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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Portrait of a Woman in Black by Sir John Lavery Postcard | Zazzle #Sold!

The Belfast-born, Glasgow-educated artist Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) was superficially similar to his contemporary, John Singer Sargent. Along with Sargent and James McNeill Whistler, Lavery was one of the most sought-after portraitists of his day. His reputation was assured after he was asked to paint the state visit of Queen Victoria to Glasgow. He went on to paint many famous contemporaries such as Winston Churchill and Anna Pavlova. In 1917, during the First World War, he was appointed Official War Artist. Portrait of a Woman in Black Leaning on a Grand Piano was painted in 1904. His sitter was Miss Elizabeth Welsh (1843–1921), Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, between 1885 and 1903. The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art in Rome.

Source: Portrait of a Woman in Black by Sir John Lavery Postcard | Zazzle

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Contemplation Tote Bag for Sale by Sarah Vernon

Contemplation Tote Bag by Sarah Vernon. The tote bag is machine washable, available in three different sizes, and includes a black strap for easy carrying on your shoulder. All totes are available for worldwide shipping and include a money-back guarantee.

Source: Contemplation Tote Bag for Sale by Sarah Vernon

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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

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

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First Night Design | Pre-Raphaelite Beauty #Art

Pre-Raphaelite Beauty © Sarah Vernon – Fine Art America

This adaptation of an autochrome photograph from Wikimedia by Robert Demachy (1859-1936), which was taken some time between 1907 and 1915, took a great deal of work to get just right.

Female nude draped in a blue veil, autochrome by Robert Demachy

The original image is enchanting but as soon as I saw it, I wanted to turn it into a painting with a hint of the Pre-Raphaelites about it — yes, one of those rare occasions when I knew what I desired and didn’t wait for one of my ‘accidents’!

I used various textures to give it colour and texture before using a detail of the clock from this image to create the top right-hand detail. I duplicated this detail and warped and shaped it to create an art nouveau pattern for the drape. I also removed her left arm as it looked slightly odd!

Pre-Raphaelite Beauty Mugs © Sarah Vernon

I had to think carefully when uploading it to my galleries as a lot of the groups (such as on Redbubble) don’t accept nudity. I had to tick boxes about ‘mature content’. I’m not sure I’ll do another nude any time soon!

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Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also call’d No-more, Too-late, Farewell — Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (The House of Life: 97. A Superscription, 1-2)

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Not as she is, but as she fills his dream — Christina Rossetti, In An Artist’s Studio

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The term ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ is in danger of becoming one of the most misused tags in art history — Christopher Wood, Author of The Pre-Raphaelites

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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!

First Night Design | “My arms are too long!” #Art

Woman in Black © Sarah Vernon

I’ve called my latest piece Woman in Black, not because she is dressed in black, but because the scene I’ve created reminds me of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black. If you’ve only ever seen the stage adaptation (still running in London at the Fortune Theatre), I strongly recommend reading the book: it is genuinely intriguing, frightening and mysterious.

The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill

Yet again, I’ve used the Chinese print from the Library of Congress at Flickr and blended it once more with the Beguiling-18 texture from 2 Lil’ Owls. The costumed lady (Ida Rubinstein) by Ballet Russes artist Léon Bakst is from Wikimedia.

Woman in Black Greeting Card

The title of this post is because Mr FND said he thought woman’s arms were unusually long and that reminded me of absurdist playwright NF Simpson’s play, One Way Pendulum, in which one of the characters keeps complaining that her arms are too long! If you’re interested in learning more about Simpson, click here for a reblog from The Guardian on Rogues & Vagabonds which I was prompted to post by writing about Simpson here.

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 | The Woman Behind the Curtain

ONE FROM THE ARCHIVE – JUNE 2014

As usual, I had something entirely different in mind when I began The Woman Behind the Curtain. I had discovered a photograph on Wikimedia  of a rather beautiful ruin, which was tagged as the arches at the Sonargaon Folk Arts and Craft Museum in Bangladesh, and was intent on a purely architectural piece. I tried several ideas but none of them worked until…

Source: First Night Design | The Woman Behind the Curtain | First Night Design

First Night Design | The Discreet Charm of French Vintage

A change of pace to show you this charming vintage French advertising image, presumably to proclaim the delights of Saint Denis (see top of image), which comes from The Graphics Fairy. I enhanced the original and added the almond green border.

Available at the following galleries:
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK

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First Night Design | Earthly Delights

Earthly Delights © First Night Design

Following on from The Woman Behind the Curtain,  I had some more fun playing with the same Wikimedia ruin and EKDuncan‘s theatre curtain.

Once again, I headed to the Rijksmuseum to see what might help me to create something unique. That something turned out to be Mary Magdalene – who would have thought!  This Mary was painted by Jan van Scorel around 1530. Scorel depicts her holding a jar of ointment with which to tend the feet of Jesus. My Mary is holding a jar of massage oil and is definitely looking for earthly delights!

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | The Woman Behind the Curtain

The Woman Behind the Curtain © First Night Design

As usual, I had something entirely different in mind when I began The Woman Behind the Curtain. I had discovered a photograph on Wikimedia  of a rather beautiful ruin, which was tagged as the arches at the Sonargaon Folk Arts and Craft Museum in Bangladesh, and was intent on a purely architectural piece. I tried several ideas but none of them worked until I added a background texture from 2 Lil’ Owls.

The effect led me to imagine secret hideaways and whispered plots and, once I’d added the theatre curtain from EKDuncan, I knew exactly what was needed and went straight to the Rijksmuseum.

This enterprising museum has opened its site to artists who can now download masterpieces and create their own work. The woman behind the curtain is Alida Christina Assink, whose portrait was painted in 1833 by Jan Adam Kruseman. I have Pat from The Art of Mimulux to thank for alerting me to the treasures available at the famous Dutch gallery.

Take care and keep laughing!