Studio News, Latest Works & Musings On A Coastal Life

My goal for this painting was to create a peaceful scene of sailboats at rest in the harbor, with a major part of the painting being the reflections of the masts in the water.  It is both serene and colorful combining blue, green, yellow and red.  Getting the perspective right was quite challenging, given the six sailboats all lined up together in their slips.

I'm happy with the results, although in retrospect, I'd now prefer to have been working on a larger canvas for this image, as this many boats required a lot of detail using, in some instances, very small brushes.  I may paint a similar image on a 24x24 or larger canvas in the near future. 

In the meantime, I've also been busy sketching boats, as I intend to paint several pieces with various types of boats as the subject matter. 

For more information on this painting and to view larger version click here.

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"Dolphin Days"   12x16 inches  Original acrylic on canvas

© 2012 Barbara Blair

This stylized painting of dolphins, waves, a beach with sea shells, tropical flowers and palm trees is a joyful celebration of exotic coastal life.  It is the first painting I have done that has positive, affirmative words embedded in it under the paint.

Here's the start of this painting after I transferred the sketch from my sketchbook onto the canvas:

Even though most of my artwork deliberately includes clear lively colors and either joyful or peaceful images, I plan to also include positive intentions in future paintings, both in the form of words embedded under the paint, and also through my own positive thoughts while creating the artwork.  The idea behind this is that positive thoughts and energy in objects radiate outward on a subtle level and affect the spaces they are in, and in so doing positively affect the people around them.

We know from physics that everything is energy.  Color and light, words, thoughts, music, sound, as well as shapes are all different forms of energy vibrations.  We also know from experiments by quantum physicists that human consciousness effects matter.  To quote Albert Einstein:  "Everything is energy and that's all there is to it.  Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality.  It can be no other way.  This is not philosophy.  This is physics." 

There is a lot of information available on this topic: the work of Gregg Braden's "Divine Matrix" comes to mind, as does Dr. Masaru Emoto's experiments with the effect of music and words on water.

I was an interior designer for many years, and have always been interested in how what we put into our built environments affects us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Biologist Bruce Lipton has written a very interesting book "The Biology of Belief" in which he proves that the environment of the cells is very important to health.  If we experience high levels of stress from negative thoughts, feelings, beliefs and perceptions (much of which is running us on a subconscious level), it shuts down our immune system and therefore allows many forms of "dis-ease". 

What does this have to do with our homes and offices?  Everything we put in them is "food" that we ingest through all of our senses, and their energies, whether positive or negative, have an effect on our moods, stress levels, hormones, cellular activity, brain functioning, and therefore our health, happiness and overall well-being.  If you've ever read anything about Feng Shui, which deals with the energies in buildings as well as the surrounding land, you will easily make the connection.  It's very important that the buildings in which we live and work are balanced, harmonious and beautiful.  Colors and artwork are an important part of that equation.

With that said - back to my art:  In addition to embedding positive words and intentions hidden in the paintings, I also plan to create images with words written visibly on top of them.  A custom commision service will also soon be available to include a customer's requested colors and words. More on this later.

Regarding this article's featured painting, "Dolphin Days", what feelings and/or words come to your mind when you look at this image?  I'd be very interested in hearing your comments and getting your feedback as to whether anyone picks up on what I have embedded in it!  Thanks so much.

For pricing and information on the original "Dolphin Days" painting, as well as giclée reproduction prints which are available in several sizes, click on the links.

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I really want to get this stylized tropical painting of dolphins, waves, palm trees and seashells finished - there are just a few more details needed.   However, Rodney Reindeer who dropped into the studio a couple of days ago, insists on helping and I can’t get anything done. He even wants to co-sign the painting when it’s finished.  Sheesh! 

He also says he wants to swim with the dolphins sometime.  Oh, yeah, I can picture that one going well!

Oh boy! Rodney fell into the paint palette today, quite by accident. But he thinks I caused it on purpose!  He was perched on top of the studio table lamp right above the paints, and I forgot he was up there and bumped it.  He fell in. Such a drama!  Fortunately for him he only got a large blob of blue paint on his front left paw (I mean hoof), which we managed to wash off immediately since the paints are acrylics.  I told him that if he didn’t have such an annoying habit of hanging around on chandeliers and lamps, he wouldn’t have fallen into the paint in the first place.  He’s still pouting.

Rodney Reindeer, my annual Santa's helper (uninvited I might add), emerged from the depths of the storage closet today, announced that the holiday season was well underway (as if I didn’t know), and reminded me that he likes to hang around on chandeliers this time of year.  I reminded him (as I do every year about this time) that I do not have one of those, and to try to make himself useful in the art studio instead.  He’s a little peeved currently, and is having difficulty navigating the terrain. But I think he’ll get over it.

Here's a photo:

Rodney likes to think of himself as an artsy type of fellow, but is basically trouble with a capital "T".  I know that the next couple of weeks are going to be quite a challenge with him under foot.  Stay tuned for updates on his latest antics and dramas.

Holiday Special for my new Coastal Art & Poetry Prints

matted to fit a standard 8x10 frame.

Buy two prints and get a third one FREE. 

$16.00 each.  $48.00 value for $32.00.

See the collection here.

Just make your selections and write the title of your free print in the

shopping cart's "Note To Seller".

Offer expires Wednesday, December 5th. 
Be sure to get your order in early

to ensure that your prints arrive in time for gift giving.

To be kept in the loop on all my art activities, new works and special offers, subscribe to my email newsletter.  I send it out approximately once a month, and will never share your information with anyone.  Sign up here.

The mats for my new coastal Art & Poetry Print collection just arrived, and I've put together the first batch of prints into the final product.  They are open edition prints, and are printed on matte photo paper with archival inks. Each image size is 5x7 and comes with a ph neutral mat to fit a standard 8x10 frame.

Here's a photo of what they look like matted:

The paper and the mats are a crisp white, and the style is clean and contemporary.  They would look great in a very simple frame in either white, natural or a warm honey or light cherry finish.   You will find the complete collection on my website here, where you can read the poems.    They are very affordable and make great gifts for both children and adults.

I have just completed the creation of my collection of open edition Art & Poetry Prints, which combine most of the coastal paintings  and poems that are featured in my little book titled "Ocean Songs For The Young At Heart." 

When I put together the book, I wanted to also offer the individual poems along with their accompanying painting, but wasn't sure what format this would take.  I finally came up with a design that I'm quite pleased with.  Here are a couple of examples, first a vertical format for "Moon Tide":

The overall image size of the prints are 5" x 7" and are matted in white to fit a standard 8" x 10" frame.  They are printed on matte photo paper with archival inks and the mat is ph neutral. 

Here's a horizontal format for "The Murex":

The text on this website shows up as slightly fuzzy due to a text pixelation issue with the JPEG images, which unfortunately I have no control over.  However, the prints themselves are very crisp and clean, without any pixelation. 

They are priced at $16.00 and make great gifts for a child or an adult.  You can purchase them here. 

The Russian naval training ship  Sedov, which holds a Guiness World Record for being the largest traditional sailing ship in the world, is currently on a 14-month-long round-the-world voyage which will cover 45,000 miles.

I absolutely love these tall sailing ships from a bye-gone era.  I think they are magnificent to see under full sail, and it's so wonderful to still have them functioning in our modern world. 

Sedov was launched in 1921 and was originally named Magdalene Vinnen II.  She's a steel hulled four-masted barque, that was built as a German cargo ship, and is now a sail training vessel.

I'm reminded of this poem titled "Sea Fever" by John Masefield:

"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky;

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,  

And the wheel’s kick and wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a gray mist on the sea’s face and a gray dawn breaking.

I can relate so much to this poem.  In January of 1978 I crossed the Atlantic on a 60-foot wooden ketch (a ketch has two masts) that was also built in the 1920's.  I learned navigation skills taking sun sights with a sextant.  We did not have today's modern satellite navigation gear on board.  We plotted our course every day by the sun and the stars, and traveled across from the Canary Islands directly to Barbados in the West Indies, with the help of the trade winds. 

I dug out an old photo taken on the 26-day Atlantic crossing showing sails flying and our dinghy stowed on the foredeck:

What a rare experience, and such a feeling of freedom being out on the open ocean with no land in sight for days, sailing the watery wilderness! Our boat became one with the wind and waves as we were pushed along to our destination.

I definitely have sea fever, that's why I live on the coast, and why the ocean is the inspiration for my artwork. 

Last weekend I went to the Carlsbad, CA Art Splash annual event to see some wonderful street chalk art.  Street painting, using chalk pastel as a medium, is an Italian tradition dating back to the 16th century.  Street painters were known as madonnari, because they created chalk paintings of the Madonna, and they transformed village squares into colorful temporary galleries.

Here are a few photos that I took.  I naturally gravitated to the ocean-themed ones first.  These three photos are of a very large painting, at least 20 feet wide or more, in which several artists were working:

There were a couple of mermaids and Neptune himself:

It was a hot day in bright sun, so some of these photos show dark shadows.  Too bad Neptune was in partial shade!

I also thought these three ladies were pretty fancy:

And this dog was very colorful!

  The children's area - young budding artists: 

There was, of course, a lot more than this to see.  Art Splash is a two-day event held in September each year.  Sunday is the best day to go if you're in the area, because the paintings are either complete or almost finished.  For more information and a listing of the artists involved this year see www.CarlsbadArtSplash.org.