Eve, the Little Mermaid - Sedona Arts Center Fundraiser

"Eve, the Little Mermaid" 6x6, oil - $100 (see below)

The Sedona Arts Center (www.sedonaartscenter.com) has embarked on a fundraiser to help with repairs of the historic barn, which houses it.  The barn was an apple barn in days gone past, and so the title of the fundraiser is fitting:  "Apples for the Art Barn."  It's a worthy cause, since SAC does a huge amount to help with local arts education.


From the website:
All artworks will be sold at the set price of $100 with a goal of raising $10,000. This will be combined with the existing funds and will be used to replace the siding, insulation and windows of the Art Barn to preserve the historical building of Sedona Arts Center.


The show, which runs until January 4th, consists of little paintings, all 6x6, with "apples" as the theme.  


My contribution is pictured above.  My grandfather, for some reason, had a little collection of ceramic mermaids, each stamped with "Made in Occupied Japan" on the bottom.  I suspect they came from my father, who served in the Marines in the Pacific in World War II.  (He was one of the few who made it back alive from Iwo Jima.)  After my grandfather died, this collection came to me.  I really like the juxtaposition of this saucy lass with the apple.  Was there ever a mermaid named "Eve"? 


The support is coarse-textured canvas, and as such, one can't put much detail into a painting.  I used Gamblin's FastMatte alkyds, partly because of the quick dry-time, but also because it allowed me to paint loosely and with a pastel-like finish. 


If you're interested in this little piece, please let SAC know.   They'll gladly help you with the purchase and will ship.  You can reach them at 928-282-3865.

More Lupines - A Miniature Plein Air Painting

Lupine Colors, 4x4 oil - sold

detail

I don't often do miniature paintings.  Some of my readers may argue with that, knowing my propensity for 5x7s.  But once in awhile, duty calls.  I was given a beautiful, 4-inch, hand-carved frame, and was asked to fill it.

So fill it I did - with lupines, en plein air.  I painted this on a piece of acid-free matboard that had been prepared with Gamblin PVA size and two coats of acrylic gesso.  The piece of matboard was much larger than the frame.  (I taped it to a 5x7 board and used my new Guerrilla Painter 5x7 Pocket Box.)  To make sure I was going to get a painting that would work, I first lightly pencilled a 4-inch square on the board.  Then, I centered my composition in the square but actually painted an area that went way beyond it.  I think I painted an extra two inches all the way around.  This gave me plenty of room to play with the final composition, cropping to suit.

Once I'd cropped the painting to size, I let it dry, sprayed a coat of retouch varnish on it, and then used a piece of acid-free foamboard for backing.   I did not use glass, since I consider the matboard/foamboard combination is more like a panel than paper.  (Works on paper typically get put under glass.)

By the way, the highlights on the flowers were done with Gamblin's Radiant Blue and Radiant Pink.