My name is Elaine Adel Cummins. I am an artist from New Orleans Louisiana that Specializes in iconic cityscapes and Jazz paintings.
This blog will contain my artwork and few of my some inside stories from what the life of a working artist is.
A painting should bring life to a room. I paint mine to do exactly that.
I work in acrylic oil paint and watercolor. I apply impressionism expressionism and a few other styles of painting that hopefully enhance my enthusiasm with color.
Vibrant color is a key element to all of my paintings. I love it when the painting literally radiates on the wall.
Hope you all enjoy and feel free to contact me anytime if you are interested in any one of my paintings.
There are moments when as an artist you have to scratch your head and say how did I do that. Painting an 18-foot by 8 ft tall mural at the Jazz & Heritage Festival 2019 was one of those moments for me.
The Wall
Truth be said I am overweight, 55 with a bad leg. So the idea of painting a gorgeous painting on an 18 ft long, 8 foot tall wall may be challenge. My employer, I doubt because of they’re youthful exuberance and millennial blindness did not realize the artist they had hired was possibly a overweight, senior citizen with a bad leg. The company that hired me prides itself on there fresh young millennial ideas. This fast New York based company no doubt saw my youthful photo online and assumed I was exactly the same face as seen in my promotional photos. Amazing how that works in today’s age. Pun intended!
When I was offered the job I admit I flinched. I had to think carefully whether or not I could truly accomplish this. Privately I told my closest near and dear that I was afraid. My two strongest allies my sister and my best friend both assured me they had confidence in me and I could knock this out! Where the heck did they come up with this confidence I have no idea.
I started to strategize and break the wall down into sections and components and started to crunch numbers and decide whether or not it was even possible to do. Once I crunch numbers I could see it was possible indeed. But that was in the best of situations. If all goes well! If there were no mishaps…… and there are always mishaps!!!!
I won’t go into the lengthy contractual haggling because that is par for the course. People hiring artist rarely recognize the artist has rights and intends to exercise them if they are a veteran seasoned artist that knows what they’re doing. I consistently find it humorous that these people with ambitions of hiring a skilled artists are always blindsided that many artists are actually professional and it is a profession….. and we are not starstruck entirely by their desire to hire us.
A meeting of the minds, employer and artist.
Everything starts with the mock-up. A simple sketch that gives a general idea of subject matter and placement. As a rule this is not going to be how it will look in the end. Mock-ups are wonderful because when the employer sees the end result they are always amazed at how glorious it is compared to the mock-up that they were thrilled with in the first place. I call this a win-win scenario.
The mock-up!Anticipated colors to be employed on mural
So let’s backtrack a bit. I was contacted to do this commission that had to be accomplished in less than a week. That’s create mock-up, obtain materials, sniff out the location, make contact with ground crew, prepare weather equipment sunshade, rain, etc…. complete mural all within less than a week. Thank you millennials for your clueless timeline. I had a sneaking suspicion maybe they had some young artists that bailed on them and I was the damage controller. No confirmation on that one but I couldn’t imagine a company giving an artist such short notice for such a daunting commission.
I had two days of painting to accomplish the mural. Day 1, I could access the wall and paint. The Jazz Fest would not start until day two were people could observe my painting. I was going to need help. Thankfully my sister volunteered. I will say this without hesitation….I could not have done it without her. She helped in every and any way she was asked. She was nothing short of amazing. Yes a lobster dinner is coming her way. All you can eat!
The sketch on the wall began.
You can always count on your best friend to say what you need to hear.
My best friend said to me everything’s going to hinge on you knocking that sketch out and that he had his doubts. I assured him I got this and the sketch would be a piece of cake. Of course I didn’t know if it would be a piece of cake but I wasn’t going to let him know. I have that kind of friendship with him. It’s a playful sometimes verbal bloodletting tug-of-war. We like it that way. I jumped into the drawing with absolute confidence and a healthy dose of I’ll show him!!! I think he does that to me on purpose to keep me functioning at a high level. He knows I’m by nature competitive and I’m certainly not going to have him tell me I there’s something I may struggle to accomplish. Even when I know he’s using good old-fashioned reverse psychology it still works on me and he knows it.
The mural sketch was completed in lightning speed! I lapped up his compliments that evening like a contented puppy. He said phrases like “You nailed it” and “It’s good really good!” That fueled me onward. Everything should be downhill from here. Yeah right? As I basked in the compliments and amazement of the construction workers and nearby vendors and fairground workers, I felt restored and ready for paint. The fact that there was a severe weather warning barreling down on us with expected tornadoes I did not allowed to enter my mind….. sort of. I needed to get paint on that wall and a lot of it….and fast!
Painting at the speed of lightning. Did someone say lightning?
By the end of day one I was extremely confident. People were saying it looked finished. It was far from finished. But it was satisfying to know the onlookers thought it was done. I was certain I’ve got this in the bag!
Day two started with concern and determination. There could be no paint put on this wall until the threat of storm was completely passed
Stormy weather coming!!! With tornado warnings.
I was certain however that I would not leave the painting until the storm had passed. Which meant I sat under a wet rainy drop cloth for almost 8 hours. As the storm and lightning swirls around me I was informed the company that hired me is giving me an extra day to finish the mural. It’s a dang good thing cuz not much is going to happen today!
My fear was if a storm blew through and the wind started to kick, someone had to be here to protect the paint. All the paint was special mix. No paint….no mural. I was not enthusiastic about the idea of getting struck by lightning. However I was less enthusiastic about seeing all my paint destroyed by a gust of wind.
My weather prep survived the winds!
At last the rain stopped. Ironically while the Doobie Brothers were playing Jesus is just alright. It was a magical moment and I whipped out the brushes and attacked the wall again. Very little work got done that day, but my determination in relationship to the wall was becoming very spiritual.
Tomorrow I would finish the wall!
Getting the fauvism in.
First friday of jazz fest morning with musician sound checks happening in the background… I am with my coffee and ready to finish this wall.
Beauty inspires Beauty!
Hour after hour I paint all of the details. I imagine all this wall could be. I feel transported. Out of body even. I’m oblivious to my surroundings and I am now dancing with the wall…..the music in the background. The gates are open. The bands are playing in all directions and I am possessed. Stroke by stroke each color I paint is calling the next color to be added. This has become a spiritual experience. The temperature is glorious I am beyond fatigued to the point of no longer feeling. All I know is that the wall is guiding me and it is sweet, sweet inspiration.
And then it was finished.
Jazz Fest 2019 50th anniversary and everyone who sees the wall is transported. The spirit, the city, the music!
Okay so it definitely blows my mind to see my stuff on Wal-Mart. Go check it out! Click the link below the photo and you’ll find my stuff on Walmart now days.
When Elaine was 12 years old she sat on a park bench in the historic Jackson Square painting her little sister’s face with grease pants she obtained at the nearby theatrical makeup store. It did not occur to Elaine it was Mardi Gras and this would attract any attention.
At that time no one was doing face painting or any type of body art. Face painting and body art had long ago faded with the sixties.But this was New Orleans in the middle of Mardi Gras.
Soon a few tourists walked up and asked if she would paint their faces. She gladly oblige. To her amazement they gave her $5! She continued painting faces on the bench all day. The next year face painting was being done all over the French Quarter. It then became an intrical part of the New Orleans French Quarter Mardi Gras experience.
Each year Elaine refined her skills as a face painter and in time and became known as one of the best face painters in New Orleans!
In 1989 Elaine was contacted by MTV and asked if she would be interested in being hired to be part of their live worldwide broadcast of Mardi Gras, with celebrity talents, Downtown Judy Brown and Keenen Ivory Williams and to be interviewed as well as do a demonstration of her face painting skills.
Elaine hopped at the chance!
Today Elaine still occasionally does face painting.
In 2015 Elaine was asked to donate her skills as a face painter to The Girls on the Run nonprofit. Rather than bring only her own ability to paint on a one-by-one basis she suggested she train a team of young ladies to be the next generation of face painters for the nonprofit.
At Loyola University she met with a group of 17 Young lady and trained them in a three-hour workshop on face painting.
The day of the workshop as Elaine walked across Loyola campus on our way to the classroom she remembered her younger days and her limited access education because of dyslexia and felt it was very satisfying feeling that here she was on Loyola Universities campus…. teaching!
Months later the day of the Girls on the Run event the girls Elaine trained were ready and Elaine was there to support them and encourage them on.
The following year these same young ladies would in turn teach face painting to the ladies that would follow in their shoes.
Today Elaine believes that her experience and learning path, although unconventional and different from other people, is a great benefit to others and that the responsibility of knowing something becomes an obligation to share with others. Teaching is core to Elaine’s artist principles.
~Riding thecannoninJacksonSquare, New Orleans, LA 1968~
Elaine Adel Cummins, was born in the city of New Orleans. As early as age four Elaine showed strong artistic talent. In the summers Elaine would sit and watch any one of 200 artist paint or draw on the Jackson Square in New Orleans. Her parents, also artist on the Jackson Square, were amazed when Elaine at age six started to collect the artists cast off pastels and charcoal and started to sketch views of the Jackson Square and sell them for five and ten cents. Part of their amazement was she was not told to do this. She just started to sketch and sell as if that’s what she was suppose to do.
~Me and my sisters playing in the Jackson Square Fountain as little girls while our parents worked outside doing portraits of the tourist! (I am the brunette on the right)~
At the age of sixteen she obtained her first city permit to paint on the Jackson Square. Elaine was severely dyslexic and dropped out of school at age fifteen. Dyslexia was not widely understood at that time. She resolved to find a way to teach herself. By age twenty one she was finally able to read well enough and taught herself art history, color theory and pigment chemistry. Even though the reading process was slow and hard she felt compelled to learn everything she could about art. Elaine said
“I could paint very well before but when I was finally able to read it was like a universe had opened in front of me.” When Elaine was twenty three she started painting clothing for a living. She estimates she painted some 17,000 shirts and some 5,000 dresses during her ownership of her small shop in the French Market.
Elaine plunged herself into a deeper study and understanding of impressionism and all art forms. Elaine says “Doing art is a quest. I always tell myself, the most important painting I will ever paint is the next one! I find the intimacy the eye has with the painted surface indescribably. One of God’s true gifts is to look at something beautiful and be amazed.” ~Thinking about having a New Orleans or Portland Oregon scene painted? Elaine dose commissions. Just contact her and tell her your idea. She is always happy to paint a painting.~
At the very beginning of a painting I only have a general idea of where the buildings are and what I intended to paint.
I consider the light sources .
I am often asked why do I color the canvas so dark and sketch it with a white charcoal. Basically it is because I have dyslexia and this assist me with being able to view perspective with less distortion then the traditional charcoal on a white surface or paint brush on a white surface.
I start to establish the areas where there will be light.
Then I increase the vibrancy of the color and light and start to incorporate some of the mid tones.
Now it is time to refine detail .
The painting is finished when I decide there is nothing more I can add to it.
In this painting the windows of the St Louis Cathedral were a particular disappointment because even though the canvas was 24″ by 36″ the windows were still too small to indicate the beautiful color of the stained-glass. To resolve this problem I decided to create the atmosphere of stained glass in the tree line through the branches and trunks of the dark silhouette of the crepe myrtles trees and banana bushes. All of those beautifully different shapes and colors are representative of stained glass.
You get the sense that the stained-glass is there even though I have not individually painted the windows the stained glass.
Elaine Adel Cummins 