“Old guy” Neil Erickson and “young guy” Josh Wallace draw paint brushes for their 30-day paint-off, with the results being exhibited at Ericklson’s Pottery Road studio, starting July 21.  

“Old guy” Neil Erickson and “young guy” Josh Wallace draw paint brushes for their 30-day paint-off, with the results being exhibited at Ericklson’s Pottery Road studio, starting July 21.  

Art Wars: Old Guy vs: Young Guy hold paint-off in Vernon

Neil Erickson and Joshua Wallace try to out-paint one another in this epic battle being staged at Ericsson's Pottery Road studio.

The draw is on as master and student strike canvas.

Martial arts, this is not, young Padawan.

Instead, lightsabers be replaced by brushes and Jedi mind tricks, forbidden.

Creativity be the force.

It all began about a year ago when Vernon master artist Neil Erickson invited emerging Vernon artist Joshua Wallace to use his Pottery Road studio as a space to paint in.

Wallace took Erickson up on the offer and a friendship began.

The art conversations were lively, colourful and rich with talk of techniques, styles, what paint they used and, of course, the great artists who inspired them.

In one of their more recent conversations, Erickson told Wallace, “as a young artist you need to paint, paint, paint then, of course, as an old artist, I need to paint, paint, paint!”

From this, Erickson thought it would be fun to challenge Wallace to a painting duel, “kind of like a modern-day (World Wrestling Federation) cage match, with paint brushes, for fun to catch people’s interest,” he said.

The idea of The Old Guy, Young Guy Paint-Off Challenge emerged.

Erickson and Wallace take turns painting, then post the results on Facebook. Their challenge: to paint a work every other day for 30 days.

The resulting 30 paintings – 15 by each artist – will be shown at Erickson’s studio gallery at 964 Pottery Rd. An opening reception takes place Thursday, July 21 at 7 p.m.

Be there, you must.

For more information, contact Sherrie Erickson at 250-260-0878 or email sherrie@potteryroadyoga.com.

 

 

Vernon Morning Star