The Eavesdroppers finished

The Eavesdroppers (or what I wish they heard instead)

"The Eavesdroppers (or what I wish they heard instead)"
Here is a painting I thought of this morning before I even got up. 16x20 on hardboard. Not for sale. I still have work to do on it, but thought I would post my WIP's

Year 2 Week 1 print project The Peacock Whisperer

Here is my new painting, and it will be the print this week, available for a limited time for $2 in the 5x7 size. I am offering also a subscription to my print project, in case anyone wants to just subscribe and get every print. You won't save any money, but it will insure that you get every print, sometimes they sell out rather quickly. I'm only going to offer this for a couple of weeks,

and if I get a lot of takers, I might adjust how many prints I do.

Both the print and subscription offer are on etsy.

Shop update April 24

I listed two large original paintings this morning, The Weight of Flowers, 18x24 and Her Love Was Like Chainmail 16x20 in my etsy shop.

**** EDIT- The Weight Of Flowers sold

If I was...

if i was a month i'd be April

if i was a day of the week i'd be friday

if i was a time of day i'd be the magic hour

if i was a sea animal i'd be a whale shark

if i was a direction i'd be north

if i was a piece of furniture i'd be a comfortable chair

if i was a liquid i'd be cabernet

if i was a gemstone i'd be amethyst

if i was a tree i'd be a white birch

if i was a tool i'd be a paint brush

if i was a flower i'd be a lily of the valley

if i was a kind of weather i'd be sunny with white puffy clouds

if i was a musical instrument i'd be a piano

if i was a color i'd be pink

if i was an emotion i'd be love

if i was a fruit i'd be a nectarine

if i was a food i'd be cake

if i was a material i'd be silk velvet

if i was a scent i'd be daphne odora

if i was a flavor i'd be intense and hot

if i was a sound i'd be a a child's laughter

if i was an element i'd be fire

if i was a mammal i'd be a dog

if i was a phase of the moon i would be full

if i was a berry i'd be blueberry

if i was a bird i'd be a hummer

if i was a book i'd be The Keeper Of The Bees

if i was a place i'd be Pacific Beach

Life Goes On, Or, How I Go To My Happy Place

Zoe guarding the new pillows, see the new ones, the little ladies to the right?

The paintings Isabella is looking at

Isabella

New procion dyes and silk velvet to dye

stitching

more stitching

Even when it feels like there has been a nuclear war in your life, you still have to go on. You still have to keep breathing, you still have to figure out how to live. So I can go to a happier place by creating. I sing to myself and pray and try to imagine a time when things won't be this hard. I stitch and I paint and I endure. This what I have been working on, Teesha Moore's 'pillows' and I also got happy mail today, my Isabella from Sandy and my new pillows from Jenny. Last night during retail therapy, I got silk velvet and procion dyes to dye it. But I need soda ash so I can't do that yet. But I like looking at them.

I've made several sizes of the little quilted squares. I did them the way Teesha does, and I also tried using quilt batting inside and I liked that too. I think that would work great for a purse, it's a little stiffer. I don't know yet how I will get all these random shapes to fit together, but it's fun to think about. I have always enjoyed the problem solving part of crafting. I think that might be why I love painting so much, there is ALWAYS a problem to solve. I think and think. And eventually a solution comes.

The first picture is some art that my Isabella I got from Sandy is looking at in my little downstairs bathroom. It's my "nobody understands me" wall. Sometimes people don't get my paintings. They don't get why I paint horses that look like no horse you ever saw, or why I often paint ladies who have no arms. Isabella is now there to stare them down and hopefully they will shut up.

Teesha Moore is AMAZING!

Oh my gosh, you guys! Have you seen THIS!???

I've been in an absolute frenzy of creativity since I watched her new videos. The possibilities are endless! I'll post my progress soon. Here is a purse she made awhile ago. I feel faint.

A giveaway, an announcement and a thank you!

Oh man, you guys! The LOVE you have shown me is amazing. This has been a terrible and wonderful year, and one of the ways it has been wonderful is that you all have given me so much. I have worked hard to produce art that you would want. I have not always been successful, but I have enjoyed it so much.

I would also like to thank my faithful patrons, especially Allo Greer and Mary Mcdonough and Tamara Comerford. Allo is a wonderful artist in her own right and has bought every single print all year long. Mary is an amazing potter, artist, mentor, advisor and friend and Tamara is an artist too, a loving, sweet person who buys my art and gives it away as one of her many gestures of love and paying it forward. There are many, many others who have repeatedly bought prints and I appreciate you all.

As a thank you, I am giving away a free 8x10 pdf download of my painting, "I Love A Flower Thief"

To get the pdf, email me at juliefillo@hotmail.com If you are unable to print, email me and I will send you my mailing address and you can mail me $2 and I will print and mail you a 5x7. You can also paypal to the above email addy $2 and I will do the same. I will sign those prints. (the $2 is just to cover the printing and postage costs. It's a break even for me)

Please use my print in any way you would like for personal use. You can give it away, use it in a collage or whatever, but please DO NOT sell it. I, Julie Fillo, retain all copyright for this and all my work.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

This will probably not come as big surprise, but I am going to continue my project for another year. Starting next Sunday, I will do it all over again. I will again make a limited edition print available for a short time for $2 on etsy, and I will do it for 52 weeks, god willing and the creek don't rise, and my life stays as no less apart then it already is.

I love you all, thank you so much!

Edit*** PS, you can have the free pdf, no matter what, even if you have never bought a print from me.

Look What I WON from Sandy Mastroni!

I am OVER THE MOON WITH EXCITEMENT!!!!

And the best part is, that creepy puppet picked ME!!

http://smastroni.blogspot.com/2010/04/julie-julie-julie-won-giveaway.html

Her Love Was Like Chainmail 16x20 painting on hardboard

The title of this painting is a reference to her dress, which looks like chainmail to me. Why would a pretty blonde girl in a garden be wearing pink chainmail? Maybe it's love.
I am a painting machine right now. I listen to music, try to stop my brain and paint. I finished this one today.

I'm so excited because the most amazing photographer that I found on flickr (besides my husband, but he does not take wildlife photos) gave me permission to use his photos as reference for a painting. They are of birds. AMAZING.

I can't wait to start on that.

I Love A Flower Thief - Finished

If you ever wonder if a painting is finished, it isn't. But now this one is. I added some baby pomegranates in the left corner, made her hair a little blonder and added some eyelashes and the title in the bottom right and now I am done.

I Love A Flower Thief

16x20 on hardboard. Probably not finished, but I already feel such love for this painting, a subject so close to my heart.

Week 52 - 52 week project 5x7 print The Weight Of Flowers

So this is it, the last week of my project. I was again inspired by the artists I mentioned last week. The original is 18x24 on canvas. I'm not sure if I am going to sell the original or not.

Please check in next Sunday for an announcement about a giveaway and what I might be doing for the next 52 weeks.

As usual, the prints of this painting, "The Weight Of Flowers" are available on etsy.

Large Embellished Prints

I've been offering embellished giclee prints on my etsy site for awhile and I thought I would show what they look like before they are stretched onto the stretcher bars. These are two favorite paintings, the Queen Evangeline print is sold, the original was 18x24 on canvas and it has been a very popular print on paper. I added a bunch of texture to the print on canvas, and then painted all over it, so it looks just like an original. I really enjoy doing these. My husband has a LARGE epson color printer and it prints beautifully on canvas, but I miss the texture of the original so I have been basically repainting every one after he prints them for me.

The blue one, the original was 9x12 on wood that I sold a few months ago, and this is the first time I have made an embellished print of a smaller painting, and I think it turned out so good. I think it truly captures the feel of the original, which I did not feel was true of the repeat of the original I redid for myself. I sell these on etsy for $149 for the 18x24 size and $100 for the 16x20. I can do just about anything that is in my etsy shop this way, any print, you could buy a hand embellished print that looks like this. I might have to do some magic if the size is weird, but I can make it work. Don't look at how messy my table is, please. My husband came through his surgery just fine, but I am taking care of him in between doing my arty work.

I hope this makes clear what I am doing with these, but if not, please feel free to ask questions.

Week 51 - 52 week project 5x7 print 3 Muses In The Garden with Blackbirds

I'm making the 3 muses painting my print for this week. My husband is having surgery tomorrow, so it might be next week before I get them mailed, and they will not be a standard 5x7, they will have a larger border than usual, but everyone liked this one so much, I thought you might want it anyway.