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

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First Night Design | The Magic Lighthouse #Art #DeliciousRepost!

FROM THE ARCHIVE 6th October 2015

The original photograph is by Joshua Hibbert at Unsplash and I had enormous fun changing the dimensions of each element and layering the result with a couple of my textures, one orange and one a gr…

Source: First Night Design | The Magic Lighthouse #Art

First Night Design | Autumn Fall #Art

Autumn Fall © Sarah Vernon Prints, Cards, Phone Cases, Attire, Home Decor & more… at Redbubble

This is an early effort that dates back to heaven knows when!

Autumn Fall © Sarah Vernon Pouches at Redbubble

Autumn Fall © Sarah Vernon Mugs at Redbubble

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“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

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Autumn Fall © Sarah Vernon Spiral Notebooks at Redbubble

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“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus

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Available at the following galleries:
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Zazzle US
Zazzle UK

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Accidental Abstract #Art

Buy Accidental Abstract Cushion © Sarah Vernon at Fine Art England

Created with my own photographs and scanned ephemera blended with a vintage architectural drawing from The Graphics Fairy.

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‘There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.’ Pablo Picasso

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Accidental Abstract Greeting Card

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‘The surrealists, and the modern movement in painting as a whole, seemed to offer a key to the strange postwar world with its threat of nuclear war. The dislocations and ambiguities, in cubism and abstract art as well as the surrealists, reminded me of my childhood in Shanghai.’ J. G. Ballard

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

Take care and keep laughing!

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

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

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Turning Windmill #Art

Buy Turning Windmill @ Sarah Vernon at Saatchi Art

Inspired by the work of J M W Turner, I created Turning Windmill (yes, the part-pun is intentional!) by using one of my textures, one from Kerstin Frank and a photograph of a windmill in Estonia from Wikimedia.

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‘Windmill or no windmill, he said, life would go on as it had always gone on—that is, badly.’
George Orwell, Animal Farm

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Buy Turning Windmill Tile © Sarah Vernon at Zazzle

When I first posted about Turning Windmill in January 2014, I was not at all sure about it and had yet to upload the image to any of my galleries. But those of you who were following my blog at the time were enthusiastic and I went ahead and put it up for sale. I’ve become very fond of the image and am rather glad I left it as it is.

Buy Turning Windmill Service Tray © Sarah Vernon at Zazzle

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“This little piggy saved some water,
This little piggy biked for sun,
This little piggy used windmills,
This little piggy used sun,
And this little piggy squealed
‘Re-re-recycle!’
All the way home.”
― Jan Peck and David Davis illustrated by Carin Berger

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Take care and keep laughing!

 

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

First Night Design | Homecoming Pirate #Art

 

Homecoming Pirate Laptop Skin from Redbubble © Sarah Vernon

Using a personal photograph, I have added some of my textures along with one from Kerstin Frank.

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“The man is not wholly evil – he has a Thesaurus in his cabin.” (Captain Hook as described by J. M. Barrie in Peter Pan)”
― J.M. Barrie

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Homecoming Pirate Women’s T-Shirt at Redbubble © Sarah Vernon

Homecoming Pirate Framed Print from Fine Art America © Sarah Vernon

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“One could mention many lovable traits in Smee. For instance, after killing, it was his spectacles he wiped instead of his weapon.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

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

First Night Design | Parrot in a Gilded Cage #Art ‘Don’t Even Think It!’

Parrot in a Gilded Cage Double-Sided Standard Business Cards (Pack Of 100) by FirstNightDesign

When I posted The Merry Widow image the other week, BeetleyPete assumed (it was a compliment) that I had coloured the central image. In fact, I hadn’t, and the colours were on the original Play Pictorial Cover. However, Parrot in a Gilded Cage is a different matter. The illustration is a black & white sketch from one of my vintage Children’s Encyclopaedia and I coloured it. So there you go, Pete!

Parrot Quote Greeting Card by FirstNightDesign

Available at the following galleries:
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Parrot Fashion #Art

Parrot Fashion Framed Print © Sarah Vernon – Buy from Crated

I’ve been reading up about the different red-headed parrots, of which this is one, but I can’t begin to tell you which. The name on the original print from the Biodiversity Heritage Library that I have used, ‘platycercus’, seems to be a very general term, hence the confusion. I have combined it with several textures of my own.

Didn’t you always know that parrots were extremely intelligent? I give you this excerpt from Creation.com:

[…] researchers have shown what many parrot owners have known or suspected—that parrots can use individual words in appropriate situations. For example, studies by Brandeis University (USA) researcher Dr Irene Pepperberg on an African Grey parrot named “Alex” showed that these birds have an impressive intelligence—about the same as a five-year-old child. When Pepperberg’s research subjects spoke English, it was not mere “parrot fashion”. She said, “If I ask Alex … how many keys; he’ll tell me ‘two’. If I ask him what colour, he’ll say ‘green’ and if I ask him what shape, he’ll say ‘three-quarter’.” He was able to correctly identify 100 objects, do simple addition and identify seven colours, just as children do.

The article goes on to say that parrots can also behave like five-year-old children in deliberately choosing not to give the right answer even though they know it full well. Wouldn’t you just know it!

Parrot Fashion 4.25×5.5 Paper Invitation Card

Parrot Fashion Laptop Skin © Sarah Vernon – Buy from Redbubble

• The World Parrot Trust
  This Parrot Has The Most Hilariously Evil Laugh. Soon He Will Take Over The World.

Available at the following galleries:
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Fine Art America
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Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Heavens to Betsy—25 Sold #Thanksgiving

Buy Give Thanks Postcards from Zazzle © Sarah Vernon

Heavens to Betsy! My weekend has been totally transformed by an email from Zazzle telling me I’ve sold 25 of these Give Thanks Postcards.

The main image is a photograph of our garden – they’re actually Cretan olive trees in the background – and a couple of textures. I’ve used Photoshop to create a Thanksgiving scene with a pumpkin from The Graphics Fairy and an open book from The Cottage Market.

Buy Give Thanks Business Cards © Sarah Vernon

Are you wondering about the phrase ‘Heavens to Betsy’? I have to acknowledge that it’s one of my favourite sayings. I learn, however, that it’s fallen out of use and considered far too anachronistic. Tough. I shall never stop using it. It seems it originated in America in the late 19th century. No one knows who Betsy was and the etymologist Charles Earle Funk said the origins of the phrase were ‘completely unsolvable’. [#1]

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the first written use as from a short-story collection by Rose Terry Cooke, Huckleberries Gathered From New England Hills published in 1892. [#1; #2]

I’m also very fond of ‘Heavens to Murgatroyd!’ but I’ll leave that lovely for another day.

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

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Art | Swimming Against the Tide #Art

Buy a framed print from Crated © Sarah Vernon

Layer upon layer, clip art upon clip art and texture upon texture went into the mix for this ‘fishy’ collage. All mine own. This a very early piece and I thought it could do with some fresh air. So here it is!

Buy Swimming Against the Tide Flasks from Zazzle

Buy a studio pouch from Redbubble © Sarah Vernon

Buy US stamps at Zazzle

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

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | ‘Such Serviceable Flowers’ #Art

Buy print ’Such Serviceable Flowers’ © Sarah Vernon from Redbubble

The title is a quote from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark in which the inimitable Morningside teacher of impressionable girls is talking about carnations. These vintage flowers—at least, I think they’re carnations—are from Mindy Somers of Vintage Art Downloads, a treasure chest of high-resolution images for artists. The underlay is one of my watercolour textures in pale magenta and green.

Buy Tote Bag from Fine Art America © Sarah Vernon

Below is a snippet from the film version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) with Maggie Smith as Brodie and Celia Johnson as the headmistress, Miss Mackay. Incidentally, Dame Celia and I went to the same boarding school…though not at the same time. Obviously.

Such Serviceable Flowers Greeting Card

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

First Night Design | The Magic Lighthouse #Art

The Magic Lighthouse © Sarah Vernon

The original photograph is by Joshua Hibbert at Unsplash and I had enormous fun changing the dimensions of each element and layering the result with a couple of my textures, one orange and one a grungy yellowy cream. The outsize marigold is from The Graphics Fairy. I guess you might call it a cross between surrealism and magic realism.

Using exactly the same combination of photo and textures, Mr FND created his own surrealistic take.

Lighthouse © Mr FND

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“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl

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Buy a framed print from Fine Art England

How about a shower curtain from Fine Art America?!

#BLOGSHARELEARN LINKY PARTY OCTOBER 9/15

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

First Night Design | “I Can Resist Everything Except…” #Halloween

Vampire Quote Flasks

“I can resist everything except temptation.”

This was one of my very first designs, which I created by hand-colouring a vintage bat from my Picture Book of Animals.

Vampire Quote Greeting Card

Vampire Quote Long Apron

Vampire Quote Double-Sided Standard Business Cards (Pack Of 100)

Vampire Quote Journals

Vampire Quote Standard Cocktail Napkin

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | The Green, Green Grass of Home #Art

The Green, Green Grass of Home © Sarah Vernon

I combined a Chinese print from the Library of Congress at Flickr with the Beguiling-18 texture from 2 Lil’ Owls, and the bluewatercolor texture from Angie Makes via Design Cuts.

Framed Print from FAA

Leggings from Redbubble

Samsung Case from Redbubble

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

Take care and keep laughing!