Folk Art Mary

Guest Artist - John Simpkins

This painting by John Simpkins is special. Here's what he has to say about the piece and the inspiring place in which he lives :

"My inspiration for the Magpie piece is where I am currently living and painting: the Alvord Desert just below the Steens Mountain range. Magpies and coyotes are my companions, and the light here is very dramatic, often "spot-lighting" objects amidst dark shadows. It's a magical place! This piece, "Midnight Magpies" is 18 X 24 inches, acrylic on masonite panel.

The Alvord Desert is in the lower southeast corner of the state of Oregon.  It's about 25 miles from the Nevada border,  130 miles to the nearest town for shopping.  Andrews, where I live, is listed as a ghost town, but once, in the 20's and 30's, it was THE place to be, with a 20 room hotel, grocery, post office, saloon, and stables. Now in Andrews most of the remaining buildings are stone.  All of the wooden buildings have been destroyed by range fires over the years. This is a special place!"

folk art mary

Spare Set of Hands - Done!

Spare Set of Hands, my joking self portrait, is done. The finishing touch was putting brass tacks on the "spare" hands, as though each one is hanging on its own nail on the shelf in the back of the room. Notice there is one nail without its hand. Does this mean that I have already used up one of my left spares? If so this means that I have to be careful, I only have two left...

folk art mary

Spare Set of Hands - Further Along

Spare Set of Hands is looking good with its warm earth colors. A little bit too much dark outlining perhaps, but I'll eventually tone that down. I'm still narrowing down on the shapes of this piece. Before I did this blog I never took pictures of my work in progress. Doing so has helped me so much to become a better self-taught artist.

folk art mary

Spare Set of Hands - Early Painting Stages

Spare Set of Hands now has some paint. This first stage of painting leans strongly towards yellow and tans.

folk art mary

Spare Set of Hands - Carving Complete

Sometimes life is too busy, and I need a spare set of hands. Summer is when I do a lot of carving at the Farmers' Market. Winter is when I finish off painting and carving work still left undone from last summer and take on commissions.

Last August I showed a sketch of  "Spare Set of Hands" at my blog, saying it would be a while before I had it carved and painted. Now I have completed the piece. Here is a picture of it carved, waiting to be painted.

This piece is what I would call one of my visual jokes. Maybe it's just a little bit disturbing. Last year for the first time I began to have arthritis pain in my thumb joints. I need some protection, where are those guard dogs when I need them? Wouldn't it be nice to just be able to get a spare set of hands? ...

folk art mary

Guest Artist - Bruce New

Bruce New makes great art!

Here's what Bruce has to say about himself, taken from his website: “My work is an attempt to document my existence - to leave a visual record of my thoughts, ideas, and fantasies. I reside in the wilds of Kentucky, with a bird and our son, on a mountaintop, right next to the sun, where I create my artwork high on butterfly wine.” Go Bruce go!

A Gathering in the Moonlight

What do you think, are the animals in this picture dogs?

folk art mary

Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, DONE!

Woman sleeping, dogs, trees, stars, and moon. This painted woodcarving is DONE! I've got my answer, these are dogs and not wolves, although they have a bit of the wild in them - all the better to protect!

folk art mary

Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Glowing

I've painted the border preparatory to putting on gold leaf. After many layers of paint this piece has a soft glow that tells me from my gut that it is almost done.

folk art mary

 

Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Carved Border

After painting the Woman Asleep carving a bit more, I realise I forgot to carve the area where I will be putting gold leaf. So here you see the piece almost done, except that I have carved a small border into the frame. Do you find it as disturbing as I do, that the dogs still have no eyes or teeth?

folk art mary

 

Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs # 26, Red Dress

I keep working and working it until Woman Asleep with Guard Dogs looks better. The red in the dress and the white of the dogs really makes the lower part of the picture the first thing that you see.

folk art mary