Moroccan inspiration

It has been several years since our trip to Morocco and almost 10 since our African camping adventure—yet the images and colours remain vivid in my mind. I have been playing with patterns from our trip for a while now, creating textures and new patterns—not sure what they would be used for. Tonight they came together in this new piece. Tea anyone?

from pencil doodles to fresh notes

I spent Wednesday and Thursday invigilating medical exams with my husband. The doctors taking the exams were using these great HB pencils to fill in their multiple choice answer sheets. I haven't really drawn with a pencil for many years. The feel of the pencil in my hand drawing on clean white paper was intoxicating. I started working on some new flower designs that I hoped I could later adapt to a new series of Fresh notes, or repeat patterns for spoonflower fabrics.

When I got home, I scanned my drawing and started colourizing a couple of the flowers. Then I started adding stems and leaves and before long I had a couple of compositions I was quite happy with. I printed these and a couple of other variations and put together a set of Fresh notes to give to my Aunty Sandy for her birthday. Lots of fun! I took a couple of the pencils home with me after the exams were over...I see more pencil drawings in my future.

Whimsical Paintings: A collective of fine artists who are making their art accessible to enthusiasts and collectors with a love of colorful, whimsical art.

The Art Licensing blog never ceases to amaze me. Today Tara posted a link to a new site called Artsyshark.com. Although I was not overly impressed with the site, I was very impressed with a link I found there. The site is called Whimsical Paintings Fine Art. This is a collective of fine artists that market and sell their work through this site. I have posted a sampling of the artists who can be found on this inspirational website. Linking to each artist, takes you to their personal web page. Some sites are better than others from a functional point of view, but the work is magnificent. I have noticed that many have Etsy shops and facebook pages. Some sites have e-commerce attached or links to pages where their work can be purchased. Viewing the work took my breath away. I hope you enjoy the paintings I have posted—visit the site to see them all!

All images are copyright to the artists.

Linda Gruger Hanson
http://www.lgruger.com

Thaneeya McArdle
http://www.thaneeya.com

Juli Ryan (from her site) http://www.juliryansart.com

My name is Juli Ryan and I am a self-taught and self-represented artist. But most importantly, I LOVE TO PAINT! The more colorful and the more whimsical, the better. I want my paintings to bring joy to the heart of the viewer. I want the viewer to think like a child again, letting their imagination take over... We all need a little escape now and then!