Art During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Everyone has had to change the way they work in the new world of social distance and fear of covid-19. I have started waking up at the ass-crack of dawn in order to get a couple hours of work in before my wife and daughter wake up. This is what I’ve accomplished since late February 2020.

The links below go to my online store. it wasnt easy making a living as a self employed artist that sells only original works that cost a lot of money before covid-19. If you are lucky enough to still be able to afford fine art and you like my work, please, make a purchase. Hell, make an offer! I would be happy to show you the piece in person, or explain any questions, concerns. Another way you can support my work would be a custom commission, I have started experimenting with smaller 1-3 day pieces under $1,000. The bull horns at the top of the page are not for sale but I would ask $700 for something like that.

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Bull Skull

$8,000.00

By: Carter Watkins

20” X 20” X 11”

Seed Beads, beeswax, on bull skull

Design Elements: 2 Yellow Daffodils. 2 ferns, 3 sunflowers, 2 common weed leafs, 5 6-petal flowers.

*This piece is for sale but is on display until March 2023. If you would like to purchase this piece please email me.*

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Roadrunner VS. Scorpion

$15,000.00

By: Carter Watkins

Seed beads, Beeswax on an Epiphone Zenith Masterbilt 2020

This is the third piece in my “bird conflict” beaded-guitar series. The guitar was generously provided by the Gibson Showroom in Austin. The plan was to display it in the showroom during SXSW 2020 but the corona virus happened and SXSW got canceled.

This piece is for sale but is on display until October 2023. If you would like to purchase this piece please email me.

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Butterflies & Succulents Cape Buffalo 2020

$7,500.00

Beaded Cape Buffalo skull

24” X 26” X 12”

Seed beads, Beeswax, on bone

Design elements: Two butterflies landing on a blooming aloe flower. Prickly pear cactus and cereus cactus

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Pheasant Vs. Fox

$12,960.00

‘Pheasant Vs. Fox’

By-Carter Watkins 2019

seed beads, beeswax, on acoustic ‘parlor’ guitar

This is the first piece of a trio of guitars with a ‘bird-conflict’ theme. On each guitar there is a common Texas bird- Pheasant, Red Tailed Hawk, and Roadrunner. Each guitar depicts an interaction between 2 animals- the bird and its predator or its prey, with complex and detailed landscape elements, climates, and fora.

This guitar is a functional* Recording King series 7- sunburst. Its a $100 guitar from Guitar Center. I liked the classic ‘parlor guitar’ shape of the body so i bought it with the intention of useing it as a canvas.

As for the art, I started this piece with the intention of doing a Nudie Cohn inspired western design. I started with this huge pheasant with those stunning tail feathers, I had no plan past the bird. Beading is such a slow process, it gives me time to brainstorm my next move while I work. After stepping back it looked like the pheasant was alarmed. So I did a little research on pheasants, this is where the whole ‘conflict’ idea came about. So I sketched out a fox creeping through some brush stalking the pheasant.

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Cape Buffalo Atlas Moth and Night Blooming Cereus

$10,000.00

The inspiration for this design comes from a couple sources, over a couple months, during a tumultuous global pandemic: A few months back my family and I piled into a rv and drove to Carlsbad New Mexico to have a memorial for my stepdad Joe. He died of cancer in April. In one of our family-bedside-conversations the week before he passed my sister asked him if there was anything he regretted not doing. Joe said that he always wished he’d gotten a tattoo like Steve McQueen’s in the movie Papillon. A butterfly tattoo on his chest. It was an unexpected answer, Joe didn’t have any tattoos. On our way to Carlsbad (Joe’s hometown) I stopped to deliver some commissioned skulls to a client in Midland and he gave me two cape buffalo skulls to use as canvases for my bead art. The first cape buffalo is a daytime scene with two butterflies (papillion) landing on an Aloe Vera bloom. The second cape buffalo is a night time scene- a large, lone atlas moth stretching its wings on a Night Blooming Cereus stalk, flanked by blooming and wilted flowers under a luminescent (literally glows in the dark) full moon.

Composition: Large Atlas moth surrounded by night blooming cereus flowers.

*This piece is for sale but is on display until Feb 2023. If you would like to purchase this piece please email me.*

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Redtail Vs. Rattler

$12,960.00

‘Redtail Vs. Rattler’

By-Carter Watkins 2020

seed beads, beeswax, on nylon-string acoustic guitar

This is the second piece of a trio of guitars with a ‘bird-conflict’ theme. On each guitar there is a common Texas bird- Pheasant, Red Tailed Hawk, and Roadrunner. Each guitar depicts an interaction between 2 animals- the bird and its predator or its prey, with complex and detailed landscape elements, climates, and fora.

This guitar was found in an attack by my father-in-law. He gave it to me to use as a canvas. This guitar is the least functional guitar. there is some buzzing on the frets, it does not sound very good.

the art- The inspiration for this pair of creatures came from my daly central-texas life. In the past couple years the Austin Redtail Hawk population has exploded. I see two or three every single day hunting in the creek by my house and sitting on top of the light posts along the MoPac expressway. I love them, they are raptors, they eat meat, they have super vision, they eat rats, they can fly! I wanted to try a more challenging sky-scene for this guitar and i think the sunset and glowing clouds came out wonderfully. The scene depicts the contact/conflict of two predators.

Carter WatkinsApril 28, 20201 Comment

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Art During the COVID-19 Lockdown