Big Blue II

Another day, another Heron!

This big boy is from a different photo I promise. 

It looks like a mirror image of the one from yesterday, but it's not!

The three paintings look fantastic together.

Time slips up on you quickly and rather sneakily. 

My day started with a walk for turtles that woke us up at 4:30am.

Our section of beach has one nest so far, with more to come I hope.

Share the beach started in 2005 as a way to preserve our precious sea turtles.

Typically, only one baby from a nest of approximately 100 survive to adulthood.

Out of those, only one in six survive to lay a nest.

Now you know why it's important!

And.......

All species of sea turtles are endangered because of environmental concerns.

Primarily our use of plastics.

Did you know every single piece of plastic is still on our planet in one form or another?

Pieces of plastic that are microscopically small are getting into our food chain as well.

Recycle please!

We really have no excuse here in Fairhope as it is picked up at our curbside.

We have steel straws as well.

The United States alone uses 500 million straws per day!

Share the beach is located at www.alabamaseaturtles.com

You can adopt a turtle nest, volunteer for next year, donate,

or purchase some really neat sea turtle stuff!

I also worked for several hours on the submarine for the church today as well.

It is an amazing experience when the Holy Spirit takes over and gives me 

so many ideas I have to say whoa!

I barely get done with one part, then another pops into my head.

Anyway, lots got done today in the Raccoon Retreat studio!

Tomorrow, I will haul it all over to the church and assemble to begin painting.

Photos will come after the unveiling at the Church next Monday.

Big Blue II, Acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 27 x 27

Day 9 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2020

Big Blue

My goodness what a day!

Lots of things accomplished in the studio.

I painted this morning, and while waiting for this guy to not be so tender, worked on other projects.

Summer surge for our church will be a large project this week for sure!

The submarine is coming along nicely, with me building the framework for the front end last night. Today found me grabbing cardboard form my scraps and making a large porthole for the front of the sub. It is quite dimensional and will be a neat addition to the front end. I also used a clear tray from one of our first Wednesday services to give it the glass effect, but painted it black so as to enhance the look. Next came the pie containers I've been saving for a project and this is perfect. The three containers will become 6 smaller portholes on the front and rear. (they have awesome detailing on them already!)

God is pushing my talent further, with a lot of engineering and 3 dimensional thinking.

I guess it is working, because while we were having lunch, I noticed something about our boxes that the sandwiches came inside. As Chris finished his meal, I asked for the box, combining it with my own and back to the studio I went.

A little cardboard, leftover poster board, paint, and hot glue and we now have one of our control panels for the sub!

45 minutes and done! I then took the scraps of poster board and made a monitor panel that can be glued to the inside panels. 

This project is really proving to be fun, interesting, and stretching my imagination to the limits.

I love days like this, when I get tremendous amounts of tasks completed.

Thanks Holy Spirit for throwing ideas at me almost faster than I can complete them!

After a couple of hours doing these projects, I went back to the Heron and completed him.

I  put him and the next one on 27 x 27 shadowbox canvases in order to 

complete a few to take to Big Fish Trading company later this week. 

Amy will have several to choose from when I go there!

I am still in amazement that I get to play and finally make some money 

after several dry months of no shows to go and sell from.

God is so good!

This evening after a leftover dinner. I went back to the submarine project.

I worked on the rear tonight, listening to gospel music and allowing my mind to wrap around this fantail.

The sub will be quite large, over 6 feet tall and about 12 feet long on the "inside" the overall length is about 16 feet!

I am using framework given to me by another artist to hold everything together. Just praying the theory works, and we don't have to have a tent frame in the back to hold it all up!

Flying by the seat of my pants on that one, letting the Spirit pull me along for the ride!

Big Blue, Acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 27 x 27 inches

Day 9 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2020

The post that almost didn't happen!

This has been unreal, getting to this point in my day!

I finished the painting hours ago, but when I went to write the blog, download the photos, listen to Pandora, everything went kaput.

Now, keep in mind I have already gone to mediacom and replaced their modem.

Everything was working honky dory, listening to music, going to my email, downloading photos, or so I thought.

Blip.....

Nothing, no internet.

Are you kidding me!

I JUST this afternoon cancelled my appointment with mediacom because 

I thought I had solved the problem.

Apparently not.

Phone call, wait or call back.

Call back.

Just as I settle in to sketch, they call.

The first girl just tried to fix the problem to no avail. 

No internet so she passes me on to the next tech that is getting testy because I cannot figure out what she is talking about on my computer.

Thanks Windows 10!

She says internet is working, it is a problem with my computer.

Huh?!

She insists internet is working, so I hang up after she asks me if I want cable tv.

Uh no! NO I don't. 

She asks again do you want to sign up for cable.

NO mam!

We are very happy where we are at in our television world now.

Anyway, I hang up and sketch another heron.

I'll try the computer once again.

After fiddling for a while, I discover the old router is numero uno. 

I delete it and sign up under the new router name and password given to me by the first person.

I held my breath...........

and here I am again connected.

Finally!

Well at least for the next five minutes I hope!

I am much better with a brush than a computer!

Rant over, moving on......

Today's piece was a lot of fun to paint. I had an old 24 x 36 frame and I asked the mister to add a shadowbox to it. He did, I stretched it yesterday and painted it white.

The inset is 12 x 24 and I am in love with the effect. 

I have two more herons sketched out, both on 27 x 27 canvases. 

Both will have colored eyes as this is what Amy from Big Fish trading company is requesting.

We shall see, they are striking!

I also bought another roll of canvas, as my beloved decided to make up ALL the 24 x 24s he could from the habitat for humanity stretcher bars.

I now have 17 shadowboxes to stretch.

Somehow today I managed to get the front of the submarine built for

 summer surge at church in a week! 

Eek! I'd better get busy.

Somewhere there is a book awaiting my talent as well.

Such is part of one day at the Raccoon Retreat Studio here in Fairhope, Alabama

"Herons in love" Acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 24 x36

Day 8 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2020

Beyond intelligence

I finished this earlier this afternoon while the thunder was rolling and 

Chris was out in the shop woodturning. Earlier in the day he kept bringing the new shadowbox canvas frames, until I asked him to stop as I simply do not have room in the studio for all of them. He has managed to get 3 12x36 shadowboxes as well as about 10 of the 24 x 24s.

He also added a shadowbox to a 24 x 36 frame I already had on hand.

I am looking forward to painting that one!

I cut canvas today, I am so grateful I purchased a new roll as I started to pull from it as well. 

I'm going to be busy for a long time, stretching and painting them white.

Much less painting the actual paintings!

I'm also trying to work on the children's book each day, nibbling away at the tasks at hand. 

Adding to the confusion, is a 3-D submarine set design for summer surge at the church!

(Big enough for 4 people.)

Due to be installed NEXT Sunday!

There will be a LOT of photos of that set!

Almost every year, my 100 days has had the challenge of Summer surge added to the craziness that is my life here in Fairhope, Alabama. I've had the opportunity to do a rainforest with a talking mask, A cartoon town with superheros and a fold out mad scientist lab, and a drive in theater, complete with cars and a diner! There have been lifeguard chairs, and tiki rooms too! 

So fun! I love my church and it is worth all the hard work that goes into making each of these designs. The best part is I usually get to run with whatever my ideas are at the time!

And sometimes I must realize that my ideas are too much to do by myself!

Beyond intelligence, Acrylic on canvas, 15x30

Day 7 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2020

The wisdom is in the eyes III

Happy 4th of July folks!

Unfortunately a great deal of the celebrations are cancelled as far as fireworks are concerned. 

Chris and I really enjoy driving to friends house, and walking to one of the bluffs to watch the show.

This year, we planned to have our grand with us to watch the show.

Maybe next year we can all enjoy the shows.

Wear your mask please!

Anyway, I painted the third turtle in this series, The Wisdom is in the eyes. 

The first one I created has already found a home here in Fairhope much to my delight.

The galleries are all starting to sell the pieces they have on hand. 

Of course, that means they need new ones!

Fortunately we still have a good amount of the stretcher bars we got from Habitat for Humanity.

When we picked them up way back when, I had no idea they would come in handy sooner rather than later. Chris is taking them, nailing two of them together and adding the shadowbox in the center. Originally, he was going to just make ten, but he got a bee in his bonnet and put them all together. I don't have room to store them in the studio, so they'll have to reside in the barn until I can put canvas on them. They'll get painted and taken to galleries or packed up here for shows later this fall!

Speaking of shows,

I got accepted to the National Shrimp Festival again for mid October.

We already have our camping reservations as well at Gulf State Park.

Hopefully the show will go on as planned. One year, a hurricane named Michael messed up our plans and we lost one day of the show. Last year, we had a late start on Saturday because it was pouring down rain. It flooded the show site and we could not enter because of the possibility of electrocution because all the booths have power at the show. There was literally electrical boxes floating, so they cut power to the entire show. We managed to get in a little late, and the show went on. 

You never know what the weather will do at any given day. 

We have endured 120 degree heat indexes, tropical waves with lots of rain, 

bitter cold in April, tent damage from a downdraft storm, 

and the ever present overlapping and over saturation of shows in an area.

We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall.~Proverbs 16:33

I still miss the shows, the interactions between collectors and artists are hard to beat!

Alfred is slowly progressing on his piece.

The fisherman will be very nice once completed, I'm sure.

We've had numerous conversations through Whats App about the presence of God in his life now and in his past history. Alfred was in a gang that was a cult basically and managed to escape them to a normal life. He was a teacher for 20 years in the government school system. Somehow, his retirement pay has been taken and he cannot get it. He has a friend that is working on getting it returned to him. I don't know how much good it will do though, right now the Zimbabwe dollar is in rough water. The US dollar is preferred but hard to get. Right now, the US dollar is worth 90 Zim dollars. A loaf of bread is about $1 US right now. Most people are not able to work at this time though because of the covid crisis. If you're only making $3 a day and your rent is $90, how do you eat?

The country as a whole is not doing well. 

This is not finished, although Alfred tells me the fisherman is done.

He was unable to send it before the power went out on his phone.

This saddens me, as one of the things I wanted to bring on the mission 

was solar chargers that can be used for phones. 

The pandemic has taken a lot from a lot of people. 

Can you imagine it in a third world country?

I cannot, and yet, I've been there when the power was out and internet down.

No power, no water either! No shower after a hot sticky day on bush roads.

But day in and day out?

Could you?

The wisdom is in the eyes, Acrylic on shadowbox canvas, 24x24

Day 6 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2020

The Wisdom is in the eyes II

Good grief!

I am much better with a brush than a computer!

Last night, it was the internet being down that was the issue.

So, I just posted to Facebook.

Tonight, when I am trying to sign in to blogspot, there is an account under my gmail account. After a lot of confusion on my part, I realized that google was trying to sign me in under my gmail account. It was all VERY frustrating! I managed to keep my cool and finally realized the problem was the gmail address. When I put in my original address under MSN, here we are!

This was after calling Mediacom about my internet issue. They have made an appointment for next Wednesday, but I asked the young lady on the phone if the modem was the issue since the automated system could not contact the modem. She said possibly and I then asked may I take it to the Mediacom center and trade it out? (It has been cutting in and out for weeks now!) She said she would put that ticket in and off we went to mediacom after I battled with the cord situation under my desk. I picked up a new modem, brought it home, figured out how to sign it in, delete the old one, and connect. I'm sure glad that's done!

(I'm keeping the appointment just in case there's another issue!)

Anyway, yesterday I had someone contact me about the first turtle I posted with a colored eye. She happened in on a thread I was involved in about art. She contacted me through messenger, and I gave her my direct phone number so we could just text that way. After making arrangements, she came to the studio and fell head over heels in love with him. 

She purchased him!Oh my!

Again God shows up, giving me my greatest desire!

I want to really be the best possible artist I can become, and through prayer and dedication to my craft, I am getting there. I read somewhere that it takes ten thousand hours to become a master at something. I figure I'm at about 7,000 now.

God really does want to give us the greatest desires of our heart, and he is really revealing himself to me as of late! I am continuing to sing His praises!

I have not heard from Alfred for the past couple of days.

Apparently, the electricity is down and his phone was dead.

Not surprising, we lost power several times when we were there last year. The electricity is spotty at best. The internet and cell phone service is not much better. Fortunately, it is their winter, so it is not terribly hot. Anyway, I expect to talk with him tomorrow on the 4th of July. Just another day for them in Zimbabwe.

The intelligence is in the eyes.

My husband has been pushing me for some time to add colored eyes to my sepia pieces.

I tried two turtles last fall, adding them to my Big Fish Trading Company inventory. They sold rather quickly, and the gallery owner wants more to come. I could not find my inventory sheets from the gallery, so I asked her to send me photos of them. She had told me she sold 4 of the 24x24s the last week of June. She then sold one of my largest pieces to date on the 30th, 

a huge piece (for me) measuring 43 x 67 inches. 

An odd size, yes!

You see, they are part of a large amount of stretcher bars we picked up from habitat for humanity when they gave them away! I have enough for three of the big ones eventually. In the meantime, Amy wants creatures with painted eyes..........

And I am happily creating here at the Raccoon Retreat studio here in Fairhope.

I am resting on the fact that my Father in Heaven loves me and I love Him!

Here we go!

Computer repaired, roll of canvas purchased, internet up, pool surviving with gorilla tape, 

husband wood turning in his own studio!

He sold 5 Prayer bowls today!

"The intelligence is in the eyes"octopus "The Wisdom is in the eyes II" turtle both 24 x 24

Acrylic on Shadowbox canvas, Days 4 & 5 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2020

The wisdom is in the eyes I

Today's painting is a requested one from a gallery I am in that is a wonderful handmade furniture store as well. Big Fish Trading Company came to my booth at the National Shrimp Festival a few years ago, and both of the owners loved my works. They said my pieces would be perfect with their furniture as it too has a coastal theme. As an artist doing outdoor shows, we hear this quite frequently from small shops to galleries wanting to display our works. I took their card and really didn't pursue the lead until 7 months later after all my spring shows were done. From the moment I walked in the door, I saw what they were talking about with regards to my works fitting right in to their beautiful style. 

It has been a wonderful working relationship ever since. 

If you want to see their beautiful custom furniture go to bigfishtradingcompany.com

I can promise you won't be disappointed with their custom works in their showroom at

21860 Hwy 98 in Foley, Alabama

Anyway, Amy told me she had sold the original sea turtles with colored eyes 

and wants more in the store. And so, here we are with "The Wisdom is in the Eyes I"

In the meantime, a tale of two sets of money.

Last night we discussed with and gave a check to Gib Leonard.

 He is one of the main founders of Buy A Brick.

He runs the Foundation, building schools, clinics, and sinking wells in Zimbabwe, Africa. He also has provided internet to schools, feeds children, and done countless other projects.

The foundation is in their 17th year..

 We were supposed to go to Africa in August, but the pandemic is preventing that journey for now.

We really wanted to go, as we had projects to work on, and classes to teach.

The people in many parts of Zimbabwe are hurting, hopeless, and hungry.

Interested in donating?

buyabrickfoundation.org

I can assure you that the money is spent in Africa and not on a corporation in an office.

Gib and Leigh Leonard are boots on the ground, hands open and honest, as well as some of the hardest working people I know. I am honored to call him and his wife Leigh friends.

This Foundation works! 

Anyway, I digress.

We gave Gib a check for the money we raised at a yard sale in March before the lockdown started.

This money has been intended the entire time for our trip to Africa in August.

It was a large check and we were happy to give it now to Buy A Brick.

We asked that part of the money go to Alfred to help him with rent 

to keep a roof over him and his family's heads.

Our personal goal is to eventually start building homes with land over there as well.

Today I stand as a strong witness to the power of our Lord!

Remember we gave a check just last night......

You CANNOT outgive God!

This morning,

A new gallery I am in, is called the Stewart Heath Gallery.

This morning, barely 2 weeks after I joined forces with Stewart Heath,

She sold two large pieces.

 (She had sold two others previously within 48 hours of joining.)

The total of the two pieces is almost the same as the check we wrote last night!

Again, You CANNOT outgive God!

If you want to see my works at the Gallery, 

it is located Eastern Shore Center, Spanish Fort, Al Suite 713

Alfred is having internet problems so he was not able to send his work for today.

I texted back and forth with him during spotty internet coverage.

I am also leading him gently in the ways of our Lord.

He is seeing more and more the hands of our Father protecting, providing, and guiding him during this pandemic. He is now lower than low, finding it hard to get motivated to work in his studio.

He is getting better with prayer and praise for what he has, not what he doesn't.

He also told me today that Moses and his family sends their love. 

Moses, whom I know as Samson is another beautiful soul that is a musician and artist. 

I wanted one of his pieces last year, as he had started a new process with wonderful texture.

I pushed him with color when he attended one of the classes I taught at IRoCK lodge.

Anyway, an exciting day here at the Raccoon Retreat Studio.

The day began with a walk at dawn looking for turtles. 

None spotted, we went home and began our day.

Me painting in the studio, Chris woodturning out in the shop after cutting the grass.

Ending the day with a violent thunderstorm, heavy rain, wind, and flooding.

Peaceful now, ready for night with the rain gently hitting the roof.

Sweet dreams to all!

The Wisdom is in the Eyes I, Acrylic on Shadowbox canvas, 24 x 24

Day 3 of the 100 days~100 paintings 2020