Folk Art Mary

Waitress Icons 12 and 13, Here to Serve

Spoons and forks, coffee and eggs - you're always welcome at the diner! These waitresses are here to serve. These two painted woodcarvings would look nice on a kitchen wall.

Waitress Icon 12

 

Waitress Icon 13

 

folk art self taught Mary

Waitress Icon #11, Here to Serve

Waitresss Icon #11 is, obviously enough, the eleventh in a series of waitress figures. It's a visual joke on the theme of serving. The waitress serves the customers but she herself is also being served up - on a plate complete with fork and spoon.

 

below, first coat of paint

 

below, finished

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Waitresses Say Eat, Colors are Starting to Work

The various colors in Waitresses Say Eat #8 are starting to work together and not fight each other. I love the waitresses' thick legs, tired from all the hours of standing on shift. In some ways I feel I have no control over how the facial expressions turn out. The central waitress is kind of goofy, the two on either side seem rather tired and even a little bit sour. Hey customer, you'd better give them a little bigger tip!

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Waitresses Say Eat #8 - Too Bright Blues

Phew, these blues are pretty bright. I'm going to have to tone them down somewhat in the end.

folk art self taught Mary

Waitresses Say Eat #8

While I'm on the subject of showing waitress centered artwork, Waitresses Say Eat #8 is a special piece that awaits the right home. Forget the customers, let's just focus on the waitresses and the command "Eat!" Yellow is the color I chose as a basecoat. My waitresses are always serving, waiting, asleep on their feet.

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Auburn Diner, DONE!

Here she is, gold leafed, brightened some more, DONE!

The Auburn Diner piece is completely carved and painted.  When I really take the time to see it, I like how peaceful and complete it is as a picture. I could watch this painting for hours.

I look forward to bringing it to my booth (#3) for the 2011 Ithaca Farmers' Market season. Right now, with the weather so cold, I'm trying to decide whether to start my Farmers Market season this weekend (April 2 is the first market for the year) or to wait for a few more weeks. Cold weather is hard on the hands.

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Auburn Diner, Brightening it up Still More

Hey, now the painting is starting to look crisp. I added more yellows in this version of the Auburn Diner. The outlines are done of the faces, fingers etc - small details now stand out better. The lettering is on the diner and the diner sign. I still need to do the gold leaf in the inner frame.

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Auburn Diner, Getting the Darks in Balance

I've lightened up the darks at the bottom so that they're more like a gray. The cars are a warm gray now, with a bit of yellow added, and stand out from the background. Some of the other areas of the carving still look a bit pasty. I've done dark outlining (to make details stand out) but will still need to do more of that.

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Auburn Diner, Adding Darks

I needed to put in the darks, especially at the bottom below the diner - to anchor it down. When I stand back and look at it, it's a bit overwhelming. I always have to struggle to keep my painting color choices from getting too dark. I'll keep working to make this better in future versions.

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Auburn Diner, Painting Browns and Reds

For the next layer of paint on the Auburn Diner I added some warm browns and purple/reds.

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Auburn Diner, Beginning to Paint

This is early in the painting stage for the Auburn Diner carved and painted piece. I laid down a first coat of warm gray, then started in with some whites to make the diner, sign, counter and waitresses stand out.

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Auburn Diner, Carving Close Ups

Here's a close up on the waitresses in my Auburn Diner picture.

 

And of course a photo of a customer, drinking his coffee.

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Auburn Diner, Final Carving Stage

Here I have all the carving done except for the diner and car details at the bottom.

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Auburn Diner, Middle Carving Stage

Here I'm probably a little less than half done. I've made a first pass at most of the design. I'm leaving the smallest details for last, including the faces, hands, diner, cars and ceiling fan. Before I tackle those details, I'll concentrate instead on carving the large shapes deeper.

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Auburn Diner, Early Carving Stage

Here is the Auburn Diner carving, early in the carving stages. I start with the areas I want to carve deepest.

 

Here's a close up of the center of the action:

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Auburn Diner, Rough Cut Wood On the Back

Before I go on to showing you the Auburn Diner piece as it is carved, I wanted to post two pictures of the back of the piece. This is rough cut wood. You can see the grain of the wood as well as some saw marks. As you can see, rough cut is an accurate descriptor. This is why I plane or smooth the front of the boards, so that I can transfer my drawing and its many details onto the front face of the piece.

 

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Auburn Diner, Sketch Traced onto the Boards

Here we have the pattern of the Auburn Diner picture traced onto the boards. I use rough cut, air dried white pine boards, ideally 5/4 thick stock. I have one side planed so that I can draw on it easily. The back side I usually leave rough, sanding it just a little bit to take off the rough edges. Below we have the wood blank glued up, drawing traced on. This wood blank consists of two boards edge glued. You can see where the boards meet because the rightmost board still has some roughness that was not entirely planed off.

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Auburn Diner, Second Sketch

I drew the second sketch of the Auburn Diner once I got home and looked at my photos, so the second sketch has more of the diner details, in particular the outside of the diner. Once I had the second sketch right (sometimes I draw and redraw up to fifteen times) I went to my local copy store and enlarged it onto a paper pattern that was to the exact scale of the final carving. This pattern got traced onto the carving boards. Below you see this pattern on top of the carving boards, ready to trace.

second sketch:

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Auburn Diner, First Sketch

I drew the first sketch of the Auburn Diner while I was there, sitting at the back so I could see down the length of the counter. Usually I tell the waitress what I'm doing, and because I took photos I asked her first if this would be OK. Whenever I'm out at diners, I almost always have fried or scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast in order to get in the mood.

 

first sketch:

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Sullivan's Diner Number 6 - DONE!

I'm pretty pleased with how this carved and painted folk art piece turned out. It packs a lot of picture in its small (16" tall by 12" wide measured to the outside of the frame) size. One way you can tell the relative size of my pieces is by the signature, which is always the same size given that I use stamp to indent my initials (MMS) prior to signing each piece. So that's it, Sullivans' Brothers Diner Number Six is done! Anybody out there have any comments they want to make on this piece?

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Sullivan's Diner Number 6 - Living with it

Here I've painted the frame and made a gold leaf pin stripe around the inner part of the frame. There's still lots more to do, mostly details such as the eggs on the back counter, the fan, the shoes, fingers, faces, the "Sullivans Brothers" lettering on the bottom left, etc.. Some whites have to be whiter and darks darker. But this piece still isn't quite working and I have to decide why.

By painting the frame it makes it easier for me to "see" what still has to be done to the picture. It's at this stage in the painting that I bring the picture from my studio into my house each night. I hang it on the wall opposite my couch, and give it a glance now and then to see what works and what doesn't. In effect I live with it while I'm trying to decide what it still needs.

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Sullivans' Diner Number Six- Looking for Snap

I've added some browns to the edges, which makes the shapes stand out more. I'm looking for crisp. I'm looking for snap.

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Sullivans' Diner Number Six - Reds and Blues

Here is the Sullivans' Diner Number Six folk art piece now with reds and blues starting to pull out the shapes.

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Sullivans' Diner Number Six - First Coat of Paint

Here's Sullivans' Diner Number Six with its first coat of paint.

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Sulllivan's Diner Number 6 - Carved not Painted

Here's the Sullivan's diner piece all carved and about to be painted. There was some wood sap in the wooden area above the TV antennas, so I sealed that with dewaxed shellac. I like shellac because it's a natural product. I have to remember to look at the date on the can because shellac has a limited shelf life.

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Sullivans' Diner Number Six, Sketch

I've carved and painted a number of pictures of Sullivan's Diner in Horseheads, New York. Each version is different. Each aims to capture the feel of Sullivan's rather than act as an exact replica of what the diner looks like. Here are the first and final sketches that serve as the starting point for my most recent version, Sullivans' Brothers Diner Number 6. It's late or early in the day. Everyone is tired, sleeping, dreaming - including the cook who nods off at the counter. Only the waitress is lively, active, and on her feet.

 

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Setting up an Etsy Shop

People have told me I should do it. It took me one and a half years, but finally I've gotten to signing up to Etsy and setting up a shop there.

My page at the site has only 5 items so far, but I'll keep adding them. Check it out if you want. Here is the most recent item I've listed at Etsy, title "Waitress Saving Spilled Coffee". I'm on a series right now with the "EAT" thing. Could it have anything to do with the economy? www.maryshelleyfolkart.com.

Waitress with Eat Sign, Final Version?

I got one comment on the frame color and it reflected my own thoughts, that the frame color was too blue in an earlier version, so I've darkened it with Paynes Grey. Now I think this American folk art picture is complete. Sometimes I think a picture is done and it's done. At other times I think it's done and after I look at it for a while I have to make changes. What's nice about this waitress and diner picture is you can see that the wood is carved, especially in the frame of the piece. Like many of the people in my work the waitress is leaning slightly off balance.

Waitress with EAT sign, Complete.

Here the waitress picture is complete. I added more yellows and whites, and dark outlining. See how much better it looks with the people having eyes. The frame painted blue also helps. The word "EAT" and my signature crisp things up. I may still play more with the frame, not sure I want it so blue. What do you think, reader. Do you like the frame blue? I welcome your comments.

The waitress is the center of all this, the rock that holds it all together. She's sort of floating, while everyone else floats as well, caught in a moment of hunger and waiting. Come on in, the diner is here to serve. www.maryshelleyfolkart.com.

Waitress with EAT sign, in process #6

The colors keep getting richer as I add darks and lights. This version is warmer than the earlier one. I did it put putting on a whole bunch of thinned down warm brown, a sienna with some mars orange, putting it on really fast then wiping it off really fast, like an acrylic stain.

The artisan show I went to last weekend was good not just for me but for most of the vendors. That's a good thing.

www.maryshelleyfolkart.com

Waitress with EAT sign, in process #5

Added a few more whites and darks, but she's still fuzzy and out of focus. Clearly more work and fleshing out still to do. The waitress is thinking about eating, and maybe I am too. I haven't had my breakfast yet this morning. Eating, we all have to eat. On the other hand, dreaming, we all have to dream. Eating and dreaming, two sides of the same coin.

I'm a bit distracted because I'm loading up my car with artwork to go to the 2009 Traditional Artisans' Preview Show, a benefit for the Bedminster (Pennsylvania) Land Conservancy. Show takes place September 12th and 13th, 2009.

Bedminster, Pa is where I grew up and this show benefits a good cause, to preserve open space and farm land from rampant development. 

Waitress with EAT Sign, in process #4

Not many painting changes here other than that I added some whites. But in doing that I realised she needed an apron so I carved that on. Usually I don't make so many changes once I start to paint, but with this piece I'm having to. www.maryshelleyfolkart.com

Waitress with Diner and Eat Sign, in process #3

She's a little further along now. The fan is painted blue to balance the windows, The ceiling is getting some shading, as is the floor. The counter is painted as well. The word "EAT" is starting to stand out. Diners are about eating, we all need to eat. It's just that simple. Eat. Eat. Eat. www.maryshelleyfolkart.com

Waitress with EAT Sign, in process #2

Here she is a little further along. After I looked at her I realised I wanted to do a bit more carving on this piece. I carved a line for her shirt sleeves, grooves in the stools, and worked on the ceiling  shapes so you are pulled down into the picture. Changed some of the colors, and most obviously put the blue in the windows. This piece is being painted at my booth at the Ithaca Farmers' Market, thus the drop cloth (for protecting my booth from paint spills) background. www.maryshelleyfolkart.com

Ok, Here's a New One, Another Waitress

This is another waitress piece early in the painting stages. The colors are still pretty drab and the picture out of focus but painting this first coat of paint helps me to see the picture better. There's a customer sitting on a stool to her right holding a cup of coffee. To her left the cook is leaning on the counter, looking in the same direction as the waitress.

I tried to find the original sketch but so far it's still unfound. If I find it I'll post it later.

My waitresses are always offering, waiting, patient and this one is no exception. Maybe she's just hamming it up while someone, perhaps me,  asks to take her photo. www.maryshelleyfolkart.com

Putting in Reds, Popping out the Shapes with Shading

She's taking a turn towards red, red hair, sienna brown red base. I'll just keep going until she looks right.