This week I finished painting a wine barrel for Americana Vineyards in Interlaken which will be part of the Painted Barrels exhibit of some 27 wine barrels located throughout the Finger Lakes wine trails on Cayuga, Seneca, and Keuka Lakes.
Part of the excitement for me was being assigned to Americana Vineyards. They are one of the closest Finger Lakes wineries to Ithaca and also one of the most fun to visit.
I was all revved up to do a typical oil painting of Americana fireworks themes when I ran into my first experience painting with exterior oil-based paints. Part of the rules of the game were that the barrels had to be painted for both indoor and outdoor use. While I’m used to working with very malleable and controllable oil and acrylic paints, these exterior paints excelled at dripping, running and not mixing well at all.
Thus, in a flash, my goal of painting New York City fireworks along with the American flag on the moon and at Iwo Jima, quickly turned into inspiration to do a red, white and blue Jackson Pollock-homage drip painting that was more appropriate to the medium.
You, dear viewer, now get the pleasure of touring all of the wineries of the Finger Lakes listed at the Painted Barrels web site to check out these barrels, check out the wines, and bid to purchase the barrels of your choice (here's a link to mine). While I’d like to think my barrel is reason enough to visit Americana Vineyards, you’ll also want to visit their tasting room, perhaps dine at the Crystal Lake Café (sample menu), and take home some of their great wine with those great Americana-themed wine labels.
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