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

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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!

Fall 2013 Tabletop Show

This has been the week of the big Fall Tabletop Show in NYC.

If you haven’t been there yet it is well worth going. The next show is in the Spring so check the dates on line. The showrooms are at 41 Madison Avenue and today we discovered that across the street at 43 Madison is the big Lifetime Brands Showroom. This was a new discovery for us. Lifetime owns Mikasa, Pfaltzfraff, Casamoda and several other companies.

We met with the Public Relations person Lisa Lochner who helped us with contact information for licensing designs. We looked at Two Artists Aloft on her ipad. Although she preferred no photos, she had no problem with my relating the information we had received. There were some beautiful designs, especially at Pfaltzgraff which were very much to my liking since the art was watercolor and loosely done. This is one of the pluses to visiting new showrooms.

Making contacts:

I entered all the info in our contact book and calendared a date after the show is over to call and make an appointment to see the licensing director at the showroom at 43 Madison.

Here are photos from three of the showrooms we visited. Villeroy and Boch and Vietri (neither of whom license) and Fitz and Floyd.

Villeroy and Boch Hens and Roosters

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Villeroy and Boch Botanical

Vietri sculpted pieces

We always love to go see Fitz and Floyd known for their imaginative decorative pieces.

Fitz and Floyd

Fitz and Floyd

I still have calling Lifetime Brands to make an appointment on my to do list. Haven’t gotten to it yet, but I will. There are so many other things to do in running an art business including actually doing the art. I literally have different hats I wear to help me move from task to task.

my painting hat

The show will be around again in the Spring and it is well worth seeing.

Vacation last part

• On Tuesday we head home back to New York, but for now we at still enjoying Leete island and glorious weather.

A new addition to our family is morning glory, an antique bisque doll I found waiting of me at the Clinton antique Barn.

Morning glory

Grammy Kendrick and aunt Mae Kendrick

Grandma Lillian as a young woman

A stop for fresh sweet corn

Dennis’ cousin SusI is visiting and brought old family photos with her.

A stop at Medlins farm stand to pick up fresh corn.

Pumpkins everywhere

Last night a hot and heavy game of banana grams with old friends Bill and Bev Colrus.

Banana grams

Dennis and bill have been friends since his first art job in Milford.

Old Friends

Today I will pack up the dervishes to make the trip home tomorrow.they are irritable and quarrelsome about leaving.

The dervishes protest

Well, see you back in the city.

Was a great vacation

Welcome to Fall.

On vacation

Here we are again at Leetes Island, Guilford, CT. Nothing much has changed and that’s the way we like it. We get all the change we need in New York City. We’re here to relax, toodle around, browse the bookstore, swim, eat and refresh ourselves. Crossword puzzles, reading and sketching and enjoying the birds at low tide are what occupy us. Dennis is a pro at jigsaw puzzles.

Dennis is a problem pro

We  love the sun porch which faces the water.

Sun Porch at the cottage

Dervishes sketch

They landed via balloons

Rainy Day

I went shopping at Joann’s and got the materials to make a small,doll. Part of an ongoing story game that my sister Pat and I keep spinning out via text messages are 150 miniature dervishes who now live in our living room in the village. Fifty of them hid in my suitcase and are here on the island with us, They landed one day via balloons and have been living with us ever since I have always enjoyed making up stories and characters and since I have been declared certifiablly sane there is no reason to stop. That is why I am making a dervish doll. here’s my sketch.

tiny and constantly,spinning

He will be around three or four inches high which is suitable for a,miniature dervish.

These are the materials I picked out. Joann’s is a mucho fun crafting store. And here is my doll as it progresses. Being connected to my imagination on an everyday basis is not only fun , but helps me keep my sanity and sense of wonder and humor. After a while the characters we create come alive and take on their own personalities. that’s the fun and fascination. When the dervishes popped out of my suitcase it was indeed a surprise.

Vacation part II

We are staying in a cottage on Leetes Island, Guilford, CT.  It is one of the original cottages and the family that owns it did just enough renovation to make it comfortable. But they left all the charming features of the old cottage.

Sun Porch at the cottage

Features like the original front door were left untouched. To me it is like a door out of a fairy tale cottage.

Cottage Door

September Hydrangeas

Changing clouds

I did nothing but watch the changing clouds for several,hours this evening.

Yesterday we set out to visit The Clinton Antiques Barn, our favorite browsing spot. We were disappointed to find it was closed.

We drove back to Madison, the town between Guilford and Clinton. Guilford, Madison and Clinton are coastal towns on the Long Island sound, charming New England towns with beautiful greens. I   spent time browsing in Walker and Loden, a favorite gift shop that has been in the same spot for 24 years.

I spoke with Bill Walker, one of the owners and Emily Smack. Next time I talk to Bill I’ll ask what the secret is to their longevity in this small town.  Here are a few photos of some of the varied gift categories.

Walker and Loden

A great collection of paper Products Design product

Tim Coffey’s Halloween dishes

Tooth Fairy Pillow

We like to spend time with family and friends on our vacation. Lunch with Dennis’ Aunt Willy is a treat. Willy  is the youngest McGill and just had her 88th birthday.. Dennis’ mom was the oldest. Dennis grew up with most of his family living nearby in Milford. The house next door to Willy belonged to his great-grandparents and then to his McGill grandparents. The grape arbor that his grandfather, Bill McGill, put up is still there in the backyard. When he and I first met, his mother Alice lived in a house down the street. For me, a city girl, this was and still is wonderful. Many of our family lived in walking distance in our Bronx neighborhood, but to have a house, garden and grape arbor still there from your childhood is amazingly wonderful to me.

In Aunt Willy’s garden

It ‘s been hot and humid the last few days but it’s supposed to cool off after some rain later.

For those of you who are familiar with the saga of the 50 dervishes (See Vacation Part I post ) I have to tell you that their idea of a vacation is to be very lazy. They have gotten so plump that they can’t even spin anymore or swim.

50 dervishes were stowaways in my suitcase

They have been so lazy

A most amazing sight

We’ve had thunder and downpours since yesterday. Tonight we had the most beautiful rainbow and the biggest that either of us have ever seen. The last time I saw a rainbow I was a little girl. You don’t get to see many rainbows in your lifetime – at least not in the city.

So make a wish!

Painting 30 Roses

I hope you like roses.

Mid the Roses

I spent mid June through mid July painting roses. I had in mind a looser simpler style like the flowers I had been painting recently and I also looked at other artists roses that I liked especially Martha Collins .

I must have done at least 30 roses in a period of a month. Everyday it was roses and more roses. When I first started painting watercolor and wanted to paint vegetables and food I spent at least that much time for hours each day painting peppers until I got it.

I painted roses every day

Dennis andI decided after looking them all over that the two pink roses above were really nice. They got moved from the reject pile to usable.  Different than what I wanted to get, but nice enough to use.

I was about to give up a number of times but that determination that helped me learn to watercolor in the first place kept me going. Those 30 roses it turns out were both practice and learning what I did and didn’t want to do. It became clear to me when I was beginning to overdo it and I would stop right there and start again.

These were beginning to look like the roses I had imagined

And these also

Time to celebrate-I did it!

By the time I painted the final roses (see above) it was delicious and went smoothly and simply. Though I was finished with the actual watercoloring I was by no means done. I scanned the roses and then compared the scan to my originals watercolors. Where   needed I heightened some of the darks and brightened the yellows then rescanned. At this stage it is a good idea to change the mode toCMYK since this is the mode used in actually printing the design by the manufacturer. When you change from RGB to CMYK the colors dull down a bit.

 Time to get together with Dennis and create the designs. We have a true partnership in many ways. He is such a wonderful designer with an eye for the beautiful and simple. I rely on him at this stage of the creative process as well as earlier at the painting stage. I am the kind of artist who needs feedback. I am always popping into his work space to say,”Whatta ya think? Is it working?”

Next……….Dennis and I sillouhetted the roses. Then I looked at them again on the computer screen and decided that more enhancement was still called for. This I did in photoshop using hard and soft brushes and the clone tool and the burn and dodge tool. These are great tools for any artist. And now we were ready to use the roses in a design.

Give a Rose
Win a Heart

Friends are the Roses
in my garden

Took a while to come up with the inspirational sayings. I didn’t want anything too sappy. That wouldn’t be me. But sentimental. Yes I am.

I thought about painting more roses, but think I I am ready for a break.

Stay tuned.

Fourth of July Fabrics

Dennis has designed some wonderful Fourth of July and Patriotic fabrics for Robert Kaufman in New York City.What made me think of this now are these absolutely fun photos that my friend Irene sent of her grandchildren Ben and Rachel.

Irene and the kids designed their Fourth costumes this year using one of Dennis’ fabrics.

Ben and Rachel

Ben all decked out

Here is the original fabric.

American Flags

And some of the other Patriotic designs for Robert Kaufman.

Patriotic fabrics for Robert Kaufman

And speaking of products we just received our samples of this classic coaster design we did for Counter Art.

Leafy Autumn Coasters

This is the same design that we did for Design Design paper tableware. See how colors can change.

Leafy Autumn coaster and Plate

I’ll end here on this autumnal note. I’m already looking forward to leaves falling and our annual vacation at Leetes Island, Guilford Ct. That’s where we transition from summer to fall every year.

Back from Atlanta July 2013 show

We got back from the Atlanta show this week. Despite all the time I spent making phone calls, I didn’t have much success this time in setting up appointments before the show. At first I was disappointed but it was a good lesson to always look for the up side of things.  I didn’t feel like being gloomy and decided that this would be a different kind of show. The trick is to decide how long you want to spend feeling bad and then stop and switch to a better frame of mind.

This time, I made up our show schedule differently. I did it by floor and marked down the companies on each floor that we wanted to see. Instead of running from floor 18 to floor 6 and then back to 14 we started at 18 and worked our way down, doing a few floors each day.

We were there for three days and met with 12  companies. Five were new companies for us. This was one of our goals.

I hardly took any photos this time. Usually I am clicking that shutter all day long. This time I just wanted to focus on our meetings and on looking as carefully as I could at each showroom.

I did show off my new heron painting and got very good response.

Great Blue Heron watercolor

We saw herons all over the place which may mean a new trend. We are putting mine into a design at the request of one of our clients who manufactures area rugs. I have been working on a comfortable watercolor style for painting birds and I think I have it now. There are all sorts of birds I want to paint now including  a peacock and flamingo. What fun!

Owls were still all over the place. We saw a lot of designs in black and white. Birds and nature themes still popular. Chevrons.

Sometimes, something old is something new.

Four Clipper Ships

 This is one of a set of four that Dennis did. They got a lot of interest at the show and would look good on many different products.

We did some networking and had dinner with friends and spent some time with our friend, artist Lucinda Wei.

And we did what we always do: track trends; look carefully at products; see what styles were popular and who the artists were. And this time I got that foot massage that I have been promising myself.

Here’s a recap of the things you will need to do when you get back from a show:

         •Send thank yous to all the manufacturers we met with

• Send out the designs that were requested as jpegs

• Create the new designs that were requested at the show

•Make notes on which companies were looking for what and when

     so that we can keep particular companies in mind when we are doing new designs.

            •Enter new companies and networking in our data base

GIVE YOURSELF THAT PAT ON THE BACK.

Up up and away

Unpacking was a bit difficult. The cats were all glad to have us back at home.

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Maggie