She sees-and paints-Santas in spindles

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BRENDA CONYERS
She starts with their little noses and brow bone, then looks intently into the little spaces where eyes will go.


“I have to look at them to decide what their character will be; I try to give each one their own personality,” says Elaine Ewert, a Santa painter from Marion.


A former art teacher at West Middle School in Liberal, Ewert first started painting Santas on pickets at the request of a friend.


“A teacher-friend of mine from Liberal saw some picket Santas and thought they would be cute, so I started painting one for her,” Ewert said.


Since then she has added gourds to her portfolio.


“I think it was ’92, well, maybe ’93,” she said. “My friend read something in a magazine about spindle Santas and wanted one, so I started painting spindle Santas.”


Since then Ewert has painted more than 1,000 spindle Santas which have found their way all over the country and on both coasts.


Ewert uses spindles from stairways, bedposts and legs of tables, just to name a few sources.


The smallest spindle she has painted, she says, was about an inch tall. The tallest was nearly five feet.


“I have even painted one that was thinner than a pencil,” she said.


Ewert is always on the lookout for spindles of all different shapes and sizes for her craft.


“People who know I do this bring me spindles and, if I’m not home, when I get home I may find one left on the porch,” she said. “I get them at garage sales, and find them laying besides trash cans. Once, I even pulled out a beautiful one that was burning in a trash fire.”


Ewert remembers one garage sale tale in particular.


“Gary, my husband, and I bought a bed for the spindles,” she said. “It was too big to get home, so we asked for a hammer and saw and just went to town. Those people looked at us kind of funny.”


While sharing the tales of her treasure hunts, she is quick to say, “I have never trespassed to get one-though I have been tempted.”


Her Santas are dressed in the traditional red suits, but each year her shades differ somewhat.


“I mix the paint up each time, and each time it is a little more different than the last time.”


Her Santas usually have blue eyes. But she received a request to paint a Hispanic Santa and gave him brown eyes.


“One year I gave the Santas little smiles with teeth showing, and my teacher friend, who helps market the Santas now, called me right away and said to leave the teeth out. She doesn’t want bald heads or teeth showing.”


Some of the St. Nicks are tall and thin, while others are short and round. Some have tall hats, and others have little round knobs. Some have wavy beards and some have straight. Some have long white hair, and others shoulder-length. They have sharp noses, long faces, and each one carries a different stamp of Ewert’s own personality.


Besides Santa, Ewert has also painted Uncle Sams for the Fourth of July, and even a few witches.


“I tried ghosts, but I like things with character in them, and that was hard to do with ghosts,” she said


Ewert, a graphics designer for Print Source, includes her family in the painting project.


She says she used to do the work by herself, but in recent years has recruited her husband, Gary, to help with the sanding and application of bases.


Her two children, Zach and Amanda, have also gotten into the act. Sister-in-law Donna Hajek has helped out, too.


And, of course, so does Izzie, her boxer dog. While Izzie may not help Ewert in the traditional ways, you can clearly see in the quaint upstairs art studio that she has been a source of inspiration.


Across from her painting table sits a little Christmas tree with lights, red ribbon and lots of boxer ornaments.


On the little shelf hanging above her desk stand-and sit-little ceramic boxers from years of collecting.


On the floor beside her work table sits Izzie with her sad eyes and Christmas scarf, but looking content to be with her family.


Around the room are boxes full of spindles-all sizes, shapes and colors. They wait for Ewert to bring them to Christmas life.


Ewert says people have asked her to make other characters, such as angels and nativity figures. But for now she says, “I have to paint what I see in the spindles.”

More from article archives
Trojans beat Junction City for 3rd place at SES
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DR Shannon Kroeker scored 22 points and Amber Hefley and...
Read More