7, 8, 9, and 10: “Skateland USA”, “Strawberry Fields in an Octopus’s Garden”, “Boxes and Butterflies Under a Billowy Cloud for Canvas #9”, and “Sea Turtle Café”

Lately I’ve been continuing the project I created earlier this year. It’s a painting exercise I made-up based on the old fashioned game called Twenty Questions ( also known as the “Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?” guessing game. )

The design of the painting project that I made for myself to play with is to create a themed collection of canvases that starts with referencing a fashion model from some old magazines of mine. Then, along the lines of the 20 Questions guessing game, recreate a setting or scene with that fashion model that in someway illustrates at least one element that could be classified or understood as an “animal”,  at least one element that could be classified or understood as a”vegetable”, and at least one element that could be classified or identified as a “mineral” in each painted composition. Uniquely however, unlike the 20 Questions guessing game where the objective is to narrow down one individual element as an ‘animal’, a ‘vegetable’, or a ‘mineral’, these paintings I created attempt to include all three categories in each imagined art piece.

Read about the explanation of my exercise of the 20 Questions game and find the first 6 painted canvases for this specific project I created through the following blog:

”Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox?” ~ “TV Land”, “Saturn”, “December”, and “Parrot Wallpaper”

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Below are my next painting project compositions for canvases #7, #8, #9, and #10:

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​Canvas #7: “Skateland USA”

The Mid 1970’s and the spirit of America’s Bicentennial celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence became inspiration for this piece.  

 The roller disco era of the ‘70’s gave spirit to this fashion figure that I painted sporting the colors of Americana and placed in an imagined stereotypical roller rink setting with a disco ball prop for the model’s pose. I then styled the girl with a popular hairstyle found throughout the magazines from the 1970’s and had her sport some painted red, white, and blue colors on her tube socks, shorts, jacket, and t-shirt for some clothes that were common in those days.  For the *animal(s) in my “Skateland U.S.A.” I painted some snakes. The mirror balls can cover it for the *minerals ( along with the skates and just about everything else in ‘Skateland’ ), and not to miss a *vegetable in this composition I styled the t-shirt with an iron-on transfer of an apple.
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“Skateland USA”

Canvas #8:​​ “Strawberry Fields In An Octopus’s Garden”

In review of the old magazines for this project, the name Estée Lauder evidently was big in the 1980’s as their company’s many advertisements can be found throughout the pages of the fashion periodicals from that time period.  It was from one of those many classy Estée Lauder ads that I chose a model to be a figure reference for this painting on canvas #8.
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​The photo of this model was found in an advertisement for finger nail polish I think and seemed to highlight some of her eight painted fingers and two painted thumbs. However, for my painting, I decided to fold some of her fingers over and have her hold a basket. I figured the basket can represent a “mineral” for my inclusive “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” elements.  I also figured the basket could be filled with a bundle of strawberries from my painted rolling strawberry fields making this piece plentiful in the category of fruits and “vegetables”.  In keeping in tune with my reminded “All You Need Is Love”  love of  *The Beatles* and “Strawberry Fields Forever”, I also added to the scene a homage to an “Octopus’s Garden” with figments of a floating octopus captured in the scene.

“Strawberry Fields in an Octopus’s Garden”

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​​“Boxes and Butterflies Under a Billowy Cloud for Canvas #9”

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​For canvas #9, under a billowy cloud, a fashion figure on boxes with some imagined painted butterflies finding their way through a wooden create’s handle will take care of the *minerals and *animals in this created composition. For the *vegetable category in this cloud 9 piece, I added an impressionistic background with a quick painting of something from my list of favorite things = A countryside filled with colorful wildflowers.

​“Boxes and Butterflies Under a Billowy Cloud for Canvas #9”

Canvas #10: ​“Sea Turtle Café”
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More of my favorite things like tunes and sea turtles can be found in canvas #10.  Music is something I pretty much couldn’t live without considering dance has actually always been my favorite art form, and sea turtles are a recent fascination of mine after observing them on a trip to Hawaii with my husband and our sons this past spring. We all just loved seeing the abundant sea turtles there and found them so cool and fun and completely amazing to watch especially when seemingly having the best time just riding the waves along that incredible coast of those beautiful islands.

The model in this piece with some 1960’s fashion flair was in a magazine seated in a classic diner that I recreated and transformed into what I dubbed the “Sea Turtle Café” after redesigning it as such by creating wall tiles, an etched window, and a menu all with sea turtle motifs. 

In keeping with the retro setting, I included an old fashioned portable transistor to tune into some good vibes through the radio waves and to also serve as a mineral element.

A slice of tomato and a piece of lettuce that I put on the table alongside some ketchup & mustard and maybe even the groovy daisy flower sunglasses can color the vegetables here.

​“Sea Turtle Café”

For the next painting in this series, Canvas #11, see my next blog from October of 2022:

”Fine Mined Minerals & Spooky Season”

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