Note Cards from My Original Watercolors!

 Here are some cards I created for the recent gallery show I participated in.  They are hand made by me, from my original watercolor paintings.

The painting was photographed, then printed on high quality card stock and attached to high quality blank cards with matching envelopes and autographed.  

You can get individual cards of any of my designs, or purchase a set.  Sets result in a lower price per card than buying individual cards.  

The 'Farm Girls' chicken sets are multiples of the same design.

Individual cards from the Sonoran desert bird series are available on a white or natural card base and come in two sizes.   The small note cards are 5.5" x 4", and the larger cards are 5" x 7". Here is my Cactus Wren from the painting 'Throne of Thorns'...

The 5 card set of the Sonoran desert birds contains 1 of each design; Quail, Shrike, Cactus Wren, Canyon Wren and Flycatcher.  (more birds coming soon!)

If you are interested in getting some of these before they are all gone please let me know by emailing me with your order at katiekcreates@gmail.com.  Local friends can just get them from me, but if I need to ship the cards to you (USA only), I will mail them First Class at no extra charge upon receipt of payment.  If you want them faster you'll need to pay me via paypal and there will be an additional fee to cover the increased postage required.  Hope to hear from you soon!  

P.S. I plan on adding an individual photo of each Sonoran Desert bird card to this post in the next day or two, so you can see all 5 designs up close.  ;)   

So, this happened.

Earlier this year I reconnected with a dear friend I hadn't seen in over 20 years.  She just happens to be a wonderful artist.  And she teaches pottery classes at a gallery in California.  She noticed some of my art and photography on my facebook page and invited me to show some work in an upcoming show at her gallery.  I worked at getting some more paintings completed over the summer in anticipation.  

The show took place last weekend, but happened to coincide with a deep loss in my family where my help was needed, so I wasn't sure I could pull it off.  I managed to get my watercolors framed and delivered to be hung, and my sweet husband and mom helped me to get the prints of my art turned into cards to sell.  It was a special evening participating in the first ever showing of my artwork.  It was a like an oasis amid days of stress and grief with the additional blessing that several more girlfriends from long ago came or participated in the show allowing us to have a sweet reunion.  

Here are my Sonoran desert inspired mixed media artwork (mostly watercolor with a bit of acrylic) all framed up strewn across a bedspread!
 

Here's the card making in process...

The cards when done, all organized in a box to be displayed.  Even more exciting... I sold a fair amount of them!  :)  I even had an inquiry about buying an original piece, but I am not quite ready to do that yet.  I do hope to get some nice high quality prints made soon, which will be available.  I plan on adding a few more Sonoran desert birds to this set, and also more blooming cactus as well.  

Keep an eye out next week for a post displaying the cards (individual and in sets) I am offering with prices and ordering information.

My paintings will remain on display at the Fontana Art Association's Koehler gallery through the month of October.   

I can hardly believe I have been blessed with this sweet beginning, especially for the hope it represented to me in the midst of dark and sad days.  Well, I guess life, like good art, involves light and dark, hard and soft... contrast is one of the key elements in beauty.  

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11 

Opportunity Knocks

Recently I was reconnected to a dear friend I had not seen in over 20 years.  She has become a master potter and teaches at a small gallery in southern California.  She's invited me to show some of my paintings and photography in a small show this fall.  So I am looking over my paintings and trying to decide which are formal and finished enough for such an exhibit.  Much of my watercolor sketching is done in journals or bound sketchbooks and are not really meant to be hung on display.  However, I've been working (slowly!) on a series of southwestern birds and a few of these will work.  Here is my painting of a Canyon Wren, which  I'm considering.  Since it's been off my painting table for some time, I now wonder if I need to punch up the contrast in the background by adding some darks into the blurred foliage.  I might even need to extend the painting on the left side to make the format more rectangular, than square.  Thoughts?  ;)

Canyon Wren at Sunrise

Once And For All

Greetings nonexistent reader!  ;)  

Here in the Sonoran Desert many a cactus blooms from March through May (and beyond).  The echinopsis variety sport many different color and sized blooms, but here is the grandest of them all.  Echinopsis candicans, hails from Argentina, I believe.  Except for hybrid varieties, the echinopsis bloom opens at night and wilts by noon or shortly thereafter the following day.  Thus this spectacular blossom lives less than a single day.

I photographed this specimen at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden this morning.  I have many more photos to share, but thought I'd go ahead and get something here on my 'waiting' blog.  

Welcome to my Sonoran desert world!