2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The ball drops on 2013

Wherever you are tonight you may be watching the ball drop.Here in NY Times Square will be packed. Dennis and I will have a quiet New Years at home and tomorrow we’re going to see Nebraska and have some great chinese food on 9th avenue. I’ll do my traditional New Year’s journaling. In a cartoon fashion I map out the year we are leaving and the new year ahead. What happened, what I hope will happen and spaces for surprises. I always leave those spaces. Them there is room for new things to come into my life.A  Feng Shui principle

We want to thank our wonderful licensing partners for the opportunities they have given us and for the great relationships we enjoy so much. Thanks to our colleagues for support, friendship and sharing. It is truly an exciting business, this art licensing and we are very happy to be a part of it.

One resolution: I am going to learn new things about Marketing and time management and how to maximize our on line presence.  I will try a suggestion from our good friend Sheila Cunningham who is a marketing consultant to spend one day a week just doing marketing. I will spend more time painting!!!

Dennis and I extend our warmest wishes for the New Year 2014. Fill it with happiness and fun and work and family and kindness and helpfulness.

Fill it with fun

Warmest Wishes

from Andrea and Dennis, Maggie, Louisa May and Buster

The post after the last post of 2013

The last post was accidentally published before I meant to. Most of the content was there.

But one thing got left out. I had said that one of my wishes for 2014 was to see more of our designs on new and diverse products. My connection with the Wish Fairy is always helpful and in this case I have let her know my wish.

The wish Fairy

She will be glad to hear yours too.

Dennis and I wish you and yours a very happy healthy  2014.

Last Post of 2013 republished

I accidentally pushed the button to publish this post before it was finished. Add to that that I am not sure if it went out to all my followers.

So please forgive. I am sending it again with the missing ending.

We’ve just been through our Christmas holidays and I hope that everyone had a warm and wonderful time. Dennis went to Connecticut where we always go to visit and be with his family. This year though I had to stay behind to take care of our senior cat maggie.

I was thinking about what my end of the year post should be.  The last designs dennis and I did this year is a series called Autumn Melody. Three different mums and a sunflower make up the melody.Think of Nat King Cole singing Autumn Leaves. I listened to that song as I painted.

I wanted richness of color and form this time.

AutumnMelody Red mums

AutumnMelody.sunflower.

AutumnMelody.brownMum

AutumnMelody.yellowMum

I like what I achieved and now want to do more in this richer more solid color. My next project will be four rooster designs. Roosters are colorful and very patterned and feathers are fun to do. We have two weeks before the Atlanta’s Mart show and I am considering getting one painted before then. Maybe even two and a background. Roosters are always popular.

I’ve been busy getting our appointment schedule set up and I am definitely ready for something creative.

Amia, the company that does beautiful stained glass objects and who did my hummingbird and morning glory design, is now rolling it out into a full product line of around 12-15 lovely products. Can’t wait. Our peacock design is close to becoming coasters. New Christmas flag and bag designs on the way. A new coastal flag and coastal Area rugs which we should see at the show. Ooh la la Paree will be appearing on mugs, bags and  flags.

stained glass morning glories

Ooh La La Paree

           .

One of my New Years wishes is to see more of our designs on diverse products. I’ll have to speak to the wish fairy about that.  Feel free to contact her with your own New Year’s wishes!

The wish Fairy

Happy New Year

Takes two to make a peacock

I thought it would be interesting and perhaps helpful to see  how our new Peacock design came about. It is a good illustration of the process involved and how Dennis and I share the art.

A peacock is a spectacular bird and also has been very trendy in our market. So why not!

After I gathered reference I began to watercolor using my chinese brushes. I use them almost exclusively these days.

I painted the tail separately

Just in case the tail didn’t come out right I painted it separately then added it to my bird.

Now I add the tail and paint the feathers

When I showed my peacock to dennis he liked everything but the tail. The design of the feathers was kind of hodgepodge. Too exacting for my way of watercoloring.

So I repainted the basic colors of the tail as well as one feather. I added the lower part of the body to the tail. Now I had a headless peacock.

And one feather

In the meantime I had repainted the tail and where it attached to the body and the start of the neck. The original Head was still separate and then that got attached. A bit like surgery.

We sliced off the head and I repainted the tail and the body up to where the neck began

The head got reattached and Dennis did a magnificent job of placing the feathers on the tail. We added type to the background and added blue poppies.

Dennis creates the pattern of the feathers

 Blue poppies that I had previously painted. And added type to the background.

The blue poppies

Texture and color were added to the background and we both agreed that our Peacock was completed.

Finishing the background

A feather in my cap- not a real one!

And one for Dennis too!