First Night Design | Church at Twilight #Art #Repost

Originally published 19/11/2015

Church at Twilight @ Redbubble © Sarah Vernon

To say I was influenced by the atmosphere of Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White — must read it again — would be bending the truth, although I’ve included that sentence in the description boxes at galleries. However, only when I had finished creating it did the book come immediately to mind.

I have used a detail from a photograph by…

via First Night Design | Church at Twilight #Art | First Night Design

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First Night Design | Saint-Étienne Re-imagined #Art #Repost

As you know, I can never resist altering a modern photograph in order to give it a vintage feel. The original photograph of Saint Étienne Fontaine du Square Jean Cocteau in Paris is by Daniel Vill…

Source: First Night Design | Saint-Étienne Re-imagined #Art

First Night Design | And Don’t Forget the Garlic! #Repost #Art

FROM THE ARCHIVE 17th April 2015

I have to confess to an unwavering passion for narrow streets. The temptation to go exploring and, inevitably, to get hopelessly lost, is overpowering. This type of street is often laid with cobble…

Source: First Night Design | And Don’t Forget the Garlic! | First Night Design

First Night Design | Church at Twilight #Art

To say I was influenced by the atmosphere of Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White — must read it again — would be bending the truth, although I’ve included that sentence in the description boxes at the galleries. However, only when I had finished creating it did the book come immediately to mind.

I have used a detail from a photograph by Stefan Ringler which I’ve warped and extended. This I added to Photoshop in Soft Light mode over a texture from 2 Lil’ Owls, Beguiling-5. I made various adjustments to give the roof of the church more definition and provide extra light on the walls. I like it and I hope you do too.

And here comes the promotion bit! If you haven’t read The Woman in White, you have a treat in store. Buy it immediately!

‘The Woman in White (1859-60) is the first and greatest `Sensation Novel’. Walter Hartright’s mysterious midnight encounter with the woman in white draws him into a vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue.

The novel is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction – Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant `Napoleon of Crime’. A masterwork of intricate construction, The Woman in White sets new standards of suspense and excitement, and achieved sales which topped even those of Dickens, Collins’s friend and mentor.’

Apart from being besotted by the story, which bears repeated reading, the second time I read it, I was appearing in The Beaux Stratagem at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley (1978), wherein lies a tale. I remember waiting at the overground station for the train to Bromley with book in hand and trying to paint my fingernails with the palest of pinks. For The Beaux Stratagem, I hear you ask? Alas, yes. I was trying to cover my stress-spotted and ridged nails. The director’s wife spotted it immediately and I was told to remove it. Quite rightly.

Not the most prepossessing of theatres [Wikimedia]

Anyway, back to the railway station. The train arrived (early) and in my haste to replace the top on the nail polish, put the book in my bag and board the train, I spilt the polish all over the book and my rather chi-chi wrap-around skirt.  The skirt could never be worn again but the book still graces my bookshelves and always will.

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Saint Étienne Re-imagined #Art

Saint-Étienne Re-imagined © Sarah Vernon

As you know, I can never resist altering a modern photograph in order to give it a vintage feel. The original photograph of Saint Étienne Fontaine du Square Jean Cocteau in Paris is by Daniel Villafruela on Wikimedia which I have blended with textures from 2 Lil’ Owls.

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“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.”
― Jean Cocteau

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 “Be yourself. The world worships the original.”
― Jean Cocteau

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“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like? ”
― Jean Cocteau

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Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Romance in Stone #Chania

Romance in Stone [framed] © Sarah Vernon

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Never talk to a client about architecture. Talk to him about his children. That is simply good politics. He will not understand what you have to say about architecture most of the time. An architect of ability should be able to tell a client what he wants. Most of the time a client never knows what he wants. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

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Romance in Stone Postcard

This is one of my earliest efforts with textures and handwriting over a photograph of a street in Chania. I knew so much less about how to use Photoshop in those days but it still pleases me that it came out as it did. Another of those happy accidents.

Romance in Stone © Sarah Vernon

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | And Don’t Forget the Garlic!

And Don’t Forget the Garlic! © Sarah Vernon from Redbubble.

I have to confess to an unwavering passion for narrow streets. The temptation to go exploring and, inevitably, to get hopelessly lost, is overpowering. This type of street is often laid with cobblestones and not so easy for me this century since wheelchairs do not react kindly to such surfaces and juddering progress is rather painful on my decrepit old body.

The original photograph was charming, if a little on the dark side. It was this darkness that I decided to make a virtue. The title is tongue-in-cheek but the resulting image does look rather like a street that would lead to Roman Polanski’s vampires in The Fearless Vampire Killers, or any vampire film come to that!

Original photograph by Bruno Marinho from Unsplash
Textures 2 Lil’ Owls

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art tba

Take care and keep laughing!