Gator Girl Art

Flowers in a family frame

Posted on October 2, 2020October 5, 2020 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

Here we are 33 days until the presidential election and in a pandemic. Who knew? On the brighter side, the weather is beginning to feel like Fall.

I have had a difficult time painting. I have several theories about this.

I was burned out from the Children’s Hospital paintings.
It is hard to find inspiration in Netflix.
I was thinking I needed extra rest from the stress of Covid, but maybe it was really hot out and I am a bit lazy.

I usually paint people. I love how the face emerges. I like painting skin tones. I feel like faces tell a story.

Our family had a mirror that was about 100 years old. It fell off of the wall and broke. The frame broke, too. I loved the wood and it was very hard for me to paint over the beautiful wood, but I had no choice as I could see it. My daughter Katy cut a piece of 1/4 inch plywood to fit inside. Then it got tricky.

I painted this bouquet of flowers sooo many times. I only have two photos. I never thought I would finish it or blog about it.

You can see the wood frame next to the painting. I attached the broken pieces with wood putty and sanded it the best that I could with my dremel tool. I couldn’t stand this layout. There were too many colors. I thought my flowers should look like real flowers and that isn’t how I paint.

I asked my daughters and their wives what they thought a good background would be. I got so many ideas. A window, mercury glass with the flowers reflecting, stained glass because of the shape of the frame, a bright contrasting color, Katy’s face. I went with solid black just like I began. The table cloth is suppose to look like lace using some of the yellow from the sunflowers.

Finally, I like it.

I see that I need to make the stems darker on the baby’s breath. I painted this for our new house, so maybe our current house will sell now.

This is my original inspiration. I have liked this painting since I was a child. My mom painted this when she was in high school about 1936.

Maybe I can paint again now. Wish me luck.

Sincerely,

Gator Girl

Uncategorized

A New Table Top

Posted on May 5, 2020May 5, 2020 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

I imagine you have a range of emotions staying home all of the time now. I have been practicing sheltering in place my whole life and even I have hard days. There is so much going on in the news. I still am trying to wrap my head around this virus being global. It makes the world seem so small.

I did something I really enjoy. It is for my daughter and her partner’s house. They asked for an oleander table top for their house a few months ago. I was in the middle of the hospital art at the time.

I am going to tell you how I made it, because it was fun.

The women brought me a round table top from the big construction store. It is about 23 inches across.

I painted it with black gesso. While the gesso was wet, I swirled this tool into the top all around the edge about 6 inches in. I use this same tool for Prince’s afro. (With Prince, I dabbed not swirled.)

Then I painted green lightly on top, so the black was slightly visible. I painted blueish teal in the center and a little bit on the edge. I thought the blue would go with their porch ceiling of sky blue.

Next I looked at a photo of Van Gogh’s Oleander painting. I painted the leaves from that photo. I started to paint his pink flowers, but stopped half way through to ask for a photo of their oleander tree. Luckily, I didn’t go too far with the flowers, because their tree has white flowers.

I liked the flowers, but didn’t love them. I ordered some encaustic wax from a company in New Jersey called R and F that makes it by hand. I only ordered from there because it was sold out everywhere. It turned out to be good, because the block of white wax was huge for $20. I cut a piece off and put it in my empty Hot Cakes tin to heat. I could fill 4 Hot Cakes tins with the block of wax.

I used Art ‘n Glow resin because I didn’t see my usual brand. I got it on Amazon for $25 for two 8 oz bottles. It was the perfect amount for the table top. I bought back up incase it wasn’t enough. Small containers are better if you don’t use resin very often. After you open the resin, you should use it in a few months. I liked this brand. It seemed like it had fewer bubbles… hardly any.

That’s it. It isn’t perfect because it is handmade. I am OK with that. It is still beautiful (just like you).

Love in the time of Corona,

Gator Girl

Children's Hospital, Uncategorized

Last 10 paintings for the Children’s Hospital

Posted on March 20, 2020 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

I am so pleased to share with you the last 10 paintings commissioned by the Children’s Hospital. I wish I kept up with my Etsy shop and my blog through this commission endeavor.

Luckily, I received a nice camera for my birthday in December. I watched some videos on YouTube to learn how to use it. I captured photos of most of the paintings that I still had at my house in 2020. Up until now I took all of my paintings to a professional photographer. The turn around was too fast to make an appointment a month or two out. I painted about one painting a month prior to doing this job. I painted 30 paintings in 6 months or 5 a month. I am a slow painter, so I painted pretty much every day until I was tired.

Here they are…

Alligator with Cocoa

Cat and Mouse

Lawn Party Continues. Featuring a toddler alligator.

Pig in cape.

Lawn Party

Shotgun House

Unicorn

Giraffe

Elephant

Day Dreaming

I have prints of the Uptown Rabbit and Manatee. I will be ordering more prints, but I am not sure what yet. I am partial to the giraffe. I like the pink color in the elephant painting. It was a mixture of bubblegum pink ink and paint. I also like the yellow striped wall paper.

Happy Friday! I hope you are content sheltering in place.

Adoringly,

Gator Girl

Children's Hospital, Uncategorized

Ten More Paintings

Posted on February 10, 2020 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

I have completed twenty paintings for the Children’s Hospital!

The process of these ten paintings (11-20) have been a balance between what I want to paint and what I think the committee will like. I felt pretty sure of myself while painting the first 10. Then, some of the paintings were returned. That had never happened to me before. Originally, I was asked to paint diverse people and happy paintings. When the paintings were returned, I was asked to change the skin color on all of the children that I painted to rainbow colors. I tried to do this to make everyone happy. I changed some of the paintings, but it wasn’t feeling like my art.

I am feeling a little insecure and that makes it harder to paint. For the last 10, I need to paint what I want within the new parameters and not stress about it. So far, I painted a shotgun house and am working on a rainbow colored tween. I started to miss painting faces so much.

Here are 8 of the next ten. I accidentally erased Einstein Alpaca and The Bee. I especially liked the alpaca.

The manatee is my favorite!

Warmest Regards,

Gator Girl

Children's Hospital

A Lucky Offer (First 10)

Posted on November 7, 2019November 7, 2019 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

It’s been a while.

I will be working hard for about the next 4 to 6 months. I wasn’t going to share this until I believed it myself. The people buying art for the new wing of the Children’s Hospital commissioned 30 paintings. They are giving me 10 months to finish them, but I think I will be done in 6. We’ll see.

The paintings are all 18 x 24 gallery wrapped canvas. I am painting happy paintings that tell a story and that I think the children will like. They gave me few restrictions. No flying birds, no angels, no blood or menacing teeth. I made a few of my own restrictions. I am doing only acrylic paint and not adding paper or glitter so they will be easy to clean. I am giving them an extra coat of varnish.

The first 10 are complete. I think the last 10 will be the hardest, if I run out of ideas. I painted a version of a few paintings that I have already done because the people commissioning the paintings liked them and I liked them.

Let me know what your favorite is so far and also if you have painting suggestions. Excuse the photography. Some of the colors are a little off. I don’t have professional photos yet.

It is kind of fun to paint prolifically and not wonder when and where the paintings are going. I made a bulk order of 30 canvases and bought a bunch of paint, brushes and varnish.

Accepting New Members 2 (She is not really that yellow.)

Alligator Ballerina 2

Blackberries

Cat Costume

Daydreaming Dog

Mermaid Child

Party Bear (The real colors are more vibrant.)

Swamp Girl 2

Uptown Rabbit

Walking to New Orleans 2

Feeling lucky,

Plenty of love,

Gator Girl

Uncategorized

Functional Art

Posted on September 6, 2019 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

I have to say, I do miss the California coast when it is in the humid high 90’s in September in New Orleans… no rain in sight.

The porch table at the camp is finally damaged so much that we need a table cloth to play cards. I had a piece of wood left over from a project that is too heavy to hang on the wall. It was just the right size to replace the damaged table.

This is an aerial view of our camp on the Pearl River.

Here are the stages of the painting…

I sealed the new table top twice with Marine Coat. We are going to clamp it on with liquid nails.

The river is changing course and taking lots of our bank. I am still hopeful that someone will buy the camp and move the cabins back before they fall in the river. It is really lovely there. The cabins are adorable.

We buried St. Joseph upside down, facing the cabins. I was sure this would do the trick and sell the camp. Maybe it will.

I am back to painting wall art. On the 18 x 36″ canvas right now is the beginning of a dog with a chicken on it’s head. One of my favorite themes is an animal riding on an animal. I don’t know why.

I hope wherever you live you are safe from climate change. I hope you are enjoying your life. I hope the best is yet to come.

Hopefully yours,

Gator Girl

Uncategorized

I love resin. Me encanta Puerto Rico.

Posted on August 1, 2019 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

I love resin!

I have been back to my encaustic and resin combo. Encaustic art has been around for thousands of years. There are so many ways to do it. I tried to look for a video to show you, but it was too hard to narrow it down. Encaustic is painting with wax and fusing the wax with heat. I am a beginner. First I paint the subject and background with acrylic paints. For the wax painting, I use an electric skillet, encaustic wax, paint brushes and a heat gun. The tricky part is getting the wax down before it cools. It takes a little more patience than I have.

I was very happy with my magnolia countertop, so I thought I would try a crab. The crab was a little less forgiving than a flower. The crab needed me to stay in the lines.

I like encaustic painting, but I love it after a resin pour. It looks so shiny and 3D.

This is my crab in the middle of my wax painting.

You can see the layers of wax build up.

This is after the resin pour.

It is hard to show resin on the computer. Trust me, it is smooth and shiny now.

I also did a small magnolia.

This magnolia was the prototype for my counter top. I let the edges get a little more melty than the crabs edges.

Me encanta Puerto Rico

My daughter’s significant other is working in Puerto Rico. She invited us to share their Air BnB in Old San Juan. We were lucky to see the beginning of the demonstration to remove the governor. There was lots of banging of pots and pans and lots of singing. It was an every night, growing, demonstration… much louder and more persistent than I’ve witnessed in the states. The protestors were nice people.

The first photo is the beginning of the tear gas. The second photo is tear gas and small fires in the street. The third photo is the clean up in the morning. By 9:00 am you couldn’t see any sign of the demonstration. All of the graffiti was painted over and the street was washed clean.

Their corrupt governor was removed. Power to the people.

July looks so exciting.

My best to you all. Loving wishes for whatever you are dreaming.

Gator Girl

Uncategorized

Small Plate

Posted on July 19, 2019July 18, 2019 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

The heat index is well over 100 degrees today. I’m trying to stay hydrated and indoors. I finished my blue crab painting today. David took the photo at our Mother’s Day crab boil. I added the plate and table cloth. This one has already been dinner.

This painting was only suppose to be practice for my encaustic crab. It turns out that I like it quite a bit. I put some embellishments on the plate with molding paste. I thought it would give the painting some texture and interest. I think I could have used just paint.

It is kind of fun to add molding paste. While it is wet, you can just scrape it off with a credit card or pallet knife. After it dries, it is hard as nails.

I like this version of the painting, too. I almost left it blocked out. I am happy I added the plate shadows and the table cloth. I stenciled the table cloth on with just paint.

This is the final painting.

I hope this summer finds you well. Try to stay cool. It’s OK to rest and take some time for yourself however you can manage that.

Love to everyone,

Gator Girl

alligators

Love is in the Air

Posted on May 10, 2019May 10, 2019 by gatorgirlart

Hi all y’all!

My newest painting is about alligators in love at Jazz Fest. I painted a similar painting a couple of years ago. The first Jazz Fest painting was inspired by a photo of my granddaughter, Maggie, and her cousin Lenny. They were dancing at Jazz Fest as part of a family reunion.

While the original painting was hanging in my living room, I fell in love with the composition. So when my daughter wanted that painting for her house, I decided to paint the same scene with alligators.

The grass has the shape of the whole world. The skywriting is really a thing at Jazz Fest… not so much the wildflowers.

The whole painting seems happy to me.

This one is a little different… taller grass, no purple flowers, more imaginative. I based the girl on Gator Ballerina just in case I want to include this painting in a traveling alligator book one day.

They are both large paintings, 30 x 40 inches. I will be making prints after the paintings are photographed.

Jazz Fest is a great adventure. If you haven’t been, I hope you can one day.

Love is in the air,

Gator Girl

Uncategorized

My Queen, a Wedding Gift

Posted on March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 by gatorgirlart

Hi y’all!

I hope this blog finds you well.

We have been fixing up my daughter and her fiancée’s back yard because people are coming into town for their wedding in a couple of weeks. They asked me to make a new table top for an old iron table. I love to paint furniture. And I extra love using resin. It makes everything so shiny and hard. My beer garden table that I resined two years ago still looks good in impossible Louisiana weather. The only downside of resin is the weight. It gets especially heavy if you try to encapsulate something, even glitter, that requires more than one pour.

They let me paint anything I wanted. That is my best kind of commission. I painted two birds that look like Katy and Gen. I put crowns on both of the women so they could both be queens. I took the photo before I poured the resin, because resin has too much reflection. The finished table is much shinier.