Lettering Firestone Omnibus nameplate for Greenfield Village

Train at The Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI

Where to start? Winters have usually been my rest period since I usually don't get a lot of work then. There aren't any art fairs, or car shows, not a lot of weddings, it's just basically an historically slow period for me. Not this winter! I was asked to do some restoration lettering and striping at The Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan on a tender tank that used to be owned by Henry Ford. What's a tender tank you ask? I didn't know what one was, either, until it was explained to me. It's the train car right behind the locomotive that holds water. In this case, 18,000 gallons of water. Apparently Henry Ford used to like to drive a real, full sized train around for fun. Now it's at the museum and after ten years of restoration work, it was ready to have the finishing touches put on it. I was lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time, as well as having the necessary skills, to be asked to do this incredible job:...

Check out my other blog, I update that one!

Like anyone else, there was a learning curve and I wound up with two separate blogs, oopsy. This one has a lot of subscribers, so if you'd all plase head over to my Julie Fournier's Art blog, that's the blog that I am writing and posting in these days. You don't want to miss out! Here's the direct link: https://juliekfournier.blogspot.com/ Thanks, and enjoy!

Being a public artist in the time of "just a cold"

Every year I am fully committed to my work on the carousel at the Henry Ford for the entire month of March. Sometimes the weather is good enough I can start in Jan, or February, but that's rare. Most years I work through March, and into April, especially if I am asked to paint a piece of farm equipment in addition to my work on the carousel. So I never schedule anything else for March, and tell callers that I will contact them mid April, once I wrap up at the musuem. I do all my carousel work in an unheated building, so you can understand why weather play such a big role in my scheduling. In spring and summer and fall I do all my pinstriping work outside in full sunlight - the best light!- and again, weather plays a crucial role in my scheduling. I simply can't schedule a pinstripe job one or two months out, since I have no way to precict what the weather will be like. I generally look at the forecast for the week, and schedule for a sunny day, leaving the next open just in cas...

Pinstriping by Julie Fournier

Search This Blog