More Pattern Design brewing ...

I am almost finished with my mermaid design group, and it is too cute!  I am working on a tiny loopey texture and the other coordinate is umbrella tops!! (Cute and a bit retro too!) 

But now that I have a cutest GIRLY pattern set - think sheets and PJs, and a mermaid mobile - I feel the need to do a BOY companion, and I have just the right bit of inspiration...

Gondolas!  Yup Venice photos are working overtime in the inspiration category, black and white, fun patterns lots of stripes, gondoliers, the stripey posts in crazy colors..... This is what I mean about inspiration boards and references...you can do this with your morning walk photos, garden photos, rocks at the beach photos, carousell collections, anything!  As a textile designer, half the job is gathering reference and inspiration.  I don't want to look at other fabrics, I want to make that pattern grow from my feeling of how the motif works.  How will I repeat it out?  Gondolas are long and horizontal in shape, the gondola poles are long skinny and verticle, that will begin to create direction and layouts for my pattern design.  How do I select color?  That's easy, the FESTIVE way!  I want this design to be youthful colorful and it will definitely have B&W in it, it has to!!!   The birth of yet another fun design comes along...I will keep you posted.

Milan, Florence and Lucca "It's all in the details"

It is all in the details...this collage shows you what I mean by how I see things.  I think some times my mind works like those macro lenses on cameras, thank goodness I have a decent zoom on my little digital Olympus.  These shots were taken in Milan, Florence and Lucca Italy.  and this collage is an ode to pattern and specifically "motif".  Enjoy!

Food Markets in Italy

Some more glimpses through my photos, and today I am concentrating on food and the markets we visited.
The second day in Milan on our way in, we stocked up at a farmers market, to see more images from that outting click here. As we visited the many hill towns and even the super grocery store near our house, being the foodie I am, I simply took it all in.  The end of our trip was in Venice.  Here are a few of my favorite shots at markets and on the street.  I love the shot at the bottom; this is how wine and cheese get deliverey in Venice!  This fellow was going all over, up and down the canal bridges and around corners, all while dodging the tourist crowds.  Love the block of cheese tucked into the base of the hand truck.

Tuscany Travels

Florence

Well you see correctly, we have just returned from a 15 day trip to Tuscany, Italy.

Tom asked me towards the end of our trip if I was freshly inspired, the answer was unequivocally, yes! But what was I inspired to do?  That is the more interesting question.  Many of you know I am a fiber artist, but I am also a trained painter/artist, watercolor being my favorite medium, and I am also a textile designer.  I am a foodie and love experiencing new plates of beautiful food which I can translate into my life as well.  As we approached our last days in Italy I realized that, while we had full day trips out into the countryside, and driving in Italy is a bit nail biting at times, I was relaxed.  This vacation felt long.  What I became aware of was, I was savoring every moment, making each, one to remember.  I intentionally spent time capturing moments.  Most of us get into routines and a week goes by and I say, boy that week went fast or worse, that month flew by.  These past two weeks, have been new and exciting, and at the same time slow.  I want to sit down and document the cities we visited, the towns we drove through, and begin sifting through the 1300 photos that came home with me on my little digital camera!  I had all intents to journal and paint while traveling but I think that will happen later.  As I sort through my photos and experiences I promise to post and share them as inspiration too, wait till you see Venice!

Pointing at EVERYTHING in Venice!

What is also funny about traveling in these amazing places is, as you stand amongst a crowd of tourists taking photos and wonder how many of these same photo memories are floating around out there?  How many families sat watching slide shows of trips their loved ones took and things they saw - the same things over the years?  And now with the internet can't you simply Google images of Tuscany, Venice, Pisa, the Duomo in Florence and see almost the same images?  Yup, you sure can.  I even have boxes of slides my mother took of her travels in Europe in the 50's which I am in the process of scanning.  I wonder if when I get to her Italy slides, if we stood in the same place as each other some 60 years apart and each of us take a similar photo?  Intriguing, isn't it? I cannot wait to see what I find when I look back.

Murano Glass Chandelier

I know I am a different observer than most, heck my friends and family tell me so all the time, so it must be true!  What I observe are many things.  When I think about what captures my eyes as I trek around a town or city, I realize my habitual textile designer always pops her head out to take photos or memories that can be used as a "reference", she is so funny.  My water colorist takes photos that look like a good composition I can paint at a later date, and the foodie in me takes photos of food, to remember a meal, or a shopping experience, a different cuisine, different clothes, different styles, different interpretations.  It all comes down to Color, Texture, Pattern and Life!   Enjoy Life, enjoy the journey and my life lesson of the past couple of weeks is really savor the moment.  Ciao everyone!

Me and The Butterfly Flower Girl in Milan

August Already??

Wow how this summer is flying by!  We are planning a trip to Italy in the Fall and that is taking up some of my mental space.  I have been diligently but slowly working on my painted designs and am loving my current theme...Mermaids.

This croque is a peek at the fun I am having!!  I am playing around with the idea of making greeting cards with some of my newest design bits printed on them, stay tuned for that, may be new on my Etsy shop!

Our vegetables are growing nicely; tomato vines are full with all GREEN tomatoes.  I can't wait till they start turning red...  I made my first batch of (not classic) Ratatouille.  I added capers and olives and a splash of balsamic just for something different...it was delicious.  If you have never made it before, rent the cutest movie of the same name and download the PDF of Julia Child's recipe, watch the movie while you cook "Julia Style", and when finished get some crusty french bread, and enjoy your feast!   And the perpetual weeding has been a crab grass fest this summer!  Speaking of weeds here's a new one for me.  How am I going to weed up on my chimney!!!

I am also enjoying a fun Summer read.  It is called Sacre Bleu: A Comedy D'Art by Christopher Moore.  It is funny and a twist on so many famous painters in France in the 1800s,  spurred on by Vincent VanGogh's sudden death.  Friends, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and the fictional Lucien Lessard are trying to find out what happened to their friend Vincent and how a demented little man called the Colorman (who sells all the famous artists their paints - like crack) might be involved.   They are joined by the likes of Monet, Manet, Pissaro and Whistler.  It is very funny.   And though while I an painting PINK in the studio I am thinking BLUE in my head, so Blue things keep popping out.
Exhibit 1: Blue Berry Pie. 

I love pie, I am very good at pies, and today I made a pie from very local blue berries.  Have you visited the foodie website called Punchfork?  It is my favorite and my handle there is PieGirl.  Here's their assortment of Ratatouille recipes.

I am going to get back down to my painting table so enjoy the post and have a great day.

Newest Pillows Finished and Going on Etsy

These pillows are fun and quirky, I am calling them Wheels and Sprockets.  They have funky lavender pompom trim and are backed with a woven linen, edged in a teeny squared off decorative stitching.  They sit upon my famous Mary Chair!