Skip to main content

"Hats Off"

6"x 6"
acrylic on canvas

This painting is really about my grandmother. This was one of her many hats. She always wore hats, big hats, small hats, ugly hats, and beautiful hats. You never knew which one you were going to get until she showed up to the function. Her hats were much better than her wigs, which in the seventies was probably fashionable. I remember waking up at her house as a child and trying on wigs from her wig draw. My brother, cousins, and I would take turns trying on all of her wigs before she got up in the mornings.
This is one of the many hats we found as we put her house in order. We thought it a little odd that the little lady that owned the hat boutique had come to pay her respects. But after coming across some of the elaborate hats with the equally elaborate price tags it made a lot more sense. I can naturally assume my grandmother was a loyal and constant customer. When we went through her hat boxes some of her hats had not even been worn, I guess she hadn’t found the perfect outfit to match.

Comments

Gwen Bell said…
You can always tell a Real Lady by her hat and your Grandmother sounds like she was a true Lady. "Hats Off" to her!(great title by the way)

This portrait is so wonderful, and even more so knowing the history behind it. Thank you for sharing that!

Popular posts from this blog

"In a New Light"

8"x10" acrylic on hardboard I have driven past this building for most of my life. It stood as a marker of sorts, sitting off a long stretch of road between my grandmother's house and the closest town. I really never gave much thought to the building until the last time I drove that way. Unlike all of the other times it was night. I was returning home in the middle of the night and for the first time ever, I think I actually SAW the building. I wondered what it was like in its hay day? Did it even have a hay day or was it an business that never took off? I wondered was it a cafe, restaurant, or store of some sort? Was it even functioning as a business at all or was it now just someones house? The one thing I was certain of was that it was incredible the way it was lit up and glowing on the side of a dark Texas road. SOLD

"Rose Colored Glasses"

8"x 10" acrylic on hardboard I enjoy working with portraits.  No big surprise I know.      I thought I was being adventurous with a blue background.  Blue isn't a color I would have naturally chosen for the back, I'm more of an earth tone or neutral kind of girl.  This painting taught me a lot.  I generally think in layers when I am painting.  In order to get the eyes to look correct, I had to layered values and colors like I've never done before.  The eyes have about six layers of paint and gloss medium on them.

Attitude in Paint

 11x14 acrylic on hardboard This painting was inspired by a visit my daughter and I took to the art museum, our last one before everything changed. The museum has played a significant role in my life. As a young artist, I attended programs and workshops there. Later, as a teacher, I brought my students to experience the same. I even helped many of them build portfolios to apply for the museum’s scholarship opportunities. And, of course, I brought my own kids, hoping to pass on a love for art and creativity. On this particular visit, I decided to take a grown-up step and support the museum the way it had supported me.   I purchased a yearly membership. Ironically, we never got to use the rest of the membership because... COVID. Still, we had a wonderful day. After exploring the exhibits, we capped it off with lunch at an art-themed restaurant. Although my daughter isn’t an artist herself, she has a genuine appreciation for art, which means a lot to me. At the end of o...