Chalk dirty to me...

*Full disclosure, it took 16 tries to get the sun exactly

right in this picture but it was toooootally worth it.

In case you're thinking of having a weatherproof chalkboard painted by me, here is how the process works:

Step 1: Email me & give me a rough idea of what you want
Step 2: I will give you a horrible sketch of what I intend to paint for you
Step 3: Trust the process, the actual painting always looks better than the sketch.
Step 4: Enjoy your beautiful new waterproof chalkboard!!

Final vs. Rough Draft

You look great today!

Bilingual Animal Painting for Escuela Montessori

Union Square Vet's Summer Window

The Dog Days of Summer window painting

August window at River Dog Doggy Day Care in Union Square, Somerville.

Mandee-ville Open Studios

This weekend is Somerville Open Studios and the whole town is bustling with people with street maps seeking out houses with orange balloons. It's a really cool event and I love going to see everyone's studios every year but, alas, I don't have a studio of my own (unless my drafting table in the basement counts) so I did a little public art in Union Square instead on the windows at River Dog.

River Dog is located at 321 Somerville Ave in Union Square, Somerville. Go check 'em out!

Dog Days of Summer Window Painting

Welp, it's here again, the dog days of Summer are upon us. Those long hot (and in New England HUMID) days towards the end of Summer characterized by frizzy hair, sweaty buns and bad attitudes. When people start longing for Fall and the cool nights she brings.

There are a couple things you can do about this type of weather: you can complain incessantly about how hot it is, much to the chagrin of your co-workers, I'm sure or you can do like this guy and shamelessly hog up the kiddie pool.

*** *** *** ***

This window painting is a remake of a June 2010 window painting I did- reduce, reuse, recycle!

Enjoy the rest of your Summer!!

Happy Critters Custom Playground Painting

This custom 24"x36" painting was made just for Vivian who turned 2 last weekend to bring more color to her "not too pinky-girly" nursery and came to me my favorite way, through word of mouth advertising.

Included in the painting are Vivan's favorite stuffed animals, herself and of course, a girl's best friend, her dog, Milo.

Vivan wasn't home to see the painting in person when I dropped it off but luckily her Mom shot me this adorable play-by-play of when she first saw it:

"I wanted to let you know about Vivian's reaction when she first saw your painting. She saw it as soon as she walked into her room yesterday afternoon, and did a total double-take. Then she pointed at Dolly in the picture and said her name, and went to grab the actual Dolly from her toy bin so she could hold her just like she is in the picture. Then she pointed at each of her "friends" in the picture and named them, and also pointed out Milo. I asked her if she liked the picture, and she said, "Yesssss!""

Reactions like that make this job even sweeter, if that's possible.

And, as if that weren't enough, piggy-backed on top of all that sweetness was this painting also done for Vivian commissioned by the original word-of-mouth advertiser, the customer I painted Ryan's Safari for.

Little V is a second generation Chinese-American, this is her birth animal, the tiger and her name written in Chinese characters. It was painted to coordinate-with but not necessarily match the playground painting in order to keep the room from looking too "theme-y" (which is definitely a word) and topped off with a distressed white frame.

Thanks for stopping by and please don't hesitate to contact me with questions if you'd like your own custom nursery artwork!

...don't be a stranger, ya'hear?

Riverdog Doggy Daycare: Window Painting

Liz and I painted the window over at Riverdog Doggy Daycare in Union Square last week.

Below is what the window looked like before....wahhhh-wahhhhh.

(That's the sound of something sad and lackluster.)

We did a big Bernese Mountain Dog and dozens of little pink flowers to celebrate the arrival of Spring.

And we also had to pay homage to Riverdog's River-Cat, Dennis, the friendliest cat I've ever met and the shop's unofficial mascot. Dennis alone is reason enough to stop by the shop for a visit.

Go check it out if you're in the neighborhood and tell 'em Mandee sent you!

Wedding Wednesday: Tchotchke Centerpiece/Favors

...and with a little less than 5 hours left of this beautiful, rainy Wednesday I bring you:

WEDDING WEDNESDAY:

TCHOTCHKE EDITION!

For a full year before my wedding I collected tchotchkes from junk shops, second hand stores, garage sales and of course, Etsy to create my combination centerpiece/favors.

There were a couple of rules for collecting these hollow treasures, they needed to be:

a. planters

b. under $7 (american currency) and

c. a little "off"....not exactly ugly, just "off".

To make them into centerpieces was truly a family affair. We (my 4 year old flowergirl, Sister and I) planted succulents in all of the tchotchkes, put them on wooden disks (cut especially for me by my loving Father), accompanied them with precious little terra cotta pots filled with small white flowers (put together by Lady, my Mom) added hand stamped signs (Made by Liz) that said, "take me home tonight!" and then they were all artfully arranged on each table by my BFF, Gina Marie.

Pictures by Meredith Mascola

The results were 100% unique, semi home-made, adorable little bits of precious that I could hardly stand to give away!! These were SUCH a huge hit I was blown away! People were hiding them from each other and stealing them off tables all night. I personally saw the squirrel change hands at least 3 times, I'm still hearing stories about who the rightful owner should be. And now the fun part is finding out where all of them went. I love going to friend's houses and seeing which planter everyone ended up with (aka who swiped what while no-one else was looking!)

Super Slamm!

My hilarious Sister made capes and masks for my Niece's 4th birthday party this weekend.

Clearly her dog, Sgt. Slamm, was the perfect model.

**tutorial to follow**

The Ornament Factory

I have been a veritable ornament factory this year! I started receiving orders for them in mid-November and started painting them at the same time. I'm happy to report that as of midnight last night I finished my final ornament of the season and it was picked up this morning!

Here are a few of them:

Now all there's left to do is put out cookies and wait for Santa!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Bella the Bully

These paintings are both of Little Miss Bella the English Bulldog and were painted for Linda's kids as Christmas presents:

Normally I wouldn't post about something that someone ordered for Christmas but I found out today that after I gave the paintings to Linda, who commissioned these paintings, she was too excited to wait for Christmas and already delivered the goods!! Ha ha!

Personally I feel there's no bigger compliment than spoiling Christmas morning cause you just couldn't wait! :) Awww shucks.

Here's Buddy:

He's pretty excited about it too, as you can see.

Merry Christmas!!!

Kora the Explorer!

Custom painting of Kora the Explorer!

A very loved black labrador whose love of the great outdoors

and zest for life prompted her Mom to have a painting made of her
(and of her ever-present hiking pack...so cute!)

Detail:

Painting continued around edges for simple,

frame-free hanging...and cause it looks way cooler.

Contact me to have your dog or cat painted, or get one for a friend! See more paintings here.

New Window!!

This puppy totally heisted the blow-up pool from the kids and he's not even considering feeling guilty about it! And I can't say that I blame him!

Come by and see it if you're in the neighborhood!

and Bingo was his name-o!

An Etsy-er contacted me to paint a barnyard for her little guy's farm animal themed room.

So I did. Now I'm fighting the urge to move to a farm, buy a pig and name her Pickles. Thanks a lot!

More pics here.

The Swan: Clog Edition

It's time for another episode of, The Swan...for clogs. In this Episode we meet Red and Ivory. Always ashamed of her complexion and scuffs, Red decided to go under the paintbrush. Here she is before:

And after:

She's had multiple procedures including removal of original finish, color change, embellishments and finally a clear coat to make her shine!

Next we meet Ivory. Ivory was one a beautiful young shoe, the bell of the hospital ball! But, after years of hard work and multiple trips out in the harsh New England weather, this once-lovely clog is feeling worse for the wear. Here is her before picture:

And now after, with her updated color, custom graphics and shiny new finish!

She looks beautiful!!

Bad Good Dog

A commissioned painting done for a little guy who loves tractors and his dog, a great dane/weimaraner mix, whom he affectionately refers to as 'Good Dog'.

Here's a picture of Good Dog next to his likeness as a cartoon character. I'm told when Good Dog is bad his name changes to "Bad Good Dog"....soooo adorable!!

If you'd like a painting done of your own good dog contact me at mandeemartin@gmail.com.

Mark & Steph's Ark (feat. Noah)

Finally! Finally someone asked me to paint them an ark. I tell you, it is about d*mn time! All I do is sit and draw smiley faced animals all day long (and work Rochelle, I swear!) and wait for someone to see them all and say, "you know what would be a good project for you..." And finally someone did!! Grandma-to-be Sheila hired me to paint this ark in her son & daughter-in-law's nursery in New Hampshire for Baby Sam who's due later this winter. I started with the sketch:

And after a quick peak at that Gramma decided we'd add an elephant, some ducks, a couple of dolphins and some lobsters for good luck! Here it is before the giraffes poked their heads through:

And after seen here with Steph (and technically Baby Sam):

Here are some close-ups of my favorite characters:

**progress pictures here: www.kodakgallery.com/mandeepaints/main/noah_s_ark **