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?