I am excited to be a part of The Great Goose Egg Auction 2012 for Open Fields School. Open Fields is a small non-graded private school in Thetford Hill, Vermont.
Back in 1996, a parent donated more than 100 blown goose eggs for use in the school. A friend of the school and illustrator of children's books, the late Trina Schart Hyman (April 8, 1939–November 19, 2004), suggested that the eggs, if decorated and sold as unique works of fine art, could benefit all of the Open Fields students. Her idea hatched into an annual online auction that supports the school with the sale of artist-decorated eggs. Each year, goose, quail, hen and emu eggs are sent to artists all over the world and returned to Open Fields School as works of art!
Trina's "eggstraordinary" art event, The Great Goose Egg Auction, has become the school’s biggest fundraiser. This year they will start with a brief viewing and auction on Friday, May 11, 2012 and at AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH.
If you’re on Facebook, you can join the Open Fields School group:
here
The auction itself:
here
The exhibit opens at 5:30, and eggs can be viewed from 5:30 to 7. The auction starts promptly at 7PM.
In January I started sketches for the upcoming children's book, What We'll Do, Just Me and You! by Diane Ohanesian, debuting this summer. When my goose egg arrived carefully wrapped in a brown box just a few months ago, I thought the beach spread from the book would be a great image for the egg. I LOVE the beach, and am happy the egg captures a fun day at the beach!
Here is a step-by-step diary of how I painted the egg, titled: Me and You!
