Always Circling Back to Watercolors

I love the texture and smell of my oil paints. Thick fat color I can mix and layer. But a few times a year I sit with my watercolors and work on series inspired by my walks in Westport. Sometimes it feels like I'm conducting music. I just put a new series up on Etsy titled River Lentement. A french tern used in music to describe slowly but surely. 

Forge Pond and waterfall with Levi

New Blues on my Etsy Site

Going to Block Island, or sometimes called New Shoreham, in the summer is like visiting a dreamy children's book. Gentle hills, sweet but dramatic cliffs softened with sleepy dunes and beaches. You can get around entirely on a bike. And though you can see so much of the island from the top of it's hills and victorian porches there is the good kind of aloneness that seems to happen everywhere you go. Paintings inspired by our last trip to the island.

New Site Launch for Local Pottery

I'm so grateful that I have clients that trust me and actually pay me to make beautiful images and designs for them. When I get to make this beauty with Paul, it's even better. Lisa Howard of Local Pottery is one of those clients. The new Local Pottery website, a collaboration between Paul Clancy, Peter Nassoit and myself, can be seen by going here. The launch coincides with the sale of the year for Local Pottery. An amazing open studio event with handmade gifts you shouldn't miss if you're in the Boston Area. You can go here to get the scoop on hours, etc. Below are the images from the shoot we did just last night for the home page, which changes seasonally. Just the right combination of an outdoor fire, a two hundred year old wrap my friend John Hegnauer gave me, an indigo tea bowl and the last 45 minutes of sunlight that was magic.

Rainbow House in a Very Good Spot

I love this house which is very well placed across the street from Westboro Baptist Church. From Amy of Amy's Organics.

Landscapes for Saturday Sale

It recently occurred to me that most of the work I'll have at my sale this weekend has never been in a show or even hung on a wall together. It will be a reunion of colors that came to me, I played with for awhile and then packed away. When I finish a body of work, I like putting it away in a dry place to cure. Sometimes months and months go by before I see them again. And this weekend it feels like I'm sharing a year (almost two years) of colors that have been my imaginary friends. Come by and meet them. July 20-21 Southcoast Artist Open Studio Tour. 579 Old County Rd, Westport, MA. 02790 Kids and their imaginary friends are welcome too.

Not so mild tile

My collection of green pots on the mantle
16 OnCenter built for me at the church.
Roseberry Winn Pottery
and Tile wall of linen and butter.

Oh yeah, there were a few tears shed over leaving my beautiful Roseberry Winn tiled wall at the church. Mike and Bruce helped me design it, pressed and fired each piece, and oversaw the installation. I never tired of it's buttery color and how it looked with the mantle made by 16 OnCenter. I do see a few potential spots perfect for tile in the farmhouse. And Mike tells me he has plans in the near future for some tile design expansion, so hopefully, a collaboration will happen again. Here are some inspiring tile beauties I came across today on Remodilista.

From Exquisite Surfaces

Via Remodilista

From Purpura

From Made A Mano

Spring Bling

Photo by Sadie Dayton

Twice a year I get to design a catalogue for Swarovski's Touchstone Crystal and I get a little seasonally mixed up. I do the Fall book in Spring, and Spring in Fall so I am always seasonally challenged. I'm in the last month of creating Fall/Winter '13 and I should be excited about seafoam green, but I'm actually already giggling about Tory Burch's Klimt inspired, turquoise and burgundy line for Fall. But back to Seafoam green, which only comes around about 2-3 times a century; the model shots for the new spring/summer book were taken over two very cold days last November but thanks to an amazing team, with Sadie Dayton shooting and Joji Goto styling we found some sunshine.  Add in piles of bling with product photos by Ira Garber, the incredible retouching of Suzanne Dunkl, and styling by jewelry designer Troy Hines, the sparkle happened.

Photo by Sadie Dayton

Photo by Sadie Dayton

Photo by Ira Garber

Mornin Rumi

"Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground".

-Rumi

Uppercase Magazine No. 17 + ME!

My Uppercase Magazine interview by Lois Sturgeon (of 13Threads Blog) is out! Pretty wonderful to be in print but to be in the edition that covers scented ink printing is a big bonus. The folks at Uppercase offer my friends a great break on the subscription to this amazing publication if you go here and use the code "contributor17". Thanks Mr. Paul Clancy for providing beautiful photos of my face and legs. And Erik Gould for shooting my paintings so beautifully!

Baby Water World Print Give Away and Sale

Beebee Eau Monde No.1

It seems like it's time for those little babies to start arriving. The daffodil buds are teasing us, the first little peepers are starting to peep in the ponds and friends are becoming mamas and papas. My friend Hannah just announced the arrival of her little Tristan Skye. To celebrate Tristan and all the new beanies, I'm offering some of my Beebee Eau Monde watercolors as prints. Two paintings to choose from, in two sizes. Printed on acid free, mould-made Hahnemuhle German Etching paper, the prints come in 8" x 8" for $75. and 15"x15" for $125. Perfect gift for your new favorite wee one. Plan on a two week delivery time with your choice of shipping separate.
AND to make the arrival of green buds even sweeter, I'll give away an 8"x8" print to the person who brings me the most new blog followers by April 1. 

Beebee Eau Monde No.2

Holiday Printables

Some fun colorful printables for holiday gift giving.

From eatdrinkchic

From lovevsdesign

From Rebecca's misc

From lovevsdesign

From sassandperil

From gathering dust

Fresh Landscapes

I've been working on some more abstract landscapes. These are still in progress, using oil bars and poppy seed oil paints. Big inspiration in the backyard from peonies, new baby RI red chicks and spring rain that turns everything bright and pink and acid green. Can you tell Helen Frankenthaler has been an inspiration lately?

Lovely Threads by Yumiko Arimoto

I love the idea of an abstract drawing, made with thread, that's wearable. 

Must be meditative to do. You can find more of Yumiko and her brand sina here.

Nigel Peake In The Wilds

As the leaves fall away I've been seeing more and more of the skeleton of the earth. I love the relief we finally get from masses of green. Tiny details are emerging. Blades of broken dried grass, twigs, the feathers around the coop. Nigel Peake the Irish illustrator and maker finds the same joy in nature's details and paints about it. More of his work can be found at Needles and Pins Gallery in San Francisco, here. He also has a blog which is nigel-peake.blogspot.com