Face Planters

FACE PLANTER

“SHE WHO SURROUNDS HERSELF IN BEAUTY”

Here she is surrounded by a garden of zinnias

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve always said that materialism and spiritualism can mean the same thing. The wonderful fountain that plays a background melody in my garden and allows me to meditate upon life, the flowers that adorn every corner of the grounds at Woodloft (my home), the rock walls that hold the soil at bay and the sculptures that beautify each walkway, all play a part in spiritualism. Yet, they were made at a price or purchased. Where do we draw the line between those two words? Materialism/spiritualism?

Full view

Here is the poem I wrote for her:

“She Who Surrounds Herself in Beauty”

……Brings all of nature’s bounty to her abode. She calls upon the earth, the mountains and the ocean to share with her their abundance. She takes no more than she is offered for she knows that life gives what is needed. She has hand crafted everything in her possession or has received as a gift those items that were carefully and with love created…therein her life is made sacred..by all these things.

~Cheryl Dolby~

Another close-up

The planter I have named, “She Who Surrounds Herself in Beauty,” reflects my feelings on this subject. I used lots of gold, bronze and silver to adorn her. She sits quietly in the garden and adds a feeling of atmosphere to her quiet surroundings. We will be creating a planter similar to this one at my residential sculpture class this summer. I am accepting 5 students and have 2 openings left. You can read all about it here.

At an angle-side view

She is 12” high and 5” wide. I used stoneware clay and fired her at a very high temperature so that she can remain outside all summer long and can be watered without fear because I used Aquarium glue which is the same glue I used on my art car b-dazle I know this glue works!

I’ve just listed her on e-bay. You can check her out there and e-mail me if you’d like to purchase her. She is $85.00. I take all credit cards, checks and Paypal. I am happy to ship internationally as well.

Thanks so much.

ANGEL OF SACRIFICE

ANGEL OF SACRIFICE

Angel of Sacrifice Oil Collage

Sold. Thank you Dawn!

ANGEL OF SACRIFICE

Silently,

She lies cocooned beneath the gossamer wings of her guardian angel.

She does not move, for fear her angel will leave her
Alone
To face the universe of memories
That abide in her mind.

Unrequested,

the angel came with strength, wisdom, love and a promise to lift her sorrow.

Luminescent prisms flow in the distance
Becoming brighter and clearer as she travels.

Seeds of light burst round her in an
Unwavering fashion. Her angel by her side, they transcend toward a presence brilliant and familiar.

She is teased with leaving behind the heaviness of her life and escaping to a place of peace.

But…knowing in her heart that it is not the time…for there is much more love to give before she can go home again…

She returns.

~Cheryl Dolby~

I think the antique frame came from Mexico

An old almanac that I had stashed away in my studio was the inspiration for this angel collage. I love to read measurements and usages from these old tomes. This one in particular has details of herbs used in the early 1900’s. I used it for the background and added crackle glaze to it. I painted her face using the Renaissance Oil method and made her three dimensional halo using the technique I learned while taking a fresco class in Italy a few years back.

Close-up of almanac and crackle glaze

Close-up of halo I learned to make while in Italy

I have used my Angel of Sacrifice story with many of my sculptures and paintings. It has special meaning to me and I think it speaks of many women.

I have priced "Angel" at $325. She is 17x 21". If you are interested in purchasing her, please e-mail me and we can go from there. I take all major credit cards and Paypal. You can also purchase her on ebay by clicking here. This is my first listing on e-bay. Wish me luck! Thanks so much!

FRIDA ART BOXES

FRIDA ART BOXES

A TALE OF TWO RECYCLED ART BOXES

Recycled Frida Art Box

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed recycling just about anything. I especially like to recycle discarded pieces and turn them into works of art. When I found two cigar boxes recently, the shapes basically dictated their use to me.

The first box is about 1” deep, which is a rare find. I knew I wanted to use my Frida digital image to create a box in which to keep art pencils or pens.

Quilted interior of box

Can you guess what I used for the clasp on the lid?

I just knew this old opener would work it’s way into my art..Of course, if things get tough, you can always use it to open a beer!

For the inside, I used a discarded quilt jacket. It is so pizzazzy and goes well with the bright colors of the box.

Quilted interior and another image from my Frida Original Oil Collage

For the feet, I used 4 wooden pieces that I found at a flea market some time ago. I have several more and now I know they make a perfect flat base for a box.

Bright yellow wooden feet

Close-up of flowers that have applied with encaustic wax

My Frida Art Box is for sale for $42.00. It is 2" D x 8 1/2" W x 9" H. Art pencils are not included.

The second box I found really gave me inspiration. I love the chunky square shape. To me, it looked like a sewing accessory box.

I was going to add a clay bas-relief of Frida but decided to experiment with canvas. This experiment has given me all sorts of ideas of other ways to use the canvas. My method was to make a digital print of Frida on canvas paper. I then painted over the picture with oil paint. This gave the print a very soft, rich look. It almost reminds me of cross stitch fabric. I used the print on the recessed front along with small glass tiles.

Frida Sewing Box

I used a fabric I had leftover from another art project to the inside and added quilt batting to the top so that needles can be stored there.

Floral fabric inside of box

View of side of the box

My Frida Sewing Box is for sale for $38.00 and is 2 1/2 " H by 5 1/2 square.

If anyone is interested in either of these art boxes, please just e-mail me and we can go from there. I take all credit cards, paypal, or checks. Thanks so much.

RENAISSANCE OIL COLLAGE-GENTLE SPIRIT

GENTLE SPIRIT

Gentle Spirit Renaissance Oil collage

Spring has inspired me to create an oil collage of a young woman who looks a bit like a fairy or wood nymph. At first I was going to name her “Elfin”, which seemed to fit her but then I decided on Gentle Spirit, from my book “She Who Whispers.” She is highly textured with flowers from my garden and a crackled effect. She definitely has the look of one "not yet injured by life."

GENTLE SPIRIT

The seed pod opened-a woman child emerged. She was not yet complete…still in the process of becoming finished. She was innocent, having the quality of one who has not yet been injured by life. No soul searching, no vision quest. She was just content to be here and to be a living part of the great mother earth.

~Cheryl Dolby~

I placed flowers along the edge of the painting

I used encaustic wax to attach and preserve these flowers, which are from my garden here at Woodloft.

I was very pleased with the large crackle effect.

Gentle Spirit is 18x24” and priced at $290. Shipping is included to anywhere in the continental USA. I accept checks, MC, Visa, Discover and American Express or paypal. I can also send to anywhere in the world and will be happy to give you a shipping price to your country. Please click on my e-mail to make arrangements for sale. Alternately, you can view Gentle Spirit on my Etsy shop for more details by clicking here.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach

Renaissance Oil Collage of Johann Sebastian Bach

What a surprise! After studying Bach on Google, I discovered that he was a numerologist. I learned that his fugues and cannons are mathematical in nature and that he even played games with his music. A sheet of his music can be turned upside down and be completely unchanged! He was obsessed with the number 14 and wore only jackets with that number of buttons. In numerology, which I still don’t know a lot about, the name Bach supposedly is equated to these numbers:

B=2

A=1

C=3

H=8

Added together, they total 14. JSBach= 41 I created his musical signature and placed it on his sleeve shown below.

Musical signature Bach used on his compositions

Number 14 and mirror number 41, were Bach’s favorites. I decided to add that signature to my painting along with showing the 14 buttons on his jacket. I also added a complex mathematical symbol with the numbers and musical notes most often found in his compositions.

Mathematical symbols I used to depict his genius

Fourteen buttons on his coat-I placed a small image of Bach in the center of each

Here are a few basics on Bach’s life. He was born in Germany in 1885 and lived to be 65 years old. He was a virtuoso organist and composer and has been hailed as a genius whose work represents the peak of the Baroque era. He was taught to play the harpsichord and violin by his father. Bach married twice with a total of 20 children, many of whom became famous musicians in their own right. Bach’s numerological symbols still amaze musicians today and many consider him to be the greatest composer of all times.

I have now finished 3 of the 5 composers I plan to do. Next is Chopin.

Thanks everyone for your most appreciated comments on what has been for me a real stretch in my artistic endeavors!

FRIDA KAHLO "GYPSY WOMAN " CLOAK HANGERS

FRIDA "GYPSY WOMAN" CLOAK HANGERS

Frida "gypsy woman" cloak hangers

Since I’m suffering from Frida mania right now, I’ll be posting items as I finish creating them. I Just completed 3 Frida “Gypsy Woman” cloak hangers. If you’d like to see details of how I created them, please click here. I will sell two of them and keep the third one to place in the closet of the Tuscany Suite so that my students can enjoy it during the August sculpture class

Number 1 - I used antique lace doilies, canvas and digital image of my Frida

Back of number 1

Number 2 - I used digital flowers from my garden, canvas and oil paint

Back of number 2

Number 3-created with cloth and lace

Back of number 3

If you are interested in purchasing one of my cloak hangers, please e –mail me and we can go from there. I have priced them at $38.00. I’ll be glad to stop by the post office and get a shipping price for you to your particular oountry or state. Thanks so much.

FRIDA KAHLO!

FRIDA!

FRIDA MANIA!

Frida Kahlo Rivera-mixed media original oil collage

Mexican icon, Frida Kahlo, has been represented throughout the years in many different mediums. I never really thought too much about her until a few years ago when I had the pleasure of taking a tour of Mexico. While in Mexico City, I visited the museum of Diego Rivera. It was there that I became attracted to the busy look of his fabulous paintings. Frida attended the renowned National Preparatory School where she met Diago. He was painting a mural in the lecture hall. They later married only to have an on again off again marriage. I started to study their lives and now I see what all the fury concerning Frida is about.

Close-up

Diego Rivera's mural in Mexico City, Mexico

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo was born in 1907 in Mexico City. She contracted polio as a child and walked with a limp because of the damage to her leg and foot. As luck would have it, she was forced to leave her study of medicine to begin painting after a terrible street car accident immobilized her. Being forced to remain in bed in excruciating pain for long periods at a time, she chose to explore the world of art and became quite famous.

Frieda is richly decorated in vibrant oil color and embellishments

In creating my own Frida oil painted collage, I decided to vicariously put myself in her shoes, pick up her palatte and see through her eyes as I painted. I chose to create a painting in the fashion she would have used. She said when interviewed, “I paint myself because it I know myself better than anyone else.” She created 143 paintings and of those 55 are self portraits.

Crackled flowers

I found an old frame at the flea market and painted it in bright Mexican looking colors. I glued digital images of flowers behind the area where I roughed in the face. I modge podged the flowers, crackled them and then oil painted several in and around the crackles to create depth. I then finished painting her face, neck and dress in oils.

Wooden palette

I was given a beautiful palette for Mother’s Day last year, but after taking an oil painting class, I found that it is much more cost-effective and much easier to use the disposable palettes. I decided to use my wooden palette as a focal point in the painting. I hand wrote two of Frida's quoted sayings in Spanish. I also added two paint brushes that were my father, James Galloway’s. He was a well known landscape artist. I inherited all of his art materials when he passed away several years ago. Some of the brushes were dried out and I wanted to put them to good use.

>

Beautiful painting found at resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Another busy but beautiful painting

I wanted the painting to look very much like one Frida would have created of herself. I was also influenced by two paintings in the hotel where I stayed in Playa Del Carmen this past winter. Yes. "Busy" is in with the old Mexican artists and mine is certainly no exception.

Finished Frida oil collage measuring 36" wide x 66" high! She's larger than she looks here.

My Frida is standing rather stoic (that is the way Frida usually painted herself,) with the bright flowers and traditional Mexican dress she most often chose to wear. The look she conveys in her paintings is of a surrealistic nature. She said. “I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

I printed her biography in Spanish and crackled it, placed it on the dress, used gesso to splash over it and little by little…she started to come to life.

She was a long time in the making but finally I can present her for show. I hope you like her. I plan to place her in my kitchen for now. I just know I’ll love the color and life she will add.

FRIDA MANIA!

Frida sculpture and oil collage shown together in my studio

I used lavish embellisments to adorn her hair and neck

Now..here is where the real Frida mania comes in. I didn’t stop at the painting. I also sculpted Frida, I created journals of her, placed her on my “gypsy woman" cloak hangers, made art paper dolls and various other Frieda items. I’ll be doing a post of them soon, but for now, here is a picture of the sculpture I created of her, which is for sale. I have priced her at $300. She is 23” tall and 12” wide. I can ship her anywhere and give you an estimate on shipping price. Please e-mail me if you are interested and we can go from there.

Another view of Frida sculpture

And yet another view

GODDESS FACE PLANTERS

GODDESS FACE PLANTERS

I have named this exotic planter "Minerva" She is the Goddess of Wisdom, Medicine and Crafts

Finally! I have finished my Goddess clay face planters and have them ready to display and sell at our local farmer's market. Sales are usually very good for the planters but this year our market is under construction and I’m not sure if we will get our usual crowds. The renovation has been planned in segments. First, our market square building will be completely revamped. This building held some really quaint shops and restaurants but the building itself is ancient and in need of some major changes. Next, our Center in the Square Museum will be renovated to include a butterfly garden, an aquarium and a roof top restaurant.

Here are some of the planters all ready for their showing this weekend

One thing about life that we can be sure of is change. Even though most of us cling to keeping things constant, change can be a good thing. It has been a struggle down on the market for all of us. Many have lost their businesses because of the construction. I will loose the gallery that I adore since it will now become divided into upscale high end shops, and I will have to either find a new gallery or hope for some big market or Etsy sales when I remove all that I have displayed there. You’ll probably be seeing a lot of my gallery work on my blog very soon.

More glitzy planters ready for the market

Back to the planters. I didn’t mean to divert because I really am excited that I have the planters ready for Saturday. This winter, (I always sculpt the planters over the winter) I threw my heart and soul into these planters. They are very different. I probably should have waited to take pictures of them in my booth where they would be in full daylight, but I was so anxious to show them that I took all shots from my studio. You will notice that some of the planters are similar to the ones I will be teaching my students to sculpt this summer in my class. If you are interested in participating, please check out my sculpture school at the top of my right hand side bar. It will be an all–inclusive, meaning I have hired a chef to cook for us and I’m including all meals and beverages (including wine of course) and room accommodations, side trips and other instructors who will visit. Of course, I will be there 24/7 teaching. I have a swimming pool for evening swims. I’m accepting 5 students and have 3 already…so there are just two spaces left. Hope you will join us on August 8th-15th.

This planter is similar to the one we will make in my sculpture class

Back to the planters…there I go again. Anyway, I sculpted my planters using stoneware clay, fired them in the kiln at a high temperature and then adorned them with all sorts of embellishments I had in my studio.

Native American planter I have titled "Nampeyo"

I’m off and running now since one of my good customers is coming over today to get the first choice of planters for the year. Dreama says she likes the ones with the pot at the top of the head. I have several of those for her to choose from. I wonder which one she will take home to live with her.

Very rustic planter that looks as though she has been dredged from the earth. I've named her "Maeve" This is a Celtic name meaning mythical queen

Wiccan earth planter titled "Azura" meaning Sky Jewel

"Algoma" A native American name meaning Valley of the Flowers

"Tania" a fairy name meaning Fairy Queen

I added a bit of silver and gold to this one

Earth Angel