Spring Tulip Wreath Acrylic Painting......

Being inspired by all the warm weather we have had in March ( by the way, it is cold and rainy again here in NY at the moment ) I created "Spring Tulip Wreath". Hopefully this colorful piece will help usher in the warm weather again. This painting is 12" x 12" on gallery canvas.

At the moment, I'm getting ready to start a series of garden paintings with contemporary abstract backgrounds, kind of framing that out in my mind at the moment. This is always the first step to getting a new painting together. The second step is getting a sketch together and starting to get to work on the canvas. Perhaps I'll chart the progress of my new painting as I go along. Happy April Everyone.

Butterfly Photos, Inspirations & Nature Scape Paintings

I was just speaking with someone recently about how ideas and inspirations for paintings come along. The kind of ideas that take seed in your mind, even through the course of years and end up being something you feel, as an artist, you have to paint, you cannot help yourself. That got me focused on butterflies and this lead me to think of the different inspirations for some of my favorite butterfly paintings that I've done.

I started getting fascinated by butterflies, I think, when I first took this series of photos back in the fall of 2009. We were at Mohonk Mountain House for our anniversary and these gorgeous Monarchs (I admit, they are my favorite butterfly) were drawn to the Verbena patch and I in turn, was drawn to them.

I took so many photos of these beauties over the course of the couple of days that we were there and then, like so many other photos, I filed them away for possible use in the future.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010 (at least, that is about when I think it was) that patch chuck full of butterflies from the year before , became the painting above "Monarch".

Believe it or not, those photos inspired these paintings as well. True, for these I left the Verbena behind and instead wanted to incorporate my favorite butterflies into my new obsession, trees. I was particularly fascinated with Apple Blossoms at the time and so, I created "Monarchy" above.

When Monarchy left my house, believe it or not, I was a bit sad, as it cheered me up each day that I looked at it. I had hung it in my studio and so, I could see it while I was working and really enjoyed it's happy presence . Because I missed that painting, I wanted another one with my favorite butterflies and Apples Blossoms but this time, with a bit of a different background and I wanted a multi-canvas piece and ended so up creating "Monarchs Emerging". This one hung in my dining room until it flew away so at least I did get to see it for a while.

Back in 2007, I spent quite a lot of time photographing this Swallowtail that was hanging around the front of my house to be near my Impatiens. I was out there constantly because pretty much every afternoon that I walked the dogs, there he was, back again, waiting for me to photograph him.

Actually, this particular butterfly was not very cooperative and did lead me on a merry chase throughout the yard. For this reason, I ended up with lots of blurry photos but, I did get some that came out well, the few times I could get him to sit still that is.

In 2008 I took photos of one of my spring time favorites....Lilacs. They grow on the side of my house and I love cutting them to bring inside each year.

A couple of months ago, I was on the phone with someone and for whatever reason, the idea came to me like a light bulb going on, I wanted to paint lilacs and a Swallowtail butterfly together. I'm not sure why this idea occured to me at the time it did but I immediately wanted to get started on "Awakening" below.

With 3 new paintings that I've just finished, now is the hard tiime for me, deciding what to do next. Last night I was awake for some time trying to think of the next subject for the next painting. I think I know what I"ll do but I'm never totally sure until I start work on the next piece. I'm wondering, what inspires you?? What kind of thought process goes into creating some beauty in your life? www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

Monarchs Emerging - Acrylic Quadtych

Has it really been almost a month since I last blogged?? I cannot believe it, where am I....what have I been doing....why did I wait, am I still alive?? All good questions, I've just been here, in the studio, alive, painting away and maybe, I don't know , carried away too because I was shocked to see how long it has been since I last posted. I'll have to pay a lot more attention next time.

Some people have wardrobe malfunctions, technical problems, you name it, depending of course on what profession they happen to be in. Me, I've had a camera man problem. In other words, the guy behind the camera, the one that usually takes my painting photos (aka Chris) has been really busy these days and so we just got down to work today, taking some photos of paintings that have been waiting very patiently to be photographed.

This is one of my latest paintings......"Monarchs Emerging" paying tribute to my favorite butterflies, perched on an apple blossom tree.

This piece is made up of 4 canvases, each 1 1/2" deep and measuring a total of 18"h x 25" w. Two canvases that measure 8"h x 8" w and 2 that measure 6"h x 4" w.

I've also just learned about the concept of measuring my paintings to include the negative space. Not just what the pieces measure if you just push them together but measuring them as they are displayed, with the exact amount of space inbetween each panel and the whole display being taken into consideration for the total measurment. I must have seemed dim as this concept was explained to me because it took me quite a while to get it, the measuring stick and I have never been great friends.....give me a ruler and I can miss measure quite a lot of things, draw a straight line.......are you kidding, can others really achieve that with a straight ruler?? Anyway, all kidding aside, Celebrations Gallery put me onto the concept of measuring properly ,who knew, you learn something new everyday if you pay attention.

I hope you like this piece. It has to be one of my favorites. Although, anything I paint with this species of butterfly is a favorite, also, any painting that any other artist paints with the beautiful Monarch always captures my attention as well so, maybe I need to GET REAL, I just plain old, love painting these butterflies!! I am however , really getting into the concept of using multiple canvases of different sizes in my work. I think this is a very sculptural look on the wall, something I'm really enjoying exploring. It is very creative, challenging and most of all, fun to lay out the designs on pieces like this.

I'm in the process of closing my Ruby Lane shop and will instead be hosting my canvas work on ETSY.... www.artfulcreations.etsy.com . This piece and others to come soon will all be listed there. That may be another reason I've been MIA the last few weeks, opening a new shop seems to take forever, which I never seem to realize before I start doing it. It is still not done but as some what of an optimist, I will refer to it as a work in progress.

In The Treetop & A Winged Beauty

This week I have been working on some smaller paintings......8" x 8" , 1 1/2" deep gallery canvases.

This little guy on the colorful and very happy background is "In The Treetop" which I think fits him just perfectly. I had a blast working on the background and loved the technique so much that I'm considering using it on a larger painting in the future.

"Winged Beauty" is of course another Monarch butterfly. I seem to be on a roll with these floating beauties lately, I'm really enjoying painting them.

For this background my goal was "earthy" and I think the colors and textures worked out just great for what I was tryiing to achieve. I would consider using this on a larger painting as well but I'm not sure yet, it was a tough background to achieve and even more so to paint on. Time will tell I suppose!

I hope you like the newest nature inspired paintings..........ENJOY!!!

www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

"Monarchy" - Acrylic Butterfly Painting

I just finished my latest painting the other day....."Monarchy" dedicated to my favorite and certainly the royalty of the butterfly family............the monarch.

First I started with an idea and a sketch. Rather then draw directly onto the canvas, I prefer taping together several sheets of tracing paper and drawing my design on that, then transferring it to the canvas.

The background is a bright and vivid sky with whimsical circles to finish it out nicely. All three of my butterflies are perched on Apple Blossom branches and each one is painted with lots of attention to detail .

I tried to give each butterfly its own look and pose with the uppermost monarch being the center of attention on this painting. This piece measures a very large 36" h x 24" w and is painted on 1 1/2" deep gallery canvas with the sides painted black so it needs no frame.

I have to admit I've been enjoying some poetry lately and I found this pretty one about the butterfly:

BUTTERFLY

Flutter by,

Butterfly,

Floating flower in the sky.

Kiss me with your petal wings--

Whisper secrets, tell of spring.

Author Unknown

Hope you enjoy this new painting and get to see some butterflies in your own garden today. Available at . www.artfulcreations.etsy.com

"Monarch".......Plus A Blog Break

I just completed my newest garden painting............. "Monarch".

This painting was inspired by the photos I took last year at Mohonk Mountain House, poised at the verbena patch with my camera in hand, I was ready to catch all the action.

Each panel is 6" x 8" for a total size of 8" x 12". Painted on gallery canvas, the sides measure 1 1/2" deep.

It may have been my first monarch painting but not my last, I'm currently working on a very large piece featuring these lovely butterflies.

On that note, I'll be flying away myself for a while, time for a blog break for me so I can complete some new pieces that I have in the works. See you when I return. This piece is available in my ETSY shop: www.artfulcreations.etsy.com