Category Archives: Posts with Illustrations

“Riding With Freddie” remembers Dunedin’s friendliest resident

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"Riding With Freddie" painting
“Riding With Freddie” by Meps Schulte. 60×60 inches, acrylic.

Freddie Webb was a Dunedin icon, locally famous for her friendliness, humor, and comical headgear. She cruised the streets in a bright yellow golf cart adorned with teddy bears, inviting complete strangers to ride with her and joking with everyone she passed. As part of the “Love Downtown Dunedin” campaign, the Downtown Dunedin Merchants’ Association commissioned artist Margaret “Meps” Schulte to create a five-by-five-foot painting to commemorate Freddie’s 92-year life in Dunedin.

“Freddie was never afraid to talk to strangers, and she could get away with anything!” says Schulte. “She was a friendship ambassador to Dunedin visitors, and with all her kidding around and teasing, she kept folks in town from getting too serious.”

The centerpiece of the painting is a smiling image of Freddie offering candy to children from her golf cart. It’s surrounded by scenes from her life, including the home where she was born, the tree her sister planted in the 1930’s, and the home where she lived out her 92 years. The painting includes teddy bears, rubber duckies, Freddie sailing on St. Joseph Sound, and her signature hat, which was bright orange and fuzzy. There’s also a scene showing Freddie inviting a family to ride, something she did often.

In the spirit of Freddie, Schulte even delivered the painting from her studio in downtown Dunedin on the back of a golf cart. “It was too big to fit into a car, and it made people smile to see Freddie riding across town in a golf cart,” she said. “She will never be forgotten.”

The painting is available for viewing at Lafayette & Rushford, in downtown Dunedin at the corner of Broadway and Main Street. There will be an official unveiling on Saturday, November 7 at 4 pm at the Mural & Canvas Art Walk & Block Party. The event will be held outdoors, with social distancing and safety protocols, at 730 Broadway. Tickets are available from the DDMA website, lovedowntowndunedin.com.

Love Downtown Dunedin is a new DDMA marketing campaign, targeted specifically towards the revitalization of the downtown Dunedin area. It includes murals and local art projects, events, and merchandise that celebrates the comradery of the community.

The Autographed E-Book

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For readers who must save a tree,
There’s now an e-Book, and it’s free,
It’s a little bit newer,
And the drawings are fewer,
But you’ll find that it still sounds like me.

The Kindle Edition of Strangers Have the Best Candy is now available! The download is free today, June 28. Since I cannot autograph your eBook, I’m offering an autographed Happy Spot to anyone who downloads the eBook before July 10! Put your request in a comment on this post, and I’ll contact you for the mailing address.

Although this edition doesn’t have the full quota of illustrations, the best ones are included. Frank Lloyd Bear and I have also included a teaser for our next book, The Joyful Bear.

Meps-Sig-Plus-candy

Still Life With Fruit

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There are critical foods that I lack,
So I pedal with trailer and pack,
To buy berries and greens,
And some snappy fresh beans,
And it’s only 12 miles, out and back.

I admit, I ate a few of the strawberries while I was making the drawing below. I bet Cezanne and Caraveggio were sometimes tempted to eat the stuff they were painting, too. You can find thousands of beautiful fruit still-lifes on Google Images.

Drawing of fruits and vegetables

Fresh local food

You need more directions?

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After my last post, Come Monday, Jayne asked “So where is St. Marys?? :-)” She was writing from Seattle. Then Steve, writing from Paradise Village, outside Puerto Vallarta, said, “We need more directions about St. Marys. Just wondering where you are.”

So I decided, instead of trying to answer in words, I’d draw a couple of maps. The first one shows where St. Marys, Georgia is. The second one shows what you will find if you make it all the way here.

These are not to scale. But of course, you knew that.

Map of the US and southern states showing St. Marys, Georgia

Map of the US and southern states showing St. Marys, Georgia

Diagram of boatyard

St. Marys Boat Services “Features”

A chilly Georgia morning

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Now that I’ve completed over 100 illustrations  for my book, I’ve decided to start adding pen-and-ink drawings to the blog, too. I hope you enjoy these new “doodles!” ~1meps

~~~

Original illustration by Margaret Meps Schulte

Lucky kingfisher

With temperatures in the low 30s, the folks of St. Marys stayed inside today. They even closed the schools, just in case there was ice on the roads (there wasn’t). So when I set off on my bicycle this morning, there were more animals than people.

A chorus of birds serenaded me from the trees as I headed north from the boatyard. Then I turned west on the North River Causeway, pedaling across a small bridge and through golden marshes at high tide. Across the river, the Spanish moss-draped trees were full of big white blobs — egrets, huddled against the cold. To the south, a single great blue heron skimmed the surface of the water.

Farther along, I heard the distinctive chattering call of a kingfisher. I looked up just as he ended with a loud “SQUAWK!” A hawk had swooped down out of the trees, intent on attacking the small, noisy kingfisher. He failed, and the kingfisher zoomed past me, announcing to the world that he would live another day. The hawk circled back into the trees, disappointed.

The rest of the animals on my route were silent; even the dogs who usually charge their fences to bark at me were affected by the cold. I hardly recognized the one who is usually the most vociferous — he just looked at me and wagged his tail in cold, silent solidarity. The rest of the canines, the lucky ones, were inside their owners’ warm homes.

Original illustration by Margaret Meps Schulte

Needy kittens

I passed a house with a sign that said, “But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me,” and a few doors down, two tiny feral kittens sat on the sidewalk. They were poor and needy creatures, too cold and hungry to even run away.

By the time I arrived at the library, I was thoroughly chilled. I was glad to spend the entire day in that quiet place of refuge, writing and drawing. Silent, like the kittens, but sheltered and grateful.