new painting

White Tulip Bouquet

Finally finished & I'm happy with the painting.  

It's a commission for a wonderfully patient buyer.

The white tulips are from photos of Longwood Gardens in the spring.

I love their beds of tulips, grouped by color and jammed with flowers.

I started this one 3 times! 

First time I ruined it and started again right away.  The second time I ruined it, 

I had a very hard time starting again.  Third time was the charm for me.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday.

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year!

Christmas card time

 I finished up my cards on Sunday.  Every year I wonder why I don't start earlier.

This year, I used my orchid painting for our cards.

The original is more pink and painted from a photo I took at Longwood Gardens.

I deepened the flowers to a more red shade through PhotoShop.

Now cards and decorating are done.

One more shopping run and a little baking to do!

new cards

in the Etsy shop

An original pastel painting by Amanda,

printed into glossy blank cards.

Only 3 sets of 3 available

We just got our 600th sale!

blooming in the house

 

My paperwhites bloomed a bit ahead of schedule.

 I love the elegant look of these flowers, but I don't like the fragrance.

These bulbs have a milder scent.

I'm looking forward to painting them.

Also blooming, some violets

and a beautiful orchid my daughter brought for Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! 

Foyer table

My foyer table decorated for Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

another lavender field

Another lovely pastel painting from Amanda!

available in the shop

5" x 7" print

also in the shop

5" x 7" print

Provence lavender field

https://www.etsy.com/listing/206867785/provence-lavender-field-5-x-7-giclee

My daughter and I visited the lavender fields in Provence

this summer.  We timed our trip perfectly to see 

the fields in bloom and hear the bees buzzing.

We both wanted to paint from the many pictures we took.

Amanda beat me to it!  Her pastel painting is so beautiful.

Available in the shop as a 5" x 7" print.

meanwhile:

I'm working on a commission that I just love

I started it three times before I was happy with it.

Still a lot of work to do.

Hope your weekend was lovely!

a little Autumn

I ready for a little Autumn in my home,

but not pumpkins and Halloween.

We are rushed into Halloween the moment September begins.

To me, September is about apples and soft reds and greens and golds.

 

I found these apples in the floral department of Wegmans.

I removed the sticks they were on and nestled them in a 

little basket and on some greens.

The shelf stand has been used for years and is perfect for

my foyer seasonal displays.  

I should post more of these. I change it every month.

I also updated my fall wreath, taking out the bright

orange and yellow flowers.

Joann Fabrics had these pretty branches of rose hips

and clusters of apples and pears.  Perfect for my September!

My Halloween boxes will come out, but not for a few more weeks.

I'm savoring a soft September first.

Amanda's photo is in a magazine!

A while back, Conde Nast contacted my daughter through our shop.  

They wanted to use her Sicily beach photo for an upcoming issue on Italy.

We had to wait until now tell everyone.

I'm so proud of her!

Loved this one

Helen Mirren, the South of France

& food.

What's not to love!

new in the shop

We are now offering our prints and photos on canvas.

The printing is perfect on these 16" x 20" gallery wrapped canvases.

in the shop

new size for photos

So many people are requesting photos in a larger size.

This one turned out beautifully!

16" x 20"

 in the shop

geraniums

new original watercolor 

8" x 10"

in the shop

recommend this one

I finished this book and could not start another for awhile.

It really stayed with me.

The novel takes place during the Chechen War.

Not a light read, but a beautifully written book.

Loved this one!

What a perfect summer read!

A romantic comedy with characters that you'll love and cheer for. 

 I couldn't put it down.

in one week

So, after a week of digging deep into the internet,

 much of the thanks going to my daughter who helped tremendously, 

 we have work taken down from offending sites, 

more artists notified that Noteable Expressions just "loved" their work, 

and 4 apologies from companies and graphic thieves, I mean designers.

Noteable Expressions is NOT one of those apologies, but her inventory selection is WAY down. Needless to say, the most beautiful of her "designs" are MISSING!
Go Artists!

Thanks for the support and kind words from the few of you who read this blog.  

It was very much appreciated.

this is my peony

This is my peony.

I painted this peony is 1999, 

on vacation, at a kitchen table in Ocean City, NJ.

This is MY peony.

It is not your peony to use in products you are "designing".

It is not for your wedding products, your packaging labels,

your avatars, your "designer" pillows,

your coupons, your links to porn,

or your poetry page.

I have found MY peony in all those places.

This is my peony that I now have to cover with watermarks because my

signature was cropped off.  That did not make it yours.

It is My peony.

I am a watercolor artist and this is my peony.

Order is restored

Zazzle removed all my images from the shop site.  

I found one more today on her web page and sent the link saying TAKE IT DOWN.  

Within an hour it was down.

She had also pinned my design to Pinterest to promote her products.  I commented on

that pin that it was MY work and was stolen.  The pin disappeared from her board just like that!

I hope the Zazzle seller had a miserable two days and has learned not to lift other people's work, 

but I somehow doubt it.

I found that another person had also used the same image,

an art director in Turkey! It was part of his/her portfolio of packaging examples.

I contacted the host company and now that work has been removed as well.

Artists: watermark EVERYTHING!  Your signature is not enough.

Reverse search your images regularly.

Thank you Kathleen for that information!

I have an Eiffel Tower snowglobe picture on my blog that I took and 

Photo-Shopped out my reflection.  When I reverse searched that it showed 

up all over the internet, including the Psychology Today web site.

I didn't watermark it at the time, but did later.  

The original image got used over and over again.

Thief

Meet the "artist" behind the Noteable Expressions Wedding Stationary

http://www.noteableexpressions.net/#!about-noteable-expressions/cf7s

funny..she's not answering my emails concerning

MY ORIGINAL WATEROLOR

Stolen Art

I'm FURIOUS!

Kathleen from Trowel and Paintbrush posted about her art being stolen.  She found out by doing a reverse image search.  I thought I'd give it a try and lo & behold:

That's MY pink peony

no doubt about it!

Just got back from 2 weeks in France (which I'll post later).

I'm seriously jet-lagged and MAD!

I've emailed Zazzle and will call when they're opened.

a rainbow of butterflies

This butterfly was painted for a sweet customer in California.

It's going to decorate her daughter's room.  What a pleasure to paint for mother & daughter!

I then had fun in Photoshop changing the colors 

for more butterflies for the shop.

lilac butterfly

orchid butterfly

spring green butterfly

blue butterfly

 

 peach butterfly

each print is 8" x 10"

in the shop now

new peony

new watercolor of a tree peony

8" x 10" print in the shop

I love painting all those petals!

Call the Midwife is back!

Yes!  Jenny, Chummy, Trixie ,Cynthia

& the Sisters are back!

I love this show and especially Chummy.

There was plenty of Chummy in the story last night.

It was followed by Mr. Selfridge which I also enjoy.

When we visited London last spring, we walked into Selfridges.

Of course it's very modern now, but when I turned 

around, there was the old entrance facade preserved.

source

Any Midwife or Selfridge fans out there?

pink orchids

pink orchids watercolor

11" x 14"

in the shop

Painted this from one of my Longwood Gardens Orchid Show photos.

This is a Calanthe orchid.

and

A very Happy St. Patrick's Day today!

It looks like this outside:

but like this inside:

Have a great week!  Spring begins on Thursday!

returning

I'm finally back to blogging and painting after

a too long hiatus.

We're back from a warm sunny trip.

Laundry is caught up, housekeeping is caught up,

appointments have been made and kept.

Snow is on the way tonight.

My daughter and I did our annual Philadelphia Flower Show/

Longwood Gardens Orchid Show day today.

Such a joy to look at all those gorgeous flowers!

The image above is of Longwood's hanging orchids.

Just stunning!

And to brighten your winter day,

a view of the conservatory...

all dressed up for Spring.

watching birdies

still improving

I'm very hesitant to show you what's behind these doors.

This is my laundry room closet.

It's used for seasonal decorations, except for Christmas and Halloween.  

Those items are stored in big bins in our garage and attic.

I change my foyer table every month or so with the seasons, holidays, etc.

There are a lot of small items to store, plus a few odds and ends like

my gym bag, flower pots, glass cloches, decorative plates, etc.

I know you want a peek, but it is dreadful.

When I finally broke a plate while trying to wedge it out,

I knew that was it.

Time to organize.

from this:

Oh, yes, that was in my house.

to this:

The shelves in the "before" closet were my biggest obstacle.

I was haphazardly stacking everything.  Putting away something

meant stuffing it into any available spot.
I now have three more big shelves and all shelves are 20" deep.

Now, just like the rest of my house, there's a place for everything.
If you're new to my blog, check out the last two posts.
I've done more projects in this busy January.


I'm linking to Susan's
Metamorphosis Monday
Great ideas on that blog!

more changes

I have some frames in my house that are very gold,almost brassy.

I am so over that look.

After repainting my fireplace bookcases and surround,

I wanted to tone down the frames in the room with this:

 

I love this product!

I have successfully used this on other frames in my house.

The consistency is creamy and goes on smoothly with a soft cloth.

I taped off the glass for easy clean-up.  You can see the difference.

Wait about an hour and softly buff.

No more brass, just a soft silvery gold.

I've had this print for years.  Now it's updated & lovely!