Hanging a map in the Lake House

Ain't she pertty. She's 2 feet by 4 feet and a little bit country. She's all dressed up in a real barn wood frame. There willl be a crowd around her like a crackling fire on a cold winter night. 

This map will soon be hanging in a lake house of a customer on Pickwick Lake.  I've been to Pickwich Lake a few times and it's a very popular lake. 

Interestingly, I often get comments about the tiny mermaid hidden in the waters of all my maps. Folks love to tell me about the search for the mermaid. They say the children really enjoy hunting for her and are thrilled when they spot her in the waters. Oh yeah, some folks tell me that she moves, but I'm not sure that I believe that. LeoLakes.com

Most folks add a star to a special place on the lake such as a lake house or where they caught that big fish. I've been doing lake, river and bay maps for approximately seven years. Over the years, I have experimented with different elements of map art in order to provide the best and most unique map on the market. Folks will be drawn to the map like a crackling fire on a cold winter night.  I try very hard to make my maps special by adding interest to the maps. LeoLakes.com

I have hundreds of maps on my website that can be purchased right from the site, or I can do custom and personalized vintage style lake maps, too. Lake maps will add beauty to your Lake House Decor! Find out more interesting facts about my treasured maps by going to LeoLakes.com. 

Lucy, my childhood dog

While growing up, I had a dog named Lucy. Lucy was a white, long haired mutt that had little black spots sprinkled around her coat. We took her on all our fishing trips. She was a great fishing dog and would watch the bobber for hours. When I would get a bite, she would go "berserk", knowing that a fish was soon to be near. This dog loved the water, she would often jump in the water while we were fishing. Then, come out of the water and shake, shake, shake..... water going all over near by fishermen. 

One time, when I was swimming in the river and Lucy was up on the bank watching. I decide to play a little joke on her to see what she may do. I acted as if I was drowning and called for Lucy to save me. You know what, she jumped in and swam to me. I grabbed her collar and she dog paddled back to shore. Amazing, I was saved by Lucy the water dog.........

One of my favorite things to do with her was toss her a biscuit after she had eaten. She would be too full to eat, but would take the biscuit to a spot and drop it, while sniffing around. She would dig a 1-2 inch hole and place the biscuit in the hole. With her nose, she would push the dirt back over the biscuit until it was completely cover. Funny thing, her white nose tuned dirt brown, so you could always tell that she had buried something.    

In the studio, I have a stuffed dog that I call Lucy that is in honor of my beloved childhood dog. Lucy was a mix breed and loved the water. Whenever we traveled to a river, lake or bay, you could bet that Lucy was in the water. 

Paddle over to my website, LEOLAKES.com. I paint beautiful lake, river and bay maps. They make great Christmas gifts for the lake lover, lake house, or fisherman. Best lake lover gift ever....

The Florida Keys Treasure Map

Folks will be dreaming about this place in a few weeks! Just completed this personalized canvas, decor map of The Florida Keys. I've been here many times and it's a fine location. 

Check Out my vintage style lake, river and bay decor maps. I call my maps treasured maps because most folks have that special body of water that they treasure. These maps make great gifts for the lake house owner, lake lover, or fisherman. 

I have over two hundred on my website that can be purchased right from the site, or I can do custom and personalizes lake, river or bay maps, too. If you would like to see more and read about my treasured maps go to LeoLakes.com.

Gifts for the lake house

In the studio, I've been working on this 24"x48" map of Lake Winnipesaukee. The customer preferred a black frame and I think it looks great.

Paddle over to my website, LEOLAKES.com. I paint beautiful lake, river and bay decor maps. Folks are discovering that these decor maps are wonderfully unique gifts that become family heirlooms. Oh yeah, I hide things in the lake waters, such as a tiny mermaid/fish. Folks love to search for them. I call my maps, treasured maps because most folks have that special body of water that they treasure. My treasured maps makes the best 2016 Christmas gifts for the fisherman, lake lover, or Lake house. 

As you can see, my maps make a great gift.  Orders pick-up during the holiday's, so order soon. Click here www.LeoLakes.com for more information.

While I'm not in my studio....

While I'm not in my studio, I take my camera and roam in our ten acre woods. I love to take photos of any animal that wander near. Check these neighbors out, they came by for a little salt. I placed a salt block near to see if I could take a few photos of deer. Here's a beautiful eight point buck with the wide rack near the salt block. The weather this summer in Tennessee has been rain about every three to four days. The foliage has remained lush and green. I think that this has created the perfect conditions for deer. This year is a trophy year for deer around here, I have never seen so many large rack deer!

He was traveling with this beautiful ten point buck. If you look closely, you can see that the fur fuzz still on his rack. I'm not sure how much more his rack will grow, but it's already a fine example. 

Here's a photo of both bucks looking at me. Lucky for me, they are not too skittish at this time of year. These two allowed me to snap picture after picture. I would say that in a few weeks, I won't be able to get within a 100 yards of them. 

Notice that this ten point buck is sticking out his tongue. I'm sure he's thinking "boy this salt makes me thirsty. I bet that they head down to the Sycamore Creek after getting their fill of salt.

This deer looks pretty ruff, see his back with the marks. Well, he is losing his summer coat, which will change to a darker, thicker winter coat. Molting usually starts at the end of summer and is fairly rapid.  

I grew tired of taking pictures and decided to move as close to the deer as possible. It wasn't long and the deer decided that I was too near and decided to bolt.

I hope these "big boys" come back to the salt block so that I can document the growth of their rack. While I'm not photographing deer in my ten acre woods, I'm in my studio painting lake, river and bay maps.  As you can see, my maps make great gifts for the lake house owner, lake lover, or fisherman. I have over two hundred on my website that can be purchased right from the site, or I can do custom and personalizes lake, river or bay maps, too. I have decor maps of Old Hickory, Table Rock Lake, Lake Wallenpaupack, Lake Lanier, Toledo Bend, Kentucky Lake, and many others. Oh yeah, I hide a tiny mermaid in the waters of all my maps that folks love to search for. Find out more interesting facts about my treasured maps by going to LeoMaps.com. 

Oh yeah, this is part of my studio! I think I have become a map elf!

Leo Maps & Old Field Studio Anniversary

Back in October 2007, I started Old Field Studio. In the beginning, Old Field Studio was focused only on wildlife art. I painted in acrylics on Masonite Art Board. My art had a blurred background, which was done with an airbrush.

The foreground, which was mostly waterfowl, was painted very crisp. This effect gave the picture an almost 3-D look. In fact, a lot of folks thought my art was a photograph. The top of this blog has one of my images showing a great blue heron which was cropped from this picture below.

Folks enjoyed my wildlife art, but I discovered that the market was over saturated with wildlife art, even though I did okay with it. During this time, I wanted a decor map of a river that I grew up on as a kid. After some research, I found that nice decor maps of waterways didn’t exist. There were navigation, road, and topography maps, but not a really nice, vintage style lake, river or bay map that would look great hanging in a home or office.


Luckily, with my artistic talent and creativity, I decided to paint my own map of that treasured river. I experimented with different colors and styles to finally settle on a vintage style that gave the painting a golden look. I added a few symbols such as the ruby meridian, wildlife and vintage plane.  


Once completed, I found that others liked the map so much that they asked for copies. This gave me the idea to paint additional rivers, lakes and bays for others to treasure their favorite waters. After a year and a half of experimenting, Leo Lakes Treasured Maps was born, which is part of Old Field Studio. It's hard to believe that its been eight years and I'm still in business. That's pretty much the story of Old Field Studio in a nutshell.

Check-out my website LeoLakes.com

Best gift for the lake lover, lake house, or fisherman!

Here's the best gift for the lake lover, lake house, or fisherman. Give them a beautiful vintage style map of their favorite lake, river or bay. You can even label their favorite location. Also, there's a tiny mermaid in the waters of every map. See if you can find her on the map below.

Visit my website to see more. I have over two hundred lake, river and bay maps on my website that can be purchased right from the site, or I can do custom and personalized lake, river or bay maps, too. If you would like to see more and read about my treasured maps go to LeoMaps.com. 

As you can see, my maps make a great gift. . 

Leo Lakes Treasured maps

My goal is to make my maps almost glow. Check-out this beautiful map of Lewis Smith Lake. It's a large 2 feet x 4 feet and printed on  canvas.  

 On large maps, I hand paint the waterfowl to make them pop and to appear as if they float over the map. I just noticed in this photo that if you look closely you may find something swimming in the water.

I hide things in the waters of the river, lake or bay. I don't hide snapping turtles, but I do hide a tiny mermaid/fish in the waters of all my lake map paintings that folks love to search for. 

I call my maps treasured maps because most folks have that special body of water that they treasure. These maps make great gifts for the lake house owner, lake lover, or fisherman. I have over two hundred on my website that can be purchased right from the site, or I can do custom and personalizes lake, river or bay maps, too. If you would like to see more and read about my treasured maps go to LeoMaps.com. 

 

As you can see, my maps make a great gift. To see more of my work click above.

Remember: Get away from the big screen and get on a big stream, if not, put one on the wall."

leomaps.com

Decor Maps

Believe it or not, It's been seven years since I started Old Field Studio. It began, Oct 2007 when I started painting wildlife and waterfowl. Along the way, it developed into painting waterfowl and vintage style maps together. Here's a great example of combining the two, Toledo Bend Lake in Texas with common waterfowl flying over. I sell the maps under the name "Leo Lakes" because Leo is my initials, Larry Engene Oldfield. I started off doing maps of only lakes, so that's the reason for "Lakes." Now, I'm doing maps of everything, rivers, bays, islands, farms, etc... I've collected several domain names, DecorMaps.com, OldFieldStudio.com, LeoMaps.com, TheArtOfMaps.com and LeoLakes.com. I am thinking of changing my website name from LeoLakes.com, to LeoMaps or TheArtOfMaps. It seems to me that these names better define my business.

Anyway, I continue developing the art of maps. I added a poem to this map, which when you read it, you actually get a feeling of being at the lake.

I hide a tiny mermaid/fish in the waters of all my lake map paintings that folks love to search for. I call my maps treasured maps because most folks have that special body of water that they treasure. These maps make great Christmas gifts for the lake house owner, lake lover, or fisherman. I have over two hundred on my website that can be purchased right from the site, or I can do custom and personalizes lake, river or bay maps, too. If you would like to see more and read about my treasured maps go to LeoMaps.com.