Now and then, I do something I find wildly entertaining. That was the case with ‘Fish on a Ferris Wheel’. It consisted of 10, 2×3 hand painted fish on a manually rotating wheel. Every tiny fish was a different color. It was a great conversation piece and spinning it was fun too!
Someone found it equally entertaining and bought it last weekend. She really loved it. It was one of those piece I hated to see go, but I’m happy it found a good home.
I continue to try to find something to produce a consistent body of work to no avail. I thought it was going to be fish, but then I digressed. Sometimes digressions are very cool!
Having said that, here are my two newest works. I really love these. Each measures 12×12 and is framed to 15×15. Seriously…can you picture these on a hard to decorate place in your home or office?
Coming soon….we are combining our Own A Debbie website with this gallery. We are currently putting this site together and will let you know when it’s up and running here. When it is, you will be able to order reprints and home decor, directly from here!
I love recycling frames, so when I came across this at an estate sale, I bought it.
Introducing the one and only, “Fish on a Ferris Wheel”.
There are a total of ten, hand painted an signed fish all in different hues. Yes. It does spin around, though I would be a little more careful with it! “Fish on a Ferris Wheel” would be a delight on your desk! If you are interested or have questions, just drop me a line using the contact form above.
You really like it, don’t you?
Sometimes I paint something I really like. This is one of those. I often mentioned that I get a lot of my frames at estate sales. This one hadn’t sold and they were tossing it. Debbie to the rescue!
I brought it home and probably looked at it for a month before deciding what I would do with it. It was likely from the 1950’s and it’s a heavy solid wood black frame. The edges are slightly scalloped and the indentations give it a 3D effect. I love doing tryptics, three separate paintings with a continuous flow. I thought that with a few modifications, it would be the perfect frame. First, it was meant to hang vertically. That didn’t work for me, so I removed the brass hanger and changed it to a horizontal plane. Then I bought three, 4×6 canvases. I thought it cried for a fish and viola! The project was finished.
Let it be your, ‘Catch of the Day’!
We don’t get fall in Florida per se. Okay. Some cities in the Panhandle get a version of autumn, but mostly it’s leaves falling off the trees. Not even pretty leaves. Just leaves.
Having said that, I created, “The First Sign of Fall”. I hope everyone enjoys it, but mostly it’s for Floridians who want to enjoy the colors without having to rake the leaves.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed painting, “The First Sign of Fall”.
A few months back, I became fascinated with an oversized coquina stone at our condo complex and Coquina” was born! This is a 12×12 acrylic on canvas. (Framed to 16×16).Please contact me using the contact form above if you are interested in purchasing this original work.
A little history:
The one above is located within our condo complex. It was one of the largest I’ve seen – It stands about 7′ tall; 5′ wide and weighs about 13,000 pounds. With a little research, I found that these stones are between 12 thousand and 2 million years old. The perfectly cylindrical holes are not man made – they are formed naturally.
A century ago, the rocks were used to make many of the old buildings you see in St. Augustine and the Sugar Mills in the Daytona Beach area. Some are still used as natural seawalls today. We were fortunate that many of the larger ones, like the one above, were saved when they excavated for homes and buildings. They make beautiful, natural sculptures.
If you are looking for a larger, fine art giclee print or things like tote bags or coffee mugs, please visit our other website at, www.OwnADebbie.com
I rarely post pieces I’m currently working on, but today I’m making an exception. I find that one of the joys of having no formal training is my willingness to try new things. If you look through the work in my gallery, you’ll see I use a lot of different techniques. On the down side, I don’t have a consistent body of work which makes agents and galleries cringe. I need the variety, especially now when I spend so much time at home. I don’t think I will ever be able to try everything I want to accomplish in my lifetime, but I will try. I actually have a file of artistic techniques I want to try and I pick and choose every time I get a whim.
Some are more challenging than others. On this one, the acrylic and polymer mix is very unforgiving. If I screw something up that I’m working on, fixing it is very problematic if not impossible. While I have used acrylic polymers in the past, I’ve done so to give something a rough surface, like you see in, “RU A Fan”? (See below) This time, I’ve decided to do a series of beach scenes. (Yes. more than one if I like the end result.) What you see above will be the background for the sand. This took me roughly four hours to complete. So far, I am happy with the direction it’s taking. At this point, it will dry for 24 hours, then I will move onto the water and sky. When the application is complete, people and things will be added. The finished, yet unnamed piece, will be a 16×20 on canvas.
So stay tuned. This project should be done in about two weeks.
I live in a condo where the grounds have a handful of these crazy sculptures. I knew they were made of Coquina, but I had no idea how they ended up here and how the perfectly formed holes and lines came into play. When they excavated to build these condos in 1990, they saved these and placed them around the property as sculptures. This painting represents the largest in my neighborhood, standing about seven feet tall. It weighs over 13,000 pounds.
These rocks have a place in Florida history. The old Florida Sugar Mills and Castillo de San Marcos, in St. Augustine are made from the solid material.
The coquina stones are between 12 thousand and 2 million years old. When they were forming, sea levels were lower, the shells and sand were exposed to rain. The acidic rainwater dissolved some of the calcium carbonate in the shells which ‘glued’ the shells and sand together. The rocks can be found along Florida’s East Coast from St Augustine to Palm Beach County.
The perfect cylindrical holes I thought were caused by the excavation. I was wrong. The holes were likely formed by rainwater eroding the rock which collected in a depression on the rock’s surface. Over time, the acidic rain dissolved some of the rock away creating a larger and larger circle with every rainfall.
Coquina is soft and easy to cut when underground, but hardens when exposed to air.
I bet you will never look at the coquina rocks in the same way
You don’t have to spend a fortune to own an original Debbie! Whether you are looking for the perfect gift or something special to sit on a shelf in your home or office, there’s a Little Debbie just waiting for you! Little Debbie’s are small original paintings, most 5×7 or smaller. All are priced under $60 and include shipping and handling in the Continental U.S. Please take a look at the Little Debbie’s at the top of this page to see some of what we have to offer. Check back often. You never know what you will find!
All of us are home bound right now and for artists, that means we paint. I’ve taken the opportunity to try some new techniques. Below are the newest items from “The Quarantine Collection”. Please note, these will not arrive in time for Mother’s Day. Larger ones will require pick up locally as shipping large objects can be challenging in these days of Covid. Price includes shipping in the continental U.S. unless otherwise marked. Please use the contact form above for more information. Hope you enjoy the show!
