I’m doing a drawing on November 15th    Two winners - two prizes. 

My new Virgin Island Chart (in color) is finally complete and coming on line this week, so I'm celebrating!

You can WIN your favorite Fine Art Giclee Print from my print shop, 

or your favorite T-shirt from my gift shop. (two links below)

All you have to do to enter, is tell me (e-mail) 

Your favorite print

And your favorite t-shirt (include the style of t-shirt and size you would select). 

If you win the drawing - for either prize - I will send your selection off to you, right away.  Your opinions will help me determine the new favorites to market for the holidays - please pass this drawing on to family or friends.  I will post the winners here.

   Latest news and ramblings… about Life and Work in the BVI.

To start, lets set the scene, it is Sunday morning, sunny and breezy and I’ve had 4 double espressos (with cream and natural sugar), I’m writing on a laptop, in sarong and swimsuit, setting on the beach - under the shade of a sea grape tree, about 12 feet from that pretty clear blue water. 

I do love my office. 

I have been so lax on writing e-mails that I have gotten the “are you still alive and painting” notes from friends.  Yep, I’m still paint splattered and alive and well.  And as some of you know, my work has taken several unexpected twists in last few months, adjusting to doing business (surviving) in the BVI. 

Unlike most smart artist - who find their local niche and stick-with-it like a clam in the mud, about the time I find what really works, I move to a new home base.  So what worked great in Belize - didn’t work in Thailand, and what worked well in Thailand - did not translate at all to the British Virgin Islands.  So my path to success, is more of an un-surveyed, overgrown, steep rocky goat trail on the edge of a sheer cliff, sorta the do or die artist method of finding the right path.  Sad but it seems that no one can tell me how to get “there."  I just stumble along, hacking the Wait-a-While vines out of the way and stumping my bleeding artistic toes, until I finally get “there”.  Never knowing exactly where “there” is…  just better than it was a ways back.

After 2 years, machete in hand, I may have found the trail, or at least a path where I can see a few feet ahead - and now I can see that I am about 180 degrees from the direction I started out. 

Murals and Mosaics

My murals and mosaics are gaining popularity again.  While living in Belize, I painted several murals and did a few mosaic bar tops and tables.  All with materials at hand, seashells, stones, broken or slumped bar-glass and discarded tile scraps from construction sites.  Well, two friends told two friends and it seems it is rolling again.  God knows - there is plenty of bar glass here and construction sites to forage through.

Currently I have small tabletops in the works, in a mix of shell and onyx, when finished they will have nice teak bases.  I’m also experimenting with decorative mosaic masks, these are very primitive and tribal, with beach shells mixed with onyx, jade and other stones.   The hanging wires are not on yet, but as soon as they are on the wall, I will post the photos here. 

This web site has been all paintings and prints.  But that was my creative direction… see what I mean by a 180.  For now, I am really enjoying the changes and challenges.

Some of my “murals” have changed too, mostly because of new technology.  I can still paint direct on location – the old fashion way, or I can create custom murals on tile, that the client's contractor installs. 

I am currently painting four silk paintings to be used for villa driveway entry signs 18” x 30”.  Villa names over a watercolor wash background.  The effect is very soft and beachy.  These four signs will be printed on the tumbled stone.  It is so cool to mix the delicate watercolor and batiks with the contrast of the rough tumbled stone tile.  See what I mean by technology.  I couldn’t have offered this a few years ago.  I send my artwork off to be shot by a professional photographer, he then sends me a digital file of the image (that I tweak in Photoshop and size it perfectly) then I send the file to a custom tile company to print and fire.  

It is just so inspiring to be able to create murals for places that I could not before (because of the limitations of the paint).  These will last, even in this tropical sun and rain.  Maybe someone will ask for a reef painting for a pool floor.   

Paintings

In the studio, I have 2 Trompe L‘oeil (French for fool the eye) oil paintings in the works.  5’x 8’ views, as if you were standing just inside an arched doorway (that is trimmed in blue and yellow tiles), one view is - looking out to the beach and sea, the other, looking out to a rainforest and a tropical garden in full bloom.  I’m really enjoying the metamorphous these two are going to go through.  The painted tiles (that I’ve designed around the edge of the doorways) are all Caribbean or Rainforest in subject - gecko, monkey, dolphin, palm tree, shell, sun, anchor - well you get the idea.  Once finished, they will be recreated on actual tile – well the entire oil painting will be available as one of my tile murals - the metamorphous I referred to. 

My dream location for these two paintings would be on opposite sides of a room or entry. Creating the illusion that you can step out the doors and into the garden or to the beach.  My dream house.

The tiles will also be available separately, to use as an accent in the area doubling the illusion.  Wall trim, kitchen back splash, molding, trim on a bench or fountain… even coasters… cannot wait to have them finished. 

 Print Shop and Gift Shop Projects

When I’m not painting or doing the mosaics, I work on my on line print shop and gift shop.  I have 6 new Giclee prints available - including my new Virgin Island Nautical Chart in the original black and white, it will also be available in a week or two in the antique colors like the Caribbean chart.  Another new print - is the Jaguar Shaman.  The Shaman has been recently ordered on tile to be installed in a home’s entry in Florida.  I will show the ‘installed image’ here as soon as I have it.

In the last 3 months, I have added around a thousand new products to my gift shop.  My favorite new designs are the ‘Discover the Maya’ or ‘Explore Belize’ using my batik Mayan Jaguar.  And - I’ve gone out on an artistic limb - publishing my cartoon artwork. 

Please be warned, if you do not drink, or you believe that cartoon mermaids should wear a little shell swimsuit top, do not visit my irreverent ‘Frog and Gecko Beach Bar’ or the ‘Nauti Mermaids’ or see the new Rum label and Jolly Rogers.  (My twisted humor, I'm just having fun. So if you looked and are offended - don't write me!  I did say, "don't look").

My favorite design in the gift shop... Hummm, I really enjoyed creating my own Rum Label “Mujeres Del Mar” the Caribbean Rum preferred by pirates! using one of my mermaids :)  and matching up an Oscar Wilde quote with my philosophical cartoon Gecko, who is leisurely floating on a raft at sea.  If you’ve been here (BVI), you may well know the place that influenced the frog and gecko bar.   

However, my favorite, is rarely the public’s favorite, so I look forward to your votes.  Thank you, for taking the time, I wish I could send you all a prize!  I will post the winners here when I draw the names on the 15th.

Time for a swim and to collect a few shells. 

I Know, hard to believe that I would ever need a day off!   "She just paints."

Cheers,

Savanna

 

 
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