Snake Charmer

Sometimes I go to Goodwill or Salvation Army stores to see if I can find things I can take and render awesome. So on one particular trip I found a vintage oval frame and it said to me "Hey, I hate this boring picture of a stream and these boring trees. Can you make me awesome?" And I said, "Certainly." So I gessoed the oval paperboard and began to paint over it with some nice burnt umber, green, and ocher. I have a couple of pictures of vintage snake charmer women and I thought that is exactly what the frame was wanting.

Snake Charmer Portrait

Here are the final stages of my Snake Charmer Portrait. This piece has already found a good home, but I intend to do more "cabinet card" type pictures in the future.

Snake Charmer

I have been perusing Victorian era cabinet cards and this painting is based on one of a snake charmer that I found particularly intriguing. I kept it to a limited palette, like a hand painted picture would have been for the period. For a while I had these two oval frames with a floral embossing, and I had no idea what sort of picture would look good in them. I think this will be just the thing!