First Night Design | Sky Above, Sand Below #New!

Saatchi Art Prints Available

I created Sky Above, Sand Below with a monochromatic seaside scene from The Library of Congress of Trouville Beach in France between 1890 and 1900.

I layered, blended, and played with the image using a texture from Distressed Textures via Design Cuts.

Available at the following galleries which all deliver to the US, Australia and the UK as well other countries around the world:
Redbubble
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America [14 fulfillment centers in 5 countries]
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

Earthly Delights Square Wall Clock | Zazzle.com #Sold!

A sale from last year the notification for which became lost in my inbox and that I’ve only just discovered!

Earthly Delights Square Wall Clock

Zazzle says: ‘It’s time to show off your favourite art, photos, and text with a custom square wall clock from Zazzle. Made for any wall, this clock is vibrantly printed with AcryliPrint®HD process to ensure the highest quality display of any content. Order this custom square wall clock for your home or give to friends and family as a gift for a timeless treasure.’

via Earthly Delights Square Wall Clock | Zazzle.com

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Easter Egg Basket Card | Zazzle

Size: Greeting Card

Birthdays or holidays, good days or hard days, Zazzle’s customized greeting cards are the perfect way to convey your wishes on any occasion. Add a photo or pick a design and brighten someone’s day with a simple “hi”!

• Dimensions: 5″ x 7″ (portrait) or 7″ x 5″ (landscape)
• Full color CMYK print process
• All-sided printing for no additional cost
• Printable area on the back of the card is 3″ x 4″ (portrait) or 4″ x 3″ (landscape)

Standard white envelopes included

Paper Type: Matte

The most popular paper choice, Matte’s eggshell texture is soft to the touch with a smooth finish that provides the perfect backdrop for your chosen designs.

• Light white, uncoated matte finish with an eggshell texture
• Paper is easy to write on and won’t smudge
• Made and printed in the USA

Source: Easter Egg Basket Card | Zazzle

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First Night Design | Chinese Lantern Surrounded #Art #New

Look at me, Ma — I have created something else out of The Fruit Look! A few subtractions, a few additions with the ephemera from Design Cuts and the Biodiversity Library on Flickr and I have done something different. It’s recycling if you will.

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“We live in a disposable society. It’s easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even give it a name – we call it recycling.” Neil LaBute (playwright)

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Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America [14 fulfillment centers in 5 countries]
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

Mademoiselle Couture Greeting Card for Sale by Sarah Vernon #Sold!

Mademoiselle Couture Greeting Card for Sale by Sarah Vernon. Our premium-stock greeting cards are 5″ x 7″ in size and can be personalized with a custom message on the inside of the card. All cards are available for worldwide shipping and include a money-back guarantee.

Source: Mademoiselle Couture Greeting Card for Sale by Sarah Vernon

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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:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Venetian Harbour, Chania #Art

Venetian Harbour, Chania © Sarah Vernon

This photograph of the Venetian Harbour in Chania, Crete, was taken by me on this occasion and not Mr FND! My idea was to create a watercolour with the gentle lines of a preparatory drawing showing through.

My first layer was the bluewatercolor from Angie Makes in Photoshop’s Normal mode. This I followed with the Beguiling-18 texture from 2 Lil’ Owls in Linear Burn. As you can see, I’m getting a lot of mileage out of those two backgrounds! Next came the Venetian Harbour which I put in Screen mode. To create the line drawing, I used the Trace Contour tool; this is not the best tool in the world but since I wanted the bare minimum showing, I knew it could work. To top it off, I used another 2 Lil’ Owls texture, 2LO Confetti 8. Putting the latter in Multiply mode was the perfect finishing touch.

The original harbour photograph © Sarah Vernon

The last time I tried to create a watercolour effect with this photo — some years ago now — it was disastrous and very obviously ‘Photoshopped’ using their ‘watercoloor’ tool. Not a good idea. I’m much happier this time round!

Incidentally, the mosque in the centre of the picture is the Mosque of the Janissaries, now an art gallery. If you ever find yourself in the harbour, by all means have a drink but don’t, whatever you do, eat a meal. The quality is appalling and you would be better off going up the side streets to find good, authentic food. Most important of all, avoid the taverna that sells very pink and very green cocktails — coloured fizzy water at best! We were each offered one for free having allowed the owner to do a quick run round the harbour on my mobility scooter. Never again!

Here, for your delectation, is a recipe for what looks and sounds like an excellent green cocktail from MyBestCocktails.com:

Minttu

Ingredients
1 oz Malibu Rum
1 oz Cuban Rum
1 oz Batida de Coco
2/3 oz Midori
1 oz Pineapple Juice
6 leaves Mint Leaves

1. Shake all ingredients in a shaker with ice.
2. Pour into a tall glass with some ice.
3. Enjoy!

No, I’ve never come across Midori either!

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 | ‘Happiness is a Butterfly’

‘Happiness is a Butterfly’ © Sarah Vernon Buy prints at Saatchi Art

‘Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.’ Nathaniel Hawthorne

‘I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days – three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.’ John Keats, Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

‘Butterflies are self-propelled flowers.’  Robert A. Heinlein

These butterflies are found in China, Japan, and Korea, and come from an image at  The Biodiversity Library. The soft background of flowers is adapted from a painting at the Rijksmuseum — I’m so thankful this inspiring museum allows artists to download some of their exhibits to merge them into our own work. The other texture, which includes the flowers bottom right of the image, is from Kerstin Frank.

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 | A Remarkable First Night #Art #Theatre

Bring Up the Curtain © Sarah Vernon – Buy @ Crated

My starting point for this piece was a divine original book-plate from 1899 of the British actress Miss Dorothea Baird (1875-1933), which I bought from collectors Vintage Views, along with a few other goodies which will be revealed in the weeks to come.

I will be posting the original on First Night Vintage at some point but here I have superimposed a vintage theatre programme from my archive for a production at the Lyric Theatre onto the curtains of the original. If I were to tell you the number of other images and textures I used, including Island in the Storm, you probably wouldn’t believe me!

Dorothea Baird first appeared on stage  in 1894 for the Oxford University Dramatic Society or OUDS as Iris in The Tempest. She performed in several Shakespeare productions in the following years, often with her husband, H. B. Irving, Sir Henry’s son. She also originated the part of Mrs Darling in Peter Pan (1904). It was a short but notable career, ending in 1913 when she retired and concentrated her energies on charitable causes.

Mr. H. B. Irving (1870 – 1919) as Hamlet at the Adelphi Theatre 1904.

Mr H B Irving Greeting Card

The text below is an extract from what is printed on the reverse side of the book-plate and is an effusive, to say the least, appraisal of Miss Baird and her trumpeted performance in the title role of George du Maurier’s Trilby, produced at the Haymarket Theatre in 1895. You will not have read the like in the 20th or 21st century!

‘MISS DOROTHEA BAIRD made her first appearance on the stage in 1894, when she played Iris in “The Tempest,” and Galatea in “Pygmalion and Galatea,” at the performances of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. After that, Miss Baird went a-touring with Mr. Ben Greet’s company—whence we have derived so many stage recruits—and in her time played many parts. But to Londoners, Miss Dorothea Baird is Trilby; Trilby, in spite of her appearance as the heroine of Mr. Louis Parker’s play, ” The Happy Life,” at the Duke of York’s Theatre; in spite of her Phoebe in “As You Like It,” at the St. James’s; in spite of her charming Diane in “A Court Scandal,” at the Court Theatre. And, whatever may be the success in store for her, it is probable that it is of her Trilby we shall tell our grandchildren when we inform them in the usual way that acting was acting in our young days [….] From the above will be learned the impressions of the moment of a remarkable “first night.”‘

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 | “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”

Song for Freedom 13 cm x 18 cm Invitation Card

What could be better than a party to herald the Spring and nurture the hope in our hearts? Freedom is a precious commodity these days. Rousseau’s famous words – “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains” have never been more apt than they are today. The élite is forcing upon us a world in which we have no say and little means of survival. But we have to keep hope in our hearts or we are lost.

Song for Freedom Throw Pillows

Song for Freedom Card

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!