Pulling Ideas Together: Hats, Flowers etc.

There are a lot of things I've been wanting to try for a long time and I've finally gotten around to working on them.

I started with a red hat and a purple hat to honor my Grandmother and my Mother.

Next I added a straw hat to honor my other Grandmother who used to take me to her little County Fair.

I threw in cups, saucers and a teapot to honor my friends who visit me for tea.

As you can see here part of the designs that are on the purple hat are the same ones that I used on the wheelchair ramp that I painted in front of my house.

So is the band on the red hat.

Of course the daisies began to creep in too.

Did you figure out why I put stripes in the background? I just had to continue with the theme I used on my wheelchair ramp project. I guess you could say the stripes represent the posts.

Grandma Julia, the straw hat is for you.

The design is still evolving and I'm working in some fun touches that remind me of my siblings as well.

I've wanted to include all the favorite things about my family and my garden so I needed to add roses here as well.

Things were looking pretty good at this point but I decided to add some lilacs because as kids we loved to play in the lilac bushes and I continue to grow them now because they make me feel happy and young again.

There are so many other things I want to say and do with paint but only so much room on this one canvas so I'm wrapping this one up and moving on to 2 other paintings.

All that remains now is to take this to Zazzle and find as many ways to share it with others as I can.

As always I will start with postage stamps, cards and stickers so that I can write everyone that's been asking me about this. Then on to all sorts of products for everyone else.

Ultimate Valentine Gifts from the Lily Painting

Ultimate Valentine

by julia_art

I got a late start on this but love the idea of a set of matching products for a valentines gift. Pick your container and the products that are perfect for your valentine. So far I don't know anyone that's doing this where everything matches and I'm really looking forward to finding out whether or not people like the idea. No matter your budget this gift will be incredibly special and unforgettable. I'd love to get one myself!

My Design Concept for the New Painting...and so much more

The upper horse will be painted like the one I had when I was a baby, the lower one will be painted like the first one I did when I was an adult ant the background will represent all of the things I've painted along my journey between the two.

The large horse belongs to my parents and is just visiting me for a while until I've finished working with it. The  blank horse itself was given to me by the guy who used to build a lot of the furniture that I used to paint and it pushed me along on the journey that began to put it all together for me.

When I was young I always used to color horses red and never quite knew why until I found a baby picture of me playing with a dala horse. I knew that one of my grandpa's had come from Sweden but my family never talked about it much so I guess it was floating around in the back of my mind somewhere.

A wildly painted chair that I did back in the 1990's had a couple of red horses between the slats of the back that I'd painted red and added some dots and brushstrokes to but I still hadn't quite figured it out. That chair appeared in the VSA Gallery Calendar in Washington D.C. and the article that I'd written about the comments my neighbors made as I painted it out on my front porch led to the "world chair" that I designed and painted for Woman's Day Magazine.

Appearing in that magazine changed my life, and nearly ruined it. The Galleries said "Oh, she does crafts" and the craft magazines that had been publishing me said "she's too artistic" so I "fell between the cracks" and didn't belong anywhere for a long time.

Thank goodness for a changing world and the internet that recognizes me as a Folk Artist with her own place in the world. I'm true to myself, paint the things I've always loved and thanks to the blog and my stores I can even make a little money at it from time to time.

I can't "make a living" but I have made a life that I can be proud of...whether anyone "gets it" or not.

...and I can surround myself with designs on all sorts of useful products which makes me happier than I've ever been.

When people used to ask "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I always used to say "a dixie cup" they used to think that odd because it's just a brand of paper cups/glasses that everyone used to have. What I meant was that I wanted to be the cute design on them that cheers people up when they're not feeling well. I never cared whether my art would be in galleries or not. I just wanted to brighten up my corner of the world a bit. No wonder everyone always thinks I'm weird. I am-thank goodness!