FairyTale : A True Story

While lazing about one Saturday afternoon I happened upon a movie about faeries. It's called FairyTale: A True Story. It's about two girls who reportedly take photographs of fairies near their home. In truth the older teenage girl is a talented artist and painted and cut out her fairies and set them up using hat pins. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (who wrote Sherlock Holmes,) believed the photos to be real. Click here to read more about the story and see more photographs. Click here to see the details of the film. I highly recommend it! It is very heart warming. Being a great fan of faeries,  I was thinking I might try to paint from the famous photo. I don't know if anyone has already or not.

Photography

My friend Christen Robinson who owns Gallery One here in Portland wanted me to put together some of my photography for her. I was able to get two together so far. 

This first one is an iron ring. These can be found all over Portland on older sidewalks. This one was outside of Jakes Famous Crawfish. They were put there to tie up horses to. Now people lock their bikes up to them. I purposely cropped the photo to a rectangle so I could mat it horizontally on a 11 x14, black mat. I also boosted the color in iPhoto. It's a simple effect that can add a lot. I really like the way it came out.

This next one I took in China town. The dragon was in a store window. I brought it up into Gimp and air brushed a few distractions with black and then added the light and shadow. I'm just learning these tools. So this was fun for me!

Launch Pad Gallery - Dreams Show

Well the show went really well. There were about 300 people there while we were there. My painting hasn't sold yet but it's still up for the month so who knows? My hubby and I went in today to see the installation without all the people milling around. There are some really great things in this show! I met the gallery owner again, Ben Pink, and he is really great, very encouraging. He thought my faeries were very soft. I think that's what makes them a little different than other faerie art because I often find faeries that are overly sexy and somewhat cartoonish. I'm trying to hit somewhere between fantasy and reality. 

I just sold a set of five cards on ETSy to a lady in Ireland. IT's my first sale on ETSY.  I was about to give up on them too! I'm very excited about this one!

My friend with the hole in the wall gallery, Gallery One is putting together a gift shop from now until Christmas so I'll have a place to put my work for a couple of months. ( I really need to make her a web site!)

In the future I am going to try and participate in more group shows. The Launch Pad is having a huge one in February with a love theme. The theme's are fun because they challenge me to think of something unique. There is one coming up where people are painting on refrigerators with the theme of hunger. I have some ideas about hunger, but I've never really painted with anything but watercolor and that won't stick! I'll keep you posted on that one!

Tonight's the Night

Well, tonight is first Friday here in Portland. Last night, First Thursday, all of the fine art galleries in SW Portland opened their doors for a city wide open house. Tonight, SE Portland which has a much younger crowd and alternative edgy galleries opens their doors. This also includes the Alberta Street extravaganza where they block off the street and artists and street vendors sell their wares in an ad-hoc type of arrangement. Anyway, I am showing my Faerie Dreams painting at the Launch Pad Gallery in SE and they are having the opening tonight. I am to bring a potluck item to share and they will be selling beer and wine. It's raining here already, so my husband and I will probably don our leather coats and try to mix in with the much younger hipsters. I'll let you know how it goes.

Launch Pad Gallery - Dreams

I finally finished my painting for the Dreams Open Art Show. Here is a link to the show's information: Launch Pad Gallery. There are 100 applicants showing one painting each. I am so excited to have that many other artists see my work! I hope you like it too. This is the first big 18 X 22" painting. The paintings are all about dreams. So this is my "Faerie Dreams."

Banba

I just sold this original to a lady that saw it at my hole in the wall gallery show last month. She also bought Rhiannon and two animal prints by my brother. She said she'd buy Banba when she got paid again and I guess she meant it! It's so exciting to have people want my work in their homes, especially women who want my goddesses. I paint them because they give me strength and I hope they will do that for others who see them.

Banba is at the center of Irish Mythology as the Earth Mother, representing the spirit of Ireland, and was the wife of King MacCuill. She was thought to be the first settler in Ireland. She is part of a trinity of goddesses: she, Eriu, and Fodla. Banba is a poetic name for Ireland. Banba also protected the land from invaders. She has long been my alias and screen name on line, hence Banba's Artful Realm. I have always felt she has protected me and given me strength. I also drew her as a child.
Young Banba

Barack Is Irish!

Barack Obamba's mom was Irish.  Why does this matter? Because I am Irish, JFK was Irish, the Beatles were Irish (except Ringo), U2 are Irish, most of Austrailia and New Zealand are Irish, Van Morrison is Irish, James Joyce was Irish, George Washington was Irish, William Howard Taft was Irish, Warren G Harding was Irish, Harry S. Truman was Irish, Jimmy Carter was Irish, Gene Kelley was Irish, Henry Ford was Irish, Walt Disney was Irish, Diamond Jim Brady was Irish, Ron Howard is Irish, John Houston was Irish, Jim Carey is Irish, Michael Moore is Irish, Nellie Bly was Irish, Phil Donahue is Irish, just about all of the talking heads on Fox are Irish, Billie the Kid was Irish, Kristine Mc Auliffe was Irish, at least 23 former US presidents were Irish, most importantly, I am Irish and so is Barack Obama!

 You can find a glicee quality print of this watercolor by me, 8" x 1 0" in a 11" by 14" mat on Ebay for $30.00 or email me at: bullismaureen@yahoo.com. I'll sell you one directly for $20.00 plus $3.00 for shipping. I have a glicee quality printer ( 8 ink jets!) and cut my own mats. I like to sign my prints rather than print the signature. It's really hard to tell the prints from the originals. $2.00 from every print sold goes directly to Barack's campaign fund.

The Show was Great!

I had a great time at Macapolooza! I sold two framed prints, one matted print and two cards. I know it's not a lot but it's just so validating! It was a benefit for Boy's and Girls Aid Society. they area group who places kids for adoption and works with run away teens. They were originally founded to help find homes for orphans arriving from the wagon trains on the Oregon Trail! My sweet hubby worked for them as a mental health therapist for many years before we started our own companies. So he volunteered to work the door. It was really fun to seeing him check IDs. We got a nice gift certificate for the restaurant for that. Here's what I sold.

Tomorrow night I'll be showing my stuff at my friend's hole in the wall gallery, Gallery One Corbett. I helped her do her last show and it was basically a big party with people buying art and jewelry. We advertized by word of mouth and fliers. Iam excited to have my art included this time!

Showtime!

I am going to be showing my work on Saturday the second, at an event called Macapolooza. It's a tent party with bands and artists in the parking lot of a popular pub here in Portland. Needless to say I am very excited and of course nervous too! I am going to include some of my Celtic know work as well as my Faeries and Goddesses and my brother's animal art, (which you can check out on one of my older posts.) So here's some of my Celtic stuff:

Hippy Chick

Growing up in the bay area in the 60s, I remember all of the teenagers who flocked to Haight Ashbury in 1967 the "Summer of Love" I was eight years old. My mother threw all of us kids into our wood paneled station wagon and took us into the city to see the spectacle. She was a teacher and thought we should soak up the cultural event. I remember seeing pretty girls with long straight hair with beaded head bands on their heads. The first hippy chicks were pretty suburban girls out to party and see what was up, not the more organic version that evolved in the years after that.

That was a wild summer with the Hells Angles hanging out at the local Foster's Freeze. I can remember looking up to my older glamorous teen age sister with yard length peroxide blonde hair and home sewn jersey mini dresses and sterilized needle pierced ears. Occasionally, she'd sneak out and I'd have to hand her her clothes out the window. Sorry Mom...

Clieto from Atlantis

The story of the Isle of Atlantis was written by Plato though the story was handed down by orators that came before him. In the story, the rulers of Atlantis sought to rule over all other civilizations, but were defeated by the Athenians. Atlantis was said to be inhabited by gods and ruled by Poseidon. He took a mortal woman, Cleito for a wife. Soon other men took mortal women as their wives and no longer followed the laws of the Gods. Zeus condemned them for that and then they suffered earthquakes and floods which caused the island to sink into the sea.

 I drew Cleito in blue with sea weed and pearls to represent the sea. She was just something from my sketch book but she intrigued me, so I decided to paint her in. 

Queen Elizabeth Faerie?

This faerie looks like Queen Elizabeth, (not the modern day one,) to me. I suppose I likely would have lost my head for painting a queen as a mischievous faerie back in her time!

I have attempted to give her accessories just from nature this time, no forged metals, just leaves, vines, and feathers. Hopefully, my style will evolve into something recognizable. I am going to a watercolor class today at the Multnomah Arts Center here in Portland and am very excited!

On another note, I have been researching elves hoping to create some unique Christmas cards. It would appear that elves were considered pretty evil until the Victorians commercialized Christmas and portrayed them as helpers to Father Christmas. The Norse thought they would shoot arrows into their cows to disease them! They also seem to go back and forth from being tall to small, evil to good. None the less, it is amazing to me how many different cultures believed in elves which were seen more as Faeries in Celtic cultures. Now the Christmas Elves look kind of goofy. I'd like to change that and give them some dignity! Here's a link to one I thought was kind of sweet, but still the Elves look too much like little Santas to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
Elves Link - No artist mentioned.

Another Faerie

Another faerie from my ever growing tribe of faeries. After I painted this I realized she looked the spitting image of a friend of mine. My friend had a tough childhood literally living on the streets with her schizophrenic mother while never really knowing her father. When I met her she was twenty-six years old tending bar in a tough pub in downtown Portland. She seemed to me to be otherworldly probably due to her undoubted myriad of unique experiences I'll never begin to understand. Anyway, she is decorated with a combination of leaves and Celtic woven vines.

Banba

I became fascinated with goddesses in college while taking a women's studies course at Sonoma State University. I am an Irish American and was drawn to Banba because she is at the center of Irish Mythology as the Earth Mother, representing the spirit of Ireland, and was the wife of King MacCuill. She was thought to be the first settler in Ireland. She is part of a trinity of goddesses, she, Eriu, and Fodla. Banba is a poetic name for Ireland. Banba also protected the land from invaders. Throughout my life I have called upon her for inspiration and solace. I have drawn her many times and last night she showed up again! She is depicted with a Claddagh on her forehead. Her earing is a Celtic spiral.

The Faerie Archer

"I am the Archer and I protect the forest from those who may harm her."

Morgana

In the Arthurian Tales Morgana, Arthur's half sister is portrayed as an evil sorceress. Was she evil or did she just refuse to do the bidding of men? I gave her a fleur de lis because it was a common decoration in medieval times and the knotted pentagrams to represent her connection with magic. Though the Arthurian Tales are a part of Celtic mythology, they are believed to be from Wales.

Wood Nymph

I did buy a new Epson Perfection v500 photo scanner. So far I'm really happy with it. Here is a wood nymph I drew with pencil and then watercolored. Here's what I wrote about her after I drew her:

She looks at me from my subconscious. She's passionate yet full of trickery. She says, " I will protect you. I reside in you and have guided all of your decisions since you found me. "

I'm not sure what it means really, but what can you say about faeries?

Animal Art

My brother created these pen and ink drawings fifteen years ago. There are more in the set, I just haven't scanned them yet. I tried to photograph them but they didn't come out well so today I will buy yet another tech device, a scanner. I am starting an art card business here in Portland, so I'm going to print out the set of ten. I bought these from him years ago to put on T-shirts when I was a silk screener. I never did though. I think they'll make great cards.
Here is a cool horse that I used the camera to capture. As you can see it added pink. I did download a 30 day trial of photo shop, but am just learning how to use it.

The Goddess Amaterasu

Amaterasu, goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology, was a beautiful and compassionate goddess who ruled both the sun and the heavenly fields of rice that fed the Japanese people. I used my son's beautiful girlfriend, Yasasha, as a model because she seems so much like this goddess. Her mother who grew up on Okanawa, graciously wrote Amaterasu in calligraphy for me to paint onto her Kimono.