When Art Can Be A Gift

Art is not something ordinarily something you think of when wracking your brain for gift ideas, but why not give the gift of art?

People without a lot of art knowledge sometimes fear buying art even for themselves. I wish this didn't happen. If you hear a new song that you like, you want to hear that song. If you like bananas or salmon, you choose to eat those foods. If you like only blue shirts, you wear blue shirts. I'm just saying what kind of art you like should be as natural as these other kinds of choices. Choice really is a natural thing.  You either like something when you make a decision, or you are neutral, or you really don't like the thing. You should never buy a piece of art for yourself if you don't like it!  If your boss's wife loves it, be unselfish and let her buy it.

Years of Growth

Buying art isn't as permanent as a tattoo, and people don't seem to avoid body art. So, be bold, treat yourself!  Buy yourself a piece of art! How many times have you ever been sorry you bought yourself something you really like? Not ever. Really. (Unless, of course, you have a spending problem!)

Magnolia Time

It follows that your friends and relatives also have definite personal likes and dislikes. One likes cats, and the other dogs. One likes classical music, the other reggae. So you need to consider what they already have chosen to have around them. What colors do they have in their surroundings? Neutral colors, pastel colors or bright colors? You probably even know their favorite color. Do they like antiques or modern furnishings? Curves and frills or clean lines?

When to buy art? Give the gift of art when you know it would look fantastic with your friend's decor. It doesn't have to be large or costly. If you have a special relationship with a person, the fact that you bought it for them makes it special. Give them art as a housewarming gift, a wedding gift, or a Mother or Father's Day gift, or just because.  There doesn't have to be a reason! Purchase when you know you've found just what that special friend has been looking for! At least take a quick photo, and text or email it if you just want to share where it can be found. If this person is someone you shop with a lot, you know you have a good idea what they like, and you could just buy them a little spur of the moment art gift.

Another time to buy the gift of art is for someone elderly or ill who needs cheering up. Send them a get well or cope card, and enclose a small watercolor ACEO! It may be just the lift they need to make their day!

Leaves On The Move

If you are traveling and know your friend has a special memory of where you currently are, send or bring them a little art gift.

Castle Builder

How many times have you ever been sorry you bought yourself something you really like? Not ever. Really, unless you have a spending problem!

Remember, if you wait, you may never find that piece of art again. Even if you think you will remember, somehow you don't - or worse, it's gone!

You can find or inquire about any of these paintings at my online shop, DreamON.Etsy.com .

My Happy New Year starts in February this year

Well, not really!  Since I had surgery the first week of January, January is what you call a lost month.  Everything went fine, and I am happy to be up and mobile again.

I have painted a number of new paintings, and now I can share some with you.  I have been experimenting with ghost flowers in the background.  This painting is called Poppy Shadows.  It was painted on a gold toned piece of watercolor paper 11 3/4" x 10 1/4".  I used a technique called color sanding to add some texture in the painting. I have just listed it in my Etsy shop. Click on the painting name under the first illustration to go to the listing.

Poppy Shadows

I put one of these new poppy ghost flower paintings into the Artists' Guild Gallery, and last week I was notified that it was sold.  Yay!  It's title was Ghost Poppies.  It is shown below.

Ghost Poppies

Ghost Poppies was painted on a toned sheet of watercolor paper that had been textured prior to painting.  Then I added some texture with a roller before painting the poppies.

Enjoy!

Recycled Art - Why Not?

Just having fun with the idea of making something new out of something old. This is the painting I had to begin with: that is, before I started thinking negatively. Negative painting, being what I'm getting at, and not having a bad attitude. This is a technique that I have used creating successive layers of negative painting, or painting around objects before, but this time I used the existing painting of the deer in the woods and only had a single layer of painting in the negative.

I was inspired by Etsy running the leaf pictures that had been configured into faces, and I thought that idea was very clever!

I have had a stash of painting starts, and paintings that need "something." Sometimes it seems that "starts" are what fits the mood, but in the last few days, I have been in the mood to do the fixing and finishing on a few of these

Over In The Clover

My painting with the deer at the edge of the trees had lost its charm for me, and it became my victim, as I cut the size down a bit and started drawing clover leaves on it, and then I painted around the clover in Indigo Blue. Before the paint was dry, I lifted some additional areas.

This new painting called "Over In The Clover" is what came of it all. It was fun to do, and sometimes doing a painting just for fun is better than struggling with one to fix the details that may never turn out right anyway.

Therapy!

To see more information about this painting in my Etsy shop, please click on the painting title.

New Poppy ACEOs

I just posted two new ACEOs with poppies to my Etsy store, DreamON. Have started to run out of them, so today was poppy day. These two have a teeny bit of collage with sheet music and bits of fibrous, old handmade paper that a fellow artist from Studio 1212 brought today. Had fun creating these! Things have been so busy lately, it was fun to actually sit down and paint with the group and not have to worry about all the things I had to do. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot to get done, including lots of shopping, but I have gotten enuf done so that it's not making me CRAZY right now. So I had freedom to paint!

Wildflower Season

With the exception of two Springtimes spent in south Texas, I have never lived anywhere that has a real Spring. Certainly in Colorado where one day is 70 degrees and the next has two feet of snow, there is no Spring! Daffodils peak out forlornly when the snow melts.
This painting is titled "Give Me Lemonade."

Now, here on the west coast of Florida, there is a definite change, but other than fallen oak leaves everywhere and new green leaves replacing them and a few azaleas here and there, no true Spring. So our Spring Break to the Panhandle of Florida and Alabama was a treat for me, and I went crazy taking photos.
On the way home I fixed a water bottle in my map compartment and painted "little things" most of the way while hubby listened to ball games and sports things on the radio. Here are a few inspirational photos and some results so far.

"Daffodils Say Spring" below and "Renaissance Bouquet" at left are now in my Etsy shop. They are both 2.5 x 3.5 inches and are original watercolor paintings that are artist card size ACEOs.
"Daffodils Say Spring" [SOLD]


It was a fun way for me to pass the time, and when I am painting time really flies. I just loved the flowers everywhere. I took pictures and painted wild growing things with pretty blossoms that many would call weeds, I am sure, but they were lovely to me.


I had never seen Wisteria growing anywhere until a few years ago in Oregon, but that was planted and in someone's yard. In the panhandle region, it grows wild and is beautiful.

This last ACEO original watercolor painting is titled "Flowerlets Gone Wild." [SOLD]


Ahhhh, Spring!

Here Comes Mischief in Cat Form!

Misty Gray Cat is a painting about a kitty that we used to have. A soft, pretty gray-colored shelter kitten we got when my son could hold her upside down in one hand, she grew into a beautiful, although squirrely, cat who could be gentle and loving or as fierce as a tasmanian devil when she visited the veterinarian (which thankfully she rarely needed).

Misty, the painting, is done in pure watercolor on Arches 140 lb. Cold Press Watercolor paper with mostly Winsor-Newton paints. (I have a few other brands, all professional quality, and intermingle them on my palette.) It definitely reflects the personality of this loving tasmanian, split-personality, kooky kitty. Cool colors dominate the composition.

Misty Gray Cat can be found at DreamON by clicking here. Enjoy!

Small Beachy Watercolors

"Exile Island" [SOLD]
This is one of my latest beachy watercolors that I've been painting this week. I call this one Exile Island. I guess I've watched entirely too much Survivor, because the name just seemed to fit. While I'm thinking about it, how come they always pick the most beautiful-looking locations that have such horrible weather? I mean it rains on those people most every night, and of course, they have nowhere to go, so they're just miserable and wet. That must be a prerequisite in picking locations.

Anyway, this painting seemed to name itself. Most of the time I agonize over titles. If nothing clever presents itself, I can sit there and groan over naming a painting for an inordinate amount of time, only to come up with something dopey like "Red Boat." I think I need a Painting Namer - now there's a whole new profession!

These paintings I'm presently working on will be for sale in my local locations - at least for now.

Palm Island

As I was sitting at the Artists' Guild Gallery yesterday, I painted this landscape of Palm Island. The day had started out pretty cool, and having the door open early felt pretty chilly, but as customers came and went and sales happened, the temperatures heated up also. It was a good day with enough of a lull at times to paint, but also quite a few visitors kept me busy.

One comment still has me chuckling. A lady said that she thought my husband was posing for me. Well, hello! Unless he looks like a tree, I think he was just sitting there reading. People can be kinda funny, I think!

This one is available in my Etsy shop, DreamON. Click on the photo of the painting for a link to my shop.

Matting 101 - How To's

This is a brief description of the process for figuring out how to mat an original watercolor into a single mat for a standard size 16 x 20-inch frame. It is the method I learned from a professional framer. There are, of course, other methods people also use.

The original painting is 15 x 11 inches as it is facing right side up. The outside dimensions of the mat will be 20 x 16 inches (also facing right side up). In this example, each side of the mat is going to be 3 1/4 wide. That leaves the size of the opening at 14 x 10 inches. This allows the mat to overlap one-half of an inch on each side, top and bottom of the painting. This is enough to adequately cover the painting without having to worry about an edge showing, and I would recommend no less than that one-half inch.

Also, I would like to say that standard size mats can be purchased from a number of retail outlets. The need for a custom mat comes into play when your color choice for a mat is not something sold in stores or when the size of the painting is not something that will readily fit into a standard size mat.



This example shows the entire painting laying on the foam core. I left the photo with more contrast just to show edges and how it looks laid out.

With the painting on top of a piece of foam core cut to the exact same outer dimensions as the outside of the mat (20 x 16). Place your newly cut mat on top of the painting, and make sure that it is placed where you want it when the mat is aligned with the foam core top, bottom and sides. Take a pencil and mark the upper corners on the foam core when the painting is aligned.

Flip the painting up from the bottom (as if it were hinged at the top of the painting, keeping the top of the painting aligned with the pencil marks you just made).

This photo shows the painting attached to the foam core by tape hinges. To make the hinges, cut acid-free framer's tape (or similar product) in four even strips all cut to approximately 3 1/2 inches long. Tape a piece perpendicular across the edge of the painting attaching the painting to the foam core evenly spaced from the right side and from the left side. Attach a second piece of tape adjacent and overlapping slightly each piece of tape. Then cut four more pieces of tape each 4 inches long.

Tape these parallel to the top edge and perpendicular to the tape strips you just adhered. Two are all that are necessary and those two would be to the foam core, but tape seems to fail here in a humid climate, so I frequently use the additional two pieces as shown on the back of the painting.

The first example shows how the painting looks in the finished mat. Of course, the real mat doesn't have all the numbers scribbled on it.

If you want, you can hinge the mat to the frame at the top. Place the mat face down aligned at the top edge (where the hinge will be) of the side with the painting affixed to the foam core right-side up. Place one strip of tape parallel to the top edge, across the joint between the mat and foam core backing. This joint will be on the wrong side of the mat and the right side of the foam core backing.

All that remains is to put the matted watercolor into your frame.

New ACEOs

It was fun this afternoon painting these new ACEOs. They are, like all ACEOs (Artist Cards Editions & Originals), exactly 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. These are all painted on Arches 140-lb. Cold Press Watercolor paper. I loved painting these little stylized poppies.
I laid them all down on a shiny black gesso-painted tissue paper surface, and thought it was fun how much they look like they were almost meant to be together as one. I will be putting them into my Etsy shop soon.

Speaking of black gesso-painted tissue paper, the black gesso makes an extraordinary transformation happen when it is applied to ordinary tissue paper. To try this, make sure you have a plastic bag underneath while painting. The white kitchen bags with the drawstrings work nicely if you cut them open on one side and the bottom and then open them out. The reason for using the shiny white plastic as a surface to paint the tissue paper on is that when it's dry, it's easy to peel off. The resulting product is almost rubbery and makes an interesting collage material. I used it for Molly's hat in my latest Fashion Diva. See previous post.

New Awareness

Now over a week has passed since I last posted about my asthma attack. At the time, I thought I was over the worst of it, but little did I know the dimensions of the event that was unfolding. It has been up and down over and over, and while I can say I think I'm over the worst now, I also have to admit how little I really know about this disease. I have been extremely depressed at times, and I'm sure that has contributed to the uphill road I have found myself on.

When I went in to the doctor for my follow-up visit, I was so weak that the thought of performing the expected breathing test seemed like a hill too high for me to climb. When I realized they weren't going to let me go without doing the test and I finally did it, the results were that the doctor thought I hadn't made any improvement since my hospital visit.

I find myself now on a steroid for a month that has bad side effects, including potential bone loss, which for a person with a family history of osteoporosis is depressing and far-reaching into an old-age like my mother and grandmother suffered. (Expletives deleted.)

To say I am down is so minimal. BUT. . .



















I have begun to paint again. This is a painting like those we did in the Mark Polomchak workshop, but on 140 lb. watercolor paper. At the workshop he provided a special illustration board that was fabulous for his techniques. The techniques have to be adapted and thought out to make them work on regular watercolor paper, so I think that I will be working on this for awhile. But anything that makes me think and takes my mind off of myself at this point is good therapy!

Click here to see more details about this painting.

Results: Two Days Well Spent

This was my painting that I produced on day one of Mark Polomchak's Bradenton workshop. These colors are difficult to adjust from the painting to the photograph and then to the screen, but probably as close as I can get them. As I said in the previous post, I was amazed at how well all of the paintings turned out - a tribute to the instructor's tried and true techniques, clear instructions and so forth.

This was my painting which was done on the second day. I had really messed up the sky, trying to be cute with clouds and blurring the horizon, but a little scrubbing and airbrushing made it turn out looking amazing, thanks to Mark. I was coming down with a cold, and on my own probably would have abandoned painting for the day, just chalking it up to one of those days that painting doesn't go too well. I am glad I was at the workshop and ended up sticking with it.

These are workshop paintings, and neither will be for sale. I think I'll keep 'em.

Mark Polomchak Workshop In Bradenton

Today was the first day of an art workshop I'm attending which is being given by Mark Polomchak, an affable instructor from Crown Point, Indiana, with a lively teaching style who paints a variety of subjects from Amish scenes to animals. I got the impression that Mark's art would have wide appeal to all sorts of different people.

Many times in workshops I have had the feeling that though an instructor is intensely competent, and I have learned something I felt was significant, the fact is that artists are the main group who admire the techniques. How many people who are not artists are impressed by really cool negative painting?

Admittedly, negative painting is extremely important to the development of an artist, and being able to do it competently is no small fete. However, the average person on the street has probably no idea what it meant by negative painting, no more than the average bird knows what a nanosecond is.

I was also impressed by his teaching skills, which were evidenced by what seemed to be all-around, pretty decent paintings by everyone in the workshop. That tells me first of all that Mark's teaching techniques were most effective, and he kept the attention of all participants. In addition, even those who claimed to be beginning painters came up with quite nice results and didn't leave the session frustrated as so often happens.

Also, I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

Since it is dark now, and my photography at night is not the greatest, I will post my painting from today another time.

See Mark Polomchak's website to view his work and for more information. http://www.polomchak.com

Fruit of the Gods

What's Up In The Kitchen? What A Fine Fruit, in the spotlight for tonight, is a watercolor honoring the Bosc variety of pear. The Bosc is known for its long neck and brownish skin color.

Called by Homer, the ancient Greek poet who wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey, "the fruit of the gods," the pear has a lot to live up to. In the United States, second in popularity only to the apple, pears are actually related to them genetically. Most pears are grown in Washington and Oregon where the mild, moist climate promotes optimum growth.

Pears are said to be a healthy choice, being free from fat, cholesterol and sodium. What makes them soften, however is the gift of sugar created from starches as it ripens. It provides the sweet nectar advertised by Homer who was thought to be blind, and therefore who must have been oblivious to the characteristics of over-ripened feminine pulchritude when exposed to a diet of such sugars. Pears, on the other hand provide a wonderful amount of fiber, potassium and Vitamin C. Such is life; balance the benefits against the disadvantages. Enjoy pears! You can especially appreciate this one because its inedible and therefore calorie-free eye candy.

This little pear has been captured and held by a digitally created boundary of burnt sienna which enhances its quinacridone base color. I painted this while I was gallery sitting at the Artists' Guild Gallery this fall on one of the quiet days that season provides. The original painting is a 9 x 12 inch watercolor on Arches Hot Press Watercolor paper. Prints will be for sale here in my Etsy shop, and pears can be found in your local supermarket.

What's Up In The Kitchen?

I'm back after taking a holiday break, and I have a new series I've started called What's Up In The Kitchen?. These are kitchen peeps who live in vegetables, fruits, glassware and who knows where else they'll turn up. On the left is Girl Caught Hiding In The Celery. I guess there must be kind of a little miniature celery forest out there in the celery fields, and before they come to the kitchen the little peeps must be out there playing hide and go seek.

I have no idea where the motivation for this series came from, but right now I'm finding the kitchen peeps rather fun to paint. You can just never be sure what's going on in the artist brain, but it's for sure different than what's up with the brain of an average Joe.

My dear hubby reads the newspaper every day. Once upon a time I read the newspaper too - the front page section, the weather, the section with ''Dear Abby" in it, the sports section and sometimes the classifieds. Now I find no time to read the newspaper. I have Etsy to play with, and kitchen peeps to paint, and lots of other art-related activities to attend to. I'm not that one-dimensional, but reading the newspaper just doesn't come to the top of the list very often.

The peeps on the right side are called Carrot Dancer Understudies. I was thinking about calling them Carrot Dancers Waiting For Their Wings, as kind of a play on words for "waiting in the wings", but I decided that understudies conveyed the idea, without making them wingless. After all carrots aren't lacking appendages of any kind, are they?

In any event, I've just started the series, but I can tell you that some of the paintings have peeps and some don't, but they all have to do with nefarious and not so nefarious kitchen activity. Stay tuned.

Beautiful Fall Colors To Share

We have been admiring the beautiful fall colors in the mountains of Colorado and taking lots of pictures. it was a crisp, fall day when I took the photo that inspired this little watercolor. I loved the contrast between the pale blue-green of the sage in the foreground with the gold of the Aspen trees in the background and the dark green and gold-greens of the tall evergreen in the mid-area. The far-away trees on the mountains lose their dark color because of the atmosphere and the distance.

Here are some additional photos we took that day. You can see just how incredibly beautiful, that Autumn's gold dress looks on the hillsides.





I have put Colorado Gold up in my Etsy shop, DreamON. Click here for more information.

Miniature Horses - Cute Animals

A year or so ago I took some photos of the tiniest horse I have ever seen with the thought in mind that one day I would paint it. Such a precious sight, it was the cutest baby, only a few days old, and with its mother at a street fair in Colorado. A little child had reached out to make friends with the foal, and because the little boy was unsure, he kept his left hand on his outstretched right arm as if to pull it back if the horse took a nip. It was a cute sight, and both of the babies (horse and human) were delightful to watch.

I had seen miniature horses before, but never a baby one. This horse was so incredibly small, yet exhibiting perfect, yet tiny, characteristics of a horse and acting like quite like a horse and not any other species, even though it was the size of a dog.

According to Wikipedia, "The American Miniature Horse Association AMHA was founded in 1978 and was dedicated to establishing the Miniature horse as a distinct breed of horse. In the AMHA, Miniatures cannot exceed 34 inches at the withers (which the AMHA defines as located at the last hair of the mane). There are two divisions in American Miniature Horse Registry (AMHR) - the "A" division for horses 34 inches (86 cm) and under, and the "B" division for horses 34 to 38 inches (86 to 97 cm).

The AMHA standard suggests that if a person were to see a photograph of a miniature horse, without any size reference, it would be identical in characteristics, conformation, and proportion to a full-sized horse.

According to the AMHR, a "Miniature should be a small, sound, well-balanced horse and should give the impression of strength, agility and alertness. A Miniature should be eager and friendly but not skittish in disposition."

I was painting animal pictures one day this week, and decided to paint this little one. You can find more information about my painting by clicking right here.

New Travels Among The Leaves

Poor Blog! It was neglected all last week while we went on a foray to the Pacific Northwest. There was too much for me to do, to consider blogging last week, and so I took a blog break.

I wish I enjoyed flying like my husband does, but I fit kind of wedged into the too small space of one of these tin cans. If they would only take one row of seats out and distribute the space evenly among the remaining rows of seats, it would make a real difference in comfort, especially to tall people. But that would mean the airline's losing out on five full fares, so I'm going to ask you a small favor: the next time you fly, have mercy on whoever is behind you with legs and please do not recline the seat.

Luckily the flights were pretty short, but coming back my “neighbor” in the aisle seat had this super-annoying habit of repeatedly pulling at her “forelock” (grown-out bangs or what ever you call that bunch of hair that is shorter than the rest). I guess this behavior must have been comforting to her, but it absolutely made me feel like restraining her hands behind her back with one of those twister thingys. But I didn’t have one of those; consequently, it just made me really uncomfortable. I mean this was extreme, because she didn’t just occasionally push back her hair or pat it to make sure it stayed where it was. After a constant one and a half-hour toying with this hair thing, no kidding, I was looking for the whole thing to come out in her hand.

Well enough about air travel. . .on to more fun things.

Although it was at least 20 degrees hotter returning to Colorado than it had been in Oregon and even though no trees have started turning, I just have this feeling that autumn will be early this year.

For the last few years, fall has made me wanting to make leaf prints. This year is no exception, and on the road back I was collecting leaves of different kinds and shapes for my projects.

What I do next is to paint the back of the leaf (or leaves) I’m using with white Gesso. Then I place those, with the painted side down, on watercolor paper and use a brayer to roll over the top side. I do this while thinking about a pleasing arrangement of leaves on the paper. When dry, the imprint leaves will be white on white paper and not be overly visible. You can use the painted leaves over and over again until you run out of paper and motivation.

The next step is to get out the watercolors, and paint over the leaves which will resist the watercolor paints. It is a fun thing to do, and other than messy, rewarding with its results.

I will be putting some of these up in my Etsy shop before long and wlll post the clickable addresses as I do. The image on your right is called Leaf Season. Click here for more info.

Memories of Cottonwood Trees

This painting is about cottonwood trees, not just one like you see in the photo, but remembrances from my life that these trees bring to mind. There were the childhood tire swings that were so much fun, and the fallen leaves that needed to be raked into piles to play in.

I remember many trips across the Great Plains where these are practically the only trees you see for miles and miles.

There was the painting workshop I took, in the mountains on someone's ranch ,where one of the painters was holding used brushes in her mouth. (The rest of us were voicing whispered speculations about her early demise from heavy metal poisoning acquired from Cobalt, Cadmium, Titanium - all lovely ingredients of paints.) This had nothing to do with the tree we were painting, but the memory of painting the tree includes this scenario.

I loved the volunteer trees that came up in our yard from seeds along our driveway that we transplanted and watched grow into 30 ft. trees. Of course, there's the annoying cotton floating in the air at times, but as a child I remember chasing after it floating in the air.

Cottonwood trees are a part of my memories and therefore of me. I understand just how welcome is their shade in a hot snd treeless area. I appreciate just how fast they grow, but also remember cleaning up fallen limbs and green leaves from an unseasonal heavy snow.

This painting was taken from the photo of the cottonwood that I took on that 104 degree day as we drove through Oklahoma and Kansas a few weeks ago. I tried to capture the feeling of dry heat and the late summer bleached out dry prairieland grasses in my watercolor painting. Purchase information about the painting entitled Old Cottonwood can be found by clicking here.

On To Beaufort, Isle of Palms and Charleston

After leaving St. Simons Island, we continued north and had lunch this morning in Beaufort, SC and then did some walking around to look at shops and then took some pictures of their beautiful marina. You can find this and more info at http://www.beaufort.com/ , "Known for its Southern hospitality and casual seaside charm, Beaufort reigns as the 'Queen of the Carolina Sea Islands.' With its scenic waterfront charm, quaint shops and historic homes, Beaufort beckons, encouraging visitors to drift back in time and experience Southern hospitality at its finest."

After leaving Beaufort we headed further north and east to the Charleston area where we headed out to the Isle of Palms. I have read a number of books about this area, and I wanted to see firsthand where they took place. Isle of Palms is 7 miles long and 1 mile wide and has about 5,000 full-time residents. The following is a quote from the city of Isle of Palms website, "Novels and poetry have been written about the Isle of Palms. Those who live here and those who visit here seem changed forever because of the island and its people. Some arrive and never leave. Others must return year after year to get their dose of Isle of Palms to sustain them."

We ate on the screened porch of a lovely spot on the waterfront and clouds came in to shade us and cool us off from the 90-degree temperatures.

When the sun started to peep out again, the water just sparkled. However, it only sparkled where the sunlight touched it, and the rest remained gray.

We had shrimp and grits for the second time on this trip. The first time I ever heard of this unique combination, I thought, "WHAT?" But I have found that most times it is deliciously spicy and can come with Andouille sausage, pancetta, tomatoes, cheese, onions, and peppers. At least these are the combinations I have found so far, and I really, really like it. We have even had this at Emeril's place in Nawlins, so it is found at chi chi places too!

I did this painting of the view from our restaurant. It is entitled, West From Isle of Palms. (I sometimes astound myself at the clever titles.) It is done in Yarka watercolors and Sharpie markers on Arches 140-lb. Cold Press Watercolor paper. To see more info at my Etsy shop, DreamON, click here.