I've always longed for a home of my own, specifically an old New England farmhouse with a few outbuildings and a large barn. I'd have as many rescued animals as I wanted without a landlord's interference. A big part of this fantasy would be to turn the barn into art studios and a gallery, but...every summer I'd have underpriveleged children taking part in a free art camp. Some kids can't even afford a box of crayons. This is so sad to me. I'd have volunteer art teachers and myself ready to open up a whole new world to these kids. Oh, I can just see their little faces light up! And at the end of summer we'd have a huge art show of all the kid's work with the proceeds to go into the 'Hearts for Art Camp' kitty. (That's after buying pizza and ice cream for all of the young artists!)
So, that's my idea of paradise. A happy home of my own to share with animals and young, budding artists!
watercolor, micron pens and acrylic paint on Canson paper. Click to enlarge.
Laurel, this sounds just wonderful! I had such a vivid image in my mind as I read your words, imagining the rescue animals and little children. Your painting captures the feeling of paradise so well! I really like the way you framed it with the wreath and the bird
ReplyDeleteVery pretty, I love the frame.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great dream to have. :-)
ReplyDeleteHow adorable is this, Laurel?
ReplyDeletecabanadigital.com
This is a wonderful paradise. I would love to help children grow up to be artists too. Even if they never end up using it for their job, I think everyone has a creative streak that should be nurtured.
ReplyDeletePS. the wood on my illo was done in Photoshop using the cloning tool. I iwsh my deck looked that good :>
I love the bird and the wreath. The background, which I find charmingly muted and a bit more subdued, is also a lovely little vignette. It could easily stand on its own.
ReplyDeleteLaurel this is sooooo beautiful! I love it and our ideas were the same but in our own ways! Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteOne dream that you could realize one day! :)))
ReplyDeleteLovely!!
ReplyDeleteLaurel, you are truly an angel! Hope you will have a paradise just like you wanted!
ReplyDeleteemila yusof
http://www.emilayusof.com
Great vision... in art and words.
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful vision of paradise, and one that I share as well. Just a lovely illo and dream.
ReplyDeleteI just saw the illo you did for last week's theme, "Cars." It's great! :-)
Wow, what a wonderful illustration and idea!! My students are very wealthy and tend to be prone to wasting paper. I have to remind them many times about what you had mentioned here. Anyhow, what a great great post from you!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful painting. I hope you achieve this wonderful paradice you've discribed!
ReplyDeleteThat's a wonderful idea of paradise, I hope it comes true:)
ReplyDeleteLaurel, this is a true paradise! If I can get time off, I'll be sure to join you! Keep the dream alive, it's a worthy one. I love your softly colored painting, it presents a welcoming feel, for such a great idea.
ReplyDeleteWow, Laurel, That really does sound like paradise! I would volunteer to be one of your art teachers! : ) This is a beautiful illustration, too. I love the sensitivity and the little bird and blackberries in the frame. The farm seems like paradise to me.
ReplyDeleteBTW, you asked about portfolios.com. Yes, it has actualy been a good site for me. You cannot track traffic to the site (so you do not know how many people are actually viewing it), and I use it exclusively for my surface design work now, but I have gotten several calls for work from it. In fact, that is why I did not post on IF for 2 weeks...I landed a huge job from having my work displayed there. I am still trying to get my professional web site launched, but I may still keep portfolios.com. It has been worth the $200 I paid for the year, and it is good to have yor artwork displayed in as many venues at possible.
Laurel - I love your idea of paradise..your illo is very beautiful, it has a dream like quality. Thanks for your comment on mine. I appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteVery pretty. Love the little birdy.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful idea for paradise, not only your illustration, but your wonderful words! I hope that one day you will be able to make that dream come true. :)
ReplyDeleteAnywhere with free ice cream sounds good to me!
ReplyDeleteWow! This is really something! Beautiful image and idea!
ReplyDeletethat would be a wonderful place. and a true paradise it would be since it would be the result of generosity and love.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that this is going to happen for you!
ReplyDeleteLovely image and lovely dream!
ReplyDeleteLolo, make it real! It's a beautiful, sweet dream.
ReplyDeleteLots of Critters, a garden and Art sounds like Paradise to me too! A worthy dream and I love the branch border with the Chickadee.
ReplyDeletei'm loving the bird and the berries! this looks like a very relaxing place. some day i would like to go here and feed the sheep. maybe hug and pet one if they let me. :-)
ReplyDeletep.s. my brother went to bangladesh last month and gave the children crayons. he also gave them an art lesson and served them lunch. he has some neat pictures of it up on his website: www.tigerpunch.com. in pictures 113 and 116 you can see the children with their drawings. it's pretty neat :-)
ReplyDeleteDelicate and pretty!
ReplyDeleteCata.
oh, what a lovely piece! and yes, that's my kind of paradise too! ^_^
ReplyDeletebeautiful piece! i love the detail work on the wreath. lovely!
ReplyDeleteI want to go. Okay I'm too old. This is a beautiful idea of paradise, and I can nearly see it from your description. I think the post is beautiful, and I betcha it will happen.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really beautiful dream of paradise... I hope one day you can make this happen. I love the bird in your painting too, very sweet.
ReplyDeleteLaurel, your paradise is beautiful and wonderful! I think I'd like to join you rescuing animals, and I'd help you teach the kids at Art Camp, too! While I'm here, I want to thank you for your positive comments on my IF: YourParadise. It means a lot to me!
ReplyDeleteThis is really beautiful to view Laurel- Thank you for your encouraging words!
ReplyDeletethe way you framed your paradise painting makes it more special and what a wonderful vision you've got.
ReplyDeleteVery very sweet, great concept.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great, and the illustration is so sweet!
ReplyDeleteAnette Heiberg
www.wynlen.no
What a wonderful idea, Laurel, and a wonderful painting to illustrate it. I wonder if those are Himalaya blackberries. I have a huge patch of them behind our back yard, and I freeze tons of them every year. But I think you're too far south for Himalayas.
ReplyDeletenice pic very peaceful
ReplyDeleteAwesome painting. I love the composition.
ReplyDelete