Tuesday Talent - Sandy Mastroni

So utterly original and by the same part odd, I love Sandy Mastroni's dolls.  Be they the direct gaze of her little girls or the grumpy lumpy ones that look so cross.  It is the stare that holds you but look beyond to notice all the subtle painterly details that make up her folk art dolls.

Sandy is from Connecticut in the US and according to her blog has one husband and four cats, a splendid ratio . You can find lots of her work on Pinterest and more information on 'smastroni.blogspot.com'.  She makes a variety of doll style, from these starry eyed youngsters to more challenging ruddy nosed young ladies that hold your gaze with an intelligent glare.  Sandy paints both canvas and plates, makes beautifully painted cloth girl and boy dolls as well as lovely cross cat dolls. All her work has a certain style to it that you can recognise easily and a charm that is all her own.  She has an Etsy shop that is chocked full of all kinds of work, really worth a peep and very affordable but sadly doesn't ship outside of North America,

She describes her work as Contemporary Folk Art and indeed has a painting in the permanent collection of The Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art but also as outsider art.  Well odd or not I genuinely enjoy her work and am delighted to share her with you.