Another octopus?

The first show is a wrap and we are back home tonight.

It's always an adventure, and we're always glad to get home too!

People are still really excited to see the shadowboxes and the sepias.

This 'ride' has sure lasted a lot longer than I ever dreamed of as far as them being a staple art form.

Many more available in person at the National Shrimp Festival next weekend.

Next weekend.

It's really almost here finally.

I have not seen some of my Shrimp Festival friends in three years.

Covid really hit the show hard because it was cancelled.

Then there were people scared to volunteer because of Covid.

I know this year is going to be so well attended.

Hopefully the economy doesn't step in and ruin it for everyone.

5 days until opening day in beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama.

We will be down there the entire time as I splurged on a campsite 4 blocks from the show.

Chris and I are really looking forward to all the festivities.

The set up, not so much.

The set up for the festival is almost magical.

The streets are cleared and then the tents start to go up like mushrooms after the rain.

My favorite vantage point was from the bath house balcony, looking out over the expanse of tents.

Flags fluttering, white tents dotting the landscape, people rushing about their business.

Such is the beginning of the biggest party on the coast,

The Annual National Shrimp Festival in beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama.

5 days until....

Another Octopus?, Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 24 inches

Day 96 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2022

 

Commissions and more!

What a year this has been indeed!

I have barely caught up from the spring shows, getting new works to the galleries that carry my works.

I finally managed to "catch up" in early June.

Then I got phone calls asking about commission works.

I have been able to get several done, with a few more in the works.

The octopus here is one of those commissions.

This beautiful soul saw my octopus at the Melbourne show.

When she came back to get the piece, it had already sold.

Melbourne was crazy with it being my best show yet!

I also took an award at the show for the shadowbox canvases.

GO Chris! It was as much his award as mine!

He works so hard building these beautiful stretcher bars for me.

I am so grateful he shares his talent for woodworking with me. 

Anyway, back to the octopus.

The collector called me and asked if I could recreate him for her home.

I replied that I try to give everyone an original so I advised her to go to the blog and find one she liked.

She came back with a very specific day from the blog.

Can you color the eye please? Yes mam.

Can you ship? Yes Mam.

A couple of weeks later, she asked if I was working on him, and I replied not yet.

I'll start next week.

Long and the short of it.

He is finished, colored eye and all.

Legs moved so she has an original piece too.

Varnished, wired, and shipped to Melbourne, Florida.

One down, several to go.

I am painting double time, so I can get enough for the  Audubon show that hangs in 24 days!

"My Nature Odyssey" is going to be beautiful!

That is, if I can get the commissions out of the way!

Octopus on five canvases, 3ft. x 5ft., Acrylic on canvas

Day 12 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2022

 

Tentacles, tentacles everywhere!

This  made for an interesting day!

It also made for a long one too!

Quite large in fact, 2 ft x 5 ft , actually a little bigger.

I am really in the groove for shows now, let the sepias begin!

I started the day with my usual bible readings, and a good breakfast provided by my husband.

Chris and our son Jere' went to our local restaurant, Waffle House 

to get breakfast and brought home something for me.

I am so blessed by a husband that thinks about me when he is out.

I then headed to my women's bible study at the pier.

I was the leader today for Really Bad Girls of the bible.

My chapter was number 3 and was about the adulterous woman.

Jesus was represented by an art professor no less!

I pray my "teaching" was understandable and provoking them to dig further into God's word.

We then walked about 2 1/2 miles.

I have managed to let a head cold into my body.

It's not real bad, but I sure hope I can fight it off enough to get well by next weekend.

Next weekend...

This time next week we will be finished with day one of the Jubilee Festival.

I pray it is at least as good as last years show.

Tentacles, tentacles everywhere! Acrylic on canvas, 2 ft x 5 ft

Day 82 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2019

Lionfish I

I know I say this a lot, but this was so fun to paint!

I did my third series of  pours in preparation for my girlfriend 

coming over next week to learn the hows and whys of pouring backgrounds.

This pouring process allows you to get multiple backgrounds done extremely quickly.

But,

There is no control over what the paint will or won't do in any given pour.

I don't own a butane torch so I cannot open cells on the pieces as much as I might like. 

I tried my heat gun, but it's not the same. The 36 oz pour that made this background covered a 16 x 20, 

2 -10 x 20's, 1 -12 x 12, 6-4 x 12's, and 9 -4 x 4's!

Lots of beautiful greys, ivory's, and golds.

They can be a challenge to create on top of the poured paint, but I am up for it wholeheartedly!

I already have plans for several of the others in the grey range.

Some of the new pour pieces will be at the Artists gallery (18 S Section St) in downtown 

Fairhope for the upcoming Artwalk on September 6th.

In the meantime. 

I am mentoring an Artist in Zimbabwe, Africa.

We met at the Grace School on the Thursday I arrived, and we instantly bonded. He is a delightful teacher as well, lending a helping hand at several art classes with me at the school. I have taught him some techniques that are different from his college days and I am amazed at his age. I was stunned to find out he had retired from teaching after 20 years! I guarantee you he does not look over 40 years old. 

He retired, wanting to teach only art in a school. 

On the second day of helping me, he was offered a job at the school teaching Art!

He is eager to learn, and as usual I am eager to teach!

He has a show in Bulawayo (sp?) in November and I am pushing him to start working on it now. His last experience for a show was not good, waiting until the last minute to try and

create. He admitted it was not his best, and the gallery owners were not real impressed.

Anyway, I am in touch with him almost daily.

Gently pushing him to hopefully greater things than he could ever imagine!

I am always creating and or thinking about creating.

Getting ready for fall classes for ESILL as well as teaching for Shepherds place every other week.

Food, fabric, or canvases all are a part of my thought process on a daily basis.

All a part of being an artist I guess!

Lionfish I, Acrylic on canvas,4 x 4 inches

Day 54 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2019

A Galaxy of Starfish

A group of starfish is called a galaxy or a constellation.

I love to paint them because of all the textures!

A few Starfish facts:

They have no brain or blood.

They can live up to 35 years! 

They are actually not a fish, they are related to sand dollars and sea urchins.

There are about 2000 different types of them. Most have 5 arms.

They can regenerate a limb, but it may take up to a year.

They have suction cups to hold on to food, but their stomach exits the body to digest 

and then goes back into the body. (Ew!)

I did not know a lot of those facts myself. 

I just love to paint them!

I once had a happenstance at Peter Anderson with a starfish painting. I was with my mother and she really enjoyed seeing me sell my works. The first afternoon of the show, we were particularly busy, with people in and out of the space and some sales. This young woman came in with her stroller and walked around quickly, then said as she was exiting. "I just got here, but I really like your work. I'll be back soon, I just got here and want to see the show." Great! I said. (I nodded to my mom, who just shook her head. That day had seen several "be backs", that had not come back.) 

We both just smiled and went on with our day.

About 15 minutes later, Stroller lady reappeared and quickly put several pieces on my table to purchase. At the time, I hand wrote receipts and had a knuckle buster so sales took a few minutes. I was writing the sale up, when another woman rushed in, looked around quickly and pointed to the starfish on the table and said "Is she buying that starfish?" Yes mam I replied. I finished with the first woman and the disappointed  lady was standing at the other side of my booth. I said "Can I help you?" She replied "I'm just guarding my paintings." "I said you can take them down." 

She said, "No I 'd rather you do it for me."

She selected two pieces and as I was writing them up, another young couple ran in and said, 

"Where's the Starfish?" I said about 15 minutes down the way.

"We came back to get the starfish." the couple said sadly. "It reminded us of our honeymoon"

I had packed up the other lady by then, and sent her on her way. The young couple went out, trying to get the next piece they had decided to purchased.

The booth got quiet.

I looked at my mother and she said, "Did that really just happen?"

"Yes mam!"

We both shook our heads then burst into peals of laughter.

So many memories of starfish.

I still have a starfish I got at about 7 years of age while living in the Philippines in the mid 1960's.

A Galaxy of Starfish, Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 36

Day 46 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2018

Wise beyond his years

     I started this one during a demonstration that lasted 2 hours on Tuesday at the Eastern Shore Art Center. (I finished it this evening in about an hour.) I had invited my students to show up thinking it would just be us and they could get in their lesson. Much to my surprise, people started coming in about 20 minutes before the demonstration was to begin! I started answering questions and away we went! My students have heard it all before so they painted away, while I was demonstrating and talking about my upcoming classes at ESAC in Fairhope. Before it was all said and done, the room needed more chairs and I had come close to completing this piece, talking all the while. (We had about 24 people show up, even one of the other instructors!)

     I talked about transferring, why to paint a painting in a day, brushes, paints, canvas and everything under the sun! (I also checked on my students that were there to make sure they did not dig too deep a hole.) I really enjoy teaching and encouraging people to paint more. I started the painting a day 3 years ago while we were building our house in Fairhope. Hard days of hot sweaty work, then frantically completing, photographing, downloading and blogging about that days painting! I have never had so much fun! The painting a day discipline will make you paint faster, cleaner, and more profitably because if you sell, the name of the game is to keep your prices affordable. It also stops you from just plain fiddling around with your paint! During the demonstration, the people watching were a little surprised that I did not study the photo more. I have found that too much focusing on the reference slows you down, and cause you to 'tighten up' way too quickly. I refer to the photo as I am doing the big details and then the final touches, then I simply put it away because I do not like to let a photo dictate to me the colors I use.

     Long and short of it, I now have two more people signed up for this fascinating method of painting and creating. They may not all complete a painting a day, but at least we'll all have fun trying!

Wise beyond his years , 13 x 20, Acrylic on Canvas, Day 44 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2012

Denizen of the deep

            A special request from a collector in Orange Beach. Fairhope Connections called me and asked if I could recreate an octopus I had done but in a smaller piece. The original is 12 x 12 but the client wanted an 8 x 8. So, I got out the brushes and pulled out a rabbit because they wanted it the next day! When Joe Stoppa called, he said the customer also may want a Nautilus with the creature exposed. For some unknown reason, the word Cephalopods popped into my head! I told him they must really attracted to them (cephalopods) because both of them are from that group. Mr Douglas at Murphy high school would be so proud that I remembered that from Advanced Biology my senior year! What year?  I am almost scared to say, 1978!
Denizen from the deep~acrylic on canvas 8 x 8 Day 37 of the 100 days~100 paintings

The Clown

I never will get tired of painting turtles so I hope you will endure yet another version. I love this guy and am working on one in color for the 100 days series. Turtles always seem to make me smile and this one is no exception. He seems to be waving Hello! Also, this is another sepia of course, as these are by far my best sellers on the coast! This will catch me up on the 100 days for now. I NEVER want to be this far behind again! The paintings are there and finished, it is just the photographing, cropping, loading, and blogging that seem to be the problem! Oh yeah! and late nights too!

Sailfish Play

I am never ceased to be amazed while watching animals at play. They all seem to do it, we just have to slow down enough to watch them ourselves. Anyone who has stopped to watch puppies or kittens at play has an endless source of joy. Just seeing them makes us smile. I love to watch my "girls" (3 dachshunds) in the backyard when they start to romp and chase. It usually starts with one just getting the "look" and suddenly, the jump, bite, and cut to the chase! They tear through the yard grinning from ear to ear, tougues flapping in the wind created by their sudden burst of energy. Take the time to watch, you are going to giggle a little. (Sometimes quite a lot) We had a sheltie that would play with our dachshunds when they were puppies. Soon the puppy would figure out that by getting under the ottoman, they could ambush the older dog.

When I teach a class, I encourage my students to play. This includes my adults too! Play means they must go home and in their favorite medium, experiment, push, have fun. I am delighted when students come back to the next class and show off their "fun" time. They know it will not be judged as being "art" or a finished piece. They do discover though that in having fun they are learning the medium and it's limits! They also sometimes discover that there are limits to what they are working with at the time. We all need to play,even if we are artists already! We can push ourselves to go into another medium and experiment~but most of all~PLAY!

Sailfish Play, 24 x 24 deep edge canvas, $295.00