Tag Archives: Cafe Aroma Idyllwild

Mirror Image Art Banners May Appeal to Designers

Ella Fitzgerald small banner forward image

A 17 x 20-inch banner of Ella Fitzgerad, front image in process

By Marcia E. Gawecki

Banners were my way of getting around the expensive framing racket. I started with door-sized tab-topped curtains but lately, I have been working my way down to smaller sizes. to fit the market.

I was inspired by a shy and attractive Ella in an early black-and-white photograph that I found online. I worked on the banner on New Year’s Eve (not wanting to go out on “Amateur Night”).

After a few hours of painting, I turned the banner over to add some tick marks. The marks help me keep track of my hours. Generally, it takes me 20-25 hours to finish a small portrait. If I go longer than that, there’s something awry!

I was surprised to see such a clear mirror image of Ella smiling back at me!

The reverse image of Ella Fitzgerald by Marcia Gawecki was sweet too!

The reverse image of Ella Fitzgerald by Marcia Gawecki was sweet too!

The reverse or mirror image looked better than the original that I had been diligently working on. It seemed a shame to paint over it, so I added some colors to the background.

All the while, I was thinking, “What would be the advantage of having two images on a banner? It would take double the amount of time, but would the effort be worth it?”

Then it hit me! The double image banner could be used as a curtain on a door with a window!

The mirror image of a large Obama banner is also "peeking" through!

The mirror image of a large Obama banner is also “peeking” through!

On my front door, there’s a portrait of President Obama that I did in 2008. However, there’s peach paint covering the back of it. Yet, next to the door, is a larger banner of another Obama banner that I did in 2012. When the sun shines, the reverse image peeks through!

Sitting in my living room, I’ve often wondered if I should paint the Obama reverse. Yet, with that large format, it would take hundreds of hours to complete. After the second election, people were more angry about the economy less interested in buying Obama images. So I don’t show that banner much, but I display it outside my Idyllwild home to show my continued commitment to the president.

After painting awhile on the Ella reverse, I decided to take a picture of the two sides and send it to an interior designer I had just met. It was an impulsive email, but I figured that I was onto something really cool for the right market.

If wouldn’t have to be images of jazz legends, but of anyone! I could create double-sided portrait banners of friends or family that people could display on their own front, back or side doors of their home or business.

These double banners could even spruce up a guest house or shed!

I might try it on the next few small banners that I do to see if there’s any interest! It would be double the amount of work, so I may have to charge more for the finished project. It might have a bigger appeal to designers who appreciate artwork that does something more than just hang on a wall!

To see the finished double-sided Ella Fitzgerald, visit the Acorn Gallery at 54750 North Circle Drive (next to Cafe Aroma) in Idyllwild. Call (951) 659-5950.

Copyright 2013 Marcia Gawecki Art. All rights reserved.

Mistints and a Messy Kitchen

Jazz guitarist Graham Dechter in process on my kitchen floor in Idyllwild.

Jazz guitarist Graham Dechter in process on my kitchen floor in Idyllwild.

By Marcia E. Gawecki

During the holidays, most people will admit they have messy kitchens. There’s dishes in the sink, pans left on the stove, and tabletops not wiped down. There might even be a rolling pin or food processor left out from baking pies or pesto. As an artist, I have them all beat.

My kitchen is a mine field.

There’s a large canvas tarp spread across the 15 x 15-foot floor. It’s just a formality because paint is splattered everywhere. There’s not one defining color, and it’s not pretty.

Paint cans, brushes, rags and spaghetti jars filled with water and brushes line my path from the computer to the kitchen sink. At least once a week, I trip over the water jar, sending brushes and water all over the floor. My cats scurry out of the way as I sop it up with rags, towels, bras or anything handy, cursing all the while.

In the mountains above Palm Springs where I live, things don’t dry easily. So I have to wait on my door-sized canvases to dry.

It’s actually gotten better from the days when I would knock over entire cans of paint secured with tippy metal lids. I’ve ruined many favorite clothes trying to get out of the way.

I like mistints from Home Depot, you know, the kind of paint that’s been marked down to $8 a gallon because it wasn’t the right shade of pink, blue or green, and the buyer probably had a snit.

I’ve always wanted to ask the paint clerk about the backstory of why the person refused an entire gallon of paint. Such a waste! But I’m just so happy to have these great finds, that I don’t want to get anyone mad again.

I’d buy up all of the mistints I could afford, but then there were days there was only odd grays and creams left. I’d be like a junkie returning to Home Depot every few days looking to score a green or maybe a bright orange.

Then I discovered paint samples. Those are the small plastic cannisters of paint that look like butter tubs. Most people buy them to try out on their living room, bedroom or kitchen walls. If the sample color looks good, then they’ll go ahead buy a couple of gallons of the same shade. It’s a no-stress way of buying paint because Behr (brand) samples cost less than $3.

When the weather is nice, I paint on my back deck, like this one of Ella Fitzgerald.

When the weather is nice, I paint on my back deck, like this one of Ella Fitzgerald.

I prefer Behr paint because it is Made in the USA, in Santa Ana, California. It makes me feel good knowing that my small paint purchases are helping to save American jobs. I also like Behr paint because it’s top quality, and usually comes with primer built in. So you don’t have to spend so much of it covering your canvases.

The only downside to buying Behr paint samples is that Home Depot may be on to me. When I show up at the counter with five color swatches, and ask for five samples, it must register that I’m not painting all the walls in my house a different color. So far, they haven’t grumbled because it’s work. They have to go to the same trouble as mixing a gallon of paint– for a fraction of the cost.

And they know that I’m not coming back tomorrow to buy a couple of gallons.

Some friends of mine think that buying acrylic house paint is cheap, or less quality. Yep, it probably is. But I figured if it’s good enough to put on the outside or inside of your house and last several years, then it’s good enough to put on my paintings.

Besides, I need large quantities of acrylic paint to cover my door-sized banners. And Jackson Pollock used common house paint in his splatter-paint masterpieces.

Mainly, it’s a matter of economics. You may recall that I am the artist without a studio who sacrificed my kitchen floor. Do you think I have enough money to pay for acrylic paint at $30 a jar?

I’m just trying to find a way to continue painting without having to give it up and just be another bill-paying slob.

Banner of Barnaby Finch in process. The bigger the banner, the bigger the mess.

Banner of Barnaby Finch in process. The bigger the banner, the bigger the mess.

The only people who I allow over these days are my friends. I just can’t stand to see the horror on their faces. One time, a friend came over for a walk, but brought another friend. I mentioned in the walk that I had “sacrificed” my kitchen floor to paint. After the walk, she wanted to see it. I was giddy from all that exercise, so I said OK.

I won’t mention her name because she didn’t have a good reaction. She just stared like I had spread chicken guts all over the floor and left.

It made me feel weird and judged for my lack of tidiness. If I could manage to paint somewhere else in my house, believe me, I would. But for now, it’s all I’ve got.

The only ones who probably wouldn’t judge me would be LA graffiti or street artists. I met a few of them when I wrote an article about them showing at a gallery in Palm Springs. They had videos on their web sites that showed them wading through paper and canvases in their living rooms. They would use spray paint paint that would go everywhere!

It was so wonderful! I felt like I found my long lost brothers!

In the midst of the mess, they’d tack inspirational messages to the wall from other well-known artists like Picasso.

“While other people are talking, I’m doing art,” was the Picasso quote.

LA graffiti artists are probably the only ones who wouldn't judge me. Frankenstein's monster by Marcia Gawecki

LA graffiti artists are probably the only ones who wouldn’t judge me. Frankenstein’s monster by Marcia Gawecki

These guys are amazing artists who can paint anywhere, on a building, a wall or on a grand piano. They create beauty and precision with spray cans of paint. The ones I met have clothing designers and international beer brands courting them.

But there was a time when they couldn’t pay their rent. However, they probably never worried about what others thought of their work space where they also happened to live.

So really it’s a matter of perspective. I could tell people that I have a studio space, that also doubles as a kitchen.

Copyright 2013 Marcia Gawecki Art. All rights reserved.

A Long Road to Pop Art Peggy Rose

My mother in Pop Art colors!

My mother in Pop Art colors!

By Marcia Gawecki

For my mother’s birthday party on Oct. 6, I decided to create a Pop Art invitation. I didn’t tell her beforehand.

I was kind of giddy, painting my mother in bright colors. It seemed almost dangerous. Like painting a Catholic nun with pink hair.

Then over the next several weeks, Peggy’s portrait went through a distubingly “ugly” phase. Her hair was pink, then yellow, then mint green. Nothing seemed to look right!

Then I added too many colors to her face and neck, making her look Surrealistic. You know, babies and old ladies should not be painted in a Surrealistic style. I just makes them look freaky. Not the vibe I was going for!

During the weeks that I worked on Peggy’s portrait, I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working out. In deperation, I’d take a picture to get a perspective. They’d always look too bright or too “muddy.”

I was beginning to think that, after 20 years of painting, I was incapable of painting my mother’s portrait!

Peggy's portrait went through a multitude of color combinations

Peggy’s portrait went through a multitude of color combinations

Then I remembered my childhood.

You see, I come from a family of artists, writers and teachers. But my mother doesn’t really understand art. She’s a retired nurse and very practical. She raised seven children, practially alone after her divorce. She’s tough, but really shouldn’t be giving artistic advice.

It can be devestating.

My brother, Mark, who is a product designer, is a true artist. He creates sculptures, paintings, and photographs that would make you cry. He really has an artist’s eye. Yet, for his entire life, Peggy would nearly send him into a rage.

“What’s it supposed to be?” she’d ask, thinking of dishware.

“It’s a reclining woman,” he’d say, staring down at the mermaid-looking aqua-tinted sculpture.

“But where are we going to put it?” she’d ask.

What she should have done was congratulate him on finishing the piece, that took nearly 80 hours to complete. Then she should have encouraged him to create more pieces, thereby raising another artist to grace this world.

Instead, she would always say the wrong thing, setting my brother off in a mad rage.

I would console him, warning him not to ask for approval.

“She’s only going to make you mad,” I would say, sounding more like a counselor than a sister. “You’re not going to get what you need from her, so skip it!”

My mother paid for my painting lessons from age 9 to 11 years old, which was an extravagance for our middle-class military family. Yet, it was a lifeline for me as a shy adolescent.

Yet, after every finished piece, my mother would always make me add green paint “so they’d match the couch.”

“But I already signed it,” I would protest. “You can’t change a painting once it’s been signed!”
We both knew that was baloney. I never wanted to add green to match the couch. It was a matter of integrity. What would my teacher say? “Spineless” would probably be a word that would come to mind. In the end, Peggy paid the art bills, and had a stronger will than me.

My paintings always matched our couch.

Photo of Peggy that inspired the portrait

Photo of Peggy that inspired the portrait

It took me nearly two months to complete the small birthday portrait of my mother, about one month longer than it should have.

I was thinking too much, maybe worrying about her response. It reminded me of the time that I was working on a portrait of a baby. It was a commission from my manager at work.

But then she started being difficult. Nothing that I produced pleased her. Then I would come home and paint, not realizing that her son was starting looking demonic!

I had to shelve the painting until things improved.

That’s when I realized that there’s a strong correlation between an artist and her subject.  I was putting too much pressure on myself to paint the mother who meant so much to me. She was both mother and father growing up, smart but not savvy, often critical and always practical, but not very emotional. Like my brother, I was the exact oppositeI don’t know how a brood of artists came from her!

“Pretend it’s for another client,” my friend suggested. “Don’t think of her as your mother, but just as another commission that you need to finish.”

It sounded like good advice, but impossible to disassociate myself from the woman who gave me life.

The final invite with sticker

The final invite with sticker

In the end, it was the squawking of relatives that made me finish Peggy’s portrait.

“Her party is only weeks away, where’s the invitation?” my aunt asked, clearly annoyed.

When I finally told Peggy that I was creating an original painting for her invitation, she wasn’t impressed.

“Oh, that’s ridiculous to spend so much time on an invitation! I can just pick some invitations at Walgreen’s!”

A Poltergeist voice came out of me.

“Don’t you dare pick up some Hallmark invitations! I’ve been working on this portrait for two months now!”

She relented.

Printing a full-color invitation was costly, about $2 each for 15. Everyone, including my friend, thought it was ridiculous to spend so much money on an invitation. In the end, I got the date wrong, and Peggy had to buy a sticker to cover it.

It was the ultimate embarassment!

“Did anyone say they liked the invitation?” I asked.

“Yes, everyone said that it’s certainly bright!” she exclaimed.

Bright is different than good. It had to be good.

At the party, I’m tempted to ask her friends what they thought of the invitation. Yet, it’s not going to be what I’m looking for.

An artist once told me that you should not look for approval from others. Even if no one likes your portrait, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you do.

Yep, it’s just an 80th birthday invitation, but I’ve put a lifetime into it.

Marcia Gawecki shows her Pop Art Portraits at Acorn Gallery in Idyllwild.

Copyright 2013 Marcia Gawecki Art. All rights reserved.