Art, Paper, Prints and Painting

Just because it's a print of trees doesn't mean it has to be green, or brown, or grey.  Red works just as well, think of autumn colours.  This screen print is called "Le Bois".  It is inspired by a photograph taken in Japan.  Japan is an amazing country. The people are lovely and there are so many ancient shrines that it is a photographers paradise. In autumn the colours are amazing.  lease contact me if you are interested or ifyou want more information.  Paper dimensions: 50 x 35cm Image dimensions: 35 x 23 Price: €60 Postage and packing Europe: €15 Postage and packing rest of world: €25 The © watermark will not be on the purchased print.  The print is signed by the artist. www.hero-print.net

For the last year I've been screen printing. Now I have a selection of prints to show and sell online.  1. This is  " The Woods ". I have printed it in various ways and colours and on various papers.  It was inspired by a photograph taken in Cornwall UK one winter's day. The above image is printed two times on orange paper. First time pale blue and second time a dark blue. I love the effect of light coming through the trees and the orange glow in the center.  Paper dimensions:50x34cm Image dimensions: 45x30cm Price: €60 Postage and packing Europe: €15 Postage and packing rest of world: €25

With the beautiful weather over all of Europe and having spent the weekend by the sea walking along the sand and breathing in the fresh air, I thought I'd post another sea surf painting to go with the previous ones. © www.bluemoonart.net 

The sea is blue and so is this painting. This will bring you memories of your time by the ocean. Look at it and no matter how far you are from the sea it will not be far from view. Check out more on www.bluemoonart.net

I love this cartoon effect on a photograph taken in Jordan, yours for €50 + postage. It looks great in a black frame. The photo transformations were made with Photoshop. It's a great program for any photographic work. Even if you made a dud photo, you can improve the adjustments, transform the size, add filters and happily spend hours and hours fixing, improving or generally having fun.  You don't have to spend a fortune buying the latest version either. Go online and buy a slightly older version from a good supplier. Ok, it might not have all the latest filters or gizmos but it will be enough for you to do whatever improvements you'll need.  If you are new to Photoshop, well there are loads of online tutorials available for beginners up to professional. Again, you can spend hours learning how to do weird and wonderful transformations to photographs and also to text. 

Another in the series of sea spray and spume oil paintings. Check out more recent work on the web site:  www.bluemoonhttp://www.bluemoonart.net/bluemoonart/Recent-works.html

Whether you are an artist or a collector you need to protect your art. Not just from theft, but from fire, water damage, light, heat, damp etc.  Art works come in many forms, from stone, metal, canvas, paper, plastic, fabric, ceramic, glass, plastic and combinations of all those.  Metal and stone my be left outside but then you need to think about security. Is it on a solid surface and won't topple over? Can it easily be lifted and therefore "lifted"? Glass and ceramics also need to be on a solid surface to avoid risk of breakage and damage. Either put them in a display case or keep them away from children, dogs, cats and all clumsy adults.  Works on canvas, paintings, paper art including photography should be correctly attached to a wall to avoid falling. A light painting will suffer damage to the stretcher and could tear if it falls even a short distance.  If your works are very valuable they should also be screwed to the wall and not just hung. Man...

I have created a new section in my Etsy shop. It's " Vintage" . It's for the Retro boxes that I've made. The boxes are covered in old French countryside maps and lined with reproductions from a turn of the century French geography school book. I will be adding more over the next few days. They are a lot of fun to make and I am also planning on using illustrations from an old book called   'Les Capitales du Monde" printed in 1892 in France by Hachette & Cie.  You can check out whats on offer  here

The latest paintings to leave the studio. 'Three Weeks in Autumn' is a triptych which I painted over the past two years. Based on the impression I had each time I drove up the road to the house in autumn. The painting on the left is Week I, autumn just beginning, still lots of green but yellows and red creeping in. Week II in the middle, autumn progressing so more reds and yellow, less green and finally Week III on the right, few greens more yellow and red and brown too as the leaves wither and die. I also wanted to give the feeling of the wind blowing the leaves about and up in the air. I am pleased that the paintings are going to a home with a big wall as each measures 60x60 cm, so a total width of 180cm.  The new owners are planning on putting the tree together of course in their living room where they can look at them each day and hopefully get a lot of pleasure.  See more of my work

I have always loved Peony Roses. I think it's because my mother liked them and they bring back sentimental memories.  So one day in the supermarket I spotted a bunch of pink Peony roses for a few euros and I bought them thinking they might last a few days at most. In fact they lasted over a week and were a constant source of pleasure on my table.  I took some photographs because they were a beautiful colour and texture and I am very into textures of all sorts.  If you want to download these photographs feel free to do so but if you want high quality images, well, just ask and I'll send them to you. I like the ones with the unusual colours, it was a bit of fun with Photoshop. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. They could make nice screen savers.

I have added a new ACEO page to my web site . Got to  http://www.bluemoonart.net/bluemoonart/ACEO.html to check it out. I also put links to my Blog & Twitter. However I had problems trying to get the Facebook like link to work. Still I'll keep trying. Maybe Facebook doesn't like Twitter! 

New ACEO's on line for sale - $25 or €20 each. They look great framed and grouped together.  Postage worldwide: €5 for first and free for 2 - 5. One off and original oil painting, not reproductions. Contact me for more details. Lovely colours of blue turquoise and mauve with a coral motif. art@bluemoonart.net

Should artists stay with the same style of painting/drawing/ etc. or should they explore new styles and techniques and push the boundaries? How many times have you looked at a painting and you know exactly who painted it. I don't mean a well known painting but a work that you haven't seen before or just vaguely know it but yet you can immediately identify the artist.  So, should artists stay with what they do best and what sells best or should they stick their neck out and try something totally different? I think they should go for the latter. I understand why many go for the first approach. We all have to live and pay the bills so naturally if one style sells well and gets popular it must be very difficult to turn ones back on it and try a new style. However, I believe many successful artists go for the easy way out and churn similar work as they know it's what the gallery wants and it's what sells.  But is that not boring? It's like eating the same food ...

New online brochure for my ACEO's http://issuu.com/artandpaper/docs/aceo

ACEOs or ATCs (art trading cards) are the size of a baseball card. They are a fun, easy and affordable way to collect original pieces of art.  Each card measures 3. ½ "x2. ½ ".  6.35 x 8.9 cm.  I have been painting lots of these cards recently and have put them on sale in my etsy shop.  A group of framed ACEO's would look great along a stairs or corridor. Check out the shop and tell me what you think. Thanks  Click here for Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/artandpaper

Now you need a web site.  You will need to consider several important items.  First, the name of your site. It's crucial. Will you choose your own name, your studio name, type of work you do, a catchy name, it's up to you, but try not to make it too long, otherwise people can make mistakes typing which kind of defeats the purpose.  Your page should look professional, therefore it should not have flashing images or text. No ads either, you want your audience to stay on your page not click to another site. Please, no music or irritating sound effects such as bird song etc.  Keep to a plain colour background to show off your images at their best. Have the same text font throughout and the same layout and colours. Next photographs. Take high quality photographs, you can resize them afterwards. Use a thumbnail image which downloads fast and then can be enlarged by clicking or in a slide show. No decorative borders either on your photographs, a thin line m...

New items on Etsy . Flying birds - have a good trip.

New items for sale on Etsy. A set of five cards featuring The Tree of Life. A set of five for $15. Eash card is made with cream Canson paper which is a pproved by the Paper by Nature Association . Let me know if you like them?  Or not as the case may be! https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/artandpaper

I have added a selection of my books and boxes. More can be seen on my web page www.booksinboxes.net