Freckles wishes all...

a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Pets rule! meow!

Down in a meadow...

This is a print I created for Etsy...I love this quote. I discovered it while browsing through an old autograph book from the thirties.

Etsy store name: Vintage Owl

New map illo

Just completed this map for a travel magazine. It was a fun project and I enjoyed giving it a vintage feel.

The Cover that didn't make it

I've been working on this book cover for the past few months. There were long delays between my submitting art and the client giving feedback. I had a lot of fun with the hand lettering, drawing and incorporation of ephemera. But in the end it got axed in favor of more contemporary photography. Bye bye Mozart. I hate to see you go! :)

Backward Town

This is a new piece I developed for my children's portfolio. I am back at SVA this semester taking another class with Monica Wellington. This illustration was inspired by a poem by Mary Ann Hoberman. It was a lot of fun.

Miss Freckles-Felinas Wildis :)

Sometimes it's very easy to see how my tiny 6 lb. cat could be related to a jungle cat. Check out the pose on her! LOVE it!

little vignettes

I've been doing these little story telling illustrations lately. Tiny tidbits of writing about the characters I paint. Some of them made it into a promo I sent out.

Vintage Ad

Love this!

Hand lettering

This is a piece I recently completed for The Knot (a wedding magazine here in the US).
I had a lot of fun with this assignment and get more and more calls for this sort of approach. It's time consuming, but if my clients are happy, then I am happy. It started with an ad I did for Domino a few years ago. I want to explore hand lettering more and attempt some that is a little less feminine and can appeal to a broader audience.

Studio rearrangment

Working at home can be a great joy, but sometimes spending so many hours in one room makes you want to mix things up a bit. I have collected vintage children's books for years and thought it would be both fun and inspiring to have a kids corner. I put the book display beside an old school desk that I restored recently. Just looking at it brings me back to being little tot. LOVE the indentation in the desk for the pencils.

A leaf within a leaf

I was working out the other day, staring out the window down at the whirling fall leaves on the sidewalk, when I noticed these odd, two toned gems. It's as though one leaf left its mark on another. I ran outside and collected a bunch. I am sure the other members thought I was nuts, but the kid in me came out. I have always been a big fan of autumn and these leaves were inspiring. Hope you like them too! (Note: the colors were much more brilliant, but I left them in my handbag overnight.)

Too cute packaging!

One of my favorite things to do when I can't really travel is to go to Chinatown, Little Italy or somewhere that is filled with new sights, smells and sounds. I love going into markets and looking at the packaging. I came across this box of biscuits recently and feel in love with the design. So cute. and tasty too!

NY Fashion Week

I recently sent out a new promo for my illustration, focused entirely on New York City. I love just 12 miles away from this wonderful city and have become quite the fan. It has an energy unlike any other and I find myself drawn to it more and more. This is a piece about Fashion Week. It was inspired one day while sitting in Bryant Park eating lunch with a friend and watching the tents go up.

Cape Cod

I just got back from a wonderful week in the Cape. We rented a big beach house to celebrate my father's 70th birthday and it was a blast. From swimming in the ocean, to grilling out, biking around Nantucket, gallery hopping in Provincetown and having cocktails at night up on the home's Crow's Nest, each and every day was special. I spent a lot of time searching for shells, sea glass and cool little speckled rocks. I love the smells and sounds of being near the ocean and will miss hearing those waves at night before sleep. One day I will live in a cottage by the ocean.

Renegade Craft Fair

Hit the Renegade in Brooklyn this weekend. It took place in the McCarren Park pool. Yes, in a pool. It had just rained Sunday when I arrived, so the pool was fast a sweltering vat of concrete once the sun shined.

But the fair was great with so many talented artists and crafters selling their wares.
I purchased a glass squirrel pendant from "Happy Owl Glassworks", a cute print from "The Small Object" and a typewriter key pendant from "The Weekend Store".

Here are some shots from it. Love the dog!

Chelsea Market

I discovered the coolest place in the city this week with my friend Karin, who was visiting from Austin. She is quite the gourmet enthusiast and was delighted to find that the Food Network was housed in this building. There were all kinds of great shops, foods, wine, and bakeries. Always so inspiring to see new places. Made me want to buy kitchen tools made of olive wood and ramekins the size of kitten paws. (?)This is a shot of one store's cheese selection. I thought that sheep was so cute in the midst of so much frommage!

The Fox and the Raccoon

This is an illustration I did while taking Monica Wellington's Children's Book class at SVA this past fall. I am still trying to get a children's book project and have recently submitted a dummy to a publisher in NYC. She saw the dummy during an interview and asked that I resend it to her after making a few tweaks. Keep your fingers crossed!

Le Poulet

Here is a little chicken I did recently. Been playing with some images for possible licensing.

Bemelmans

I absolutely adore Ludwig Bemelmans (most famously known for the Madeline series)Not only was he an amazing illustrator but also a gifted writer of works of fiction. One of my favorites is Hotel Splendide...a series of short stories, little vignettes of life in a five star hotel banquet hall. He has such light prose that evokes old Paris and Europe. This image is an ad he illustrated for an Italian Cruise line. Enjoy!

Great, old advertising signage

This is the Bloch Brothers building in Dover, NJ. It's an interesting town, kind of caught between old and new. I like that they don't tear everything down there, but assimilate into the old. This lettering is gorgeous and most of these brick buildings with ad murals have been sandblasted or painted over. So glad they kept it!

Woolworths, etc.

I seem to be so nostalgic these days for five and dimes, automats and old restaurants from the mid-century. Places like Woolworths with their packed in window displays and red facades. I wasn't even alive in their heyday, but I am so drawn to places like them. I've read some good books lately that chronicle both Woolworth's and Horn and Harart. This is an illo I did using some vintage ephemera.

Pencil Sketches

When I first started out, I was very averse to doing sketches for assignments, feeling that my style was so loose, that something would be lost in the translation and the final art would suffer and seem too rigid. HA! I learned quickly that if you don't nail down the sketch, the client will have no idea of what you plan to do in final, no matter how wonderful you know inside (lol) it will! So, I put down my favored pen and surrendered to pencil sketches.
It's a good thing too. I now think everything out in this stage, saving LOTS of time in the end.

My Beloved Tortie

Miss Freckles, who turns 16 this summer, acts as studio supervisor. Here she is on my desk as I scramble to find a sketch across the room. So cute!

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new illustration

Here is a piece I recently did for self promotion. I figured Provence and Paris always got all the attention, so I gave Auvergne a plug. :)

No complainers!

The pages of the book are broken down into Summons and Complaints. It is a ledger from the Hirkimer County Sheriff's Office. (NY). The ledger was empty of any notations, but what fun it would have been to read them!

First, the end papers...

It all started with this...

Here is the ledger...HUGE! IT measures 14 inches wide by 16 inches tall and weighs about 8 pounds.