It’s been a good week !!…as I’m working on a paintings in my studio, I got a notice that my “first plunge baby sea turtle VI ” painting was sold though one of the online art galleries that represent me. So I need to package it up and ship it this coming Friday.
It is always exciting to make a sale and know that somebody is enjoying what you’ve created enough to display in their homes.
As part of the mermaid card commission that I’m working on, the client wants more diversity so I am creating mermaids and mermen of all ethnicities and body shapes. This painting was done of a plus sized mer-babe recently. The company will only be getting the digital files so the original painting is for sale. I will also be able to print custom giclees and art prints.
I am calling this mermaid “Mimi” and she is 48×30″. 
Earlier this year I landed a nice commission with a company in England producing collectible mermaid oracle cards that will sell internationally. For the last several months I’ve been working on the paintings for the cards and I’m down to the last 10. First, I have to sketch from the authors ideas and send to the agent, Publisher, marketing etc to be approved.
Sometimes this process takes a while and meanwhile the clock is ticking. I tried to do a couple paintings while my agent was on vacation without the sketch being approved first and now I have to redo. The marketing group and author added 6 additional cards last week and my deadline was stretched only by a couple weeks. Pressure to create 10 completed large paintings in 6 weeks is a bit intense to say the least. since I do have a marketing background myself I do understand how it works when there’s approvals by committees. on top of this I’m having my master bathroom rehabbed this month. Fortunately, my studio is a separate building in the back yard so I can escape the dust and construction noise. 
for over a week the main concern in my household was getting prepared for hurricane Dorian. For a while it was a category four and five and was destined to hit our coast pretty hard. My son came out from Melbourne Florida to help and to be here for the weekend. All my yard mobiles, flower baskets, yard furniture, generator primed, food and water stocked….all checked off my list.
on the good side, my husband and my son and I had a good time playing scrabble, dominoes, cooking together, and taking walks in the beach in between rains. I found that being in my studio calmed me down from being so darn antsy. …it was a week of ultra nerve-racking stress and highly creative hours in the studio. Mandatory evacuation ordered but very few friends left the island. i’m on a 20 foot oak hammock and have never had any issues with flooding.
This is my version of the famous Three Muses. Of course my muses have tails and beautiful black skin and curves. I wanted to keep the painting more expressionistic with funky patterns and broad strokes and even used some hand cut templates for the kelp.
Details show paint brush strokes and layers of stenciled paint designs.
While waiting for hurricane Dorian to hit our beaches we’ve had nearly a week to prepare. It’s very nerve-racking and since painting seems to call me down I’ve spent a lot of time painting in my studio between the hurricane prep . I have a lot of commissions to do for the mermaid oracle cards from the house of England. They’ve requested that I do some ethnic mermaids so I’ve done this Asian mermaid and also a paintings of some black mermaids
Here is one if the completed mermaid paintings. “Dorian” is 48×36″ gallery wrap. I like her white skin against the dark sea.
“Merman Strength” is a new painting that I created for the mermaid oracle cards commission. Hayhouse wanted me to paint a merman representing masculine traits and making sure the undersea world was safe.
