First Night Design | Mint Julep — New!

In contrast to my last picture — Flying Colours — this image was created with just one piece of art from 1870: Jane, Duchess of Gordon,  by Daniel Gardner, a public domain picture from Wikimedia. I used a series of effects with Photoshop tools such as swirls, twirls and tiling as well as experimenting with colour filters. It was the greens of the Duchess’ riding habit that inspired me.

Mint Julep @ Sarah Vernon Shower Curtain at Redbubble

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

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Flying Colours — New!

Flying Colours at Saatchi Art

As a lover of all things maritime and a descendant of admirals and sailors, I am often drawn to centuries-old paintings of seacraft at work or play. I created Flying Colours with two images far apart in time. One layer is the Russian Squadron at Malta, 20 October 1827, painted by Alfred Gomersal Vickers which is in the public domain. The other is a photograph of Bembridge Lifeboat which I took the other day. I have melded them together using Photoshop’s various tools to make it look as if it were an original 19th-century image.

Flying Colours Fleece Blanket at Redbubble

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

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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.

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

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | The Eel Fisher’s Hut #Abstract #Art

The Eel Fisher’s Hut © Sarah Vernon @ Redbubble

Abstract created in Photoshop with a couple of textures from 2 Lil’ Owls and a photochrom colour print from Wikimedia of an eel fisher’s hut on the Bore (Bure River) England, between 1890 and 1900.

It’s something a little different from my usual work. It was adding the textures from 2 Lil’ Owls that completely changed my original idea — yes, I had one in mind for once. I added one texture in Normal mode and overlaid it with another in Colour Burn before setting the original photograph to Soft Light. The resulting fire damage effect was far too appealing to me to let it go.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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

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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Fine Art America
Fine Art England
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Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Margate Translated #Art

Welcome to Margate … translated.

Buy Margate Translated © Sarah Vernon at Crated

Margate in Kent, a popular seaside resort since the 18th century, is possibly best known these days as the town where artist Tracy Emin grew up. But did you know that it was home to J.M.W. Turner?

“Where therefore, and in this very town of Margate, [Turner] lived, when he chose to be quit of London, and yet not to travel” John Ruskin

Although I wasn’t thinking of Turner when I discovered this photograph of Margate and its harbour dated 1897 (Wikimedia), I might have been ‘channelling’ him!

“Mrs Booth”, sculpture by Ann Carrington, Stone Pier, Margate [Wikimedia]

The Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate writes that ‘Turner’s connection with Margate was the founding inspiration for our organisation. He loved Margate for the sea, the skies, and his landlady Mrs Booth.’ Don’t you just love it that he was potty about his landlady!

Visit Thanet gives some interesting snippets about Margate:

• In the 1700s, bathing in the sea and drinking seawater became a fashionable cure for all sorts of diseases. From the Georgian period onwards visitors from London began flocking to resorts like Margate for the seawater cure and increasingly as a place to socialise. Margate has built a reputation as a place for bathing in the sea – both for health and pleasure.
• Margate has a special place in the history of the ‘Bathing Machine’ with Benjamin Beale inventing the modest hood in 1753. This canvas canopy could be lowered and raised by the driver of the machine, allowing bathers a modicum of privacy as well as some protection from wind and waves.
  

  A man opening the door of a woman’s bathing machine. [Wikimedia]

• Whilst in Margate recuperating from a nervous breakdown, TS Eliot sat at the Grade II listed shelter on Margate seafront and composed the key lines in his poem ’The Waste Land’ – “On Margate Sands./I can connect/Nothing with nothing./The broken fingernails of dirty hands./My people humble people who expect/Nothing”.
• Margate, was the first place to offer and popularise donkey rides on the beach, starting back in the early 1800s.

So now you know!

Margate Translated Tote Bag from Fine Art America

Buy Margate Translated Cushion from Fine Art England

Available at the following galleries:
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First Night Design | Bound for Santiago #Art

Bound for Santiago © Sarah Vernon

I created Bound for Santiago in the form of a collage and then blended the images into one with Photoshop. It comprises one of my textured backgrounds, two photos by Joshua Earle at Unsplash, and a lovely antique ship by Zakhar Kleyman on Flickr.

Why Santiago? The title came fully formed from the mouth of Mr FND; where would we be without dreams and imagination? The fact that the antique ship photograph was taken from Staten Island ferry is neither here nor there!

Bound for Santiago Tote Bag © Sarah Vernon

Available at the following galleries:
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Fine Art England
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First Night Design | The Windmill #Art

This is an extremely early piece when I was only just beginning to realise what textures could do for a photograph. The windmill, from Wikimedia, is on the Île de Noirmoutier, an island that lies off the coast of France, and I used a filter from Snap Art, one of my background textures, and one from Skeletal Mess.

Buy The Windmill © Sarah Vernon [Crated]

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

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The Windmill 3 Ring Binder

The Windmill Pack Of Standard Business Cards
The Windmill Postage

Available at the following galleries:
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First Night Design | “Tell you what we’ll do,” she said. “We’ll drive to town and…”

Beached Dinghy @ Sarah Vernon

“Tell you what we’ll do,” she said. “We’ll drive to town and get some pickles, and some bread, and we’ll eat the pickles in the car, and then we’ll go to the station and get Daddy, and then we’ll bring Daddy home and make him take us for a ride in the boat. You’ll have to help him carry the sails down. O.K.?”
― J.D. Salinger, Down at the Dinghy

Original photograph by Kiran Valipa from Unsplash.
Textures 2 Lil’ Owls

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First Night Design | Sea Breeze and ‘Old Grog’

Sea Breeze © Sarah Vernon

As you might be able to tell, I’ve been playing around with the vintage yacht picture from The Graphics Fairy that I used for Sailing into Harbour.

The sea is in my blood from generations of sailors on my father’s side, including Admiral Edward Vernon, as in the Battle of Portobello (or Porto Bello), Panama, in 1739. The Admiral’s nickname, ‘Old Grog’, was coined because of the coat of ‘grogram’ that he wore, and ‘grog’ then came to mean the watered-down rum he instigated; this was not to stop his sailors getting drunk but to keep the water as fresh as it could be.  He also introduced lemon or lime juice to stave off scurvy. Vernon’s crew were known to be much healthier than others though the link between vitamin C and good health was not proved until later. The practice was later adopted throughout the Royal Navy.

Admiral Edward “Old Grog” Vernon. Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough [Wikipedia]

Take care and keep laughing!