Dead Fly Show - Finally!

See all 100 works art opening at The Art Academy of Milton, 38 S Front Street, Milton, PA, 17847. November 14, 2025 and running through December in the third floor gallery. Meet the artist on Friday evening from 6 to 10 pm.

 

Dead Fly 68 Neon Fly

oil on canvas 8"x10"

     Every now and then our local PBS station shows Bob Rossi reruns on Sunday mornings. I like to watch these. Bob Rossi’s calm voice and encouragement is kind of like going to church for me. I also learn about painting. Every now and then he starts with solid black paint on the canvas. I decided to try this with a dead fly as the subject. One nice thing about doing a series of the same thing over and over is that each time I sit down in front of a blank canvas or piece of paper at least I know what the subject will be, so only have to concentrate on the medium.

 

Dead Fly Number 2

Splat

5"x7" oil on canvas

This one went really fast. I used a pallet knife for the most part, then added the shadow. It's oil on canvas done very quickly. Although I wanted to save all the works (the first one belongs to my son) and not sell them till the entire project was completed, a friend of mine just really liked this one, so I sold it to her. 

 

Dead Fly Number One

oil on canvas 5"x7"

This is my first painting of a dead fly. I did this in 2015 as part of my Vermin Series - insects and animals we live with but don't necessarily like. My son really liked this painting so I gave it to him for Christmas. Some of his friends saw it and said, "Wow! I really like this one. Can your Mom do some more?" So I did... I did 99 more in various mediums, techniques, sizes, and attitudes.

 

Dead Fly 100 - Covid Fly

Dead Fly 100

The Numbers Increase

The final work in this series is a large painting done with drips of acrylic paint. My daughter and I had just watched a movie about Jackson Pollack and I wanted to try my hand at a large drip painting. The area on my studio floor at the Art Academy of Milton provided the space for this. It was 2021 - still locked down from Covid and every day new infections were being reported - hence the red line going off the scale. The disease is all around us like a swarm of flies but there is a safe space near the middle.