Upcoming Exhibition

I have been very busy preparing for an exhibition opening Saturday December 3 at the Wyatt Art Studios in Rochester New Hampshire. It is my first exhibition with them and I am very excited about it. It will be in their new back room which is small so I decided to show small works. I started with the 3 vintage-y still lives I already had which are nice and cheery and created 6 additional small paintings to accompany them which are all painted from my collection of vintage salt and pepper shakers and Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately I won't be able to go up there for the opening but I'll be there in spirit!

Squeaky Santa

Just to follow up on my  Christmas Inspiration post of a few weeks ago where I showed some of the vintage rubber and plastic christmas figures that I had collected. The most important one was Squeaky Santa which is a squeaky rubber Santa that my Mother always put out as a decoration. A few years ago my Sister re-discovered it and upon seeing it for the first time in so long I was filled with such nostalgia. I just had to do a portrait of him and show all his old fashioned, simple charm.  

Christmas Inspiration

Now that Halloween is over I am trying to psyche myself up for Christmas. Halloween is just so inspiring for me with all the dark, macabre images it brings to mind. But Christmas is supposed to be merry and bright. My work  just doesn't naturally go in that direction. So I turned to nostalgia which is always a big inspiration for me. I decided to try photographing an old squeaky Santa that my Mother used to put out for the holidays. Seeing his smiling, rubber face brings me right back to my childhood and I thought that might make an interesting portrait.  That got me looking on Ebay for more vintage squeaky Christmas items and it all went downhill from there. I am now the proud owner of a group of wierdly jolly, smiling rubber Christmas toys that are all waiting to be immortalized. I know they are a little creepy but I can't help myself, that is what makes them so appealing to me. Here is a sample of what might become a curious portrait in the next few weeks...