It is almost August, if you can believe it. Exactly two weeks until our Gator Girl Art and Friends of Samuel Square Party. If you are in or around New Orleans, I hope you come by.
Angela and I sent our application in for a huge grant to improve Samuel Square. I have a good feeling about it. It is for $75,000 and their decision is between two parks. It might be good if you picture us at the ribbon cutting of the new playground.
Today, I am going to share the finished Making Amends. I chose the name because those were the words that refused to be covered.
Making Amends Completed
I oiled and varnished the frame. I like the rich brown color. The wood is the top half of a door. The top hinge is still on the right. I couldn’t decide why the painting wasn’t finished for a while. Then I put the sun further back and voilà.
Close up of her face.
I feel like I know her.
Close up of her baby.
I think he is going to do something special for the world.
I am getting some giclee’s made, framing a print, making a menu. It is exciting to have a party. My Aunt Grace is coming with three of her childhood girlfriends, so I already know it will be fun.
We are mid-way in the year of the dragon, the year of possibilities. It is kind of overwhelming in an exciting kind of way, don’t you think?
Today, I decided to share the finished Raven Wisdom and the young woman with revolving names. I call her Hopeful Anticipation, but I will explain that later.
Raven Wisdom
I delivered Raven to California last week. I don’t have a picture of him framed. The frame was really cool. I used dark green reclaimed wood from the Green Project. The best part of the frame was a shelf along the bottom to put shiny trinkets, gems and crystals that Raven might like. There are hinge holes on the right-side bottom of the frame where I hung a string of burlap with dangling wing and heart milagras.
Hopeful Anticipation
I can see my painting becoming more urban. I like it. I offered a contest to name this painting. I liked many ideas. I decided to leave the words off of the original, because I like the painting this way, too. I didn’t want to limit her. Limitless Possibilities? See, her name keeps evolving.
My idea is to send the photo to the print shop for prints and giclees and add different words to the copies. It will make each copy an original. I will post later what that looks like. I will send a print to those people who sent me words that I use. It’s not too late for you!
I am totally engrossed with my new painting of Freida Kahlo as a skeleton. I don’t know if I will make prints, because the frame is totally part of the painting. I will post the process of Freida next week.
When I wrote in my profile that I am living, working and thriving in New Orleans, I am.
I have been painting for Raven Wisdom Studio in Chico. That is my sister’s place. I kept putting Raven aside and working on it little by little. When I started looking at each area of the painting. One of my favorite parts of the painting didn’t please me any more. It looked too dark. Raven’s can be a little dark, themselves, and I didn’t want to portray that. Also, it was lacking whimsy, which I really like.
Today, I could feel the excitement of creating pumping through my veins. I ripped up paper and painted without even a sip of my coffee.
Right now the frame is drying. I don’t love framing, because I am not confident with it yet, or competent. I am too impatient to wait for help so I just push ahead. I am liking this frame.
Clean wood.Part one of Raven Wisdom
After I cut the old wood, I scrub it with soap and water. I love old, but don’t think dirty is good in a house.
The Frame
This was super fun. I painted the heart, filled it with love, turned it upside-down and sprayed it with water. When I turned it over it looked like flames.
Raven appears, timid at first.
I left the wood this color. It looks like old houses I remember fondly. The frame is going to have a shelf to hold Raven’s favorite trinkets.
I painted Raven with a lot of water and rolled the canvas with a roll of paper towels. I learned this technique from Effy Wild. It left the outline dark, and picked up the paint in the middle. Nice effect.
Raven Wisdom, nearly complete
I painted Raven bigger, to be more of the focal point. Along his back is part of a Rumi quote, “be the soul of that place”.
I tried a new technique. I painted black, sparkly embossing powder mixed with acrylic varnish and melted it with a heat gun. It made a nice, black texture. You can see where I added it on the blackest parts of Raven.
The nest is made with corrugated cardboard that my sister insisted I needed to pack when I moved to New Orleans, lichen from the Lake of the Woods, Oregon (our favorite place), a red thread for the sisterhood, a fortune about friendship, and a flaming heart from Mexico.
There are other things making up the nest, like sheet music and journal paper. I added gold, brown, red and black paint for depth and mystery.
I am so sorry that the words do not stay put when I hit “publish”. I will keep working on this.
Thank you for reading about my process. Painting is pretty solitary business if you don’t count spirits chiming in. I appreciate the togetherness of my on-line family.
Where are your thriving in your life? What makes you lose track of time? Where do you feel your heart expand? I would love to hear.
I asked Maggie to finish this while she was still 3 years old. It is almost done, except for glitter and other adornments. She has been patiently waiting to add glitter from the beginning.
Since the last posting, Maggie added a beard on Jack and eyelashes on Sally. She gave Sally a peachy colored face with a purple chin. Her hair is long, purple and teal. There is a purple vine circling them both. On Sally’s side there is a crimson sun in front of her body contraption. On Jack’s side, there is a white sun to his left.
I hope you enjoy following Maggie’s painting. My part has been to hold her palate and ask her to tell me what she is going to do next. Most times she draws it in chalk first so she stays with the concept of product. When she is playing, it is all about process with her. It must be super fun to be 3.
Right here… X… I tried to add a picture of Maggie at Jazz Fest. Uploading didn’t work. I am happy that the main picture uploaded.
If you would like an original Gator Girl painting, but need to wait a while for the opportunity, there are prints available on Etsy. My prints start at $30 and there is a special going on for the month of April. Go ahead and check it out. You can also send me your email address through my email account at nancy@gatorgirlart.com and I will send you an email when I have a new painting, OR you can also see all my paintings in progress by following my blog.
And thank you, thank you for reading my blog!
I have completed 3 paintings.
The original of Monsieur Gator was painted on commission and is not available.
The collector asked for a French Gator. Painted in French around the outside edge of the canvas are the words “Strolling at Sunset, Dreaming of z Camembert”.
I listened to Chante France on the Internet. M. Gator loved the music. It seemed to put him in the mood for a portrait. What an attitude he has!
La Femme Fatal is mixed media, 12 x 36 inches painted on wood. She is standing on the street in the French Quarter after the parades have passed. She still has “it” after all these years. She sells for $800.
The Mardi Gras Muse or as MMMM calls her, Princess Masketier is mixed media on reclaimed wood, with a reclaimed wooden frame. The original is $800. The frame is part of the painting, so a small portion of the frame was also photographed.*
Mardi Gras Muse
There are words about Mardi Gras running through her hair, and a 3 dimensional king cake baby. She is wearing a raven mask for my sister who owns Raven Wisdom Studio in Chico, California. (She is a clay artist.) The music is from the song “Mardi Gras Mambo”.
Mardi Gras Muse started out clearly in my mind’s eye, but took over a month to complete.
Now that these 3 paintings are complete, I will be starting a new painting from scratch. The options are swirling around me as I type.
Please stay tuned,
All my love from an ever-opening heart,
Gator Girl
*The photography is by the amazing Dorka Photography in New Orleans.
I put fine silver glitter on her veil to make it stand out more. I put red chunky glitter on her roses and gold metal finish on her gold tooth. She makes me very happy now. 2 coats of varnish insure her lasting beauty.
Mardi Gras Muse or as Maggie insists Maskatier Princess (named for her mask and partial tiara), is still in process. I played with both kids all day Friday and Saturday and it threw off my painting time in a good way.
Mardi Gras Muse in progress
I am having a lot of fun painting the muse. She is wild and entertaining. Her hair is a mixture of purple and pink paint in Golden Heavy Gel. I like the ridges. It gives her hair a thickness that mine has never achieved.
It seems like Spring has arrived in New Orleans, at least for today. It is a little chilly, but the sun is shining. We are having a crawfish boil in Audubon Park by the Mississippi River later today. I don’t think life gets much better.
You know how it feels when you think you are on the right track, when all the pieces in your life are just falling into place? I feel like that about our move to New Orleans. At my launch party two weeks ago, 2 paintings sold and I was asked to donate a print to the Pussy Footer’s Ball. My friends Heather and Mimi are each putting my name in the drawing for the opportunity to be chosen for the marching krewe.
The Blush Ball is an event for charity. They are raising money for the Metropolitan Center for Women and Children.
This is the painting that I donated for the raffle. I decided on a mixed media original designed for the Ball. I put my mother’s glasses on the person in the painting. I have always loved these glasses from the 50’s. I said “person” because she could be a woman or could be a drag queen. It just depends on how you see her. I love how paintings have their own intentions.
Queen of the Ball
One of the paintings that sold at the party is Eternal Love. Both paintings had to have emergency photos taken at the print shop. The turn around was too quick to have Dorka take the photos.
Eternal Love
These two happy campers are pushing up daisies. The semi-transparent butterflies are emissaries between worlds. I painted this with my husband, David in mind.
I hope that 2012 is starting off fabulously wonderful for y’all.
Gator Girl Art 