Totally turtles IV

"Totally turtles IV"

These guys have all been fun to paint.

This one features a photo from one of our trips to The Loggerhead Marine Center.

Their tanks are so cool.

The turtles move around in the large tanks that have windows, so you see them swimming.

I actually could stay there all day, just watching them.

It's a good thing we don't have a rescue near here, or I would be volunteering all the time!

I have been invited to the one over in Mississippi, I really need to go.

Well, we've had some really gnarly weather the past few days.

Heavy rainfalls and flooding in some areas.

It's supposed to move out of here soon so we can dry out some.

However, in the Gulf.....

There is a storm system that is threatening this coming weekends show.

I am praying that the highs in the Midwest will push this Invest over into Florida.

(Sorry, not sorry Florida!)

I have too many friends that have invested so much time and effort into their works 

and getting ready for this show.

I really think God's got this and will push it all out of the way or well below us before the weekend.

That being said, I got a text today that we could set up the tents on Tuesday.

I think we're going to take them up on that offer!

We'll drive down, set up the tents, walls, table, rain gutter, lights, and every weight we have.

Chris is keen on setting up tomorrow.

Then Wednesday we go to the campground and bring the art.

It should make Wednesday much easier.

I've gotten my booth assignment as well.

I will be in Fine Art again on the end in booths 443 & 444.

Here we go!

2 more days until the paintings are done!

Totally turtles IV, Acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 16 x 24

Day 98 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2026

 

Totally turtles III

"Totally turtles III"

I am really having an incredible time painting these pieces.

They are going to be beautiful together!

I am rapidly getting to the end of the 100 days as well.

It's bittersweet, because I won't have to worry about blogging and posting.

I'll just be painting again alone in my studio.

I'll still post paintings to my Facebook pages, just not the blog.

So much fun to paint these guys!

I've also decided the last two paintings which are turtles as well.

They will all be a part of the fantastic "Totally turtles" piece in the booth.

The weather is really getting the artists stirred up for next week's show at the National Shrimp Festival.

The forecast so far is for rain almost every day of the show.

But that being said we are a rain or shine event.

The show will go on unless there is really gnarly weather.

Very high winds or lightning will be enough to shut the show down.

Large amounts of rain can close it as well, because we all have power in our booths.

We did arrive one year to a downpour, and we were prevented from entering the show.

The show was delayed for three hours until things could dry out some.

That year, several artists lost their tents as well.

This is not for the faint of heart, these shows.

Although I have been known to take down all my art and put it on a cart to protect it with heavy rain curtains over the cart and tied down.

My tents are both rated for 70mph winds, so I am not terribly worried.

We will also bring every weight I own to help keep things steady.

Rain curtains, rain gutter, and art to paint while sitting at a show will be a necessity as well.

I am praying I am very over prepared.

I'm also believing that God's got this!

Totally turtles III, Acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 16 x 24

Day 97 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2026

 

Totally turtles II

The second in the series Totally turtles.

This one is so fun with the turtle peeking out from the shadowbox.

The sea turtles are a favorite of mine to paint.

I'm always fascinated with the incredible number of textures they have on them.

The whole piece with multiple canvas is going to measure 42 inches wide by 50 inches tall.

It will be an incredible addition to the booth for sure!

The birthday celebration continued with family members at a local steakhouse.

It is always incredibly fun to see both my brothers.

They both seem to be doing well, but we are all getting older for sure.

Jere and Jenna joined us as well.

We'll be getting together with the Price crew on Monday.

Jessicas wedding went way over time wise.

There was also a wreck on I65 that involved an overturned tractor trailer 

blocking all three lanes of traffic going Southbound.

They live slightly North of us in Saraland.

Not wanting our daughter, son in love and grandson Archer caught in traffic and heavy rain, 

I asked them to put off until Monday.

Painting, packing, and planning.

All part of getting ready for the biggest party on the coast!

The 53rd Annual National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

The Coastal Alabama Business chamber is our host for this event.

I'll be posting more information about parking, and where I'll be located soon.

Totally turtles II, Acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 16 x 24

Day 96 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2026

 

Totally turtles

"Totally turtles"

I simply love painting sea turtles.

I pray you can see the love I have for them.

This is one of the unique new canvases that Chris has built.

He managed to build a total of seven.

One of them is the tilted canvas that I painted an octopus on.

The next few days will feature turtles, making a large piece that will measure about 

50 inches tall and 42 inches wide.

It will have six canvases, featuring 4 of the 16 x 24s and two 6 x 24s.

I think it will have a large impact at the shows.

The pieces could be sold all as one work of art, but they can be sold separately.

I'm really enjoying the process of completing of the 100 paintings.

I am so close to the end next week.

It's always a kind of happy and sad time too.

But the pressure to create will continue at the studio, just maybe not blogging as much.

The paintings done after the 100 will still be posted, just maybe not to the blog as well.

I pray you'll stay with me for the end.

"Totally turtles", Acrylic on Canvas, 16 x 24

Day 95 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2026

 

Super Mario Chronicles

If you have been following the blog, you know I have the opp"art"unity to create sets for our VBS at Celebration church.

If you have not been following, now you know.

I LOVE using my talents for God's glory.

I thank Him every day for the talent He has given me.

Anyway, I make large sets with the help of a lot of people for our three day VBS.

This years theme was Super Mario.

It was an incredibly fun set to build, with numerous parts and pieces.

The Pastor also used part of the sets for his series at Kids church.

This is part of the Mario and Luigi scene.

It had an additional part added to the top made of foam.

This has been removed in preparation for the next series.

Kingdom Chronicles.

The scenery I was asked to create was from the Chronicles of Narnia.

Today was the day.

I had a doctor's appointment that was scheduled a month ago this morning.

The office called because the doctor had a personal emergency and had to cancel.

I tried, really tried not to be irritated because it threw a glitch into my plans for the day.

I called to reschedule.

Next week on Wednesday at 9 am.

Wednesday is set up day for the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores.

You know how to make God laugh?

Tell Him your plans.

I also wrote in my journal today about adjustments.

Those are the little things that get in the way of what you have planned for the day.

Proverbs 19:21 You can make many plans, but the Lord's purpose will prevail.

I changed out of my going to the doctor clothes and put on paint clothes.

I gathered the paints, brushes, ladder, and my brain to go to the church and began painting.

First step Kilz and beginning of the trees.

I would discover that the trees were not big enough to cover the space.

Hours number one and two.

Additional layering of background of the sky using gray, sky blue, and a deep rich royal blue.

I then added more trees in both foreground and back behind the path.

Hours number three and four.

I took a break, going to lunch with Chris at 2pm.

I came back and started adding the snow on the trees.

I was loving them at this point.

When I first started adding the snow, I was just incredibly awed by the talent God has given me.

It reduced me to tears in gratitude.

Hour five.

More snow on blue foreground tree.

Then came the part I was dreading.

The light post.

I used a piece of paper as a makeshift ruler to sketch the lamp post in place.

I then used the dark gray to lay it on the canvas.

I put white in the light area, but it just wasn't enough.

As I walked over to the church, I realized I was crashing the steak night for the men.

Too late now!

I'm trying to finish a job today.

I went into my paint box for some yellow paint.

It was the finishing touch to the light.

I them added more white to the path, making it disappear around the corner.

I'm incredibly happy with the way it turned out.

Not bad for 6 1/2 hours of work.

Thanks GOD!

Narnia Chronicles, Acrylic house paint on canvas, 8 x 12 feet

Day 94 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2026

 

Lights and Great Whites

This was yesterday's painting completed while teaching a small group at my church.

The small group is called Scripts & Strokes and is celebrating it's13th year!

I really enjoy teaching both the Scripture and the painting class.

This one is today's piece.

It features Great White sharks on a shadowbox canvas.

This one is large, 12 x 36 inches.

Incredibly interesting to paint too!

The Shrimp Festival will find us set up by this time next Wednesday.

Set up is always a grueling day because of my nerves and the pure work of setting up.

We will be putting up two tents and one with the french wall opening at the back.

I am mildly nervous about the show because of the current economy.

Art is definitely a luxury and not a necessity.

I am leaving it in God's capable hands though.

He always takes care of this artist!

I also erased yesterday and varnished today.

There are paintings spread all across my big table, with no room for more currently.

Hopefully I can pack them tomorrow and get them off the table.

Vendors for the festival also got emails today about parking and set up times.

We hopefully can get there early enough to avoid the chaos that is the 

Annual National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

Fortunately for us, we don't have to worry about parking.

We park the van at the campsite Wednesday after unloading at the show.

We then ride our bikes back and forth to the show.

The weather looks like it will be good for the show.

We have several days of rain ahead of us, then a cooling just in time for the show.

Unfortunately, this means cloudy days ahead at the show.

I have lights, but we bought an additional set of lights that can plug in to the shrimp festival electricity.

This show is different in that it gives everyone power to run lights and frequently fans in the booths.

The lights I currently have are battery powered and are great, but with possibly cloudy days into the nights, I felt I needed plug in lights as well.

Lights and Great Whites, Acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 and 12 x 36

Days 92 & 93 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2026

 

Costumes and Completions

I tried, really tried to post this last night but there was a glitch in my internet service.

I was able to download one photo, but the other one no dice.

So, I decided rather than fighting with it, I would post today instead.

Obviously, I'm "painting" with fabric again!

My daughter in love, Jenna wanted a costume that was a carousel.

Little did I know it would challenge my engineering skills!

This one was fun to design with Jenna, and she's jumped right in to help.

She has gotten the majority of the carousel animals colored in and cut out.

She also helped pick out the fabrics from my stash.

Adding in some trims from my daughter Jessica and we're going to have a really cool costume.

The only things we've had to purchase were two hula hoops, and pom-pom trim for the hat.

Everything else has come from the fabric stash or the scrap heap.

I love it so far.

We'll be finishing up hopefully this weekend.

This is the skirt that hurt my engineering head!

It has really turned out just as I hoped.

It has a good bit of finish work to do still.

Together they look so cute.

I can't wait to add the carousel animals and work on the hat too.

It's going to make an amazing one-of-a-kind costume for sure!

Just precious.

Today I did the completion work on both of the five-piece Octopus and Turtles.

This involves a lot of work.

First, I covered my tables with the vinyl pieces I purchased from a yard sale 16 years ago.

They actually were cushions that I recycled into my banquet and the Gypsy wagon we built years ago.

I cut the edges off, and have used them as table covers.

They have a lot of history on them!

I then cut strips of tracing paper to trace off both edges of the canvases.

Each five piece has four seams, but eight edges to paint.

After tracing, I took apart the painting and transferred the drawings to the canvas sides.

It then took a couple of hours to paint the sides on both pieces.

Sixteen sides total!

A few years back the Holy Spirit jumped into the fray and gave me the perfect way to do these transfers.

I used to spend hours trying to draw the sides while looking at the painting next to it.

This way is so much easier and effective!

This one would have been especially difficult because the octopus has suckers that are right on the edge.

It would have taxed my brain trying to duplicate them on the sides without this new method.

I love when the Spirit speaks and gives me fantastic ideas.

I did fuss a bit though, because He let me struggle for a couple of years 

before making me see this method.

I guess I wasn't ready until then.

The completed octopus.

As you can see the painting marches right along, even on the sides!

Here are the completed turtles.

Chris helped today by putting the d-rings on and the wires.

A lot of cleaning up to do and erasing.

Then, varnish and in a couple of days, packing them for the show.

I also got a notification yesterday that one of our favorite shows for Spring has been cancelled.

This show, in Melbourne Florida is hands down one of our favorites.

The director had to step down because of family and I agree with her priorities.

The board then lost a sponsorship and no one wanted to take the reins to run the show.

The board voted to cancel the show.

Just makes me sad.

Of course, this show is in the middle of two other shows we do in Florida at the same time.

So, I scrambled to try to find a replacement show as I'm sure many other artists will be doing.

I've put in for two shows, hoping one will accept me.

One is near Amelia Island on the St. Johns River.

We've done the show once before and it was nice.

Hopefully it won't be as windy as it was that year.

The other show I applied for is a newer one.

This is only their 7th year.

They are already ranked in Sunshine Artist magazine in the fine art section at number 11 out of the 100.

They drawback is they are 12 hours away from Tallahassee.

It would also be a new state for us as the show is in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Right on the Atlantic coast.

Near the Ocean I love so much.

We would then head to Amelia Island.

I have also applied for another show on Mother's day weekend in Greensboro, S.Carolina.

This would be another new state for us to foray into.

God's hand is upon us and on these shows.

We'll see what happens.

I always remember Proverbs 16:33-"We throw the dice, but God determines where they land."

Every time I put in for a show, I'm throwing the dice.

God then plans the trip for us!

I hope you've enjoyed this bit of the Raccoon Retreat Studio behind the scenes.

Another day, another work of art!

Costumes and Completions, Acrylic on canvas and fabrics, 

Days 90 & 91 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2026