And now for something completely different… commissioned paintings on saws!
My client Nancy had 3 large saw blades (6’ long, 4’ long and 3’ long) and wanted to have them painted with “special memories” to be used as decorations in their NH home. Nancy’s father owned a wilderness canoe camp for boys in the early 70’s, and this was the perfect subject to make these pieces something the entire family would cherish.
Using old brochures as inspiration, Nancy came up with the general themes she wanted on each saw. The old pictures in the brochures gave me some visuals to work with, but putting them together in such long, narrow formats took some creativity – although it also helps that I am an avid canoeist and camper!
As always, I started by doing scale sketches of each saw design for Nancy to review. I was careful to use period-correct aluminum canoes, as well as other little touches like the styles of life preservers, paddles, tents and even hair styles. With some collaboration and tweaks, we had approved designs ready for me to paint! Below are the sketches:
Sketch for 6’ saw
Sketch for 4’ saw
Sketch for 3’ saw
First, I prepped the saws with a self-etching primer to make sure no rust would come back and pop up through my paint. Then I was on to transferring my drawings to the saws and stating to paint! When painting, I wanted to make sure the colors went together as if they are a series, but were still different enough to be appropriate for different settings and different times of day. I also focused on using color to help create some depth to counter the flattening effect of the long, narrow shape.
Nancy was thrilled with the end result and can’t to get them on the wall and share them with her family! Here are the final saws:
Enjoy!
6 foot saw
4 foot saw
3 foot saw
The entire collection!