Tootsie, Too

 

"Tootsie, Too"

11" x 14" acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

This one took a little longer to complete than I thought it would (isn't that always the case?)  I really enjoyed playing with this one... maybe that's why it took longer.  I could almost put myself in the place of Tootsie as she sits in bright sunlight yet she's reflected back to herself because it's too darn cold to go outside!  I yearn for spring to come.  Yesterday two of my grandchildren helped me plant broccoli and collard plants and today I picked some forsythia branches to force them to bloom inside.  My mood is so weather-affected that I know my family is wishing for warmer weather, too!

$235USD plus $9.95 S/H

Symbols of Georgia

"Symbols of Georgia"
8" x 10" acrylic on gessoed masonite

This little painting is a tribute to the Cherokee rose, state flower of Georgia. As the legend goes, when the Trail of Tears started in 1838, the mothers of the Cherokee were grieving and crying so much, they were unable to help their children survive the journey. The elders prayed for a sign that would lift the mother’s spirits to give them strength. The next day a beautiful rose began to grow where each of the mother’s tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; a gold center represents the gold taken from Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem for the seven Cherokee clans. The wild Cherokee Rose grows along the route of the Trail of Tears into eastern Oklahoma today. To me, no painting of this rose would be complete without adding the brown thrasher, the Georgia state bird and a welcomed resident of my back yard. They often build their nest very wisely among the extremely thorny tangle of Cherokee rose branches offering protection to their young.

"Symbols of Georgia" is in January's EBSQ's Flower of the Month contest. Winners are decided by member and patron voting, so please visit, see all the entries and hopefully you'll cast a vote for this offering or "Sunflowers", my previous post and also an entrant.

Sunflowers

"Sunflowers"

12"x36" overall
(3) 8"x8" detachable painted panels
acrylic on gessoed masonite

8"x8" left panel

8"x8" middle panel

8"x8" right panel

Happy New Year! Over this past weekend I finally broke my painting 'fast'! It's not that I haven't been busy in the studio, though... it is now completely cleaned up and reorganized in preparation for a very busy 2009.

This first offering for the new year is a double show entrant. It is physically up for show and sale at the Middle Georgia Art Association's juried show, "Sunflowers". The show runs Jan.16th through Feb.13th and is a really bright spot in the dead of winter.
UPDATE: This painting won Honorable Mention!

You will also find it on-line in the "Flower of the Month" show at EBSQ as the state flower of Kansas.

I opted to mount the floating panels with velcro on a separate panel of blue so that each one could be detached and hung individually if desired. Presently they are framed in an antiqued alizarin crimson frame that coordinates with the sunflower centers.