Looking Through Time

My "Looking Through Time" photo greeting card was added to a New Year's Treasury on Etsy!

This is one of my personal favorite photos from our trip to Paris last year. I took it looking through the clock at the Musee d'Orsay. It was so cool, looking out at Paris through this incredible clock face! I'm only wishing I had taken a greater variety of angles; they could have been really interesting. Alas, I was in a rush to see more fabulous art!

If you wish to see the treasury, you can click here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=30219

It expires on January 1 at 11:53 p.m.

ACEOs

I've decided to do my first attempt at an ACEO. ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. They can be done in any medium, they can be originals, they can be open edition prints or limited edition prints...the only rule is that they have to measure 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

Some people collect these, and now I know why! They are ADORABLE! (No kidding, I giggled with delight when I saw them!) And because they are miniature, they are also inexpensive.

So, I am doing my first few, and we'll see what the response is like. The first one is now available in my Etsy store. I had them professionally giclee printed on Somerset Velvet archival paper, which is a nice, thick, textured paper. I, of course, could not resist adding a miniature Certificate of Authenticity to ship with my tiny little works of art!

Moody Flower

I'm really drawn to this faded black-eyed Susan. I can't say why, for sure, but I think it has to do with the fact that I see an unusual beauty in this faded bloom that I don't see in the fresh ones. Maybe it's that the colors are more complex in the faded blooms, before they turn totally brown.



I completed this pastel last night. I've cropped it to 10 x 8, which is not only better for framing, but I think makes it a more interesting composition than what I had originally planned out.

After the Ice Storm

New Card Series

I'm working on a new series of photos/cards to introduce on Etsy. France is my muse of the moment, specifically the trip to Paris I took with my husband a little over a year ago!

Today I listed the following photo greeting cards in my Etsy store. They are both photographs I took of Monet's waterlily pond while visiting Monet's garden in Giverny, France.

I personally love the calm tranquility of these scenes. Spending the morning there really made me understand why Monet was so inspired by his gardens and his waterlilies.



(P.S. If you're curious to see how the finished cards look, click on one of the photos in this post, and you'll be taken to my Etsy listing where you can see the finished product!)

Current Works-In-Progress

I have a couple of pastels in progress right now. I always have more than one going at a time, because I usually need to put one away for awhile when I get stuck, but I still want to be painting. And sometimes, in the course of painting something completely different, I realize exactly what it is the other painting needs. Funny how that works!


I'm feeling like this pastel of my mother-in-law's old barn is nearing completion. It's almost there...

The pastel below is one that I almost threw away back in May. I just got stuck and couldn't get unstuck. It had no depth to it at all and I was frustrated. I recently decided I'd get really bold and play around with the color on it, since I was going to throw it out anyhow, and I'm now beginning to see some of the depth I was unable to achieve in May. I'm still not sure I can "save it," but I'm learning a lot from this painting as I'm playing around with it.

Seeing it photographed always gives me a new, more objective set of eyes, and I think I need to pull those shadows out even more than I have...and I thought I was being bold with that purple! Time to grow a pair and go even bolder!

Comments, suggestions, feedback...anyone?

MOO!

I got my new MOO mini-cards recently (http://www.moo.com/), and I LOVE them! I am so impressed by the image quality and the nice heavy weight of the stock they are printed on. The coolest thing about MOO cards is that you can have a different image on nearly every card...HOW FUN!

They know they have a cool thing going, too...they even sell special frames for COLLECTIONS of the mini cards! I can't wait to start handing them out to people!

Busy, busy, busy!

I'm realizing that I haven't blogged in awhile. I have been working on various projects, including organizing my digital photographs in Photoshop Elements, adding keywords and tags so I can more easily find specific photos that I'm looking for. Let's just say THAT'S going to be a work in progress for some time...I discovered that I have more than 20,000 digital photos on my external hard drive alone!

Oh my!

I have also been working on uploading more of my photos to my photo website and adding keywords there...the link is in the right column, but if you prefer to type the address into your browser, it's http://mdevensfitz.zenfolio.com/.

I'm also deciding what to add next to my Etsy store. I think it's time to add some greeting card "sets," notecards and notecard "sets." With the holidays approaching, this would be an easier option for some potential buyers than sending me a message asking me to do so.

Regarding this blog, I've been spending time debating with myself what the "format" of this blog should be. While I want to add neew art and photography as I go, I have some less-recent favorites that I want to share as well. So, please forgive me if I am violating some unwritten code of art blog protocol, but I've decided that I will be sharing old favorites mixed in with new stuff.

On that note, here are a pair of pastel paintings that I really like. I worked on these last winter when the weather was so dreary. We got so much ice that I couldn't even take the kids outside to play in the snow...they just slid around on top of it. I was really needing to expose myself to some color and light, so I decided to MAKE some!

"Dreams of Spring"

9" x 12"

Pastel

"Grand Opening"

9" x 12"

Pastel

Both were juried into this year's Wilkes Barre Fine Arts Fiesta, along with my "Portrait of a Stunning Redhead." The best part about painting these, though, is how that process pulled me out of a bad case of the mid-winter blues!

Portrait of a Stunning Redhead

I just discovered my greeting card made with this image in an Etsy treasury entitled, "Redheads." This painting is one of my personal favorites. I completed this pastel last winter during a dreary period of lots and lots of ice. I just needed to immerse myself in vibrant color for awhile! The original painting is 9" x 12" and is not for sale. However, greeting cards and giclees on paper or canvas are available.

Please send me a message if you are interested!

Photos in the Spotlight

I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of my photos listed in treasuries on Etsy...a treasury is where somebody on Etsy puts together a group of their 12 favorite items and posts them for all to see. They usually follow some type of theme, but they can also just be a list of favorites. It is essentially free word-of-mouth advertising on Etsy, and I think it's a fabulous compliment!

So, I was honored to stumble across the following two photos in two separate treasuries.

I call the photograph above, "Drip!" This is a photograph of a Mexican sunflower that I took in Monet's garden on our trip to Paris last year. The air was pleasantly misty with an amazing filtered light effect that I have never seen anywhere else. The mist was condensing on all the flowers in the famous garden, which made for some wonderful photographic opportunities!

I found my above photograph, "Burning Bush," in a separate treasury. This photograph was taken after the first snow last winter. I just loved the effect of the white snow on the colorful leaves. I'm so glad to discover that someone else loves it, too!

My Etsy is Open!

My Etsy store is now up and running, and I was very excited to sell my first item already! You can get to my Etsy from the sidebar, or by typing http://www.followingmymuse.etsy.com/ into your browser. I've started out by offering photo greeting cards, but plan to expand into offering giclee prints of my artwork and larger photographs.

You can also view and order my photographs by following my link on the sidebar..."My Photography."

My first sale was a greeting card containing the following image:

This is an historic mill in the French countryside somewhere between Giverny and Versailles. My husband and I were lucky enough to have lunch here on a trip to France. It was as peaceful and serene as it looks in the photo! Unfortunately, I do not recall the name of the mill or its historical significance...if anyone reading this post has that information for me, I'd love to hear from you!

FOLLOW UP: My dear friend, Sarah, who (along with her husband) traveled with us in Paris, had some information to share about this mill. It is called "Le Moulin de Fourges," and is on the Epte River about 10 km outside of Giverny.

To quote Sarah, "The story of its construction may deliver the secret for this magic. It is told that the mill of Fourges was erected by the builders of the Hameau de la Reine (the Queen's Hamlet) near the Palace of Versailles, this replica of a village where Marie-Antoinette fancied herself a farmer, far from the Court constraints.

Today the place still diffuses serenity and harmony. It is well known by anglers, painters as well as gourmets coming from Paris or much further, like Hillary Clinton who dined here of a lobster salad and a loin of lamb."

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing this information with me, so I can share it with anyone else who loves this photo as much as I do!

What I Love About Autumn

Autumn painted her canvas with "weak-in-the-knees-stunning" color and light today. I'm making a point to appreciate it now, because winter comes early here, and all the colors will soon be gone.

My Road Home

Tree Of Light

Maple Swirl

No name for this one yet...I just loved the play of the blue-purple against the golden background. Any suggestions?