Egg Decorating Tradition ... Acrylic on Egg

It's a tradition I've been doing ever since

Yes, yes - most of us have colored eggs at Easter time, I know I have. I've always just dipped the egg in a bowl of dye and let the dye do the fun part - and your hands get all messy.

It was last year when it all started. About the time I was in art class my senior year and improving my painting skills. At Easter time I decided I wasn't going to dip my eggs in dye anymore ... I would brush on them some acrylic paint. Yes, I know ... a very bold move - like the next new art movement - Post-Egginism.

So I have been painting acrylic paint on eggs since I started, yes, it's a very long tradition - I almost remember starting it last year ... Yup, that's when I started, 2019.

I couldn't decide what to paint this year so I went with the tradition I started way back in two thousand and nineteen, now I'm aging myself. 2019 I replicated a famous painting, The Mona Lisa. (These are not hard boiled eggs - just the shell, I blew out the yoke so I could keep them for ever.)

Here is 2019's Egg Art

This depicts The Mona Lisa

2019's egg is more of a pastel or soft texture where as the 2020 egg has a glossy or shiny background and  more subtle with the subjects.

This year I was able to photograph some in progress pictures.

And yes, I painted American Gothic, (the famous painting of the two farmers you don't know the name of), by Grant Wood. If you were the subject of someone's painting, wouldn't you want to be recognized by your name? As you walk down your block people would shout out, "Hey look! There is that farmer and his wife that held up the pitchfork."

Believe it or not, that farmer was a dentist! And his wife (actually supposed to be the farmer's daughter is Grant Wood's sister. (She better have brushed her teeth 3 times per day.)

So here are some in progress pictures

I started with a base coat of blue and then layered in the background and finally added the farmer and his sister. The paint doesn't stick very well to the egg so I had to slowly layer in the paint to keep it from sliding off the eggshell.

Wait, I only have one! - the rest are from different angles, because eggs are not flat (unless you smash it), but it still wouldn't be flat.

Oh, I forgot, my sister, today with miss k, also took some fantastic in progress pictures.

The blue base coat. It turned out to be a very glossy color.

As you can see, the paint doesn't stick well so I had to
take it a little bit at a time.

There's the reference I used and myself working on that tiny
canvas of an egg. Acrylic on egg.

Look at those faceless characters!

So here are the angled shots

A straight on shot showcasing the curves of the egg. Amazing,
 Grant Would be proud (get it.)

There she is,  Nan Wood Graham. No wonder
she isn't showing her teeth - she's standing right by
her dentist.

And there is Dr. Byron McKeeby, the fine
old dentist. He looks a lot younger here.

Here is another shot of the front, I didn't take one of the back because it is just plain blue. (Just think if chickens laid eggs like this.) They sure seem happy - but they did have to stand there while he painted them. :(

What am I working on in the studio

I am still working on my series, Saints on 7.25 X 9.75 and have almost finished St Cecilia. I just have to wait for my sister to get her biographies done - yes, she procrastinates. Maybe even procrastinates about procrastinating.

I will continue with the Prismacolor series and in the middle of that I will be working on whatever jumps at me or gets sent to Inspiration. He's like my messenger.

Thank You For Viewing My eggs ... No, Some Chicken's Eggs That I Painted On.

• Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid. -Mark Twain

• When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait. -Pablo Picasso

• I always like stories where the egg ends up on my face. -Rob Lowe