Folk Art Mary

Gardening by the Lake, Curvey Path

Gardening by the Lake, Curvey Path was carved summer 2017 and painted winter 2018.

I am a gardener and love getting my hands in the dirt.

 The video below shows how I tried to do something different with this piece. I added two side wings when I ran out of space. It was one of those lucky mistakes that help me keep growing. After I completed carving the main part of the art, I realized I wanted to add a walkway but I had run out of room. So that's why I added the wings, for additional carving surface. The curvey path adds more depth and interest. Without it where would the wheelbarrow go?

 

(Note: after playing video if you want to see it again, click on the counterclockwise rewind symbol at the bottom left of the video)

 

 (Note: after playing the video andif you want to see it again, click on the counterclockwise rewind symbol on the bottom left side of the video and it will reset.)

Below, a picture of the back of the piece showing the added on (right and left boards) "side wings". You can see from this picture that I have once again used rough cut white pine. Affixed in lower left is the small sketch out of which this piece was born.

 

Below pictures of Gardening in various stages in painting:

first coat of paint

  a number of hours into the painting:

 Getting close to the final finished version:

 

 

Pre-painting and post painting detail shots.

  

 

  

Raven Steals the Light - Commission Completed in 2017

I don't usually show pictures of my commissioned pieces online because I want the person who has ordered the piece to have the special experience of being the first one to see it. And then, after the person gets the piece and is happy with it, I am on to new projects.

 

Fall of 2016 I got an email where a wife directed me as follows:

"I would like to commission a piece from you for [my husband's] upcoming birthday. Don’t panic — I know you would not be able to finish the piece by then, but I am hoping we could at least have a sketch by then. I could then present him with the sketch (or a copy) so he would know it is coming. This is a surprise for him, but it is something I know he really wants: We have been talking about having you do this for a while. So I am now taking the opportunity to act on it. It is a ‘big’ birthday for him.

  I would like the piece (to be entitled Raven Steals the Light) to reflect imagery from the Northwest American and Canadian Indian folklore of how Raven stole the light and then gave it to the earth... I was thinking the piece would contain a large raven holding the sun in his beak, but with the moon and stars dispersed across the sky - lots of stars. Either copper or the metal ‘studs’ you have been using. Or a combination. Whatever feels right to you. In my mind, I see the Raven in flight, but if you come up with a different idea, go for it. My only other request is that you incorporate our two dogs into the piece - looking up at the Raven? They do not have to be big, just in the imagery. One is a yellow lab - named Hawk- and the other is a black lab - named…you may have guessed this…Raven. Thus, the piece is in part an homage to [my husband's] ‘favorite black dog’. We were both also taken with the tale and imagery when we first heard the story, many years back."

 

I do not take on every commission but this one interested me in that it was about people and animals in nature. The subject matter fit right in with a number of pieces I was already doing or thinking of doing in that vein. Raven is special to me too - since I have made a number of trips to Utah and have been serenaded by ravens for hours throughout my walks there. I most like commissions when they are not an interruption of my natural flow as an artist. Commissions are best when they push me to learn something new about subject matter that is already of interest to me.  And so I took this project on. It became a very major piece, quite large. So large in fact that I had difficulty photographing it in my small studio set up. Instead I had to set up a special area of my house to take these photos. 

 

This is the initial sketch, there were several that followed but this provided the germ of the idea that I proposed.

 

Followed by the final finished piece:

 

 As it turned out, when I delivered the artwork I realized I had made a mistake. One of the dogs was supposed to be a golden lab and the other a black lab. I took the piece back and repainted this small but important detail. Unfortunately the above and below photos do not reflect this change.

 

 

 

other detail shots

 detail shot right to left

 detail show left to right

 

 

Guy and Crow Energy

Over the years I have carved many images that use a wind swirl to create movement. In recent months I find these swirls just keep coming out when I put my pen to paper.

In Crow and Guy Energy, the wind swirl shows energy. I wonder, is the guy being pushed away or pulled by the wind?

 

I used a button and pieces of abalone in making this piece. Crows love shiny things.

 

Another close up picture, this one featuring the guy.

 

Crow and Guy Energy, under all the paint there is a wood carving.

 

Amish Farmer Harnessing Horses - DONE!

After showing the nitty-gritty details of what went into the making of Amish Farmer Harnessing Horses, here it is complete.

 

 

Musical Livingroom Close up Photos

Below are before and after photos showing various close up views of Musical Livingroom. Look for my earlier blog posting to see the piece finished.

 

 

 

 

 

instagram: #folkartmary

folk art mary

Sheep Icon 23, Improvements to the Original piece

Leave a piece of my artwork with me long enough and sometimes I am compelled to make improvements to the original piece!

Sheep Icon 23 was an experiment for me in that I left a natural pine background in part of the piece. I am wondering whether people like this and am always appreciative for your comments, either here at this blog or at Facebook.

 

I finished the carved painting a few months ago but I kept looking at it, bothered. The natural wood background of the piece seemed a little too plain. I wondered if it still needed something else. Once I added a few salvaged upholstery tacks - voila! it felt complete.

 

 

Above, the final (for now) version of Sheep Icon #23. $450.00. 10.75" x 13" x 2"

Please feel free to make an appointment to visit my studio in this gift giving time of the year! Buy using an individualized installment plan! Winter is when I take orders for commissions!

self taught folk art mary

My Picture in The Syracuse Post Standard

As I did my usual demonstration carving routine at the Syracuse Plowshares Crafts fair, I got my picture published in the Syracuse Post Standard.

While at the show I worked on a commissioned picture of a Chesapeak Bay scene. There is a dock at the center, with lots of wind swirls in the sky:

 

 

Just in case you cannot tell what is happening in this carving, here is a copy of the sketch that I am working from:

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Lindsay Gallery Takes my Work to the SOFA 20 Chicago Show, In Two Days.

If you are in the area, check out the SOFA 20 Chicago Show, October 31st to November 3rd, 2013. Duff Linday of the Lindsay Gallery will have a booth with my work and that of a number of other artists, including Bill Miller, Harry Underwood and Joey Monsoon. The Lindsay Gallery specializes in self taught, outsider and folk art. Thanks for taking my work to this show Duff!

Bill Miller

Harry Underwood

Joey Monsoon

 

Mary Shelley

folk art Mary

Come to Pennsylvania Craftshow, Bedminster Land Conservancy.

I wanted to send a link to my latest email newsletter. If you decide you want to get these email updates (I only send 8 maximum per year) here is the link to subscribe.

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Drawing - Cats in a Bunch

This drawing is called Cats in a Bunch. When the heck are you going to feed us.

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Sailing Icon 17 - Deeper, Richer, Crisper

The colors are coming along on this Sailing Icon 17. Just a few more things I have to do to make this one really "pop".

 
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Home Sweet Home Carving

Since I've been gone from this blog for so long, I thought I might show you what I've been up to. Here's one of the smaller carved wooden folk art pieces I've been working on this summer. This one, obviously, is called "Home Sweet Home", size 11" x 7.75" x 2", price $425.00. I like the way this one feels in my hand, compact but solid.

 
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First Coat of Paint

Before I start to paint I look at the piece and imagine the FEELING she will have when done.  Basically by this point she has a life of her own, and I’m only trying to capture it. This one is a really warm and welcoming gal, a sister to the waitress who welcomes you to my website.

Once having gotten the FEELING of this gal, I grab my most ratty paint brushes and set out on the first coat of paint.  I paint the whole piece one color at first, usually something warm or neutral. This first coat of paint acts both to seal the wood and also to unify the piece.

In order to seal the wood, I literally have to scrub or force the paint into all of the exposed carved edges. The point is to seal her against moisture getting in, especially into the end grain of the wood which, unsealed, would act like an open straw to suck in moisture from the air. I push, scrub and force the paint in. So that’s why I use my ratty brushes first. 

Once the piece is all painted one color the shapes are easier for me to see and paint. Another benefit of one base color is that later, when I paint other colors on top, some of the first layer of paint will remain and glow out behind the top colors, unifying the piece.

Done with Carving, Next Stage is Painting

The base is on, here she is, looking serene on my workbench, holding her plate of fried eggs. Her eyeballs haven't been carved on yet, and that bothers me, looking at her. But other than that, and a little bit of cleaning up around her edges, she's just waiting to get her dressing up of paint. I like the way the cups and saucers, forks and spoons, surround her, support her and direct you to her. She fits right in my my sisterhood of other waitresses carved in wood.

Itching to get back to my studio

I'm just itching to get back to my folk art studio. It's a busy time of the year - tonight I was watering my garden, planting a pear tree, seeing a cat bird making its mews ten feet away, picnicking for dinner out by Cayuga Lake.  It all takes me out of my studio but then on the other hand I love my garden as well.

As far as the artwork goes, I'm in the middle of a number of pieces all in different stages of being done, the farm piece that I talked about in earlier blogs, and several little pieces of sheep. Here's a sheep carving that I just sold through a show at the Duff Lindsay Gallery.

This one was an experiment. The part of it that's behind the sheep is shellacked natural wood. The rest of the piece is painted with acrylic paints.  I used butternut for this one, different in that I usually use white pine. I thought, if I was going to leave the finish natural, that butternut was a prettier wood than white pine.