running Sixty-One Park. Not to mention home school half the week and taking care of animals…which I know all of you are probably dealing with too. I’m always still creating art everyday…almost too much to catalog here. I’m looking forward to finishing the restoration and being able to slow down a little for some writing!

A Modern Mountain Barn Quilt Painting – Painted Barn Quilt Design

August 20, 2020 by Ashley Hackshaw

I’ve been working on this painted barn quilt design for the large blank wall on the side of my store and finally finished it!

It’s funny how some of my projects take place totally by accident. I had purchased a large piece of marine grade plywood for a barn quilt commission I did recently and I had a 4 foot section left over so I thought: I should make a mountain themed barn quilt. I had a “quilted” version of the large mural I did last year for the YMCA as a starting point:

Time Lapse of Mural Painting at YMCA Camp Watia

To make the quilt base first I painted the marine-grade plywood on both sides and then added pressure-treated bracing to the back to keep it from warping over time:

First I finished the commissioned barn quilt for my customer. They wanted cardinals with the seasons so here’s what I designed and painted. I should mention here that the most important thing for a barn quilt is using paints that won’t fade quickly, especially purples and reds which are most susceptible to fading first. I use high quality acrylics like DecoArt’s Media Fluid Acrylics or Golden Fluid Acrylics (especially for my reds) mixed in with a few other brands:

The main part of the mountain themed quilt I kind of made up as I went along, sketching it out with willow charcoal. The letters on the bottom I printed out, pieced together and transferred with Saral transfer paper:

The design changed a little as I worked on it but it slowly came to life as I tapes off random triangles and squares and trapezoids:

Another project I was working on simultaneously was the repainting of these rocking chairs:

So you can see where the some of the color inspiration came from:

When the piece was completely finished I put about 4 coats of Modern Masters Exterior Clear Coat (in Satin). It’s ultra clear and easy to apply:

Jaime and Brett attached it to the building for me! If it was anyone else’s barn quilt we would have hung it using some type of invisible cleat on the back but I told the to just drill straight in from the front and I’d just retouch it. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon!:

I really love how it turned out. I might make it into a print at some point….but for now Bryson City Outdoors is going to make it into their next sticker offering!

Here’s another barn quilt design I did a while back for the Sixty-One Park Farmhouse:

Making a Modern Barn Quilt

A Hand Painted Store Front Sign for One Twenty Main

July 12, 2020 by Ashley Hackshaw

I finally got a store front sign for One Twenty Main and we made it ourselves!

This was a little mock-upI did to try and figure out what I wanted it to look like:

We had a local friend weld together this lightweight aluminum frame to hold wood boards for the sign:

Four 7″ deck boards fit inside the frame and I painted them black to start:

The boards are secured in the frame to keep them from warping:

I sent my friend/artist Stephanie Corfee and idea for the sign and she helped me set it up so I could print the exact sized lettering onto 8.5″x11″ paper and tape it together as a template: