We're Back into the Creating Mode

We are finally getting back into the swing of things.  Lots of rained out events, Denise's cough she couldn't get rid of, and the holidays slowed us down towards the end of last year, but we're happy the sun is out and we are back out in the garage eager to start working on fun and fabulous pieces.  Denise got me a really nice new camera over the holidays and I've been playing around with it, I know it will be great for showing our work on the blog and online.  I'll put up some pics of Denise's garden and we hope to photograph some of our latest pieces to put on here in the next few days.  We're also excited about a show coming up locally the first Friday and Saturday of March, I'll post the flyer and the info on here later today.

I've been working on some pillow designs, incorporating vintage jewelry and handpainted images, I'm still playing around with the concept but I like the few I've created already.

This pillow I had at our last art show where my daughter Sophie was also selling her designs and several people asked if this was a portrait of Sophie.  I sometimes sketch out what I want to do and other times I just pick up paintbrush and see what happens.  In this image I didn't work off a sketch and I was not intentionally thinking about Sophie as the inspiration, then over the holidays we were looking at photos of my girls when they were little and sure enough there were several photos of Sophie at about age 2 or 3 dressed in ballerina tutus and ski hats! It's funny how things you see and experience can influence you and your artwork sometimes without you even realizing it.

This image is similar to a mermaid I saw on a vintage advertisement for, I believe, bath salts.