i like turtles.

Ever since I was little, I have genuinely loved turtles.  Being a privileged Florida girl, I was able to spend my summers at Anna Maria Island, at the time that the sea turtle eggs were hatching, and on more than one occasion was able to help in the effort to save the baby turtles when they hatched.  A quick lesson for non-beach living people, when turtles hatch they follow the moon to the sea.  Well, with modern (and quite selfish) technology and humans insistence to take over everything beautiful on this earth, the turtles now have started going towards beach house lights and headlights on car, which inevitably kills off a large amount of the beautiful Loggerhead turtle babies, an endangered species.  Luckily, the people living on the Gulf beach want to be part of the effort to protect this precious species, and now turn off all artificial lights during the nesting through the hatching period. Holding baby Loggerhead turtles in my hands started a lifelong love affair with sea turtles.  

Ok, earth-loving tree hugger rant over.  

We only have one earth, and humans are destroying it.  

Ok, now I'm done.

  There is a photo I have been obsessed with since I was in high school, which I always have wanted to blow up and put as art in my room.  Being that the photo is really tiny and being the expert (self proclaimed) photography guru I am, I know that due to the small amount of pixelation with this photo, it will come out quite grainy and not the majesty that it is.

As anyone who follows my blog (hopefully more people than just me), you should know when it comes to painting, I am really REALLY Type A and a lot of the joy of the hobby is lost with me trying to perfectly duplicate images I see (i.e. the chandelier piece), so I attempted to remedy this problem by letting Stella take over.  Aka drunk me.  Bring on da Chianti, y'all.

Let the journey of the large canvas begin (2'x3')

Now, we all know that after seeing my first Van Gogh painting in the flesh last summer in London, I fell completely head over heels for his style.  Although, Starry Night is incredible and I can appreciate that it is the piece that speaks to most people, "A Wheat field with Cypresses," took my breath away.  Apparently my favorite time period for Van Gogh  was his mental asylum stuff, reaffirming that I feel "mentally nuts," people produce the best art.    Anyways, 

I stood there just admiring the strokes, the colors, the whimsical nature of how something so seemingly plain could be captured with its true beauty.  Maybe that's another reason for my love affair with this tortured ginger... his love of nature and everyday life.  After seeing this masterpiece, I needed to not only go back, but also break a cardinal rule of art and take a photo of it.  I had to be sneaky and don't worry, I would never use a flash.  Clearly, the pictures came out wonderfully.  

In December, I was blessed enough to be able to go back to Europe and visited Amsterdam, one of the must see places for Van Gogh fanatics.  They have an incredible "My Dream," exhibition going on that uses technology to peel off layers of the pieces and show the breath taking colors that Van Gogh actually used.  This is all computer imaged, no pieces were harmed in the making of this exhibition.  I give you "A Wheat field with Cypresses," at its most radiant.

Ok, so the point of all this is that I have been wanting to employ some of Van Gogh's genius to my pieces.  To do this I needed to get to the right level of what I like to call, "Van Gogh drunk."  I did a lot of field research in this department.  I'm quite dedicated to my endeavors.  For the record, it is a thin line between inspirational zone and falling asleep in your bed, with your paint clothes on.

Looks like a smurf's vagina.  Not that I have seen one.

I also love watching, "Deadliest Catch," while painting.  Which, I know, is bizarre. 

Blending my preschool oils that dilute with water.

My little turtles!

Betsey got caught in the crossfire or my blue painting.

Sexy.

Always sacrifices to be made.  It's a process.

 

My tools.

  

Inspiration for the striations on the turtle's back.

Briefly put up, to avoid being destroyed, as I frequently host a toddler.

Painting the movement of the turtles was really where I wanted the piece to shine.  I will never stop being jealous of how graceful flying through aquamarine water looks.

Hm, which way should be considered, "up?"

I wanted to show the air bubbles, another one of my favorite things to watch in water, so instead of painting them, I used Swarovski  crystals in lime, yellow, light blue and white in 3 different sizes.  Photos of it don't do it justice, for in the sunlight, it sparkles! 

"A mermaid's view."