Displaying items by tag: summer

Summer at last!

Fresh air, time to relax, kick back, oh yes please!

My two favorite illustration styles are cut-paper collage and pen&ink watercolor. 

Being self-taught and not knowing the rules of “how-to”, one late evening in my Normandy studio, I started cutting paper and creating images which I assembled into a collage. It was surprisingly easy and unexpected. So surprising, I had to call Karen in the USA right then and there to share my excitement.

Matisse started cut-paper as an art form from his wheelchair at the time he could no longer stand at an easel. I called it “drawing with scissors” as an alternative to the more difficult (for me) drawing with pen, ink, and watercolor which came later.

With time and loads of espresso in the corner of a Paris cafe, I came to love this medium as well. Fresh as a salad, a bowl of fruit or a moment in a Paris cafe; we're pleasaed to present our brand new 12” x 18” placemats produced here in our Connecticut environs.

The mats can be wiped clean, are reusable and food safe while entertaining the eye and the taste buds. They make great gifts for you and your kitchen, pool side or deck. We are happy to ship as a gift as well. 

Click here
to see our new
placemat collection.

Placemats are $ 8.00 each + shipping.

S U M M E R   C O L O R

Still time to enjoy Mother Nature's palette

Summer brings with it easy access to locally grown, and hopefully organic foodstuffs. Bright summer colors are the perfect color for our eating choices. The red of the early strawberries made me ever so happy, that is until I succumbed to a pesticide attack brought on by the berries that weren’t organic. One step forward, two steps back. I want to shop locally, and/but it’s increasingly important to make organic choices even if the price is higher. The ultimate cost of ingesting pesticides is higher yet!

Mother Nature Knows her Colors 

The colors of the rainbow create a healthy and visual recipe for what’s best to eat – mix - match and blend these colors:  

Red ~ throw in the washed strawberries

Orange & Yellow ~ add mango and pineapple

Green ~ add a green - like spinach

Blues & Purples ~ complete the rainbow with the berries,

add coconut water and a protein powder

Living with Color

Recently, I was reminded by feng shui consultant, Lurrae Lupone, that my preferred color palette of blues and greens for my office and home needed to be juiced with some high energy colors. My preferred summer colors and mid-tones just aren’t enough!

i love summer
early morning lake swims
with a swallow dragonfly or fisherman

first, to write lakeside
sitting on my bench
coffee in hand
now the moment
to dive in

i love summer
ice and sweetness
lemonade a favorite
seasonal fruits banked
for the winter

bonfires in the backyard
neighbors smell the smoke
the unspoken invitation
settling in to relish the fire
wine s'mores friendships

i love summer
i say, "i'm working"
sneak away
sand in our suits
walk the shoreline
castles built to dissolve

sailboats bobbing
sails lagging others blowing crisp
on the water
celebrating summer

i love summer because it is.....summer