Happy New Year 2020!

Instant download from Willow Canvas

One more year has gone by; so much happened this past year - a mixture of some sweet memories and some hard lessons. I am grateful for both. As I am growing older, intangible things like peace and happiness have not only changed their meanings for me, but have also gone on top of the list of  things that I value the most in life. I truly believe that only once we have found true peace in our hearts, can we share it with our loved ones and spread it to the world. The seed of peace grows in us and branches out to compassionate actions towards other human beings, nature and other sentient beings.

I hope this new year brings peace and joy to each one of you. Happy new year my friends! See you in 2020 :)

Holiday Fabric Collection Designed by Bethan Janine

 

Every year holiday season brings so many festive fabric collection, this year I am enamored with 'Skogen' designed by Bethan Janine, a freelance pattern designer and an illustrator. This collection was designed by Bethan Janine for Dashwood featuring festive designs. The designer gave a contemporary twist to the traditional motifs. The owls, reindeer, doves, christmas trees, and snow flakes are designed in the holiday color palette with reds, blues, and whites. The collection offers nine fun designs in 100% cotton that are perfect for quilting, crafts, or home decor accents.

You can find the entire collection at here and here.

Sarah Whittle Draws One Bird a Day for the Advent Calendar 2019

Every year I eagerly wait for the month of December not only because it's the most beautiful time of year but also because of the creativity that takes over the internet. Many artists give themselves an advent calendar challenge to create a piece on a specific theme each day counting down to the Christmas Day. 

The above shown illustrations are by Sarah Whittle a freelance illustrator based in Penzance, Cornwall. She joined the Instagram advent calendar challenge "decembird" to draw a bird each day till the 25th. I love the series featuring owl, swans, goose, rooster, bullfinch and woodpecker in festive color palette. The owl making snow angels, goose singing the carols, woodpecker ice skating, and magpies opening gifts each illustration takes you one day closer to the Christmas day.

Artist Embroiders Anthropomorphic Characters into Hoop Art

 

Andreia is the designer and embroider behind all the gorgeous art at Black Cat Creative Studio. She has always been passionate about creating things using needle and thread with immense detail. She was only four years old when she started to learn embroidery from her mother and has been honing her skills ever since.

She creates stunning pieces of embroidered hoop art inspired by flora, fauna and botanical patterns. The anthropomorphic owl, cat and fox seem be playing a role in a movie as "The Astrophysicist", "The Physician", and "The Guardian of the Key". She starts a piece by hand-painting cotton surface and embroiders intricate designs in vibrant color scheme. She adds a unique touch to each piece by wrapping the hoop with ribbons of paper or velvet, decorating the edges with paper stars, and gold and copper dust.

You can find her embroidered hoop art in her online store Black Cat Creative Studio.

Needle Felted and Soft Sculptures by Jennifer Cruz

   

Jennifer Cruz is a textile artist based in UK who makes amazing 3D sculptures. She works with several mediums including clay, textile and needle felting but it's the three dimensional sculptures that she enjoys creating the most, she calls it her "thing". She combines her expertise with her love for animals and birds to create unique collection of sculptures.

To construct the sculptures she uses recycled fabric, ethically sourced wool, beads, glass, vintage jewelry, and hand paints them with acrylic and pastel. It takes her several hours and lots of patience to add detail to each piece which brings them to life. For example: the barn owl shown above is made on a wire form which is then covered with layers of linen to add wings and hand stitched to attach them to the body.

The one-of-a-kind pieces plus mobiles and wedding cake toppers are available in her store Waggle Dance.

Incredibly Detailed Pastel Paintings by Emily Rose

Emily Rose is a young self-taught pastel artist living on the North Norfolk coastline. She specializes in wildlife portraits, drawing animals and birds in pastel pencils from her garden studio. Her career as an artist started when she received a request to draw a pet portrait. Since then she has worked on many pet commissions and has participated in several wildlife exhibitions.

Her work is primarily inspired by British wildlife which is in abundance where she lives. She aims at capturing the moment, character and the atmosphere of her subject in highly detailed style.

For limited edition art prints and greeting cards based on her original paintings go to her online store.