Butterfly And African Violets Painting Inspirations

Just yesterday I finished my Butterfly & African Violets painting. This piece was painted with acrylic paint on an ornate vintage ceiling tin.

Lots of my favorite color in this one......PURPLE!

The inspiration for this acrylic painting came from the 4 lovely African Violets I purchased a couple of weeks ago at one of my favorite nurseries. They always have a beautiful selection there, not just African Violets but just about everything. I'll be purchasing the Geraniums for my garden from them later this month and lots of Impatiens from them in the month of May.

Some of the inspirational African Violets in their new home by my Orchids and Maidenhair Fern.

My only delemma was which color plant to use in my ceiling tin painting. I finally settled on the purple and white ones though.......

This piece will be coming to my website and ETSY site www.artfulcreations.etsy.com soon. Enjoy the spring weather and try to look around for something that can inspire you everyday.

A Sampling Of Projects

I seem to be going in so many different directions these days.....I've been trying to finish up some things and start up others. For instance, I got this tin out weeks ago, applied gesso and then stuck it under a pile of papers and photos in my studio. I had put it aside to work on my Chickadee & Petunias Faux Window. Now that the window is finished, the tin made its way back out of the mess it was under to start being worked on.

I had to start by deciding on a design that I wanted to paint on the tin. You will be able to see the design a bit better in the below photos but the one above shows how I approach the creation of the sketch itself. It is easier and more functional for me, when painting on a tin like this, to draw the design on tracing paper first. I've actually used two pieces...one with the actual design and one with the shape of the ceiling tin outlined on it. This allows me to move the sketch around the tin shape in an attempt to dertermine the best placement. It basically lets me play around all I want without committing to a final position for the design until I'm ready.

Here you can see the outline of the tin and the basic sketch. A birdhouse and a little chickadee. The birdhouse is resting on some Lilac branches.

This photo shows the very beginning stages of painting. My birdhouse and chickadee have been positioned just the way I want them....transferred onto the tin and I've started painting the background at this point. I'll be showing the progress of this tin as I go alone.

Now on to something totally different...... I don't do mailboxes on a regular basis anymore but I was recently contacted by a long time customer of mine who wanted a very special mailbox for his mother for Christmas. He sent me a photo of an Easter cross and asked me to create my own version for this mailbox. Above and below show the finished design on both sides.

Last but not least, I started to think about what I wanted to do with this egg over a year ago. Nothing was really grabbing me and so, I put it in a box and forgot about it. Just this week I was saying to myself...."what did I do with that egg?" The time has come for this Emu egg to be painted and I know just what I will do on it. I will show the finished piece in a few weeks. It seems like there are so many projects these days......and so little time.

Treetop Chickadee Vintage Ceiling Tin, Note Cards & A Blog Break

I finished my latest vintage Ceiling tin , Treetop Chickadee, it measures 12" x 12" and comes ready to hang on your wall with a hook on the back. When I first saw this antique tin, I really fell in love with it because it was so intricate in design and well, just plain different from anything I had purchased before, I knew I had to have it.

With the embossed design covering the whole of the tin, it was quite challenging to decide what exactly I should paint on this one that would compliment the tin design.

I mulled over several design choices in my head for a few days, really unsure what to do. If I decided on a complicated and intricate design, I ran the risk of making this tin look like a crowded expressway at rush hour. : )

More so then any other tin I've painted so far, my design had to be something that complimented and flowed with the lovely pattern already on the tin. As I sat and studied the tin, it occured to me that the tin pattern kind of reminded me of a treetop somewhere high in the sky, lots of vines and branches twisting around. Maybe this treetop was so high up that you couldn't see it, you could only imagine what it really looked like.

This is when I was able to finalize the design and settled on a little chickadee perched high up in a treetop. I created some flowers, leaves and vines to coordinate with the design already on the tin. I painted in some of the embossed areas of the tin, with light blue and light green, to give it a very whimsical and natural feel. This little guy is now available on my ETSY site and my website as well.

I've also started to create a line of note cards from my vintage tin images, the first two designs can be seen on my ETSY site @ http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ . They are a set of 10 blank note cards, with 10 envelopes in each package.

Last but not least, I'm taking a blogging break for just a little while to embark on quite a big adventure.... I will be going with my friend and her family to visit the Grand Canyon and some lovely parks out west. I'm leaving this week and will return the week of Oct 9th, no doubt with tons of pictures to show you from my grand adventure. I will be away from my computer for the week but Chris will be here caring for the 3 Tzus while I'm gone and he will keep me posted on what is happening in the land of the internet . Until next time....

Country Victorian Magazine - Artist's Feature

Pinch me so that I know I'm not dreaming this, I have an artist's feature on my vintage ceiling tins in the winter, 2009 addition of Country Victorian Magazine. Available in book stores on Sept 9th.... It is all I've thought of for months now but couldn't talk about until I actually saw that it was happening.

This has been a dream of mine, I cannot tell you for how many years I have dreamt of having my work featured in a home decor magazine. I remember it all started when Iwas first learning to paint many years ago....I would pick up decorating magazines and dream about the day that I perhaps could be in one. I'm quite thrilled to be in this edition of this very lovely magazine.

I probably cannot express quite how excited I am , lets just say....VERY EXCITED!! Harris Publications was such a pleasure to work with and I want to thank them for having me in one of their beautiful magazines, it really is an honor! I was also lucky enough to have my friend Kathryn Bechen , do the phone interview with me and write the article for this feature. You can click on the photo to get close ups and read the article. I'm off to my new home for the next few days atleast....Cloud 9.

A Little Autumn Whimsy......

My latest vintage ceiling tin was created by request, for a very special reason but more on that in the month of Oct.

I was asked to create a piece that not only said "autumn" but had a touch of Halloween to it as well. I had a couple of ideas in mind for this piece but quickly narrowed it down once I knew the feeling the tin needed to convey. I really wanted this piece to be all about whimsy, hence the name "Autumn Whimsy" Anyway, with that in mind, I knew I had to use my little Chickadee friend and this time, I decided that he should be perched on a lovely orange pumpkin. For a pinch of whimsy, I added a little witch's hat to his head.

For the background I wanted to create almost a grainy effect if I possibly could so I tried out a few different techniques to see if I could achieve that idea.

The leaves I wanted to make almost foil like in appearance, almost as if they are made of delicate colored foil that could crumble in your hand if you are not careful.

The autumn twigs were painted in on one of the very last steps and I think, connect the dots of this theme very well.

This piece and some home decor products made from the image, will soon be listed on my ETSY site.... http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ .

Hot Cottage Collectibles & Today's Vintage

"Hot Cottage Collectibles For Vintage Style Homes" is a beautiful book (lots of home decor eye candy in this publication) written by Dianne Zweig.

I'm very honored to say that two of my faux windows made it into this lovely publication. The window above heads off the "At The Beach" chapter and both are featured on a page in that same section.

Dianne has also written a very nice piece for a west coast publication called "Today's Vintage". It is an on-line magazine as well as a printed publication that comes out in 5 western states...CA, WA, OR, NV & AZ. Dianne wrote an article about vintage ceiling tins being used in today's modern decor and featured 5 of my vintage tins in that article. While the print version in not out just yet, the online article can be found at: www.todaysvintage.com under the "Decorating" section.

It was really a lot of fun working with Dianne and a thrill to be featured in both these publications.

Tea & Roses Gothic Vintage Ceiling Tin

I just finished a new ceiling tin the other day, "Tea & Roses" done on a beautiful old gothic ceiling tin. I have found a few of these beauties and I snatched them right up when I saw them. I'm always keeping my eye out for new tins that will be a beautiful canvas to a new painting. This particular tin is 13 3/4" x 9 1/2".

The tin itself was in beautiful condition and all I had to do before I started painting, was apply a layer of acrylic gesso.

This one called out to me to have a teacup design painted on it so that is exactly what I went for. Each ceiling tin I come across is so different in style, design and architectual interest that no matter what I think I plan on doing, I do let the tin design dictate to me how I should proceed.

Sometimes I change my plans before I even start to paint, as I sit and think about the tin more and more. Other times I change directions while I'm painting or atleast, keep my options open to add something later if I need too. The cup is rimmed in gold and I decided I wanted some sweet little washy roses on the the cup along with some gold accent dots, to create a nice elegant teacup. Underneath the cup, resting on the table, is a piece of vintage lace.

I really wanted a butterfly to rest on the rim of the cup also....maybe the tea drinker is outside, having a tea party and this little butterfly happened to come along....who knows.

Of course framing the piece and adding to what makes this tin special, are the cascading roses, leaves and vines coming from the top and the sides.

In the end, I hope it is a piece that a tea lover as well as a lover of roses will appreciate. I will soon be listing this piece to my ETSY shop and also my website: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ .

Speaking Of Chickadees......

I've been making some products from my latest vintage tin that you last saw in the below post. The above wall clock is probably my favorite.

Although it looks like metal, the above is really a nice soft, rubber mousepad.

Framed tiles and Jewelry boxes.

Last but not least, felt footed tile coaster sets. This tile was one of my favorites for making home decor pieces from because so much of the tin detail was transferred onto the new products. So far they are available at my ETSY shop: http://www.artfulcreations.etsy.com/ .