The Lady Vanity Takes A Break From Mirroring To Dream Of An Unusual Garden, from my millefleurs series

title: "The Lady Vanity Takes A Break From Mirroring To Dream Of An Unusual Garden"

original 11" x 14" painting (presently available)

this piece is also available in prints, totes, pillows, duvets, wall hangings, 

and other products by clicking on this link 

© 2019 Lise Winne

I have a lot of catching up to do! I have been painting and uploading a lot of art recently, and this is just one of them. More to come!

This piece is in the millefleurs tradition (and is part of my millefleurs series HERE). Millefleurs is a French word and means "many flowers". Alternatively it can mean a million flowers, but most art cannot hope to have that number of flowers all in one piece! 

Millefleurs works of art became popular during the Renaissance. The most well known are The Lady and the Unicorn series and The Hunt of the Unicorn series.  

Renaissance art is imbued with a lot of symbolism. 

The fact that The Lady Vanity is small relative to the songbirds near her head and the foliage, is intentional, for instance. It is meant to be an allegory of vanity. 

In the usual style of Renaissance art, she is dressed in Renaissance attire, with a cone hat (hennin).

The white bird is a Sapientes Pacis bird, and translates from Latin into Wise Peace bird. They are a species of my own invention, started during this painting from my blue period series. When I draw from my own imagination, such as when I'm gallery sitting and have no materials to reference for a drawing, these kinds of birds keep popping up. I had to decide what they were, and when looking at them, I decided that they had to be related to peace (as they are a bit dove-like, only bigger), and since they were always examining or questioning something in my art creations, I felt they had to be wise too.

Please note: Sapientes is a different word from Serpientes (tongue-in-cheek reference directed at a person who uses allegories and metaphors to hurt others, rather than to help humanity).

Millefleurs represent plenty, freedom from poverty and hunger, and luxury. For me, painting in this style is a backlash and a rebellion against modernist traditions, particularly depicting landscapes, for example, in bright orange and purple, simply rendered broad brush-stroke paintings with boxy buildings and with very little detail or the natural world in them. Why is this the acceptable norm for getting into shows?

If I'm going to bother spending my time making art, I want to either make art with statements and meaning, or art that is lush and full of nature. This piece hopefully has a little of both. 

One reason I like working in the millefleurs tradition is that it affords me "authentic expression". It was the first style of art that brought tears to my eyes (during my first trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art). After that, I wanted to stop pandering to modernist tastes and to try to give something to the world that might last past the present painting traditions.

William Morris who I highly respect (and see quite a bit of in myself), went "the millefleurs way" too in the 1800s, long after the Renaissance. If he can do it, so can I, yes?

It won't get me in the trendiest places, but customers like it, and they help me going in this direction.

If you find you cannot live without this piece (lol), you can contact me by e-mail (sales(att)LiseWinne.com). It has a gold frame. Or you can purchase an archival print, wall hangings, totes, pillows, etc, HERE.

Here are pictures and products (for possibilities). This first is a framed print:

 the framed prints are available here:

go HERE for a framed print

This frame is under the brown category (found in the drop-down). It is #CUL7

and the mat is manor white ... or pick your own frame.
For the depiction on this blog, the print is roughly a 16" x 20" print.

note: the watermark in the right hand corner will not appear in the actual purchased product

This is what it looks like as a canvas print: 

canvas prints available HERE

choose the size. 

Note the size here on this blog is the smallest.

Don't forget to look at it in 3-D to see if you like how everything lines up on the edges.

Other products:

throw pillows HERE

use this color green or another that suits your fancy

large round beach towel: purchase HERE

As a tote bag. Purchase HERE

Thank you, as always, for reading.

WEBSITE

"A Deep Thought", art featuring a rabbit and dove

"A Deep Thought" framed print

available for sale HERE

choose frame and mats from drop-down

This frame is in the gold section and is ARL 16

The mat is a white mat

If you have been following along, I have a show of original pieces up. In the meantime, I thought I would make some of the items in the show available as archival prints and other products. 

Here is how the original art piece looks (note: the frame is a little cockeyed in the photo, but not in real life -- it was how it looked on a wall for the photo shoot):

"A Deep Thought" original painting on panel

with hand painted original frame

contact me at sales((att))LiseWinne.com if interested in purchasing the original

 If you want to read about other pieces in the show go to this post and this post.

Here is another version of a framed print:

"A Deep Thought" framed print

available for sale HERE

choose frame and mats from drop-down

This frame is in the gold section and is PAZ 2 

The mat is an off white mat

This is how it looks as a canvas print:

For this, I used white wrap for the sides (4. in options under wrap)

canvas prints are available HERE

Here are some product photos (note, this image comes on phone cases, a variety of totes, shower curtain, duvet, yoga mat, wearables, greeting cards, etc):

pillow

available for sale in a variety of sizes HERE

tote bag

available for sale in a variety of sizes HERE

I will be back with other items and news soon.

MY ON-LINE SHOP

Artfire does a Regretsy, and movin' on up!

An advertisement on one of my ornament listings for a factory-made ornament

(note: this is something that was done by Artfire, not by me!)

(note on 4/27/15: Artfire added an ad-free option a week ago from all of the complaints from sellers about the ads. I took Artfire up on the offer to keep ads out of my shop, and I now feel okay about sending buyers there ... for now. I am still setting up my own e-commerce website, but at least I don't feel rushed, and can do it at my leisure. The rest of what I wrote, below, is the original post)

As many of you know (especially my loyal brick and mortar customers), I have been selling on Artfire for awhile now. The site was looking better than it ever has, it had gotten mobile friendly, and then, wham! Ads!

No, I did not want my listings for my handmade and fine art to be blasted with ads looking like an ad farm! 

And no, I will never put ads with handmade, fine art listings. And believe me, I could make this blog cluttered with ads too, and make good money doing so, but I have never taken that route because I don't believe it is respectful to my customers and it goes against everything small businesses and artists stand for. 

I liken the ads on my listings to this scenerio:

I shop for food primarily from local farms. I actually drive to a lot of farms. I love the drive to the farm where I buy my eggs for three dollars a carton, for instance. They are lovely eggs by the way, all different colors, by all kinds of different breeds of chickens, and some of them even duck eggs, and so much fresher and better tasting than stale grocery store eggs. This farm is a place I love to go to because of the lovely scenery, where I can meet and pet the chickens who produce my eggs, where I chit-chat with the owners and where I can walk around admiring the wildflowers, horses and cows. Sometimes I see herds of deer mingled in with the cows, or off in the distance. You can see at least a hundred miles into the distance on sunny days. Imagine one day I pulled up and there was a big billboard for "cheap eggs, only a dollar, at your local Walmart" stuck to the chicken shack, and many other billboards and signs blocking the scenery, making it confusing about whether I was buying their farm eggs or ones from a factory farm. Ick!

Well, that's how I feel about the ads on my listings.   

I had been planning to move to my own site in the autumn because I needed to offer wholesale and I couldn't do that on Artfire. I had to use it as a kind of e-mail service and explain everything, rather than have it spelled out in a listing (and imagine how much more confusing it is with these ads for wholesale buyers!). Anyway this has precipitated a need for a fast move, hopefully by next month. I spend my evenings copying listings when I am not trying to keep supplies of greeting cards and other art products stocked for brick and mortar shops in my area. So, I will let you know soon where I have moved to. Here are some other ads they plastered to my handmade ornament listing:

 NO THANKS!

As for other movin' on up plans:

I am also busy creating listings for Fine Art America because most of my customers contact me for print sizes I don't have listed, to get a custom size/order. Having a shop on Fine Art America will make it so much easier for ALL of my customers to order a myriad of sizes on different mediums, even huge 40 inch canvas prints. There is so much I can't do in my own home-based printing business; I have had to farm a lot out. This will give everyone a chance to own any size they want, and on any medium from archival canvas prints, to archival fine art paper, to posters for a kid's room, and greeting cards, and other products. This is a shop I was focusing on launching until Artfire distracted me, and now it's almost like a race to see which site gets done first, my e-commerce store or the Fine Art America store. The stores will probably be done in close proximity to each other!

As for Etsy, I am not invested in running any kind of major store there for my handmade or fine art. If you want to know why, this article explains my views. In movin' on up, I am by-passing venues. Etsy is being relegated to tiny experiments for different kinds of themes. Right now I have focused on a handful of owl listings.

Other things I am working on:

I have some Easter listings to show you soon.

I am doing illustrations for a book (someone else is the author). That's all I can share now.

I will be offering a lot more Victorian designs on the new website, but still keeping most products focused on story-book art, Celtic designs and Renaissance inspired art. 

Just because I have been silent does not mean I haven't been working extremely hard!

NO LINKS TO ONLINE STORES FOR NOW

   

Unicorn V print

Unicorn V

© 2012

5" x 7"

(available as an art print in my Artfire on-line shop HERE
or in my Etsy on-line shop HERE)

New from my art studio!

The story about the piece: the greeting card design has been available since 2009. In order to make a print, I widened the design to include more meadow and also put in stars. 

Here is how the greeting card looks:

Unicorn V greeting card
© 2009

(on cream colored linen cardstock)

And these were both made from my original ceramic sculpture from 2006:

 Unicorn V

© 2006
hand thrown unicorn sculpture

WEBSITE

MY ARTFIRE ON-LINE SHOP (largest selection)

MY ETSY ON-LINE SHOP (seasonal and limited selection)

Card Games Tree I and II

Note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual art.

You never can plan anything in art. I originally designed this piece as a tag. Yup, that's right, very small with string through it, nothing too consequential. I acually painted the tree and border seperately. The original painting of the tree has red & black to match the border design. However, when I married the 2, I didn't like it. The tree did not differentiate with the border design enough (which made it look like a muddled mess). I fudged around with different experiments to try to resolve these issues. Then I found I liked it much more with the leaves turned a different color (to make it autumn-like while still keeping the playing card symbols). Success! I also decided to make prints from it. I will see if they make good tags, but for now I like them as prints.

Then I decided to try a different version. See below:

 

In this one, the tree has the same colors as the original painting while the border design does not.

The original mediums are: pen & ink, watercolor and a little oil based colored pencils to make the grass.

My relatives from my mother's side of the family are avid card players. Card games include bridge, Oh Hell and hearts with trumps. My grandfather insisted on games every night with all family members participating. Card symbols bring forth memories for me of good times with my family.

Both pieces are available in my Etsy store as small 5 x 7 prints. Perhaps there will be tags and other products with these designs after the date of this post. I still don't know what kinds of products will manifest for the brick and mortar stores that I am in.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Holiday Art Shows

It’s been all business since last time I blogged with no time for practice or painting.

I have been working from 7:30 in the morning until midnight preparing for my holiday art shop at Lower Adirondack Regional Art Center (Glens Falls, NY). This is a photo of the set-up. The opening is this Friday eve (I think the hours are 6 – 8).

I also prepared a much more truncated version for Valley Artisans Market (Cambridge, NY).

I don’t know how I managed 6 – 10 holiday art shows in past years as the 2 have totally exhausted me (and for this reason, I am keeping it to just the 2 this year).

One of the reasons why it took so much time out of me is that at the last moment I discovered that I had sold a lot of inventory & needed to make more. This meant days & days of printing out small prints and cards. Then there was the pricing, writing inventory lists and the shop set-up all in the midst of some major house catastrophes. This is the third year in a row where house issues put a serious wrench in holiday art show preparation. And I hope it is the last!

On another note, I was featured (along with one of my designs) briefly in a blog by Michelle of "Nature Manipulated". It is in her Saturday, November 7, 2009 blog (if you can no longer scroll to it, you can still look up the date). Her blog is located here.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

Pawn in Autumn and A Raven in Autumn

Note: the copyright watermarks do not appear in the actual art (needed for on-line display only).

This is my newest design and was finished & scanned today. The design measures 12" x 16 1/2 ".

The reason for the two titles is that the prints will be named "Pawn in Autumn" and the greeting cards will be named "A Raven in Autumn." I thought it was best to decipher the two as I have found customers of greeting cards not understanding the reference to "pawn" outside of its context. The prints are more likely to be shown together with their kind and thus will be clearer as to what the theme means.

For those of you not in the know, the pawn relates to chess. In chess, any being that is not a king, queen, bishop, knight or rook is a pawn. This one is obviously a pet pawn because of its collar.

I probably won't have the greeting cards printed this autumn (as autumn is nearly done, at least around here), but I am hoping to have some prints of it for the upcoming holiday shows.

I may not have any new designs for awhile as I prepare for these shows. On the other hand, it is likely that I will post pieces that have never been seen or scanned before.

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby