May 2016 – Gator Girl Art

See Prince in Florida!

Posted on May 26, 2016 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

I have “met” the nicest people. They live in Florida and have purchased 3 paintings. That is not why they are nice. (Well a little bit why.) We have 33 messages between us. I have high hopes for this relationship. They are coming to New Orleans in February 2017.

Seriously, I work alone all day and words of encouragement are priceless.

This is exactly how I met Rene and Amy. It started with a Rene buying Feathered Friends and turned into life-long friends. You can read about Rene and Amy. I highly recommend it. It is one of the coolest things that has happened in my life.

This is Melissa and Phillip’s wall in their house.

The following is how I made the frames. If you aren’t into making frames, feel free to skip this.

I framed the two Prince paintings in red oak plywood. The part you see in the front is nice looking red oak. The sides looked like plywood. I gessoed the sides to mimic the sides of a canvas. Then I painted them black with the same acrylic paint that I used on the paintings.

I bought some purple stain, but the oak was too hard for the stain to sink in like I wanted. I went back to my comfort zone and thinned out some permanent violet dark Golden acrylic paint with Liquitex varnish. I think the color is wonderful. That same violet is in some of the darker areas of the paintings. Lastly, I sealed the frames two times in varnish. Next time, I won’t even shop. I will just use my paints.

The bad news is… even with my new blade, I made a couple of errors in the cutting. It takes some practice to cut enough, but not too much. If you don’t look too closely, you won’t notice.

Melissa and Phillip are happy and that is what I wanted.

And I want all y’all to be happy, too. Let’s have a happy summer.

With loving wishes,

Gator Girl

Uncategorized

Prince and My Latest Paintings

Posted on May 12, 2016 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all,

I am pretty excited. I had a custom order for a portrait painting of Prince. I was finishing Big Freedia when I received the request. I am still a little hesitant painting real people. I want the subject to like their painting and see themselves in it. Maybe this is just unreasonable. Musicians keep coming up in different ways, so I am going with it.

After I see how big their eyes, nose, ears and mouth are, what shape, how spaced from each other, etc . . . I can just paint what I want.

Anyway, I painted two versions of Prince. I told her to pick one if she was happy with it. She wants both! This is the same person who bought Shotgun Angel. I am so happy that she likes them.

Prince 2 Prince

I told her that I would frame them. I think the framing is going really well, but I am on hold waiting for the photographer. I need the paintings here to finish the frames. Framing is a process for me. It seems that every time something is challenging, I can use that information later. I upgraded my miter saw blade from 40 to 84. The numbers are the size and closeness of the teeth. Because this is new wood, I want the edges to fit smoothly together.

If it sounds like I know what I am talking about, that’s good. 🙂

I planned on only talking about Prince, but I noticed that Paw Paw Gator (aka Grandpa Gator) has never been on-line. I decided to put my last batch of paintings in this blog. This is almost a year of painting, maybe 10 months. They are different sizes and different prices. I have prints for everything. I keep 11 x 14 in stock. Shop Etsy or Where Y’Art.

Down the Road in Violet

The Kiss

Moonlit Walk

Paw Paw Gator

The Holiday

Rollergirls

Ballerina

Gator Ballerina

Big Freedia, the Queen of Bounce

Smoking Rabbit

Shotgun Angel’s Sister

Until next time all y’all,

And good night sweet Prince. May you live on in your music,

Gator Girl

Uncategorized

Queen of Bounce

Posted on May 5, 2016 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

We just had Jazz Fest in New Orleans. It is a pretty amazing experience with incredible music, delicious food and quality art. Most people talk about Music or Music and Food. I am there #1 for the art. I go one day each weekend, when it isn’t as crowded (not Saturday or Sunday) to see the art. The food vendors are there both weekends, but the artists change. When I need to rest, I stop in and listen to some music. I am pretty sure I am in the minority on this.

Jazz Fest the second weekend was pretty wet.

I am just about finished with the Queen of Bounce aka Big Freedia (pronounced Free-da) I ordered 2 jewels for her crown, amethyst and amber. I am nervous painting a living artist because I really want Big Freedia to relate to and like my painting. I will probably never know.

I choose Big Freedia because I was part of the Guinness Book of World Records for Twerking in 2014.

I woke up one morning and told my family that I had a dream that I needed to help Big Freedia win the twerking world record. My daughter said, I could still participate because it hadn’t happened yet. It was scheduled for later that day or the next day. Surprising everyone, including myself, I went. I am not sure if they counted my sweet darlin’ and me in the final number because you had to be continuously twerking correctly. Fortunately there is no video of that.

Big Freedia was the star of that contest. She is beautiful and her personality is bigger than the sky.

To read Freedia’s background in a snapshot… I found a lot of information on Wikipedia.

Right now, I am painting two paintings of Prince. He had so many looks in all the years he performed, I didn’t want to narrow it down to one. Prince is a commission painting. The same people who bought Shotgun Angel asked me to paint Prince. I am going to show them both of the paintings and they can choose one if they like it. I don’t take money for commissions until after they see the finished painting. Maybe they had a different idea. I don’t want them stuck with something they don’t love.

I’m back to the easel. See ya later alligator,

With a heart full of love,

Gator Girl