Original Fantasy Mermaids

 I had such a great time creating the images and framing for my show at Bunnell Street Gallery down near Bishops Beach in Homer a couple years ago. This was a favorite of that show and sold first.  I made the frames for that show in my woodshop. 

I went on to paint the Mermaid Madonna and Child image in this painting I called "The Last of Their Kind" which romanticized a time when mermaids and their kind were fading into the past. I used decorative motifs found on sailing ships to frame the pair. 

   The legend of the Silke or male companion of the Mermaids who morphs from man to seal at will is the subject of this one. I guess I like mermaids with red hair, as you can tell. J.W. Waterhouse influence perhaps? 

  Then again in "Cormorant Mermaid" I show a lovely creature with long black tresses and a compainion cormorant. These birds dry their wings by standing in this pose after diving.In Klimnt fashion I use an area of flat design to offset the scene.

   This is an oil on masonite orginal that uses the same idea found on the page of nudes, reduction of pattern, texture and form to near abstraction for the sake of design interest. At the bottom is a reference to my home town, Homer by the sea which has been a kind of Odyessy for many of us. 

I've had an idea for years of creating a world of Mermaids . I like the head dress, jewels and sceptre of this Queen Mermaid and would like to show the rest of her kind in illustration or book form. Maybe someday.