Sunflowers in the sand

Sunflowers in the sand 8 x 10" acrylic on canvas on board.

On Thursday I brought home several bunches of grocery store flowers with the intention of painting a large and loose red and yellow floral painting. I worked all day Friday on it and it was a mess. I painted, I scraped, I painted, I scraped, you get the picture. I couldn't get the background color right and the day ended in frustration and myself being covered in oil paint. On Saturday I decided to simplify. I got a smaller canvas, I used acrylic paint and focused on just two of the flowers. I was bound and determined to get my money's worth out of these flowers. Because I felt my waterfront pictures held promise I decided to put the Gulf of Mexico in the background. Turquoise and yellow-orange are always a nice color harmony. I did a quick under painting with a brush and then got out the palette knife. I added Golden's soft gel medium to the paint to extend it and to help with the impasto properties.

P.S.

In the floral set up picture in the lower right hand corner you can see some ceramic buttons I am working on. I don't know if they will ever get finished they are such a pain. (I don't know what possessed me to try and make buttons.) I had to stick the one poor sunflower back in the jar. It did not like being out of water. Tom, can you see your clock in the background?

Sanibel Island Beach Path

" Beach Path" In this painting I like the color of the water and the subtle gray of the shadow.

"Sanibel Beach Path" SOLD In this painting I like the dark cloud and the little glow of light under it.

My background as a production potter seems to make me want to do things in multiples. When I do something once, I always see a few things I could have done differently. These two beach path paintings were done on two successive days. Each one has elements that I like. They are oil paintings on canvas mounted on ampersand board. I painted in the background very loosely with oils thinned down with turps and then proceeded to finish the paintings with my palette knife. I add Lukas painting butter to the paint while I work. It extends the paint and speeds up the drying time. I only use it with the palette knife, not with the brush. I like the hard surface of the board with the palette knife. For inspiration I used a photo I had taken on Sanibel Island, one of my favorite places, several years ago. I still see things I would like to do differently with the shadows, so maybe I wll do it again. They are both 8 x 10 inches.

Sanibel Beach Path 1 and 2 $275.

The Flip Flop Lady

Several years ago I had a very nice business making hand made ceramic flip flops. I had a lovely rep and she got me into galleries and gift shops all along the south east coast. Whenever I had to call my customers I would always say, "This is Maggie, the flip flop lady". That business went down the tubes when someone sent my flip flops to China and mass produced them. The worst thing was they asked another artist to do the designs for them. Oh well, I decided it wasn't worth the money or effort to fight it, and shortly thereafter, the flip flop craze was dying out. But I still make flip flops and sell them in the gallery. They make really cute wall sculpture. I make a ladies size and a child's size in lots of different patterns.

I have recently added two new designs. The dragonflies and the cottages. I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day, I did.

Ladies flip flops $48.00 a pair

Child's flip flops $38.00 a pair

Welcome

Pineapples have long been the symbol of "Welcome" so I like to use them in the serving pieces I create. I very often do a pineapple - papaya combo. And I love using the saturated reds against the orange and greens. I think when you are having a party your serving pieces should be as festive as possible.

Rectangular tray $58 sold
lg bowl $135. sold

Trying new techniques.

Last Thursday's painting class was a lesson on dry brushing. I thought this class would be very good for me because I tend to paint with a really loaded brush most of the time. So I was painting and I was painting with almost no paint on the brush and just not getting the effect I wanted. It looked stiff and way too regular. So I decided to go for thin layers of color in just the opposite way, glazing. I loaded my brush with very wet, very thin paint and started applying different colors in very thin layers. I have one of those heat tools (best $20 investment ever) and I could dry the layers in a hurry. I was much happier with the the result. And then I decided to do some selective splattering and then some more glazing to tone down the splatters and then a few thin edge lines to give a subtle indication of a light source. I am really glad I tried the dry brush technique and there may be times I want to use it, but it wasn't working for me this week.

My instructor, Jim Salem is a master of dry brushing. One look at his work and you will understand why I want to be able to do it also. One short note: Jim did say that I was working on a canvas that was very smooth and dry brushing works better on a canvas with a little tooth. So I think I'll blame it on the canvas.

Now I just have to make a simple edge strip frame and take it into the gallery.

12" x 12" acrylic on canvas

Bowls and sets for entertaining.

These little bowls I call "dip bowls" because they are intended to hold a dip or spread and I haven't come up with anything more interesting. I have added a "little thing" to hold the spreader knife. The little thing has no name, but when everyone sees one in the gallery they go ,"Oh look! It has a little thing to hold the knife". This should make it easier for guests to know what to do with the knife and help keep the table cloth clean. I have fluted the edges of the bowls for fun and they come with the knife. They sell for $29.00 each. They make a nice hostess gift.

I also make sets like this one, a platter that comes with a dip bowl. I occasionally make the traditional dip set where the bowl is attached in the center. But I like the idea of separates because you can get more use out of two pieces. This set is $74.00.

Good Morning

Coffee in a new mug, what a way to start the day. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Fish Flops and coffee cups

I have been very busy making pottery lately. I have finished some special requests and I am working on some others. Mostly I have been making a lot of the "usual suspects" that you have already seen. I have been out of mugs in the gallery for awhile and just kept putting off making them. Then I realized that I really like cups. I know most people prefer mugs, but in the morning I will reach for a cup before I reach for a mug. In my mind mugs are taller, with narrow tops and they have the advantage of keeping the coffee warmer for longer. Cups are more traditional in shape, think teacup, but I like the wider opening. So I decided that this time I would make cups instead of mugs, but really big cups. And to make them interesting I decided to put a message in them. My message this time is "Island Life is better" and of course they say Key West. I am hoping they will appeal to our gallery customers who are looking for handmade and unusal gifts to take home to the dog sitter, house sitter etc.

This is the whole load that came out of the kiln. I'm a productions potter so I almost always make things in multiples. This load was cups, fish flops, dip bowls and a set that had to be refired. This photo gives you a good idea of how large the cups are.

Here is a close up of the fish flops. They hang on the wall and make really fun sculpture.

Now I almost never keep any pottery for myself. I have a lot of my pottery and I use it all the time, but mine is all the chip and dent rejects that I can't sell in the gallery. But today I really liked the pink cup you see right in front in this photo. I picked it up, liked the way it felt in my hand, and I love the color pink so I marched it right into my kitchen and had a cup of coffee. Of course now I'm looking at that dark red one, it is pretty nice too. But I am going to stick with the pink. And I am looking forward to tomorrow morning.

Transition of a painting

This painting was started in the painting class I like to go to on Thursdays. I wasn't thrilled, but I didn't hate it either.

I decided I wanted to see a little more "air" in the painting and totally screwed it up.

The joy of acrylic paints is that there are infinite possibilities, just keep painting. I decided most of the pink had to go, some of the white had to be whiter and to give it texture and movement there had to be splatter. (I love splatter, but you do have to think when you do it) Now it seems to be a better representation of the thrill of spring, and just in time for Easter.

"Treat yourself to Flowers" #4

12 x12"

SOLD

The Age of Aquarius

"Flower Power"

this is what the prints look like in their frames.

"Live Long and Prosper"

"Joy to the World, all the boys and girls"

"Upon a Star"

"Makes the World Go 'round"

This is a series of small mono-prints that I have made to go into the Key West Art Center show "RETRO-WORKS". The Key West Art Center is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a large party and a show of how their member artists interpret the sixties. I chose the age of Aquarius theme and earthy images. These pieces are small, the image and mat are 5" x 7". I had a ton of fun making these. Some of them use oil based inks and some are acrylic paints, each have their advantages. The acrylics dry so fast that if you do a layer you hate, you can wipe it out with a sponge. The oil based inks have that wonderful consistency. The birds are stamps I carved out of Speedball blocks. The words are store bought stencils with Golden's mic------ iron oxide (can't spell it and too lazy to go down to the studio to look it up) which I love to work with. Lots of layering going on in these. At each step I used a discarded mat to isolate the image and decide what the next step would be. The show and party are this coming Sunday and I am looking forward to it.