Valentines Day is coming!

In just under a month, it will be Valentine's Day. Full disclosure: I have occasionally had extremely mixed feelings about Valentine's Day. The cons fall into the "it's a madeup/Hallmark holiday" and (in some times past) "it's here to remind me I don't have a person who means that much to me" categories. The pros fall into "LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE" and it should be celebrated, the "these days I feel pretty good about myself", and the "I am madly in love with my husband, Morris, what's not to love about a day celebrating love?" categories. 

This year, those pro-Valentine's Day vibes are winning out for me. If you love somebody, or want to show some love to somebody (even or especially if that somebody is yourself!), then it might interest you to know that I'm running a sale in honor of the day, because we could all use a little love in our lives, and probably some new artwork as well! So if you are interested in the sparkly new things in this here post, or in any of the pieces on my website (I promise, I'm working on how to make the galleries more "shop-able"!), I'm gifting you with 15% as a way of sending a little love your way. (Newsletter subscribers get 20% off - and they've known about this sale for a week already!)

“And love is love is love is love is love is love is love”

— Lin-Manuel Miranda

How about making a little noise about your feelings? Try art on a tambourine. Each of these includes hand-done collage and painting, and will come with ribbons, ready to hang (or play). $60 each before your 15% V-day discount (20% discount for newsletter subscribers).

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Not feeling the (tambourine) music? That's okay—there's some quieter (in decibels) artwork available, including these brand-new literary collages. If you click on them, the embiggen and given you more details on size, materials, and pricing:

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Collage, mixed media, hand stamping, and a wee original drawing on a 9"x12" canvas board, featuring a quote from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116.

Here's a linky-link to the gallery where you'll find my literary collages (including a sweet little rose with some Sense & Sensibility text collaged in and a number of quotes that might be just the thing you (or someone you love) will love. And here's another link to the other paintings I've got available, including a sweet little bird collaged from hand-marbled papers and some abstracts. If you think any of these pieces are just what the Cupid ordered for Valentine's Day (or any other occasion), just get in touch with me and claim your piece! I'll get it packed up and in the mail for you, and get your my PayPal info for payment!

Just in time for hygge season, it's a 25% off sale!

Hygge (pronounced hue-gah) is the Danish word for the idea of inside winter coziness - you know the sort of thing: warm socks, afghans, fires in the fireplaces, and snuggling. It's like hunkering down, but perhaps without the sort of isolated bunker-mentality that sometimes elicits. As you can see from the photo below, my cat Kismet has this down to an art form:

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Autumn - overlooked my knitting -

Speaking of art forms (were we not?), I've been making slow progress on some larger pieces as well as on a few literary collages. Above is one that I completed not long ago - it features text from an Emily Dickinson poem, "Autumn--overlooked my knitting--".  It's now available in the "Literary Collage" section on my website, if you're interested, at a cost of $150. (25% off from now until end of December.)

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Ooh!

These are actual building plans.

For a brand-new art studio here at my house.

In this season of hygge, I am about to endure weeks of daily assault on my quiet and sanity. On the plus side, in the end, I'm going to have a wonderful new art studio to work in. In the meantime, I'm going to have to move a lot of . . . STUFF . . . in our current living room in order to safeguard it from the work area. And that means I'd really, truly like to sell some finished art. Not just to make money (though who doesn't like money), but because our relatively small house is going to be really hard to navigate if I have to move all this artwork into the hallway and other rooms.

In light of the foregoing, I am offering a HUGE incentive to collectors: TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT (25%) OFF of any piece here on my website. And I'll give you free shipping to addresses in the US as well. 

Why not add to the feeling of hygge in your home by adding some new artwork, while I'm unable to enjoy much of the quite and cozy for a while?

Rainy Days and Mondays I & II

On a rainy Monday a few weeks back, I began a new piece using acrylic inks and acrylic paints in lush greens and blues based on what I was seeing outside through the rain-drenched window. Over a four- to five-day period, I kept coming back to it, adding new layers and bits, and eventually adding a bit of white gel pen, too, because it seemed to want it. In the end, Rainy Days and Mondays looked like this:

Rainy Days & Mondays I (Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017)

Imagine my surprise the following Monday when it was again a rainy morning. I started a new canvas to reflect the yummy rainy day outside, and called it Rainy Days & Mondays II. This one is more blue than green, though of course it has greens and browns in it.

Rainy Days & Mondays II (Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017)

"What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it's all about"

Rainy Days & Mondays rarely get me down.

Tour of my "studio" space

I don't know about you, but if you are anything at all like me, you are interested in seeing where artists work. In my case, at present, it is in the middle of our living room. And yes, it means I have an exceptionally tolerant and supportive husband - especially since if left to his own devices, everything would be exceedingly tidy. Instead, it looks like this:

Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017

As you can see, there's nothing tidy about the entire situation. 

Some of my supplies are stored in boxes, and some of those boxes fit under a nearby piece of furniture. Others . . . don't. Some of my supplies are stored in a swell teal cart from IKEA. Some are jammed behind pieces of furniture or stored in an entirely separate room.

My workspace, which you can see a closeup of below, consists of a collapsible sewing table that I inherited from my grandmother, which is set on top of a large tarp that also houses the swell new easel that my sweetheart purchased for me recently as a gift. The table usually holds my butcher tray palette, a container of water, spray bottles, pencils, paint markers, brushes, and occasionally gel medium, as well as whatever paints I'm using at the moment. 

Copyright Kelly R. Ramsdell 2017

You can see a copy of in-progress pieces on the left there. The bird is cut and collaged from marbleized paper that I made in a workshop a while back. Isn't he cheery?

Farewell, my lovely

A couple weeks ago, I began a painting that I call EXPLORE, my first really big painting at 30x40" in size. It began looking a bit like this: 

Eventually, after many additional layers of acrylic paints and inks, it looked like this:

Finished

And now, it's getting packed up and shipped off to California, because it sold right off my easel just that fast.