"The Original Drifting Saints"
The story of how these delightful Classic Keepsakes started in 1988 and it was in 1989 that I began gifting them to folks outside of my family circle and two years after that there was an overwhelming response to purchase, so I began to sell them.
How this idea came to me:
I was lounging on our local beach with my son one hot August afternoon in 1988, looking through the most recent edition of "Leisure Arts". I was a subscriber to their annual "hard-cover" books that covered everything about embroidery, cross-stitch, and wonderful gifts of the season along with amazing recipes to go with them. I loved these publications and looked forward to them every year.
As I flipped through the pages I took note of a cute gift idea on one of them. It was a hand painted mug with a cellophane bag full of mulled spices and a stick of cinnamon centered in the middle of it. On the top portion of the cinnamon stick was a painted caricature of a Santa Claus. I looked at that and wondered how I could make these as gifts but with my own spin on it.
Being a working single mom, I saved money by creating many hand made gifts every year. I looked at the cinnamon stick and then my eye caught a piece of driftwood beside me. It was a small driftwood piece that had been sanded smooth by the elements over time. I picked it up and the idea hit. I could paint a Santa face on this and turn it into an ornament! That's how it started. One small idea.
I refined them by selecting flatter/wider pieces of driftwood and changed from a folk art face into a more traditional Victorian portrait of St. Nicholas.
The name came from the fact that they are driftwood and the origin of them are not known. Who knows what their journey has been! So "Drifting Saints" was born. I think about the driftwood's journey every time I paint them and just like the Saints of old, they are on a journey to spread love and the good news!
In the beginning I was relying on some Victorian pictures of St. Nicholas for reference, however, it didn't take long for my Pareidolia to take over, so now they are painted intuitively. The piece shows me what the face/expression is going to be.
Since their inception I have had orders for them as far away as England! They have been shipped to Australia, England, Germany and the West Coast. Those are just the ones that I know of. I sold them for only a few years at shows as I just couldn't keep up with the demand and still maintain my day job, single motherhood and the myriad of other responsibilities I burdened myself with, however, I continued to paint them every year because there are always requests for them.
I do include a few in the art fairs I participate in and love when folks come up and tell me they still have theirs and pull it out every Christmas even after 25+ years.
Now a new generation is seeing them. There have also been a lot of copycats and variations out there, so I have changed the name from "Drifting Saints" to "The Original Drifting Saints" because I believe my style (portraiture style) is where this trend started and this at least claims the original idea as mine as unfortunately you cannot patent art. If someone knows of someone that created this style prior to 1988, please let me know!
The medium I use is artist quality acrylic (a flesh blend that I mix) watered down as a base paint and a white titanium for the beard. The entire face however, is painted with artist grade watercolour as the translucent finish that watercolour provides is more life like.
I finish each one with a coat of varnish to keep the integrity of the watercolour (although it does shift the color slightly) and to seal it against any harsh weather (if it goes outdoors.) If you use it for the latter, spraying it every few years or so with a varathane spray or similar (I use Krylon brand) should keep it sealed for years to come. This does, of course depend on your local weather.
I hope you enjoy these as much as I have loved painting them!
If you bought one as a gift, you can send your recipient to this page for the whole story :-) Thanks for reading this far!
Blessings.