You probably know me, unless you just started following my blog. Either way, I put together a video of my porch, studio and me. I am using the video in my Etsy Shop. I love feeling like I have a “Shop” and not just a house. I am sometimes in a gallery with Where Y’Art and lately my paintings are hanging out (get it?) at Baldwin, Haspel, Burke & Mayer, a law firm in the Central Business District. Those paintings in the law offices have a better view than I do. By far. They are on the 36th floor and have a view of the bend in the river and the bridge to the west bank.
Many of my paintings are at my house. You are welcome to come by.
Spring has sprung in New Orleans. Jazz Fest is around the corner.
I revisited an old friend this week. That’s what it seemed like when I worked on Expecting Grace again.
The original Expecting Grace
I enjoyed painting a giclee’more than I thought I would. The same woman who bought the original of Feathered Friends asked me to embellish a giclee’ of Expecting Grace. She asked for bubble paper on the hair and pieces of paper in the background like the original.
Feathered Friends
We both looked for months for the same bubble paper. If I find it again, I will buy a ream. We settled for a similar paper, a little heavier, and not as bubbly. I used the tiny bit of the original paper that I had left over. On the paper background I put a tissue butterfly because the new owner is always going through huge changes brought on by extreme bravery. I added an old stamp from Israel and sheet music. You can’t see any of that any more. I like that it is there.
Embellishing Giclee’Giclee of Expecting Grace Embellished
I can still tone down the background, but I like it bright today. It is not as white as it looks. It is more of a cream.
I cannot get a picture that looks clear. The necklaces are small prints (30 mm square/ 1.18 inches) of my art. 19/52 of the original paintings made into necklaces. I have been selling necklaces out of my studio and at festivals for $20. A few Pussyfooters have asked for them. This is why I decided to put them on-line. They are easy to put in a padded envelope and stick in the mail.
I am happy to be home, but if I had more money I would jet-set around. It was fun going more places this summer. It will be quiet here for a while. The kiddos are on a train to California, my sweet darlin’ starts school next week and there are no visitors on the horizon.
Shotgun Angel will be at the M Gallery on Julia and Baronne for White Linen Night this Saturday.
This is painted from a photo of my friend,Christine, of 2 Chicks Walking Tours. She is dressed up like her mother back in the day. I just love this picture and I love a cigarette.
I am not quite done with Magnolia.
Magnolia
I like how the girl is the same colors as the Magnolia flowers. I think she needs something more, like a crown so the middle flower doesn’t look like it is growing out of her head. Her eyes are a little deep-set.
My grand babies are on their way to visit their great-grandparents.
In New Orleans, when we aren’t talking about our next meal, we’re talking about the weather. FYI, my next meal is coming from Juan’s Flying Burrito and the weather has been gorgeous for two weeks straight. 80’s, sunny and dry. My favorite weather is dry in the day and raining all night, but not when I am leaving my art all night in a tent on the bayou.
Duke, my sort of brother-in-law took some fabulous photos of Bayou Boogaloo. I think this will be a photo essay. I will include information for first time festers, which I am not one of. (Thankfully.)
Loading the festival truck
Loading the Prius for festival
Bringing out Walking to New Orleans
Setting up the tent
Unloading Festival Supplies
Festival Supplies
Posing in front of the tent
Ready for Fest, Day 1
bayou-side tents
This is the art side of the festival.
beautiful bayou
Gator Girl Art had exposure to the public. Lots of people came out. I sold a little over $1,000. My expenses were a little over a thousand dollars. I almost broke even. Yes, I would have liked to make some money. No, I am not giving up.
I signed up for Blues and Barbecue taking place in Lafayette Square in October.Jazz and Heritage will tell me soon if I have been accepted. You will be the first to know.
Walking to New Orleans seemed to be the crowd favorite.
My sort of brother-in-law bought it. Thank you, Duke.
In New Orleans, if you are selling in an arts district, there is no city or state tax on original art. The tax I had to pay is only on the $200 I made selling prints… $8. That’s cool, right?
I decided some things for the next festival. I am going to buy nice, white, mesh sides for my tent. They will be easier to transport and look professional. I am going to paint some smaller originals. I like originals better than prints. People who have a small space or limited finances will be able to buy an original. I am only going to take my originals and one size prints.
I made these cool presentation binders. One binder has all of my originals that are still for sale. One binder has all originals already in collections. I filled the binders with 8 x 10 prints. On the facing page is their story. I am going to take along the binders.
This has been an important week for Maggie. She graduated from kindergarten and turned 6!
Gorgeous today in New Orleans. I opted out of a picnic so that I could write to you. I need to keep a work schedule or I feel like a fraud. Today, I am starting to list 4 of my originals.
It is a process.
Dorka sent me the files of the photos she took of my most recent paintings. I changed the size of the photographs slightly. Dorka discourages me from changing the photos too much by myself.
Then I up-loaded two sizes to Fotoworks Pro. The sizes I offer are 8.5 x 11 and 11 x 14. I tried printing 8 x 10, but that seems too small for art. Fotoworks Pro is in Southern California and I work with them through the mail. I have had only positive experiences with their personal service and great quality.
After I ordered prints, I started up-loading to Etsyand WhereY’Art. The difference, I think, between the two Internet stores is Etsy is international and Where Y’Art is local. I have been with Etsy for a few years and am pretty happy with it. I just started in February with Where Y’Art. I love that it is local and I know the owners and some of the other artists. Where Y’Art also offers shows out in the community a few times a year. I will let you know more later… when I know more.
Gator in the Hen House
It takes about 10 days to get the prints from California. (I am sure this is because the mail is coming to Louisiana.) I am only putting up the originals now. I want to have the prints in hand when the orders come in. (Hear that universe?)
I used to hate the business part of painting. Now I like it. It is like having a secretarial job for a day. I wanted to be a secretary once.
Hansen’s closed for the season yesterday. The last snoball of 2013 feels like a passage. It is walking through a doorway from Summer to Fall.
Saying good-bye to summer is bitter-sweet. The light is softer. The air is cooling down.
Things are picking up. Everyone is discussing Halloween costumes. Halloween costumes are either put together at a costume shop, ETSY shops, or are handmade. That is one reason when October 1 rolls around, you have to be on it.
My talented and beautiful friend, Mimi, made her family’s costumes.
Peacock family.
The list of festivities grows. Now we have to choose, because there are choices.
Pussyfooter practice starts in October with mandatory attendance. We all look toward the Carnival season with anticipation.
You can feel the Saints victories as palatable, like a physical happiness in the air we breathe… breathe in 4, breathe out 0.
Everything seems possible.
Today, I am sharing the completion of Friends.
Friends (completed)
The frame is old. I bought it at the estate sale of an artist. Accidentally, the colors of the pelican and the colors of the frame are amazing together. I painted this on a board cut to fit inside this frame. Maybe the color matching was subconscious, but I gasped when I saw the painting in the frame.
There is only about a quarter-inch of the painting covered up by the frame. Unfortunately it covered up the cat tail along the side.
There is plenty of carbon black and bone black in the painting lest we forget the oil spill. The gold near the top is the hope we hold for the future.
The weather is heating up here. It gets really muggy and then the thunder showers start. I love the south unreasonably.
I have some pictures to share today.
Chandelier
I bought this chandelier at an estate sale in the Marigny. The man who died was an old artist. Maggie showed me the chandelier. I told her I was busy and needed to look quickly because there were so many people there buying his treasures. She insisted I come with her and she showed me this chandelier for $25.
I took the bead strings off and soaked them in vinegar for 48 hours, and then in vinegar and dish soap. 60 years of grime floated off. I painted the chandelier with two coats of gold craft paint that I had sitting around. On the underside of the horizontal parts when you look up from underneath, I added brown glitter flakes and gold glitter.
Close up of Chandelier
I wrapped the candles in washi tape. They came out super nice. You can’t even tell it is washi tape. It cost me $75 to have it installed above my desk. As an added bonus that I didn’t expect, all of those lightbulbs made it much brighter in here.
Maggie and Raffi’s dresser for art storage.
I bought this dresser at the estate sale, too. It is IKEA and it cost $20. I had some cans of paint from other projects that I wanted to use up. I also wanted the dresser mainly black to go with my mainly black and white studio. The black part is gloss enamel. I love the shine and resilience of enamel.
Maggie’s bees
The blue and yellow parts are latex paint. I wanted Maggie’s bees to adhere. She drew the bees with Montana paint pens. The pens are filled with acrylic paint, but are easy to control, like a pen.
Crows on a Wire
I wanted to see what would happen if I painted a wild background with many colors and shapes as the base of my painting.
#2
How much do I cover up of the original painting? I love all the colors, but it is so busy.
#3
The little houses got larger. The crows are dressing up. The tree is turning into a magnolia tree.
Viral in the sense that I had more hits in one day than any other day in the history of Gator Girl on Etsy. It is all thanks to Brice and Zach at Hansen’s Sno-Bliz.
I was getting all kinds of ETSY sale notifications for my painting of a Hansen’s Snoball. I checked on Hansen’s Facebook Pageand saw that they posted my painting with a link to My Etsy Shop. The stats: 232 views and 6 prints sold in one day. It was super fun.
Hansen’s Sno-Bliz on ETSY
Cathy and Dennis Schlais picked up “Waiting for Moses”, formerly known as “Making Amends”. Cathy always loved Harriet Tubman who was called Moses. This painting reminded her of waiting for Moses. I am happy she has a loving home. Thank you Cathy and Dennis.
I bought some paints fromdreamingcolor.com. They are calledSilks, acrylic glaze. They have mica in the paint for shimmer and shine. They are not very shiny, just right. I bought them for mermaid tails and alligator skin. I painted Silks on the mermaid tail so her tail would be shinier than the water.
Mermaid FinishedMermaid Almost Done
It seems hard to tell the difference here. Trust me, there is more shine and depth in the one on the left.
I also tried to make her skin look unblemished like porcelain. I used a mixture of Golden Titan Buff, Golden Light Umber, and Liquitex Deep Portrait Pink for the last coat. I think it looks best to paint the pink on the cheeks, the darkness by the eyes, etc… before the last coat. It is kind of like the blush under the skin instead of sitting right on top.
My youngest daughter, Katy, is here from Azusa, California. She is helping me frame. I think I have it down now. I still don’t love it. I don’t hate it. It is just more like work than painting. I need frames, so there you go.
We had a lovely Easter with lots of family and lots of eating out. We are probably all a little spoiled. Raffi won’t get seafood every day now. I am happy to be back in my studio. I am happy to start another painting.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday! We have the honor of hosting the game here in New Orleans. It is still pre-game and everyone is happy.
I completed Justice.
Justice
I don’t know how the idea for a painting comes to me. It must be a muse. I just have a flash of an idea and I need to get it on canvas. I do not know any two women who look like these women. For the life of me, I could not get the dark-haired woman on the right to smile. Maybe she is a bit upset with our government.
I am also upset with our government. I choose to remain hopeful. I believe in the wise words of Theodore Parker, “The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Now the fun part.
If you and your partner look like these women, send a photo to me, nancy@gatorgirlart.com and I will send you a print. I really hope to see a photo or 10.
I am playing around here (I mean working) instead of doing housework. I never minded housework before I had so many better things to do. I do believe I was in the minority back then.
I am posting my results of non-stop painting this week.
I love many aspects of Bee Love. I am thinking of painting a series. My husband hates the human-looking face on the bee so much that he actually said the word “hate”. Obviously, some childhood trauma.
I think she is just too adorable to hate. She is definitely a girly girl worker bee. She is wearing a cream-colored vintage plastic bow. The letters are from a fancy set of Pairsinpears. The black polka dot tape is Washi tape that I bought on Etsy. She looks a bit like a Pussyfooter Bee with her pink striped leggings and orange hair. She is a hard-working worker bee. She feels she can dress pretty without having aspirations of being queen.
I have been trying out this fun technique. I color with Caran D’Ache watersoluble crayons over dry acrylic paint. Then I mix the crayon in as much as I want with acrylic varnish using a paint brush, making it water proof. Sometimes I leave a little crayon-look and sometimes I blend it completely in. Finally, I seal it two more times. I like the look and it is just kind of fun to color with crayons.
I just have a bit more shadowing to do on Bee Love.
Stand UpStand Up’s Side View
These are the words that are on the front of the painting Stand Up:
When a woman chooses to source her truth
from within her very bones, rather than
looking to a set of rules outside of herself,
she is truly wise.
These are the words typed on the side of the painting:
An odd thing about the words on the painting… I named the painting Stand Up, tentatively while I was painting. I found the words later in Kitty’s blog. I don’t know if I believe there are no accidents in life, but I do believe in synchronicity if you keep your heart open.
I have been invited to show my art at Fall for Art in Covington, Louisiana on October 20th. My art and I will be at the Downtown Chic Salonfrom 6-9pm.My niece, Mandi is the owner/ stylist.
Mandi is on the right of center wearing all black.
Gator Girl Art 