My Morning Coffee

I  have sketchbooks filled with mostly pen and ink drawings -- some are enhanced by ink washes.  This is a sketch of a coffee mug we have had for years.  Can't begin to count all the delicious brews that have been poured into this stout little clay vessel and sipped out.

I came across the sketch the other day and decided to give it a pop look.  Now it is trendy and modern and even has graphics. 

For your pleasure and mine, I have added an old tune performed by Frank Sinatra -- I remember hearing this as a little girl.  At that time, coffee was percolated.  You put water in the pot, filled up a small metal basket with ground coffee that had tiny holes in it, put on the lid and set it on the hot stove.  The lid had a glass dome so you could see the coffee percolating up through the basket with the coffee in it.  You could tell when it was done by the color of the coffee.

 

Looking for Love

Spring is in the air and eyes are scanning the horizon for that one special person to love. When eyes meet eyes and there is a chemical attraction, the pupils enlarge. Here is my drawing of "The Look of Love" and Diana Krall's very cool YouTube video to give you permission to look for love.

Wanted: Plump Body and Tiny Waist

When I painted this nude, I had no idea I was tapping into an ancient male urge.

Like millions of other women I've always believed that long legs, tall height and small weight are the standards of beauty today. It's no secret that all of us are conditioned by the high-fashion business and advertising.

However, a group of American natural scientists headed by Michel Hopkins discovered that for today’s man the most appealing part of the female anatomy is – believe it or not – the waist, and the smaller the better.





However, if we dig past the media and deeper into the male psyche, men truly are searching for a female body that tells about her health and fertility – that means a plump body shape and small waist. These indicate small abdominal fat deposits and the high level of the female sex hormone – estrogen. Hence the ancient body of the “fertility goddess”.



I think we need some ice cream.

What's With the Fruit Paintings?

Remembering that the camera wasn’t invented until 1825, realism in art was supreme. Beginning artists practiced realism with arrangements of fruit -- fruit was handy and inexpensive, and once arranged it didn't wiggle, sneeze, or cause your wife to be suspicious of what was going on in your studio. A major consideration!

Historically speaking, if you could paint realistically you were considered a bona fide artist. In fact, the world renowned Académie des Beaux-Arts, which dominated the French art scene in the middle of the 19th century, would only put its stamp of approval on realistic paintings.

In 1863, Emperor Napoleon III decreed that the public be allowed to judge the work themselves, and the Salon des Refusés (Salon of the Refused) was organized.
Everything in painting changed then and the work of artists like Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Cézanne, Degas, Cassatt, and Manet were shown and accepted.

Photography encouraged painters to exploit aspects of the painting medium, like color, which photography then lacked; "the Impressionists were the first to consciously offer a subjective alternative to the photograph". (Thanks Wikipedia.)

Still life paintings of fruit are still as popular today with artists and art-collectors as they were centuries ago.

You can buy either of these prints at http://MoxyFoxDesigns.com
A live link is at the top of the page.

The Glance of the Eye

I think that somewhere in my lineage there must have been a collection of portrait painters. I am subconsciously drawn to faces. Pick up a pen or brush and a face is what emerges through my hand to the blank surface. I have no idea where these people come from.

Speaking of faces, many of my works are of beautiful women. The media must have a lot to do with that. Did you know that many men can barely speak when they are around a beautiful woman? Their body language gives them away every time. Open-mouthed staring is the first option. If they can muster the courage to speak it will probably be something utterly inane.

Because beautiful women are used to being treated differently than their less lovely sisters, they are relieved when a man speaks to them without fear. And who are those men? Guys with high intelligence, personal success and life goals. They don’t have to be handsome – just fascinated by life and pursuing lasting interests.

In any case, count your blessings and embrace your genetic heritage.


“One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

1956 Greetings From Paris

My maternal great great grandmother, Jane Reno, was born in France in 1807. She immigrated to the U.S. and married a Scot. I bear her middle name of “Renault” with its correct spelling, as does my daughter and granddaughter. So there is a bit of DNA that I find important and that keeps calling me to France.



Currently on my desk I have a copy of “Sara Midda’s South of France A Sketchbook” with endearing little watercolors filling the pages. Next is the “Bedside Book of Famous French Stories” printed in 1945, and finally “The Paris I Love” with photography by Patrice Molinard. This is this book that consumed a good part of my afternoon.



Gorgeous in its heavy linen covered book boards, the pages unfortunately are falling out. So, I have made eight delightful greeting cards from these photos that were taken sometime in 1956. I’ll sell the eight cards in my etsy MoxyFoxDesigns shop. See the link at the top.

I thought you might like to go back in time with me to the home of Jane Reno (Renault) and brush against my beginnings.



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Giclée … Is that Italian Ice Cream?

There a lot of times when I finish a painting I know I want to keep it. But as a seller on Etsy.com, http://MoxyFoxDesigns.etsy.com selling prints is a wonderful way to share my art at a very reasonable price. However, the print has to be of excellent quality.

Some women like jewelry and fasts cars, but I like spectacular printers. After researching the internet and talking to artists who make prints from their work, I chose the Epson 3800 Pro. It is amazing and “sweet”!!!



The word “giclée” (zee-clay) is a made up word for the process of making fine art prints from a digital source using ink-jet printing. The word is derived from the French language word “le gicleur” meaning “nozzle”, or more specifically “gicler” meaning “to squirt, spurt, or spray”. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s, but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such prints.” (Source: Widipedia)

Here is my most recent “giclée” (zee-clay) print. ("Gelato" is Italian ice cream -- I knew that!)