Painting Inspires

Post 1 Painting Inspires

Melissa Crismon, Mermaid, 2010, acrylic on canvas. Pic by M.C.

What inspires you?

I love to paint with acrylics on a large canvas. (Read why I love to paint on my About page.)  Being obsessed with all things to do with the ocean, whether it be real or make-believe, I enjoy painting seascapes. Mermaids are another obsession that may or may not fall into the real category — I won’t tell.

The canvas pictured is made by one of my mom’s students who left her work behind. It looked like a kelp bed so I painted over it not completely covering the kelp. It was a joint effort. Her work inspired me!

The Pageant of the Masters and Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach, CA is here. They are two separate venues that get lumped into one. Last year I went to the Sawdust Festival not realizing the show isn’t there, but a block away. The Sawdust Festival is an outdoor collection of varied visual artists selling their art as you walk on sawdus­t. One would think the sawdust comes from artists carving timber since artists are pictured carving on their website, but no it was simply to keep dust and mud down. You do have to pay to get in. This time I am going to both. The Pageant of the Masters is a show of live paintings. Yes, live! People are painted to look the part of a famous Renoir. I’m looking forward to it and hope it inspires my current writing project.

I see a lot of theatre and write in various forms. On my blog expect to see spotlights on live theatre shows, books, authors, photographers, art shows and any other art form or person who inspires me particularly in Southern California.

To learn more about The Pageant of the Masters and Sawdust Festival go to http://www.foapom.com/ and http://sawdustartfestival.org/.