Small but mighty "O"

Octopus are absolutely fascinating to me.

This guy would be considered a miniature in the painting world.

A lot of impact in a small painting.

I really enjoyed creating him too.

Things are ramping up here at the Raccoon Retreat studio in Fairhope, Alabama.

Most of all, is the getting ready for shows in the fall.

I have put in for several, we'll see when the acceptances start coming in (or not) as to how busy I'll be.

August and September will be "My Nature Odyssey" at the Audubon center in Pascagoula, MS

National Shrimp Festival, Gulf Shores, Alabama October 6~9, 2022

Jubilee festival, Daphne, Alabama October 15th & 16th, 2022 ~Tentative

Mattie Kelly, Destin Florida, October 29th & 30th, 2022~Tentative

Peter Anderson, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Nov. 5th & 6th, 2022~Tentative

Three Rivers, Covington, Louisiana, November 12th & 13th, 2022~Waitlisted

There may be other smaller shows in between and after, but this is what I have entered.

Hopefully, I'll see you at one this fall!

The spring shows are still producing work as well.

I have commissions I'm working on to make collectors happy (and me too!)

I am always delighted to help make that special day even better with original art!

I am humbled at the amount of work lately.

God has been working overtime to give me commissions so I can support others in their art endeavors.

In the meantime,

I PAINT!

Small but mighty "O", Acrylic on panel, 5 x 15 inches

Day 8 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2022

 

100 days~100 paintings 2022

The 100 days of paintings actually started this year on Tuesday June 28th.

Time got away from me however, and I am just now getting to post!

I really enjoy the paintings every year as well as the comments when you read the blog!

This year, I begin with sewing machine drawers.

These are taken from vintage sewing machines in bad condition and used in a whole new way!

We break down the drawers from the machine and my husband Chris cuts them down into thirds.

He then uses wood panels to fill in the openings from more recycled wood.

I am amazed with how they turn out every time I do them.

It all started with a sewing machine our neighbor had that she wanted turned into a table.

She did not want the drawers or the machine.

The machine is very heavy and my husband used it for weight added to his lathe.

(Several months later, our son commandeered the machine as he is making lamps out of them.)

The drawers however presented a problem, throw them away or creatively reuse them.

I am so grateful that Chris is talented enough to help me reuse them.

So far, we've repurposed 3 machines and have plans for more.

Each machine allows me to create anywhere from 18 to 24 little pieces of art.

They are proving to be popular!

This summer will be interesting as I have been invited back to the 

Audubon Center in Mississippi for another one woman show. 

The first one was called "My Ocean Odyssey" and was one of their most popular shows. 

I am honored that they believe in my works enough to invite me back this year. 

This show will be called "My Nature Odyssey"

The show will have my usual marine life and shadowbox canvases, as well as multiple piece works.

 One entire wall will be flora and fauna from our beautiful gulf coast!

Hummingbirds, shorebirds, raptors, and earthly creatures will make for a fun show.

The National Shrimp festival in Gulf Shores will happen this year!

I am now 95 days out from this wonderful show that is one of my favorites.

This year, I will have a double booth.

One booth will be of the marine life sepias, possibly moving from sepia to color added on some.

 The other will be the Steampunk that has proven popular during the spring shows.

The Steampunk has also gotten some awards this spring.

Come along for the ride this summer!

100 paintings~100 days 2022

My Nature Odyssey!

Sewing machine drawers, each 5x15 inches,Acrylic

Days 1-5 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2022

 

Hectic weekend

This weekend we went to our daughter's home for a visit and for me to work on pirate costumes for their up coming Disney cruise. No one can ever accuse us of being wall flowers when it comes to putting on a show for fun. We converted, we created, and we conversed for hours while working.  Still not complete, she is much further along than when we got there Friday night. I also have a bag of fish extenders to complete. More on that project later.
In the meantime I have revisited the bathing suits for a commission piece that is a birthday present. The tricolor ed one was actually advertised in 1957. The client wanted the polka dot one to have his wife's  birth year. So it has 1957 too!
All in all, a productive weekend, and 4 days closer to the first show of the season!
I'll post later with the painting for today.
Vintage bathing suits, Acrylic on wood panels, 8 x 10
Days 74,75,76,and 77 of the 100 days 100 paintings 2017

17 days!?!! Time flies when you're having fun!

I know I said I would not do this, but time really got away from me in the past two weeks!

It has been 17 days since my last post, I am ashamed to say. Time flies when you're having fun indeed! I have taught my last two classes at the art center and my church camp. I have been accepted into two shows for fall. Jubilee in Daphne late September and Peter Anderson in Ocean Springs the first full weekend in November. National Shrimp festival is looming as well on the horizon, taking up the middle of October.

I need to get even more disciplined over the next coming weeks! The gallery in Fairhope has no less than 11 of my new pieces along with some that were previously posted. Please forgive me if I don't post individual photos of each. The second photo is the delivery of pieces to Dauphin Island showing them in place on her wall. The collector called and wants another one as well that she will pick up in September.

The following pieces more than catch me up for the 100 days~100 paintings

They were created in classroom situations with children under the age of 12. The geckos are my favorite, the background was created with shaving cream! SO much fun!

Days 22 through 37 of the  100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach Again?Vintage Beach XII,XIII,XIV, XV

Vintage Beach  Again?

I'm afraid so! 

I have to create what I love as well as what seems to be in demand, so here we go!

I have changed the colors done previously, but the styles are there. The  plaques still need to be distressed, stained, and then varnished. The 70's one is completely new, the 1946 is a bikini designed by Reard. Reard once said a bikini is not a bikini unless it fits through a wedding band. The one with the palm trees was a Catalina, I painted it a different color as well. Kinda makes you want to think really hard at why the designers of the day were pushing the limits of just how small you could go. Part of it was the war effort, but I think they just wanted to see how much demand they could create. One suit even touted that it weighed 8 ozs and that it would fit in a matchbox!

I don't know about you, but I do know about me. I cannot wear something so small it barely covers my private areas. I want them to stay private, thank you very much!

Vintage Beach XII, XIII, XIV, XV

Acrylic on recycled wood panel, 8 x 10

Days 16, 17,18,  and 19

Vintage Beach XI

While frantically working with children and letting their imaginations run wild, I still paint!

No less than two of my galleries now want the vintage suits too!

After posting about the Moonlight Buoy yesterday I couldn't resist another vintage bathing suit. This one is from the 70's and really reminds me of my teen years.  I was a lifeguard in 1977 at the Jewish Community Center on Airport Blvd. I remember being upset though, that as guards we were asked to run the snack bar as well. This did not make me real happy as I was proud of being a trained lifeguard and concerned that something might happen on my watch. Safety prevailed even though some of the kids going there were a little spoiled and did not like a teenager telling them what to do.

Vintage Beach XI, Acrylic on wood, 8 x 10

Day 16 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach X

I  know I wrote a couple of days ago that the vintage series was done. 

Well................. I did this study today for a larger one later. The original suit was probably much lighter in color.

While researching the other suits and their origins, I came across this little suit. Called the Moonlight Buoy, it was introduced about 1945 or 1946 by I believe the Duchess Royal company. This suit caused quite a stir in it's day! It was also featured in a LIFE magazine article, but I have yet to locate it for conformation. What was all the hullabaloo about? The advertisement touted that the lightweight suit could float by using the cork buckle to attach the top and bottom together. Why? 

So the swimmer could swim Au Natural !

In the Moonlight no less! 

You would have to swim in the moonlight to find it, and hope your suit did not float away with the tide. Interesting to say the least that our grandmothers might have worn something like this!

Ah history...................

Vintage Beach X, Acrylic on wood 8x10 

Day 15 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach IX

Yesterday got away from me, this is Monday's post.

The last of the vintage suits for now. The bare midriff was the beginnings of the bikini. The bikini did not make it's official appearance until 1946. The war effort required all clothing fabric usage to be reduced by 10%. The skirt was the first part to go, then the bikini became a new fashion to be embraced. However, as we have seen, women did not fully embrace the bikini until much later in the century!

Vintage Beach IX, 16 x 20 Acrylic on canvas

Day 13 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach VIII

Back to the fifties tonight! 

I love this era and can imagine my mother sporting a cute little midriff suit like this one. Perhaps not though, she went to a Catholic girls school for her high school years. I have never seen a photo of her in one, but I really do remember the yellow one from yesterday!

Vintage Beach VIII, Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20

Day 13 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach VII

 Day 12! 

Already?

Summer is going by at hyper speed this year. 

Our pool is almost too hot to swim. The grass alternates between dying from the mole crickets and growing like hay that needs to be mowed. The summer rains have arrived, with almost daily deluges of vast amounts of water. I am hesitant about going out on the water on my paddle board because of lightning. Summer classes are in full swing, with classes already lining up for fall as well. I have three more weeks of teaching children during their summer break and then I have a breather before fall classes and shows begin.

Shows should be interesting, with Grand Festival being cancelled for this year. I am disappointed about this show being given the heave ho, but I understand.........I do it because it is local and lets me show my works to a wider audience. I still plan to do Jubilee, Daphne, Al end of September, National Shrimp Festival (on an end booth, so excited!) Gulf shores Al, October 13-16th, 

and Peter Anderson, Ocean Springs MS, November 5th and 6th. There are a couple of Christmas shows as well, more on that later! 

On to today's painting.

I love the happy yellow of this suit. It reminds me strongly of a suit my Mom designed while we were in the Philippines. Ours were similar to this, bright yellow with brass rings. Ours came to the center in a single ring in the middle over our stomach and two rings on the sides of our hips. It also had two rings on the side of the top and the neckline came up around our necks. They were open back, with a strap across the chest to hold the top. They were a very small bikini style because they were connected to 1 1/2 inch rings. They were made from double knit. Mine was exactly like moms except a smaller version. I remember standing beside her, sewing machine humming, eagerly anticipating the new suit that matched hers!

Vintage Beach VII , Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20

Day 12 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach VI

Today brings the 1940's into view. 

The 1940's followed an era of Maillot suits with the sides cut out. (Maillot? I had to look it up too! Basically a tank type suit!)  Esther Williams was making swimming at lot more popular. Coco Chanel's influence made suntans fashionable. Women were becoming more comfortable with the two piece and bare midriff, although it was not until later when the bikini would make it's first appearance on beaches. Nylon and Latex were being widely used in swimwear.

The 1940's and the war effort required lots of materials normally used in swimwear. The government required a 10 % reduction in the amount of fabric used to help the war effort. This was when the skirt panels all but disappeared. Again Esther Williams became one of the ladies of the silver screen to use this new type of suit. Bare midriffs allowed on beach, but not in public please!

Vintage Beach VI, Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20

Day 11 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach V

Nothing says beach like a dress! At least it looks like a dress to me. 

I would absolutely wear this as a dress, although a little longer! 

I collect vintage patterns and have a bathing suit  one from the fifties. They almost always looked like a short dress, with little bloomers you wore underneath. 

Keep in mind, spandex was not even invented yet I think. I remember a suit of my own in the early 60's made from double knit. Bulky, to say the least. In the fifties, most of the fabrics used in bathing suits was cotton or silk. None of the super stretchy fabrics we have now. The suits had gathers around the legs to make them fit, and if your legs were not big enough to fill them, you had this bunchy fabric hanging around your bottom!

Ah, the good old days! At least we did not have to wear long bloomers and carry an umbrella like our great~great grandmothers did!

Vintage Beach V, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20

Day 10 of the 100 days~100 paintings 

Vintage Beach IV

Today begins the paintings of the bathing suits. I am excited about this series and can hardly wait to get them to the collector for her to chose the three she wants. The background is white although the photo does not show it here. 

The original collection was painted on

 8 x 10 pieces of lumber. They were heavily distressed and then stained.  

This time period for bathing suits was interesting, they looked more like short dresses. The advertisement even proudly announced that is was made from wool!? I cannot imagine!

Vintage Beach IV, Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 

Day 9 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach III

Another day, another painting! Things are going great here in Fairhope, Alabama. 

Art camps are in full swing, Celebration Church' s Summer Surge sets are being painted, and I am blogging about my adventures at the Raccoon Retreat Studio. Life just could not get much better.

National Shrimp Festival is 92 days away, (really!).

The Vintage series is going well, with this one of two more vintage beach balls. I really must find more to paint from the play department. Enough with the toys already! Tomorrow  I begin the vintage Bathing suits from several different eras of bathing beauties!

Vintage Beach Balls, Number III in the series, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20

Day 8 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach II

This pair of balls were fun to paint! The ball in the lower left was originally a leather ball with probably a rubber bladder to put air into it. The photo was of a crusty deflated ball, but I tried to give it new life. I absolutely love the way that it was constructed, with complementary colors playing off of each other. The other ball is probably from the 70's and I had no color references. I decided to keep it crisp with Red, White, and Blue! They are on a white background.

Vintage Beach II, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20, 

Day 7 of the 100 days~100 paintings

Vintage Beach!

Today I begin a new series, Vintage Beach. This past spring I had painted bathing suits from several eras on 8 x 10 wood plaques. I sold several and had a limited amount left when a woman walked into my booth on Dauphin Island. After I introduced myself we struck up a conversation about what attracted her to my work. She loved the vintage suits but they were too small for her space. After we talked a bit more, we determined that 16 x 20 canvases would be perfect for her needs.  She also mentioned beach balls in paintings too! Thus this series begins, not with balls, but vintage blow up swim toys. I vaguely remember myself or my brothers having something similar in our swimming fun times. I will be posting several pieces over the next few days before I deliver them to the  condo on Dauphin Island next Sunday. This particular piece will make a great addition to someones collection.

Vintage Beach Toys I, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20, Day 6 of the 100 days~100 paintings