I just love "before and afters", don't you?

I'm always sucked in by those "before and after" articles in magazines like Coastal Living. 

There's just something I love about the transformation process.

Maybe it's because that's what happens when I paint.  The canvas goes through a transformation. From nothing but white to whatever I want. "iheartmyjob

Lately I've been experimenting with what I call "complicated backgrounds".  

Sometimes they're super complicated, like this series. 

And sometimes they're just a little wild and crazy.  

I'm getting ready-to-get-ready to start a new series of Key West cottage paintings, for a show I have coming up in February. So, I've been fooling a round with the wild and crazy concept to see if I can use it to get some interesting (not your usual ho-hum) cottages. 

I've still got to tweak it some, but there are some fun aspects to painting this way.

Here's the before

What I love about this start is it's feeling of movement

And here's the after

I ended up covering up more of the original layer than I would have liked. But that's the joy of painting. Each painting is a lesson!
Corner Cottage with Cat

This painting is 16" x 20", so it's too small for the show, but like I said, I'm getting ready to get ready.

And it's always good to work out the problems on a small scale before you pull out the big canvases. #learnedthehardway

Have a great day,

hugs

Maggie

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Maggie Ruley is a studio artist living in Key West, Florida. Her studio and gallery, Island Inspirations, showcases her artwork and is a creative learning center for her students.

When she's not in the studio, you can find her volunteering with local non-profit arts organizations, teaching classes and workshops, or at the beach.

Her colorful paintings and tropical pottery are collected world wide and can be found in many island homes. She has been featured in the Key West Citizen, the New York Daily News, and other publications.

Her handmade ceramic flip flops have been sold in gift shops all along the east coast and in California and Hawaii.

Her studio and gallery is located in the Historic Seaport area of Old Town Key West.

Maggie Ruley~Island Inspirations

933b Fleming St.

Key West Florida 33042

www.maggieruley.com

Wild Papaya

Papayas are growing in wild abundance in the Florida Keys

And they are PERFECT for painting!

About 4 months after Hurricane Irma, papaya plants started to spring up everywhere in my neighborhood as well as others.

They are a super interesting plant. There's a male plant and a female plant.  The male plant has the flowers and the female plant has the fruit. And there are different varieties growing.

In my yard I have lots of male plants and only two female plants. And what's interesting is the two females have different kinds of papayas on them. One has small pear shaped fruit and the other more oblong fruit.

I've been admiring them for months and finally got around to painting them, (after taking tons of photos)

This is a male plant. The flowers are starburst clusters on long stems.

However, I did not paint them from the photos. I took the leaves, the fruit and the flowers into my studio and painted directly from my observation of them.

I had so much fun painting one, that I did a second one.

Each painting started on one of my "complicated backgrounds"  where I put thin layers of multiple colors all over the canvas.

Here's the set up for the first one.

You can see what I mean about a complicated background painting.

I think it's beautiful and amazing that the interior is in the shape of a star.

Detail: you can see where I'm using paint lines to sketch in the fruit.

Detail: I'm starting to add some greens to the leaves.

Here are the finished paintings

Wild Papayas no.1

Wild Papayas no.1
 30" x 24", acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 2018
$975.00

Wild Papayas no.2

Wild Papayas no.2
24' x 18", acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 2018
$695.00 

I'm not sure I'm finished with this series yet.  I think I want to paint one with a red background.  The challenge for that would be to not make it look too Christmas-y, with the green leaves.  I like a challenge

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All for now, have a lovely day.

Have you signed up for my free class? Click the link below.

Pricing your art: a free online mini training.

Maggie Ruley is a studio artist living in Key West, Florida. Her studio and gallery, Island Inspirations, showcases her artwork and is a creative learning center for her students.

When she's not in the studio, you can find her volunteering with local non-profit arts organizations, teaching classes and workshops, or at the beach.

Her colorful paintings and tropical pottery are collected world wide and can be found in many island homes. She has been featured in the Key West Citizen, the New York Daily News , and other publications.

Her handmade ceramic flip flops have been sold in gift shops all along the east coast and in California and Hawaii.

Her studio and gallery is located in the Historic Seaport area of Old Town Key West.

Maggie Ruley~Island Inspirations

933b Fleming St.

Key West Florida 33042

www.maggieruley.com

They're changing the rules

But that's not a bad thing! In fact, it's good for you.

Dear Email Subscribers.

On May 25, some new data regulations are going into effect.  What's great about them is, they put you in control. You can be selective about the kind of information you receive from people you've given your email address to. (like me)

This set of regulations is called the GDPR.

Sometimes I don't mind breaking rules, not this time. These rules give you control over how your email address can be used to send you information. And they give me permission to send you the kind of information you want.  #win-win

So here's what's going to happen.

In the next day or so, you're going to be getting an email from me that asks you to update your settings.  There will be 3 categories you can check.  You can check as many as you want or none of them. It's not complicated and it's only going to take a second.

No matter what categories you choose you'll always be able to unsubscribe at any time. And if you decide to unsubscribe, we'll still be friends.

Big hugs,
Maggie


Now that all the boring stuff is over, you deserve something fun to look at.

I just finished a series of roosters using oil paint and a palette knife.  I had a request for a rooster in the same colors that I use in my sunset and cloud paintings.  I sounded like fun to me.  Here are 3 from the series.

They're so new I haven't even added them to my website yet.

Suncloud Rooster #2

20" x 16"

Oil on canvas $495

Suncloud Rooster #3

20" x 16"

oil on canvas

$495

Suncloud Rooster #1

20" x 16"

oil on canvas

$495

Maggie Ruley is a studio artist living in Key West, Florida. 

Her colorful paintings and tropical pottery are collected world wide and can be found in many island homes. She has been featured in the Key West Citizen,

the New York Daily News , and other publications.

Her handmade ceramic flip flops have been sold in gift shops all along the east coast and in California and Hawaii.

Her studio and gallery is located in the Historic Seaport area of Old Town Key West.

Maggie Ruley~Island Inspirations

933b Fleming St.

Key West Florida 33042

www.maggieruley.com

Everyday? I don't think so! AKA a celebration of the Pineapple.

I love everything about the pineapple!

The way it looks; prickly bottom half, smooth and spikey top half.
The way it changes color as it gets riper.
The way it smells; like a far away tropical island.
Its incredible, indescribable taste.

It's a special occasion fruit, a holiday fruit, a family gathering fruit.

Seriously, do you drink Pina Coladas after work on a Wednesday? No! The super cute pool boy brings one to your chaise lounge in THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY on your vacation. Now that's special.

Also, consider the way it's treated with reverence.
It's always has a place of prominence in the supermarket. It's at the end of aisle, or on a raised dais.

The Queen of Fruit would not be CAUGHT DEAD in the middle seat between the potatoes and the onions, hell no! First class all the way.

Everyday fruit? Oh no it isn't! (picture my index finger wagging side to side here)

And don't forget it's the universal sign of *Welcome*.  I think they put one on Voyager 1, if they didn't, they should have.

That's why I paint the esteemed pineapple over and over.  Here are some pics of my most recent study session. These are all oil paintings. And the really cool thing is that some of these will be headed to a gallery on Cape Cod soon. I'm jazzed about that. I wonder which ones are going to be chosen to go?

Pineapple studies

both 18"x14", oil on canvas board, palette knife

$195 each

Note to artists: I intentionally took a different approach with each painting. I used limited palettes, I played warm against cools, I explored grays, I used the palette knife on some, I explored using a transparent first layer. All were done
alla prima and they all started with a transparent earthy red underpainting.

Fun fact: Pineapples have warm green and yellow-gold bottoms, and cool green and blue tops.

Aloha dear friends,

Maggie

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Maggie Ruley is a studio artist living in Key West, Florida. 

Her colorful paintings and tropical pottery are collected world wide and can be found in many island homes. She has been featured in the Key West Citizen,

the New York Daily News , and other publications.

Her handmade ceramic flip flops have been sold in gift shops all along the east coast and in California and Hawaii.

Her studio and gallery is located in the Historic Seaport area of Old Town Key West.

Maggie Ruley~Island Inspirations

933b Fleming St.

Key West Florida 33042

www.maggieruley.com

It's all his fault.

Blame it on Bob.

Recently my favorite mentor, Robert Burridge, was in town and we had a chance to catch up at the opening of his show at the Lucky Street Gallery. His continued enthusiasm and dedication to painting is uber infectious. I've taken a number of his "Loosen Up" workshops and loved every one of them. It was great to see him and his paintings.

I recently went through a phase where my paintings got a little out of control (well okay, maybe a lot) and the colors were super amplified. They were huge fun to do. And because the fall hadn't been all that much fun, (Thanks Irma :(() It was just the thing I needed at the time. I used almost all of the techniques Bob taught me in that series. I could hear him in my head going, "A brush has two ends." "Negative shapes, negative shapes" and "Where's the wow factor?"

Which was a very good thing because this painting came in handy

When a local gallery, that shows some of my larger pieces, came to me and said that they wanted paintings that were "brighter" I was able to say, "I've got just the thing for you!" 

Happy Hour aka Giant Umbrella Drink Painting

24" x 30", acrylic on canvas

available @ Art on Duval, Key West, Florida

Mini version

Happy Hour II

10" x 20" 

acrylic on canvas

$385.00 available in my studio

Bob Burridge at his opening with local artists.

thanks Bob for all you do.

Find out more about Bob HERE    If you're and artist make sure to sign up for his Bob Blast videos.

Maggie Ruley is a studio artist living in Key West, Florida. 

Her colorful paintings and tropical pottery are collected world wide and can be found in many island homes. She has been featured in the Key West Citizen,

the New York Daily News , and other publications.

Her handmade ceramic flip flops have been sold in gift shops all along the east coast and in California and Hawaii.

 Her studio and gallery is located in the historic Seaport area of Old Town Key West.

Maggie Ruley~Island Inspirations

933b Fleming St.

Key West Florida 33042

www.maggieruley.com