Friday, October 05, 2012

Octopus's Garden (and a Crab)



Stanley the Octopus at the Playground by the Sound is all done! This was Anne Marie's baby, and I got to help out a bit. We've been painting Stanley since mid-August.  It's great to finally be finished, and Stanley is looking pretty awesome!



The bit above Stanley is meant to be the Narrows Bridge, and Stanley is the giant octopus who lives under the bridge. Just this last week they got the "Galloping Gertie" sign attached, in honor of the original Narrows Bridge that collapsed in 1940. The wreckage is reportedly home to some of Stanley's relatives and other sea life.



The last couple of weeks have been devoted to painting suckers.  I got close-ups of some of Anne-Marie's detail that I thought turned out really well.



A Giant Pacific Octopus can have up to 1600 suckers. We didn't do that many!



I got to paint a hermit crab on the back side, coming out of one of Anne Marie's shells.



His name is Hermie.  (Anne Marie named him.)



And here's Stanley getting his urethane coat this morning. (We had some extra help for this part.) We've been pretty lucky with the weather holding up. But now we're all finished, so let the rains come!



We were out at the park last Saturday, so I got some pictures of Kate with Stanley. She thought he was pretty cool.



I painted these Orcas last year and never did get a picture.  Now I have!



Anne Marie in the sucker-painting zone. We enjoyed working together! Hopefully we can do it again.

6 comments:

Heather T. said...

Awesome--what a gorgeous playground!! And that photo of Kate through the porthole is just beautiful. Congrats on a job well done!

Helen in Australia said...

Lots of cuteness: Stanley, Hermie, Kate, Orcas.

... And only suckers would have painted all 1600 of them!

Becky said...

You are so talented, Helena!! I wish you had an Etsy shop.

Our Creative Day said...

Beautifully done!!! What a great gift you shared with the community! We still need to check this park out -- is it below the golf course in UP? I just can't place where this one is....

Helena said...

It's near the golf course, but not below. If you're coming from Tacoma, it's the first Chambers Bay parking lot.

Jessica - Trident Northwest said...

Just this week someone was telling me about the tale of the Narrows Bridge octopus. I was just googling more information and stumbled upon your blog. You did such a wonderful job with the painting. I take my son to the Chambers playground all the time and it's such a pleasure to meet you!