Here’s a short film I made about one of our favorite artists. Justin Gaffrey creates art in Blue Mountain Beach, Florida. We’ve camped in this area more times than we can count. We love it so much, we made it our home away from home. When Walkabout Production Group isn’t roaming on a walkabout, we can often be found here along the Florida / Alabama Gulf Coast.
We discovered Justin’s work a couple of years ago.
While walking past an art store, Kristy stopped in her tracks. A painting hanging in the storefront window caught her eye. Although the store was closed she could just see the artwork by peering through the storefront window. She was so smitten with the painting, she immediately called me on the phone to tell me about it.
“You have to come see this painting,” she said. “The paint is so thick. It looks 3D!”
Later we went back to the store together. But alas! The painting was gone. So we asked the store owner about the cool painting that Kristy saw, the one with the thick colorful paint. Who was the artist?
“Oh, that’s Justin Gaffrey,” she said. “He’s local. His studio is in Blue Mountain Beach.”
If you watch the video, you’ll see what makes Justin’s work so unique. His style of painting involves using a LOT of paint. In the painting featured in the video, he uses about FIVE GALLONS of acrylic paint. That’s like forty pounds of paint on one canvas. He paints mostly without brushes, instead using special metal tools.
The results speak for themselves. If you like the impasto style of Vincent Van Gogh, you will like Justin’s work. Justin’s painting have a depth and dimensionality that is really powerful and unique. The paint is applied thick — it’s so thick and durable you can freely touch the dried paintings all you want.
All too often, great artists go unappreciated. Van Gogh, it is famously said, never sold a painting in his lifetime. Think about it! Arguably the greatest painter of the past century died having never sold a painting.
So it’s refreshing to see an artist like Justin Gaffrey whose work is appreciated. Unlike Van Gogh, Justin sells plenty of paintings, and it’s easy to see why. He has developed his own signature style, and it’s spectacular. He found his niche and is producing wonderful art that makes people happy.
So, all of you Florida / Alabama Gulf Coast snowbirds… If you ever go camping in Grayton Beach, Topsail, or Camping on the Gulf, you’re just a stone’s throw away from Justin’s studio! For more details about Justin check out his website (JustinGaffrey.com).
Just awesome! To see two modern artists work both in paint and in film is a wonderful thing! The shooting I just loved and Justin is a marvel! Great job and did you buy anything? Maybe he could make a piece for the moon something with an Airstream theme or maybe the moon theme. Wonderful job and thank you for finding Justin and making an episode on his work!
I thought it was great, interesting and well edited!
LOL thanks Matt… This entry is a little different but it was refreshing to be behind the camera for a change! I’m going to do more of this documentary style production this year (planning a feature length doc — more about this project soon!).
We do have one of his paintings already, and plan to get more. It’s rare for an artist’s work to “grab” me in the way that his does… The dimensionality of the paintings is striking…. it’s like Van Gogh evolved one or two steps further into something totally fresh and original.
I love the idea of asking Justin to paint an Airstream scene. Believe it or not, but I said something to Kristy about this last night! Justin seems to be a prolific painter, so who knows? Maybe he will give it a shot! If we do get such a painting, I will definitely post it here on the Moon. 🙂
Beautiful! The colors and textures are so yummy looking, I wanna take a bite out of one of those paintings!
How long does it take them to dry? Especially in Florida?
The paintings are all acrylic, so they dry surprisingly fast. We shot the interview with Justin this past Tuesday. When we dropped by the studio on Wednesday, the new painting was already hanging in the gallery! That’s it in the final shot of the video. He said the thicker portions of the painting (ie. the flowers) were probably still soft, but that it was safe to hang.
Unlike most artists, he really encourages people to touch his paintings. You can touch any painting in his gallery.
i forgot to ask sean How hoch were his works I can’t seem to find any prices.
Matt, the prices vary depending on the size of the painting. The smaller sizes (say, 18″ x 24″) are around $500. The really large paintings are priced into the thousands.
At the moment he’s only selling through three galleries — two of his own in the Destin, Florida area, and a third in New Orleans. I think they will eventually sell online, but they are still working to set up the inventory management system, etc.
No one ever said that nice art is cheap! What’s kind of scary is that I understand how someone could develop a taste for acquiring this one-of-a-kind art. It really adds a lot of character to a living space. It’s cool stuff!
His “greatest hits” are the sunflower paintings, and the ones that include lyrics from “You Are My Sunshine.” You just gotta see ’em. Apparently they sell pretty fast.
I may ask Justin is he’ll do an Airstream-inspired painting. Who knows, it could open up a new market for him. We’ll see! 😀
WOW!!! What more can you say!!!
Ray
Ray, I agree… wow! Justin’s stuff is great.
Thanks GMAs… I was hoping you’d like it. 🙂
Bear in mind that this is the sort of thing I could do more often if I was not also appearing on camera. In this video I decided to stay 100% behind the camera, directing and shooting… and later editing. Actually, it was quite liberating!
So… maybe I should spend more time behind the camera and less time acting as host. In the end, it’s a trade off. Ever tried hosting a show AND doing cinematography simultaneously? LOL, it’s a lot to bite off at one time. I’m not making excuses, but this is why my lav mic placement is occasionally a bit less than optimal…. I am thinking about the script and the delivery of information, as well as white balance and focus and composition, etc. etc.
With that said, I really appreciate your sharing your expertise and keeping me on my toes. You should know that I shot a piece today for the gray water discussion, and I left my white undershirt at home. I also managed to keep the lav mic off camera. 🙂
One of my goals this year is to focus a lot of my attention on a feature length documentary project. The feature will be more like this piece in terms of end quality. That’s the good news… The bad news is that it won’t be ready until probably next year around this time. You of all people know how time and energy consuming the creation of quality video can be!
Anyway, good things are happening. As always, thanks for your post.
Like Justin said “people tried to help him but it was like pouring water on his head …he had to figure it out for himself”.
Thanks fellas…
Hi Sean,
You have a real good thing going here, don’t get discouraged by a comment or two on the forum. You have a good website and I hope you don’t get discouraged as you become successful with the occasional non video related comment.
Thanks JM, and thanks to everyone else who responded to this post about our favorite painter in a mature fashion. Cheers! 😀
Thank you for introducing us to JustinGaffrey; I just perused his website and am especially smitten with the peace paintings *sigh*. I showed them to Paul (my SO), along with the video and he was quite impressed as well.
I am curious to know whether Justin has an interest in painting an Airstream scene…please keep us posted, Sean.
In the meantime, I will be revisiting your videos and commenting here and there (finally!). This is a bit embarassing, but as you know I have been trying to figure out how to leave a comment for some time. I finally went to Paul for help, and it took him about 30 seconds to log me in : )
Thanks Valynne! Glad to see we finally got your comment posting figured out. Fear not, you aren’t the first person to have issues when setting up this stuff on WordPress. I have often remarked that our website is held together with bits of string and duct tape. 🙂
I thought about asking Justin to paint an Airstream scene…. Who knows, he might go for it!
I’m really pleased with the way this video turned out. It’s gratifying to see an artist like Justin who has “found his niche” and is able to make a good living doing what he loves.
Amen to that, Sean! Like you mentioned, many artists are not appreciated in their own lifetimes. I sure would like to show my appreciation by purchasing one of his peace sign paintings!
The few pieces of art we have are so appreciated and worth the initial expense (right now they are in storage as we are caretaking but it will be like Christmas when we bring them out again).
Still marveling over the texture of Justin’s creations. Perhaps we will get to one of the galleries – I would really love to experience them in person…I have a feeling one in particular would call to me and I am curious to know which one!
For those of us who are involved in creative arts, one lesson we can learn from Justin is that he really listens to his audience.
His first paintings were kind of dark in tone, and didn’t really strike a chord with people. Sales were slow.
But when he paired a sunflower painting with “You Are My Sunshine,” people started snatching them up. When he found something that worked, he never stopped delivering it.
Before he was an artist, Justin owned a restaurant. He told me that his experience in the restaurant business was similar. To have a successful restaurant, it’s important to cook what people want to eat! Not necessarily what YOU want to cook.
In the end, you have a mix… He still does some darker paintings (that are also very interesting) to satisfy his creative urges. But he also pleases his core audience by painting his “greatest hits.” So I think he’s a smart businessman as well as a talented, original artist!
That is an amazing post Sean. Both my father and sister are artists and we have many of their paintings in our home from both. We appreciate art and artists all over the world. One of our favourite artists is Dwight Baird, (http://www.dwightbaird.com/) a student of my Dads who is now VERY successful. We are lucky enough to own an original. You guys continue to amaze us with everything you do, say and believe. I suppose it is a small step from an oil painting to a masterpiece video creation but sometimes we forget that. How do you hang a video on your wall?? I have always lamented that I was the only offspring of my fathers that did not show an artistic “bent” …. perhaps through photography and music I may show a little and that consoles me somewhat. Anyway, we really enjoyed watching the video of Justin’s work. Beautifully done.
Thank you Restless! I am pleased with this one too. 🙂
What you say about artistic inclinations got me thinking… Most people are right brain or left brain, logical or creative. I have spent plenty of time on both sides. My education was more logical, but career was more creative. I am definitely happier with the latter.
It wasn’t so long ago (okay, it was 15 years) that I was on the path to becoming a … believe it or not … lawyer. The major creative element of lawyering is figuring out ways to sue people (I’m not completely joking). So I got away from that career path and pursued something more entrepreneurial. I’ve never had any regrets. I find that I’m happiest at the end of a day during which I created something satisfying (and this video qualifies).
Anyway, thanks much for your comments! If you are ever in the vicinity of Panama City Beach / Destin (along Scenic Highway 30A) consider dropping by Justin’s studio. He creates remarkable art, and I’m really glad we were able to share it with people here!