Spoonflower and Grandma's Paintings

In my last entry I posted a painting my that my grandmother painted years ago.  I thought it would be fun to showcase some of her work.

  

Growing up, these paintings graced the walls in the living room, family room and hallway.  My grandmother passed away long before I was born, so unfortunately I never knew her, but apparently she was a kick in the pants.  She was a wildly talented, creative and witty woman.  I like to think my designer jeans genes come not only from my mother, but from my grandmother too. 

For those in or around downtown Saratoga in California, this may look familiar.  Sometime in the 60's or 70's, this arch was scheduled to move across the street. Grandma captured it in its original location before the big move.

Years later, the arch was moved back to where it started and where it currently resides...  again.

She occasionally used my mom and perhaps my uncle as 'stand-ins' or models in her work.  In the painting below, my mom is the blonde in a red shirt and brown shorts to the left of the tree

Here she is again - Isn't she cute?!

 When I went away to college, I was allowed to take two of Grandma's paintings with me. One is a carousel horse - a gorgeous collage of colors that unfortuantely I don't have a photo of (read: I'm too lazy to take one). 
 
The other is this beautiful ballerina.  It reminds me of this sculpture by Degas in Paris (I heart Paris!)

Last spring, my friend Lan enlightened me on  www.spoonflower.com - DESIGN YOUR OWN FABRIC?!  Sign me up!  While my grandmother's medium was a canvas, my mom's medium is fabric - she can do amazing things with tiny pieces of fabrics in a variety of colors.  I knew what I wanted to do before I even checked the site out.
 
One day while Mom was out of town, Dad and I scoured the house, under the sofa, in the back of her closet, in the garage - you wouldn't believe the places we looked - all for examples of Grandma's work (Mom has 'em hiding everwhere!). I took digital photos of what I could and then got to work!  My goal was two or three pieces to convert to fabric - it was more difficult as Grandma's specialty was landscapes and I just couldn't get the layout or repitition right.

The above sketch I think was my first recollection as a little girl that my grandma was an artist - so I definitely wanted to use it.  The second was two individual paintings of a horse that I combined (Thanks Photoshop!).  Both pieces came out beautifully.   

I'm pretty sure Mom was pleased. Isn't she just as cute today as the little girl my grandma painted abovel?! (I love that her blonde curls stayed with her through the years!)

:)