Folk Art Mary

Feed Us Now Dogs - Different Colors in Dogs

This version is a little bit better. The dog to the right is still the same color as the inner frame, a kind of visual joke that I'm doing all I can to leave. The white dog to the left grabs your eye and leads you into the piece. The center dog and the dog on the right - they're out of balance with the dog on the left.

folk art mary

Feed Us Now Dogs - Adding Dark Outlining

I've added dark outlining and color on the frame. But something still is not working. The colors are too pasty, and nothing grabs your eye as the first place to look.

folk art mary

Feed Us Now Dogs - Coming to Life

Moving right along, this piece has got some real life. I'm still playing with the dogs being the same yellow color as the inner frame. I had very few directions from the person ordering this piece, other than that 1) the dogs should be different colors and 2) some of the dogs should have pointy ears, others floppy ears. As you see the floppy eared dogs are in the majority.

folk art mary

 

 

Feed Us Now Dogs - Adding the floor

Ah, this feels better adding color to the floor. Now the dogs are anchored...

folk art mary

Feed Us Now Dogs - First Paint Layer

The dog piece sits on my easle after the first coat of tan paint. Behind it you can see the distracting jumble of my workbench. From here on out I'll crop pictures of this work in progress in order to eliminate background details.

folk art mary

 

Feed Us Now Dogs - Mostly Carved

Here's the Feed Us Now Dogs commissioned piece mostly carved. This wood carving was made in the winter of 2011. Like almost all of the pictures I show in this blog, by the time I write about it the piece is long ago finished. As you can imagine, it takes quite a bit of work to keep my pictures organized!

folk art mary

Feed Us Now Dogs - Drawn onto the Wood

Here is the sketch of Feed Us Now Dogs drawn onto the wood, ready to start carving. This is a simple and bold picture, pleasing to my eye. I like how the four dogs, one at each corner, bracket the main scene, the three hungry dogs in the center of the piece.

folk art mary

 

 

Feed Us Now Dogs Commission - Sketch

Last winterI had someone come to me who asked would I do a Feed Us Now picture of her dogs, similar to the Feed Us Now picture I had made of cats. Yes, I said, I'm willing to come up with a sketch, and that's how a new folk art commission was born.

"Feed Me Now" or "Feed Us Now" is a series I've been doing for a few years. Usually it consists of cats with empty food bowls with the words "Feed Me Now". I started doing this series with the tanking of the economy. For the past few years there have been a lot of people anxious about keeping those paychecks coming in and keeping getting fed - myself included. This was the best way I had to express a seious topic in a joking format.

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Walter De Rycke

Walter De Rycke is a Belgian artist whose work I admire. I'll be brief in what I write since the pictures below are worth a thousand words. Thanks Walter for letting me post images of your work to my blog!

 

Speaking to the Gods

 

 

Cyberus

folk art mary

Handmade House in the Woods - DONE!

The Handmade House in the Woods commissioned picture is DONE! I'm very happy with how it turned out. Here you see the house in its wooded setting, family pets, one parent birding, another gardening, and a daughter lounging on the deck of the house.

folk art mary

 

Handmade House in the Woods - YES!

The blues really work. I've just been working on making the colors softer, painting and repainting until the picture says "yes" to me.

folk art mary

Handmade House in the Woods Keeps Getting Better

It keeps getting better. Now I'm not so nervous, I know this picture will work in the end. Adding yellows to the trees and darks behind them really helps.

folk art mary

 

 

 

Handmade House in the Woods, A Little Further Along

Time to stop being nervous and just plunge into painting the house. Adding some reds, whites, and darks moves this carved wooden picture a little bit farther along, but still it remains a bit rough around the edges.

folk art mary