First Night Design | Bembridge Lifeboat Station #Art #New

Click to buy Bembridge Lifeboat Station framed print (Fine Art America) © Sarah Vernon

As some of you know, our summer holidays as children were spent in Bembridge on the Isle of Wight where I now live. The other week I trundled round on my mobility scooter visiting my favourite haunts. This shot of Bembridge Lifeboat Station through the trees is just where the steps lead down to the beach and to the exact spot we invariably used for swimming.

It is true the original photograph is rather appealing and some of you on Facebook have already seen it as my header but true to form, I had to play.

I used two textures from Design Cuts — a yellow-based and a green-based one. I ran the photograph through Topaz Impression three or four times to produce different effects. I chose to layer ‘Cezanne 1’ and ’Cavedweller’ (as you do) and blended them with the textures to produce a digital painting. I hope it pleases you as much as it did me in its creation.

Click to buy Bembridge Lifeboat Station tote bag (Fine Art America) © Sarah Vernon

Part of a paper read to the Ladies of Shanklin Evening Institute, October 1951.

“It is quite possible that some among you are quite ignorant of everything connected with Lifeboat work […] I have no intention of going back into remote history, or to the founding of the Institution in 1824.  Moreover, I expect you will think that I have gone back quite far enough if I commence with the time of your grandfathers, and I select that particular time because it was then that the proud reputation of the Lifeboat Institution was built up, on the great hearts and stout muscles of the grand old men who served as crews for the small pulling and sailing lifeboats stationed round our coasts.  But to really understand the heroism of these grand old fellows, and to give them full credit for their marvellous rescues, and for their self-sacrificing efforts, one must be possessed of…” Bembridge Lifeboat

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First Night Design | Harbour Parasols #Art #New

You have no idea just how peachy it has been to create a piece of art with my new vision after spending so many months re-blogging earlier pieces and promoting those which have sold. My heart and soul are leaping with joy. Just as well in view of the unconscionable state prevailing in the UK after a general election. I am reminded of my favourite quote from erstwhile US President Jimmy Carter (and there are many to choose from) which says it all when one thinks of Prime Minister Theresa May’s parentage: the daughter of a vicar no less. “If you don’t want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values because you don’t.’

Harbour Parasols Framed Prints © Sarah Vernon [Redbubble]

The original is a photochrom from the Library of Congress of the entrance to the harbour at St. Malo in France taken between 1890 and 1900. I duplicated the image, ran the jpg through the Topaz Impressions Abstraction II filter, which I added as a third layer before topping with one of my yellow textures. I made use of a variety of Photoshop blends such as Darken, Lighter Colour and Screen.

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First Night Design | MKG, Memories and Me #Prints

Some of you know that I had another eye appointment at the hospital on Thursday. The scar tissue was removed by laser, which was fairly painless. I might see a difference in a couple of days but there was talk about it taking six weeks.

AAAGGHHRRR!

No change so far. I’ve always said I was on this earth to learn patience and so it remains. I shall keep smiling and laughing. Because that’s what I do!

And now to the real point of the post.

© Marilyn Griffin

About a year ago, dear Marilyn of MKG- Memories-Keepsakes-Gifts bought one of my prints from Crated. She has now found the perfect frame, as above, and it’s going to look fabulous in her new kitchen. Thank you, Marilyn, for posting about it.

However, took a while for me to realise to whom she was referring:

I first represented this as “Lillian Vernon”… my mistake!… That name always comes to mind when reading Sarah’s Blog… I had read and heard of “Lillian Verno…

Source: Sarah Vernon Print – I Found IT! | MKG- Memories-Keepsakes-Gifts

Anyone who is friends with me on Facebook will have seen the photograph below. For anyone else, it just so happens that I bought the same print as Marilyn about six weeks ago from Redbubble and with a frame.

Copper Pear at Redbubble © Sarah Vernon

As you can see, it hangs above my kitchen sink. I get such a kick out of it. I’m pretty smitten also with my black tap with a white handle, which is from Ikea and the best and easiest mechanism I’ve ever tried.

It replaces what I thought was a beautifully sinuous — apparently very expensive — chrome tap installed by the previous owner but it was a painful ordeal for my fingers.

And that’s it for now.

Take care and keep laughing!

“The Lookout” Framed Prints by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

Sight update: I’m seeing the ophthalmologist at 9:30 am this morning!

Features / British Artists 30 March 2015 / The Group-Gallery of Art & Photography 13 March 2015 / Photoshop / Photograph by Fré Sonneveld at Unsplash / Textures from 2 Lil’ Owls /

DOVER BEACH — MATTHEW ARNOLD [1822-1888]

The sea is calm tonight. / The tide is full, the moon lies fair / Upon the straits; on the French coast the light / Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, / Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. / Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! / Only, from the long line of spray / Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, / Listen! you hear the grating roar / Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, / At their return, up the high strand, / Begin, and cease, and then again begin, / With tremulous cadence slow, and bring / The eternal note of sadness in. / Sophocles long ago / Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought / Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery; we / Find also in the sound a thought, / Hearing it by this distant northern sea. / The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore / Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. / But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating, to the breath / Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear / And naked shingles of the world. / Ah, love, let us be true / To one another! for the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams, / So various, so beautiful, so new, / Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; / And we are here as on a darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, / Where ignorant armies clash by night. • Also buy this artwork on wall prints, apparel, kids clothes, and more.

Source: “The Lookout” Framed Prints by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

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“Copper Pear” Framed Prints by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

Features / Vavoom 24 November 2014 / Creation 25 October 2014 / Everyday Women 23 October 2014 / Photoshop / Personal textures / Pear • Also buy this artwork on wall prints, apparel, stickers, and more.

Source: “Copper Pear” Framed Prints by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

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Beached Dinghy Framed Print by Sarah Vernon #Gifts #Christmas

Beached Dinghy Framed Print by Sarah Vernon. All framed prints are professionally printed, framed, assembled, and shipped within 3 – 4 business days and delivered ready-to-hang on your wall. Choose from multiple print sizes and hundreds of frame and mat options.

Source: Beached Dinghy Framed Print by Sarah Vernon

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First Night Design | Vogue Goes Live! #Art

Extreme Vogue © Sarah Vernon at Crated

Extreme Vogue © Sarah Vernon Tote Bag at Fine Art America

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First Night Design | Déjeuner de Luxe #Art

Déjeuner de Luxe © Sarah Vernon – Crated

Paul-François Quinsac (1858–1929) was a French artist who specialised in mythological and allegorical subjects, figures and landscapes.

His painting A Beauty in Violet (1909) was the perfect backdrop to create a faux-Victorian advertisement with vintage elements from The Graphics Fairy, including an intricate twirl for a headpiece, embellished with one of my embossed flowers that I created in the early days.

Déjeuner de Luxe Flask by FirstNightDesign

Déjeuner de Luxe Postcard by FirstNightDesign

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First Night Design | Abandoned Hideaway #Art #HomeDecor

Abandoned Hideaway © Sarah Vernon at Fine Art America

I’m delighted with the effect of a Kerstin Frank texture on my photograph of a run-down shed in my friend’s garden!

Abandoned Hideaway Card by FirstNightDesign

Abandoned Hideaway Throw Pillow by FirstNightDesign

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First Night Design | The Sports Pavilion #Art

The Sports Pavilion © Sarah Vernon at Crated

The Sports Pavilion uses a photograph from a store called Clark Street Mercantile who have added what I assume to be their brochure photographs to that great free resource, Unsplash.

In the first instance I used Topaz Impressions’ chiaroscuro effect but I wanted something else. To this end I added 2LO Texture Artists 2 in the Multiply mode and enhanced the brightness and contrast. The image now appears to be a charmingly aged print of an old sports pavilion from, say, the 1920s or ’30s. Well, I like to think so!

The Sports Pavilion Tote Bags © Sarah Vernon at FAA

Available at the following galleries:
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First Night Design | The Lynx Has Landed | Repost

FROM THE ARCHIVE 13 October 2014

The lynx is from Vintage Printable. I created the background by blending a couple of  2 Lil’ Owls textures with one of my own concoctions. The lynx is mostly found in…

Source: First Night Design | The Lynx Has Landed

First Night Design | Waiting to Travel #Art Repost

FROM THE ARCHIVE April 2015

Waiting to Travel © Sarah Vernon

I’ve been playing at Grand Central Station. Using a photograph of the concourse by Nicolai Berntsen and a red sky background by Breno Machado, both from Unsplash, I added a texture from Kim Klassen to create a painted effect which reminds me a little of L S Lowry. I should be so talented!

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“The long days seduce all thought away…

Source: First Night Design | Waiting to Travel

First Night Design | The Cows Came Home … at last! #Art

Buy The Cows Came Home Avery Binder © Sarah Vernon at Zazzle

The background is from EKDuncan-My Fanciful Muse and the cows from The Graphics Fairy, which I blended with my textures. It’s a piece I made three or four years ago but only now have I uploaded it to all my galleries. It’s so much better than I thought now that I can see it with an eye no longer compacted by a cataract. The double vision is improving but those darned stitches have to stay in until the end of March at least.

Buy The Cows Came Home Hip Flask © Sarah Vernon at Zazzle

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“I could dance with you till the cows come home. On second thoughts, I’d rather dance with the cows till you come home.”
Groucho to Margaret Dumont in Duck Soup [1933]

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Buy The Cows Came Home Framed Print © Sarah Vernon at Crated

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First Night Design | Contemplation #Art

Buy Contemplation © Sarah Vernon from Saatchi Art

‘Girl Wearing a Kokoshnik in Profile’ is a Léon Bakst painting in a private collection, which I downloaded from Wikimedia and blended with a handwritten document, also from Wikimedia, and a texture from Kerstin Frank.

The kokoshnik (Russian: коко́шник; IPA: [kɐˈkoʂnʲɪk]) is a traditional Russian head-dress worn by women and girls to accompany the sarafan, primarily worn in the northern regions of Russia in the 16th to 19th centuries. Wikipedia

Happy Sunday!

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First Night Design | Painting with Textures #DigitalArt

Buy Searching the Sands © Sarah Vernon At Fine Art England

As I’ve said before, there are various software applications by which you can turn a photograph into a digital painting. While they have their uses, I prefer to use textures to provide a more interesting and subtler creation than that created by algorithms (or however it’s done!).

I created Searching the Sands in Photoshop with a photograph by Chris Sardegna and a texture from 2 Lil’ Owls, I tweaked the colour balance, brightness and contrast in both images and enhanced or faded certain areas.

Chris Sardegna

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“I had a dream about you. We were running on the beach, holding hands. It was a nude beach, but we were the only ones wearing clothes. You wore a bikini, and I wore my dead grandma’s dress—with my grandma still in it.
”
― Jarod Kintz, I had a dream about you 2

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Buy Searching the Sands © Sarah Vernon at Crated

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They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.
—Edward Lear

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Available at the following galleries:
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Fine Art America
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Take care and keep laughing!