Her mind swims in the miniature soothing sea, calmed by the soft and steady drip-drippings on the bathroom tile. She stirs, softly sighing, adrift in the moments between these faithful droplet sounds. It is as though someone- somewhere were gingerly dropping a string of pearls, piece by piece into a quiet pool.

Her half-closed eyes still see that warm glow of the candles he'd arranged all around her. Her lounging long lime-green tail hangs just over the lip of the tub with thousands of scales-turned emerald mirrors sparkling with her satisfied breath. The sparse walls seem to breathe with her as the shadows flutter with these quiet candles. She feels a calm, in this wafting humid fog.

She remembers meeting the eyes of a lonesome mariner dining outdoors. It was as if she had passed through the portal of his hungry pupils that day to end up here: in his large still ‘Tide-Pool’. He was the solitary soul with the sparkling sunlight glistening upon that dark green bottle of his. The fresh memory brings a smile while she rests upon his great cast-iron tub of calming wonder. She enjoys the warm water that smells like flowers. The candles evoke the scents of odd trees and some even smell like the bourbon scent of a past lover- a sea-captain. Ah... him.
He was a strange one. Alas, he thought to steal her away from her dear sea. O but they had their times- looking up at the stars. He gave her a sip of that dark bourbon-gold.
The first time she had it, her lips puckered and her eyes burned. She clutched her free hand to his big shoulder as his loud belly-laughter overpowered her feeling of betrayal at this painful taste. Soon she was confused, on her way to a state of laughter that seemed to entangle itself in and out of his own. Before she knew it, she was tempting the fates with another sip! That was his real gift to her.
The Old Bourbon captain had given her the best laugh of her life. That was perhaps all... but it was unforgettable. The long-lost smell of his belly-laugh and bourbon teased the resting fish with the upward curling corners of those kissable lips. Behold her glittering eye-lashes as they flutter beneath her dark, wet, copper-brown seaweed hair.

“...And this one. The Green-Bottle Man.", she muses. He could be the great great grandson of the Old Bourbon Captain. From the moment the Green-Bottle Man saw her and dove off of his chair into the dark water towards her, he brought the promise of a novel life.
“Do you dare to live on the land with me?”, He said to her during a moonlight swim. She wanted to dare like he did that day infront of all the Wharf restauranteurs. He took her to see trees that reminded her of the kelp forests in her sunny waters.
She carries him to new shores. He carries her to the wondrous wilderness. They revell in their days under great Cedars, breathing in the wind. —days of awe indeed.
"Hmmmmm..." she muses again with a contented smile, staring into the flames of his waxen towers as they fall upon her afterglow.
Her eyes close again and off she swims into the candle-lit sea of her past. There is nothing else for a mermaid quite like surrendering to the memories of her conquests...
—S.S.Landerman, Mermay 2020

And here is "MERBATH" is the time-lapse AND GHOST-STORYTELLING in all her glory with the ghost story that spawned her read to you. This was a special piece. It was my first ever painting using gouache paints and it is a remake of an earlier piece though the story remained the same. It was my first piece for Mermay of 2021. I only made a few mermaids this month. Rather than paint a small mermaid picture every day of the month- this year I opted instead to focus on a few piece and really throw myself and time into them. I also went up to 14x20 sheets of cold press watercolor paper.

MERBATH is now Available AS A GLORIOUS PRINT IN MULTIPLE SIZES right over HERE

If you enjoyed I invite you to add more of this kind of haunting enchantment into your life. Follow me on facebook: and would very much love your support on patreon:

Thank ever so much.