My stay in the historic district of Beaufort, SC produced nearly 400 photographs. Two days of autumn-like temperatures and clear, sunny skies were perfect for walking the web of tree-lined streets of this picturesque point that empties out onto the river.

A week later I returned to meet with M Designs, the store that will carry my photo encaustics, and they chose several images from my edited selection of 25 photographs that I felt would be a good match for their extradordinary Bay Street store.

Here are a couple of the images they chose. This will be just part of the collection coming to M in late October 2009!

Heading (a little) Northward!

Next week I'll be heading north to Beaufort, South Carolina for two days of photography in and around that beautiful, historic city.

Outfitted with my new camera and lenses, and a reservation at a bed and breakfast inn right in the middle of if all (a cool place to rest, regroup and review my photographs) I'm hoping to capture some appealing images to turn into photo encaustics.

These will be on sale at M Designs in the heart of downtown Beaufort later in October.

Finally!

After months of waiting I finally made the trip to my local big box store to purchase a new camera yesterday! Armed with15.1 megapixels of Canon technical fabulosity at my fingertips I made my way to one of my favorite places on earth early this morning...Bluff Drive, Isle of Hope.

At 7:30 a.m., where paradise meets southern sweetness, I snapped off a few shots of early morning coastal light.

I have a million things to learning about this new piece of equipment. For now I'm concentrating on getting the basics right and hoping the rest will come with time and familiarity...and a few more trips through the manual.

Expanding my horizons

Ihave a new client in Beaufort, SC. M Designs will begin carrying my encaustics as soon as I can schedule 2-3 days of shooting and they make their photo selections. I am planning larger-scaled pieces for this Bay Street store that features exquisite Lowcountry furnishings and accessories.

I spent an afternoon and evening on the east side of the historic district doing a little scouting.

Here are some preliminary shots. Please contact me for more information about when my work will be appearing at M Designs.

Stay-Cationing on the Georgia Coast

I finally persuaded my husband to take a few days away from work, so we made some photographic and fun jaunts around the coast, enjoying the sunshine and gradually cooling weather.

We drove just a few minutes up the road to Fort Pulaski, an always stunning site on the Savannah River as it opens to the sea. The battlescarred fortress is a poignant witness finally at peace along the moats and marshes.

A day trip to Jekyll Island provided a look back in time to the riches of the gilded age as it flourished and then sputtered on this tiny, once private island. The US Parks system is gradually restoring the individual homes and opening each for interesting tours. Of course, I am drawn to the yet-to-be-restored species; their weathered patina and crumbling edges catch my eye. I hope to return to Jekyll for the holidays.

A Sunday Walk

Today the weather was perfect for a walk in downtown Savannah. Trailing a swarm of mosquitos, I wandered into the edge of the Victorian district and took some images enlived with the boldest of summer colors.

Miley Cyrus Finishes "The Last Song"

Across the marsh on Tybee Island things have been buzzing all summer as Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear and Kelly Preston have been around to film the Disney Film "The Last Song." As far as the locals know, filming wrapped this week, so I took the opportunity to shoot the little church that was built especially for the movie.

It's named "The Tybee Island Baptist Church" and was constructed, burned, shot, rebuilt and repainted and then shot again all in the period of a few weeks. It will be taken down shortly and this small lot will be restored to it's former empty, peaceful existence.

Here are some exterior and interior pictures taken last Saturday before the final filming on Tuesday 8/11, when more than 100 extras showed up for a fun-filled day of filming!

Creative Directions

While waiting for shipments of encaustic and boards I decided to get out my gigantic stash of hand-made paper and photographs of Tybee Island and play for the day.

The result was shreds of colorful torn paper, sticky fingers and a pile of new torn paper collage notecards featuring summery, tropical images. Check out these images to see what can happen during in a few hours of cut and paste...the old fashioned kind!

My photo encaustics at Seaside Sisters

On Saturday I made the trip out to Tybee Island to meet with Diane Kaufman, who purchased several of my photo encaustics for the funky little shop on Rt. 80, Seaside Sisters. Diane also ordered some larger encaustic pieces and asked me to bring in a collection of my cards as well.

So if your shopping on Tybee please check out my work - and the work of other artists - at Seaside Sisters.

Sunday Morning Musings

I set my alarm clock for 6:30 a.m. and finally tumbled out of bed at 7, headed for the beach and the back river. I am determined to get more shots of undulating dune fencing - my current obsession.

I ended up on Inlet Avenue, which spills out onto a pile of Hobe Cats clustered on the shore of the river. The sun was higher than I would have liked, but the light was still soft as was the cool breeze.

The green, tossled caps of grasses - nourished by the frequent rain storms - contrast wonderfully with the gray fencing and blue skies. These soft images should make good encaustics, I think.

Tybee's Back River Beckons

The weather channel promised a morning of clear skies so I made the trip across the low-tide marshes to Tybee at 7 o'clock this morning.

I drove back to Chatham St., sultry and sticky with buzzing mosquitos and gnats, and followed the path out to the river.

I was pleasantly caught off guard by the cool, gentle breeze - so refreshing as it whipped up the beach. The morning was perfect for taking a few photos in the soft early light. How sweet is the summer!

Good Things Happening!

The summer days are clicking by at a steady, unstoppable pace. The A/C is humming constantly as I try to remove the humidity from the air - that troublesome moisture renders pesky little bubbles in my layers of encaustic. I end up scraping them away in frustration!


Now that Miley Cyrus has left Tybee (the movie-making is over for the summer, it seems), the entire island is once more open for photographic exploration. The heat and sudden summer downpours can be problematic, but I've made a few successful trips to the coast this month, and I'll be turning some of those images into a series of photo encaustics. I'm particularly happy with some shots I took of the rustic docks along Horse Pen Creek. They are not the beach scenes I expected that day, but I'm very pleased with the sleepy quality they convey. The first encaustic, Horse Pen Creek View I, is upon the photo encaustic page.


I have more images of Tybee, including some of turn-of-the-century, beach-front cottages, which I will be working on in the coming weeks.


Good news! The Savannah Morning News (Islands Close Up) will be running a story about my photo encaustic process in their July 15 issue. I was very excited and honored to be interviewed and I'm looking forward to the story appearing this coming week. My good friend, Richard Leo Johnson, was very kind to offer to take professional photographs of my work, and one of those photos will be appearing along with the article. I feel very fortunate for this exposure.
Please check out the photo encaustic page - the new images of my encaustics taken by Richard are now on view. I am blessed with wonderful friends.


To coordinate with the publication of the article, I will be adding new pieces of artwork to my display at The Honey House (The Savannah Bee Store) on Broughton Street this week.



Hopefully, some of you will be able to stop by the store if you are downtown. I'm grateful for all of your support!


M

New images coming soon!

New images of the Savannah historic district AND Tybee Island will be coming in the next few days. Summer is the time to head to the beach with a camera and thanks to friends with picturesque beach cottages, I've been able to get some dreamy shots.

Stay tuned!

To Blog or Not to Blog...Oh Why Not!

It seems that everyone is blogging these days. Politicians, musicians, artists, stay-at-home moms - we're all jumping into this mass communications fray to connect and contribute our ideas and experiences.

This will be a light-hearted blog that may take a few twists and turns, but I'll start off by describing my current artistic pursuits, processes and muses. If that gets redundant and boring we'll go from there, OK?

I've always been artistic (thanks, Mom!) but I didn't seriously connect with art until I was in my 30's and a therapist encouraged me to take watercolor classes. The brushes and the paints seemed to flow with such magic and I was encouraged to continue to study painting. I felt so alive to discover that was one of the people I so envied- an artist!

I didn't stop at painting. I had to try everything; jewelry-making, textile painting; batik; furniture painting, collage, pastels, needlework. But it's difficult to make a living as an artist and 8-10 year spurts of "real jobs" with demanding hours took me off track. (Those jobs also allowed me to learn other skills such as writing).

I made the difficult decision to leave Savannah Magazine in June 2008, and after a few months of rest and healing and working with very dear, wonderful friends I was finally ready to look inward, and to find out what was next for me.

As always, I was guided by the Good Lord above who gently prodded me to pick up my camera and do something I'd dreamed of doing for years - and now I had the time. In the spring of this year, 2009, I began making early morning trips down to Savannah's historic district. Walking away from the crowded, beaten path I went to those "sweet spots" that I had often passed, and I began to capture images of the town that I love.

Now, mind you, I'm learning, but this is so reminescent of the time many years ago when I picked up that paint brush and let the colors flow onto the paper. Except this is more fun and I feel a little more confident somehow in my old age. Thank you, God, for letting me feel this excitement and joy again!

Next up: how I stumbled upon the photo-encaustic process!