![](\"http:\/\/alexsuze.com\/blog\/images\/pumpkin1.jpg\")
It’s the witching season and in keeping with the tradition of this blog, I wanted to bring you something which is both unusual and interesting.\u00a0 So I scoured the web and came across Dave the pumpkin guy.\u00a0 No, he’s not an orange vegetable with arms and legs.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n
He is a really talented chap and in a very unusual artistic field.\u00a0 He creates Halloween pumpkins and more recently gourds too.\u00a0 Not the traditional kind being carved into grotesque faces, he uses his artistic talent to paint them instead.\u00a0 Making for a more detailed and frightening result.\u00a0 You would not want to bump in to one of his pumpkins on a dark night I can tell you.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “First, I started doing painted pumpkins about 15 years ago.\u00a0 Primarily I painted them because they lasted longer than carved Jack-o-lanterns.\u00a0 Also, I had people ask me to paint up caricatures.\u00a0 When I first started I didn’t know what I was doing so I tried using acrylic paint.\u00a0 This was a bad choice because of the waxy surface of the pumpkin.\u00a0 What would usually happen is that the paint would scratch or just chip off with the slightest touch.\u00a0 I then found latex fabric paint works well because it holds the surface better and it also stretches with the pumpkin surface as it shrinks over time.\u00a0 I’ve had some people successfully dry pumpkins in their basement.\u00a0 Because of the rubber like nature of latex paint the faces shrink and hold onto the wrinkly pumpkin surface – the effect can be very cool.\u00a0 I’ve tried to airbrush the pumpkins in the past but I’m too messy a person – I just end up getting paint everywhere so I just use a regular water color brush.\u00a0 To finish them out I like to apply a gloss fixative – it helps to protect the paint and helps bring the colors together<\/em>.”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n “Lately I’ve been trying out gourds for a change – a few of the images up on my site are gourds.\u00a0 This year I’ve been experimenting with sculpting the gourd and then finishing up with some paint.\u00a0 I’ve added an image of a gourd I just finished<\/em>.”<\/p>\n And here he is\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n I love this little fella, the movement in the tentacles makes this work of art, yes work of art come alive.\u00a0 Dave is genius when it comes to vegetable artwork, I think you’ll all agree.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s the witching season and in keeping with the tradition of this blog, I wanted to bring you something which is both unusual and interesting.\u00a0 So I scoured the web … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexsuze.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/alexsuze.com\/blog\/images\/pumpkin2.jpg\")
Here is just a small collection of his creative talent and the full gallery is available for viewing over at http:\/\/pumpkin-guy.com\/<\/a>.\u00a0 Go over and marvel at his craftsmanship.\u00a0 His site is currently under development but you can see from the wonderful graphics and story book intro that this site is going to be something else when it is completed.\u00a0 He frequently sells his work at farmers markets and online.\u00a0 So If you fancy a piece of living art just contact him from his site email on his website.
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I asked Dave to submit a little piece about his work and painting techniques which you can read below.\u00a0 I’m fascinated by the whole concept and am in awe at his talent, I’m sure you will all agree when you visit him.<\/p>\n![\"Octo-Gourd\"](\"http:\/\/alexsuze.com\/blog\/images\/octogourd.jpg\" "\\"Octo-Gourd\\"")
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