small sweet steps

New Print Available at my Shop and Surtex Update!

I just posted this new print to my Etsy shop. I am excited about this new look and am interested to see what kind of response it gets. It is a mixed media piece with a mixture of my watercolor and acrylic paintings and a vintage postcard too.

Hope your having a great weekend! I am in Surtex prep mode. I am trying to get a lot of painting accomplished over the next couple of days. Once that is done, I will scan in the art, make pattern collections and central images and then some products sheets showing how the art looks on product. I hope to get at least 10 strong collections out of this painting session, after I complete all of those things I will start over again. Hopefully, I can work through that cycle several times in preperation for Surtex. I also need to design the look of my booth, execute it, put my binders together, design collateral for the show and maybe a little giveaway item. Oh God, I have so much to do!!!!!! Pretty darn exciting though! EEEEK!

" You are the fragrance of the flower, the beauty of the soul."

Hello Soul, Hello Business!

I was so excited yesterday when I received this gift in the mail from the lovely Kelly Rae Roberts, and Beth Nicholls of Do What You Love for participating in their e-course, Hello Soul, Hello Business! Thanks ladies! What a nice gift, I love it!

I can't wait for the e-course to start on January 16th. Are you participating? Please, please, consider it. I would love to see you there.

Here is a small taste of what is being offered. This excerpt was taken from the Hello Soul, Hello Business website.

AND! There's more!

Go to the Hello Soul, Hello Business Website and see for yourself all of the great contributors )the list is amazing!) and content!!!! Treat yourself for the Holidays! Go for it!

 

Instagram and Art

Well, posting from my mobile seems to have worked. With social media on the rise blogging seems to be taking a back seat these days. Where is the line drawn for content that is posted on blogs and SM? This is something I need to think about. I love the instant gratification of posting to my social media sites and love the care I take when posting to my blog. Maybe they should remain apart? Oh, so many questions, so many choices!

I would love for you to follow me on Instagram! It is a social media app for your smartphone and tablet. It is like Twitter, you can follow people and have followers but it is photography based which I LOVE! I have had a hard time getting into Twitter, too much to read and I don't always have a lot to say. I would much rather convey my thoughts, feelings and words through photography. The app is free on your device. You can log onto your app and follow me or follow this link and follow me via followgram. My username on the app is stephanieryands.

If instagram isn't for you, like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and most of my Instagram posts are forwarded there.

Okay! Onto some fun stuff. Here is the previous painting posted with some color added to it. What do you think? Which do you prefer?

Do you prefer the color or just a white background?

Hard at Play

I actually found some time to play with my watercolors over the weekend! I have been busy with my freelance work and am happy to have found some time for myself. It felt good to paint some new art and I also spent some time playing with some graphic looks too!

New Painting and Process

Fall is on my mind. The crispness in the air has already started and I saw some changing leaves the other day which brought an instant smile to my face. Soon, the colors and fragrances of Fall will follow and open the door to my favorite time of year....winter. Wintertime is so magical to me. I know that is strange when looking at my art but, it's true. I can't wait to say hello to my bare tree branches that comfort me all winter long.

Here is a sneak peek at some of the new paintings I have been working on. I will be sharing finished pieces in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

Sketchbook Story

My art & process are being featured on my dear friend Cindy Ann Ganaden's blog, Blu Penny today as part of her very successful Sketchbook Story series. Please take some time to visit and check it out! Also, check out Cindy Ann's amazing work, she is a very talented licensed artist with lots of great products out in the marketplace right now. Cindy Ann also had a kick ass booth at Surtex this year where I had the pleasure of helping her out for a day. She is definitely one to watch! Thanks Cindy Ann!

Where is the Magic?

I am starting my third week of lyme disease treatment tomorrow and I am happy to say it is going by pretty fast! ( big sigh ) I have been playing with digitally layering my art to see what I can come up with and am liking the direction. What do you think? I really love the art on my previous post. The photography adds such depth. Can't wait to post more. I hope you have a great week!

Graphic Patterns

I love working with graphic patterns. I started experimenting with painting this past year and a half, before that, the majority of my work was graphic. I loved working that way but, I always felt like it wasn't right, it needed more. It was too stiff so, I started seeking an alternative and found watercolors. When I was at Surtex in May, I was so inspired by the work of these talented ladies that I started to have the urge to play with graphic patterns again. There was a difference between there work and mine, theirs had more life to them and felt so alive. I think the problem was that I worked in Illustrator and was being too much of a perfectionist, my lines all had to be perfect. I liked having control over my perfect circles. So, after talking to Jessica Swift, I started to re-examine my graphic work and saw that beauty wasn't in the perfect lines it was in the unexpected marks. This is a lesson that I keep reminding myself of when working with the watercolors too. The tighter my work gets the less beauty you find. It's funny, releasing and surrender seem to be big lessons for me these days. Thanks, Jessica for helping me to find beauty in the unexpected marks.

I seem to be loving this color palette. I posted another graphic pattern two weeks ago and it was the same colors. I just realized it. I am channeling aqua, gray and yellow.

 

 

Think Good Thoughts

Just playing around with some different mediums in an effort to loosen myself up. It's funny, I can feel myself tightening up as I work and it makes a huge difference in the finished piece. So, my lesson for today is to Loosen up!  Oh! and Think Good Thoughts.

Dream a Dream of a Dream...

This reminds me of a fairytale, a sweet dream filled with magical gardens and little bunnies! I am really liking this new direction with my art! It feels like it is all coming together and I couldn't be more excited. This last year has been an amazing creative adventure for me, I have been trying to get this art out of me for years now and it is finally manifesting. Whenever I would create something in the past, I would always say, I like it but, it's just not right. I am happy to say that feeling it gone! I found the art that has been living and hiding in my heart.