Category Archives: paintings

tiny white bell flowers

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Sarah Blank

I wish I knew the name of this flowering bush, its just so pretty and simple. I’m liking simple. Witnessed on a walk around town. Then I decided to do a quick, folksy rendition inspired by them in my sketchbook.
EDIT: I figured out the name! It’s an old fashioned shrub, a Deutzia. Rare these days and it loves the shade. I love how the blossoms look a bit like snowdrops. Snowdrops in June!

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painting blues and greens

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Sarah Blank

Playing with some new paints on this rainy day. I’m always drawn to blues and greens. Have been painting interpretations of little patterns inspired by the pages of a japanese textile book.

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Tags: sketchbook

A new print

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Sarah Blank

Wild Roses print is now for sale in my shop

Oh, and just look at the droplets of dew on this wildflower! How beautiful is nature?! Seriously the meadows this time of year are absolute bliss. Going for lots of walks these days!

Happy June!

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new prints and into the berry bramble

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Sarah Blank

A print from my drawing From Within is now available in the shop.

I just love the frame, which was a lucky discovery in a second hand shop. The gold just glows.

Yesterday I was going through some of my older work and I was inspired by the imagery and textures that I was using. I think I might revisit the idea of the white fox (oops I mean wolf). I just love the texture in this piece, I used imprints of antique lace in the paint. Phantom lace, if you will.

Beautiful color inspiration on a lazy Sunday.

I can’t believe these luscious colors exist, all on one berry bush (and apparently a big black snake thought so too, he was slithering up in the bramble). There was the brightest magenta paired with baby blues, in berry form, growing together simultaneously.

Does anyone know what type of berries these are? They were growing amongst rose hips, in a meadow besides a pond.

19 Comments

Tags: print

Honey Bee Stories

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Sarah Blank

Bee imagery, stories, skeps, curtained little scenes, skeleton keys dangling on ribbon, bees flying away from her hive to the others, the ones high in the trees!

I have been working on the details of this piece for some time now, and it’s finally complete and I am happy with it so far. I think it has inspired a whole series, as my sketchbooks are full of various compositions such as this one.

Honey Bee Stories is now available as a print in my shop.

The original is 16″ by 20″ on an ampersand panel and it’s completed in acrylics and paper. There’s so many little areas of story going on here (besides the fact that it is curtained in a theater-like manner). I wanted the whole painting to be golden (and slightly antique in appearance), like transparent honey.

It’s hard to see all the details in my low resolution scan, so here are the snippets, the areas of story…

I matted a print and framed it with an antique frame I had been saving.

I just love to add little details.

I forgot how much I enjoy painting like this- small images and mysterious things going about in a larger, narrative painting. This piece was definitely an offshoot of a piece created two summers ago. Today will be spent in my cool studio room (thank goodness its too hot here to go outside midday!) sketching and working through the beginnings of another painting.

Have a great day!

25 Comments

tugging on our neck ribbons

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Sarah Blank

Just finished up this painting of two little forest wanders (or woodland dwellers for that matter)
They seem a bit apprehensive about the birds playful tugging. I think that they are The Bumblebee Sisters in their childhood.

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tiger lily, finished

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Sarah Blank

I have been painting the day away! Tiger lily is now finished. She has adorned her hair with the most magical flower (I would love to be a bee or humming bird!) A print will be in the shop, along with the original (me thinks!)

And….

Telling a tale (though paints) of two girls at the edge of the woods. Way up in the trees there are ghost birdies. The gals still need a bit more work but I am so excited about this one!
Thanks for visiting me here!

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new lockets and fig buttercups

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Sarah Blank

Two bits of good news. I am not mia or forgetting about this blog! I have some major time-consuming work obligations right now (which take up part of my weekend as well) but come the end of May it will end and I will be less busy! Also, I look forward to a relaxing, painting-filled and totally free summer in the coming months. I have been using this time to go back to the well, so to speak, and sketch, plan, journal. I hope to revamp this blog with more of my process, my inspirations, sketches. Would you like to see more of my sketchbooks? I’d like to know! The second bit of news is of a shop update, with a couple of lockets that feature my sketchings and bits from my oil paintings.
A preview of a vintage locket that will be in my shop within the next few days…

Close up, the blue bird is taken from Pulling on our Ribbons and Hair. I think I’m going to tie a piece of vintage fabric to the top of this one.

And the gal from the locket graces the inside of my giant sketching book/ journal.

I ventured to a swampy glen down the street to take some pics of my lockets. There are the most amazing flowers that carpet the entire woods floor, creating an almost day-glow effect. They are called Fig Buttercups, or Pilewort and they grow in moist areas (and often mix with the skunk cabbage, which is abundant here as well.)