Art Created from Salvaged Wood

See my YouTube on the whole process: finding the LL Bean Sleigh at the dump to finished piece.

I found a beautiful wood LL Bean sleigh at the Fox Chapel dump, held aside by the fellow who manages the dump for anyone who might want it.

I have so many happy memories of childhood in Vermont in both the Lake Champlain Islands and in Stowe, places where my parents moved from NJ & MA after WWII to live out their married life bring up a family. I have early memories of seeing the northern lights from the most northern part of the Lake Champlain Islands where we lived in my early childhood, just a stone’s throw from the Canadian border. That memory of a night sky alive with color and movement combined with my love for Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night became the motivation for my painting for the found LL Bean Sleigh. I thought if I were a toddler what would I love to look at on my sleigh?

The paint is acrylic on canvas, which has layers of thinned gesso layed down first.