Boring Hurricane Boards?

Not at my house ! LOL

I've always thought it would be fun to paint our hurricane boards so last weekend we threw a painting party. Everyone that came got a white painted window board with pots of red, yellow, green, blue and black paints. We had several different sized brushes and sponges for everyone.

What a riot!! We had plenty of boards and folks were still painting after dark...

Here's the setup. We have lots of chain link so we leaned the boards against the pool and perimeter fences. This is mostly family, including Mom with a great seat to watch what's going on...

The painting progresses...

My niece (and namesake) Stacey really getting into her picture

Some of the finished products...my son's wind and waves

My BIL Howard's take on Rene Magritte's 'self portrait'

Theresa's sunrise...

Theresa's 14 y/o son Stevie did this one showing a storm out over the Gulf

My sister Lucie did this self portrait...they fish each weekend the weather is good

My sister Julie and daughter Stacey collaborated on the hot air balloon board. At night this one looks like a coral reef scene too...

My niece Summer and BF Aaron shared this board

My niece Summer's stained glassand bird...she's still painting after dark

The finished product!

My son Robert and my niece Stacey did this one...

My son's friend Chad did this poem...

Theresa and her son did this night beach scene

My son and friend Chad did this one...

Theresa's Redfish...this idea came from the back of my brother's shirt.





This message was edited Jun 29, 2005 10:20 AM

Chad's father did this rendition of Kilroy

Last but not least we got everyone to paint their hands and put their prints on a board.

This was such a fun party, people barely stopped to eat...

What a GREAT idea.....and some real talent showing!! I wish more people would do this. After the hurricanes coming so close together last year people here just decided to leave their boards up 'til the end of the season. It would have been great to see something other than the brown plywood.
Pati

PS: The fire department finally pitched a fit about access and people had to take them down.

This message was edited Jun 23, 2005 11:34 AM

Oh, I have GOT to alert my Artists' website friends about THIS! I'm going to go tell them right now. How awesome!!!! What a fabulous idea!!! Now, hopefully, they won't get used for a looooonng. time!!

They look fantastic Stacey and it sure is a fun way of making something pleasant to look at during a stressful situation.

Ah Pati, I'm so tired of plywood. I've been thinking of doing this party for a long time...lots of folks thought it was just plain strange but it turned out to be such fun.

Everyone got involved and everyone went home paint stained and smiling. The day was perfect, slightly overcast so it wasn't hot and no sun burns. The grass is blue in a few places but not bad and several other paint parties are in the offing...

Pam, maybe we should paint the other side of the boards too so we have something to look at from inside!!

Hopefully we have not tempted fate!

Gosh, Stacey, what a FUN thing to do! I bet it was a great party. : )

I'd paint the insides at least white. Keep the house from feeling quite so bleak and maybe reflect some candlelight, too.

It was great fun and it kept everyone busy.

My son did the invitations, thought you might like to see them. I loved that the background was a plywood board. Isn't he clever??

Great invitation!

Great excuse for a party!

Ha John, Summertime is party time so any excuse will do...

How neat is that!!! and such great work they turned out. You may start getting bids on some of these.
I love it all and think I should do this too.
I doubt mine will have the real flair your family has with the paints.
sidney

Go for it Sugar! This was so much fun. Seriously it was probably the best party we've had. Everyone was involved...and everyone got to watch the various works evolve. It was just great!

Here's the basics:

We painted our cut boards with several coats of white exterior paint and provided accent paint for the colors. We bought 99 cent ladles at Big Lots to dip paint into plastic hiball glasses and had taller, coated paper cups to help rinse brushes as they worked. We also handed out stacks of empty hiball glasses to mix colors.

The paints (and cups) were set up on a sheet of plywood on sawhorses and the brushes scattered for choosing.

The brushes were a mixture, 1 and 2 inch bristle brushes plus various sponge brushes that crafters use.

A roll of visqueen, long and narrow (50' x 3') was rolled out to set boards and paints on. It really worked to protect the grass from paint, splashed or spilled.

We set up 5 gallon buckets to dump the paint water and most folks hosed off first then went inside to use Lava soap on their hands. Our pool probably helped here too...LOL

My brother jokes that we should sell the boards on EBay and have professional shutters installed.
I say the best part is that all this original artwork by friends and family....is mine!! Ü

And, just think how much you will treasure those paintings many years down the road...

Floridian, you are going to have the prettiest house to ever face a hurricane. (Here's hoping that will be many years in the future). Dotti

Dotti, I also hope we won't have to use them for a looong time.
Besides....they might get damaged! LOL

Stacey, this is a fabulous idea! You've just invented a whole new art form that I'm sure will become part of Florida culture forever.

Stacey, although I really hope you do not need to put them up anytime soon, I do wonder what reactions your neighbors might have... and the local media if they get wind of them.

Very impressive! And it looks like everyone had a great time! I'm amazed at some of the results -- I've seen things hanging in galleries and museums that weren't as effectively composed and carried out as some of your storm shutters.

By the way, all. I had an idea that has apparently already been patented (from what my basic research at the online patent office indicated). For those of you in "hurricane alley" that may have short notice to put up shutters and take them down, you might consider installing some permanent snap type fasteners onto your window trim and drilling holes in your boards to fit the fasteners. That way, you don't have to destroy your window trim with nails or screws being put in and out at the whim of the weather.

There are several type fasteners that are probably already available in the big mega hardware stores. I happened to rent some scaffolding to try to top out some trees BEFORE they fell on my house during our last barrage of hurricanes. The scaffolding clips together with some nifty fasteners that would work perfectly for putting shutters up and taking them down more easily.

Maybe you've already got something like this and I'm way behind the times. We are fortunately in what seems to be a position of being sheltered from the storms, tucked under the armpit of Georgia and Florida and haven't had a direct hit by a hurricane since Dora in '64.
So, even though we have people making the last minute dash for plywood when the storms come close, it is not as often as in other parts of the state.

If anyone needs it, I could come up with some sort of diagram of the type of fasteners I'm talking about or some other possible methods of avoiding the nailing and screwing each time a hurricane watch goes into effect.

Thanks for the great art pix! I'm referring this page to several artist friends!

Jeremy

Jeremy, I leave that part to my DH but I know he's been talking of some 'new way' to hang the boards. We have a stucco type facing over wood frame so I know it has been a problem. I'll let him know of your idea and you may just hear from him...Thanks!

AGal, I'd love to see more folks doing this...I just hate plain old plywood! What fun to see communities involved.

Darius, there really isn't anyone to see them. Sniff. We only have one neighbor that passes our house because of a shared driveway and they board up and leave during storms. They must have seen the paintings scattered across the yard though...They don't talk to us much because I let my "weeds" grow for the butterflies, etc.

I'd rather have butterflies than neighbors anyway...

Darius, I'm with you. We are fortunate in that we don't have any really close neighbors, but even those farther away can be a problem. Butterflies at least are quiet, lovely, and don't complain about DH's habit of collecting. Dotti

I guess I'm lucky being in the sub-tropics of NE Fla. I can grow enough plants tall enough that the neighbors will soon lose track that my house and I ever existed here in the jungle on the corner.