Bottles provide artist a much nicer canvas
“I love lighthouses,” says North Spokane artist Vickie Buxton. “The water … you wish you were there. And there are so many styles and shapes of lighthouses. They fit the bottles because they’re kind of bottle-shaped themselves.”
Bottles. That’s what makes Buxton’s art so impressive – her “canvases” are everyday bottles.
“Years ago I painted some leftover canning jars,” she says. “I hated to throw them away and thought, ‘I’ll paint them and put candles in them.’ They sold. Then something just said to me, ‘Do a bottle.’ Then I realized I wouldn’t have to buy canvas either – bottles would be a lot less expensive.”
Buxton’s older brothers, Don and Gary, are her main suppliers of glassware.
“When they saw the art I was doing on bottles they wanted to help out,” Buxton says.
Brother Don Buxton says he gets bottles from “wherever I spot ‘em – flea markets, yard sales, the Cheney Recycling Center.” He says his sister uses all sizes and shapes, from wine bottles to cider jugs, bottles with flat sides, even water cooler bottles.
Artist Buxton likes that she is able to reuse bottles. “The shapes of the bottles themselves are so beautiful,” she says. “Don brings me some bottle he’s found and I think, ‘Why did someone throw that in the garbage bin? It’s gorgeous!’ “
Once a bottle is brought to her, Buxton soaks it in soap and water for hours to loosen the label. “It’s quite a job,” she says. “You need an SOS pad and a lot of elbow grease.”
After the bottle is label-free, Buxton prepares the glass surface with primer. Then she’s ready to transfer a design.
Buxton creates both original designs and some customized from art books and photos. “I draw my designs first on paper,” Buxton says. “Sometimes I use brown paper sacks from the grocery store, or if you order something by mail, it comes with that crushed up paper in it. You can smooth that out and use it. It’s better than throwing it away. If it’s really bad, I’ll get the iron out, or put heavy books on it and leave it for a couple weeks. There’s yards of it.”
Buxton transfers her completed design to the primed bottle surface using graphite transfer paper (available at Spokane Art Supply). Then she begins painting. Since she’s allergic to oil paints, Buxton uses acrylics (from Michael’s). When the painting is dry, she protects it with a high gloss, matte or satin varnish.
“I’m self-taught,” Buxton says, “but art’s about developing your own style, which I did by trial and error. The bottles were a challenge because the scene needs to be seamless and blend all the way around. You have to match up to where you started.”
Buxton says she loves color – and she uses it artfully. On one large jug, a trophy-sized German brown trout lunges, mouth agape, for a Rock-Dancer fly. There is a dab of orange paint on the body of the fly and a fleck of the same orange in the trout’s eye. The color visually unites the two, which heightens the drama of the impending strike.
Each of Buxton’s works of art takes at least three weeks to complete because of the drying time necessary between each stage. “With a canvas,” she says, “you put it down, paint it, it’s done. Not with the bottles. If you don’t let the paint dry, let it set up right, then you’ll be starting over. You have to have patience. You have to be dedicated. But it’s painting that keeps me sane.”
There’s little need to worry about her sanity then – Buxton’s painting endeavors should continue for a good, long time. She says she now has “over 800 wine bottles and jugs downstairs. Washed, boxed, ready to go.”
Yet the search goes on. “We’ll be driving somewhere,” Buxton says, “and Don will see a yard sale and say, ‘I thought I saw a bottle,’ and I’ll say, ‘How can you? We were driving so fast!’ But we’ll stop and by golly, there it is.”
Buxton sells her bottles and jugs for $25 to $35m and can be reached at 489-3093.