The Best of Bay Life

SEPTEMBER 2010

Painting with Sarah Haas Otts

The Best of Bay Life

Into the

Arts

Plus: More hometown talent BayFest music festivalRaspberry Truffle martini

Glassblowing at The Hot Shop

Plus:

8 Zalea | September 2010 September 2010 | Zalea 9

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34FRESH TALENTIn the studio with Sarah Haas Otts

16FOODDavid Holloway on food as art

22BEHIND THE LENSBrad Puckett chooses family and photography

Photo by G.M. Andrews

Photo by G.M. Andrews

insidethisissue

SEPTEMBER 2010 CONTENTS

OBJECTSItems for game day get-togethers 11

ETC.Express yourself with art lessons 12

AT HOMEFrank Ledbetter bends the rules with handcrafted metal décor 13

WINEBring diversity to the table with Australia’s First Families of Wine 19

TRAVELExplore modern-day Vietnam and Halong Bay 40

PURSUITSLearn a few new steps with group dance classes 43

ABOUT TOWNA primer in “Old Mobile,” saying farewell to a few good friends, and a tribute the city’s artistic historian 44

BRIDAL ANNOUNCEMENTSPresenting our area’s newlyweds 50

CALENDARWhat’s new, what’s now, what’s to come – plus a look at this year’s Bayfest music festival 60

RESOURCESFind more information related to this month’s articles 71

ARTS & ANTIQUES DIRECTORYA guide to local retailers in Mobile and Baldwin 72

SWEET ENDINGSUnwind with a Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Martini from the Royal Scam 74

Photo by G.M. AndrewsCover design by Andy Zak

Photo by Bill Starling

Photo by Brad Puckett

26GRIT & GRACEGlassblowing demonstrations at The Hot Shop

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| By MICHELLE ROBERTS MATTHEWS | Photography by G.M. ANDREWS |

The Sky’s the Limit

Mobile painter Sarah Haas Otts turns familiar landscapes into dreamy scenes

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Painting is the only vocation Sarah Haas Otts has ever known. As a child, she was into “craftsy” things, then she discovered her talent for painting in high school. Friends of the family would come over, admire her artwork hanging on the walls, and ask to buy it. It was thrilling to be able to make extra money doing something she enjoyed. And to-day, she’s still selling things the same way. Otts jokes that the plaster walls of her Midtown home are full of nail holes where paintings once hung, then were taken down to be exhibited or sold. But she’s not crazy about displaying her own art because she is critical of it, Otts said. She’d rather collect the work of artists she admires, such as painter Bonnie Fuchs and photographer Rebekah Webb, with whom she has swapped artwork. Otts, who works mostly in oil but also dabbles in charcoal, is known for her subtle landscapes and abstract paintings that range in size from large canvases to small works on paper. Her work is sold at Ashland Gallery in Mid-town, at Merrill Miller Interiors in Gulf Shores and at the Lyons Share Gallery in Fairhope.

Subtle landscapes in a subdued palette

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Since establishing her studio, Sarah Haas Otts offers lessons in oil, watercolor

and acrylic to children and adults. Her classes are a mixture of beginners and more-

advanced students. She teaches up to 10 children at a time (ages six to nine and

ages 10 and up) and up to seven adults. Classes last an hour and a half for children

and two hours for adults. Cost is $30 per session.

“I don’t paint in a tight and orderly way – everything is loose and relaxed and

enjoyable, and my lessons are the same way,” Otts said. “A lot of people like the

looseness of my work, and I try to carry the same idea over in my classes.”

“I don’t have any limits. I ’m young, and I have

plenty of time.”

After graduating from St. Paul’s, Otts went to the University of Mississippi, a col-lege she chose because it was close enough and yet far enough away from home – and she liked the artsy town of Oxford, which reminded her of Fairhope. Ole Miss also offered her the Southern university experi-ence, with football games and an active social life, as she worked toward her degree in fine arts with an emphasis in painting. All along, Otts knew she would return to Mobile to start her career as an artist. And in the fall of 2007, she started looking for studio space. Her father had purchased the building next door to his business on Old Shell Road in Midtown and planned to tear it down for a parking lot. But Otts had other ideas. The young painter turned the nonde-script brick building into a wonderful studio space. Two large windows along the front, each displaying one of her paintings, give her plenty of natural light to work and teach. Double doors open into one large room with classroom space on one side, which consists of several paint-splattered tables. On the other side, she has a small office and an area where she works, usually on several paintings at once. Each week, Otts devotes Tuesdays and Fridays to her own work, and she paints around her teaching schedule on the other days. Lately, many of her pieces have touch-es of gold and silver leaf mixed in with the paint “to imply light,” she said. And on a shelf next to the easel where she works,

a thick sheet of glass serves as the palette where she mixes her colors and achieves just the right texture. Color is very important in her paintings, Otts explained, and the first thing she does with her students is teach them the color wheel. “It’s what people notice about a painting before they notice what it’s a paint-ing of,” she said. Gaining experience, Otts’ work has evolved from brighter, bolder, “obvious” color to a more subtle palette. These days, she often finds inspiraiton exploring Mobile Bay and the Mobile River Delta by boat with her husband. “My landscapes are low-lying areas of the bay and the delta,” she said. “I love the solitude, the untouched na-ture of the delta. It’s like a no-man’s land.” Because Otts works with oil, which is applied in layers, she has to allow plenty of drying time as she works. A painting typi-cally takes a week from start to finish, and the price of her work ranges from $100 to $3,000. Recently married, Otts plans to keep her roots in Mobile as she tries to extend the reach of her work to other, larger cities. “I’d definitely like to expand into galleries around the country,” she said. “I don’t have any limits. I’m young, and I have plenty of time.”

For more information about Otts’ studio and art lessons, see Resources on page 71.

September 2010 | Zalea 39

Learning Experience