Cow in Switzerland

This cow looks so peaceful and happy. See it on Ebay!

"City" note cards, set of eight

"City" note cards, set of eight (Amsterdam, Prague, Paris, Biejing)
These single-fold cards are 5.5" x 4" with the inside blank to write your own messaage. The cards and envelopes are cream colored.
The images on the cards I did from 18" x 24" original pastels that I painted from photos. The Paris card was from a photo I took of two very stylish looking twins. They seemed to capture the Champs Elysse high end shopping area perfectly. The Amsterdam card is my daughter, Liz walking in front of the Rijksmuseum. The other two are from photos my friend, Emily let me use from two of her many adventures. The Prague pastel is my favorite. Emily pointed out in the Beijing photo that she took the picture because of the very bright red doorway on the outside that was a big contrast to the much duller red walls on the inside.
They come in a set of eight cards, two of each image and matching envelopes.

Fabric Collection Earrings

Fabric Collection Earrings


Earrings inspired by my amazing daughters; Liz for the idea, and Helen for her fabulous collection of designer fabrics.

Fabric earrings with a different designer fabric on each side (in case the wind blows!), surgical steel hooks, lightly coated so they're durable, lightweight & comfortable - each pair different from the other. Complete with a matching giftbox.


Brides - I can make a unique pair for each bridesmaid.
Order 5 pairs, get one free!

A great birthday or graduation gift - or if you don't know what to get someone for International Dadaism Day (July 15th) - what better than a pair of art earrings?
Please forward this newsletter on to anyone who loves a one-of-a-kind gift.
Telfleur.com
Coming soon - Summer art shows and workshops.
Go to my blogs. One on my own art: https://www.marysartblog.blogspot.com/ or read my comments on the business of art: https://www.banquetforthestarvingartist.blogspot.com/ Check back every day.
For info about classes / workshops/ art shows and more, visit the calendar.

Curacao #3

Curacao #4

The last of the Curacao buildings on water series.

See it on Ebay.

Curacao #2

This is the second in the series of four mini-Curacao paintings. It was from a photo a friend took. A lot of people have asked me where Curacao is - as far as I know it's a Dutch island in the Carribean.

See it on Ebay!

Birch tree from MCC's campus

I did this one day while sitting outside at McHenry county college and teaching one of my art classes. It's a 9" x 12" pastel. See it on Ebay!

Flamingo enjoying the weather in Curacao

I wonder if this is the same flamingo I painted a portrait of. Whoever it is, it seems to be enjoying the beach immersed in it's own thoughts. I would be too if I was there!

8" x 10" pastel.

Click to see on Ebay.

Turtle going for a swim in Curacao

Click to Bid.

Curacao #1

This is one of four pastels painted from a photo of cute, colorful houses on the shore of Curacao - the photo used with permission from photographer, Ruth Hersche.

Click here to see on Ebay.

Orchid

Click to see it on Ebay.

Flamingo in Thought

Click to check out on Ebay.

This was taken with permission from photographer, Ruth Hersche's photo from Curacao. I'd like to do some more flamingos. It's 8" x 10" pastel.

Poppy #6

This is the last in my 'Poppy' series

Poppy Abstract #5

Poppy Abstract #4

Poppy Abstract #3

Poppy Abstract #2

The second in the poppy series.

Poppy Abstract #1

This is the first in a series of Poppy Abstracts. Also, the first in a series of mini paintings. It's only 7" x 5"

Thanks!

Thanks to all of the artists and others who came to the show this weekend. The show keeps getting better every year thanks to all of you.

Painting by Lisa Davis - the first one to sell!!!

Portrait by Tomo Marutani and Lab by Jenny Vogt

Art by Tina, Mary Ann, Joyce, Gregory, Philip, Victoria, Nancy and Maura

Art by Liz, Mona, and Joyce - sorry about the reflections

Telfleur art show yesterday

The show last night was a fun and we sold some pieces. YAY! I'm going to post a few photos - a lot of them turned out blurry and I forgot to take any when many people were here so I'll take more today - yes, the show is TODAY too - so if you live in the northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin area, please email me mary@telfleur.com for directions and come to the show. Lots of great art rangining from note cards to original paintings. And thanks to all the artists and others who came to celebrate with us!!!

It's been a long time!

To anyone reading my blog I apologize for the absense. I'm having an art show here next weekend, Friday night and Saturday afternoon to show my own art and that of my students. It should be a lot of fun so if you live in the Chicago/northern Illinois area, please email me for directions. mary@telfleur.com or go to my site for more information: www.marysart.net. I have so much artwork I literally don't know what to do with it all. Luckily my friend, Karen is lending me some grids she uses to hang her own work and I'll find a place for them here. Thanks Karen!

I spent the weekend with my daughters in Madison. What a great city. I didn't do any art work - not that I planned on doing any - but I got to see Helen present her poster on the research she's doing at the undergraduate symposium. That was fun! And we ate out a lot. The dogs got to come with us on my birthday (Saturday) and the weather was nice enough that we sat outside.

I will write again soon. I want to post some of the pastels I framed a few weeks ago for my show.

Bob Dylan

I was fortunate enough this morning to see a biography of Bob Dylan... just what I was in the mood for. What I love about him - I think I'll just list a few things:

his music

his lyrics

An artist in the real sense of the word. When the world wanted to make him a voice for a generation he declined and said it's just about writing the songs. Just about the creativity. You have to respect that.

I was fortunate enough to see him in concert at NIU a couple of years ago. Most of the audience left early - I'm thinking they wanted to hear all of his famous, old stuff... which would have also been fine with me... but instead it was a performace 'in the moment'. He changed the lyrics to familiar music and vice versa, he played brand new stuff. It was a great experience. He never spoke during the performace except at the very end when he made a lame skeleton joke - it was Halloween. : )

The best thing listening to Bob Dylan does for me is inspires me to be myself, in my art, and in my life - because he's so true to himself.

am I happy yet?

I think I'm happy now. I was going to wipe the whole painting out, but after discussing it with Lois over the phone she convinced me that I may regret it. Burning bridges, you know? And overworking something. This can apply to life as well as art.

So, I wiped out the sky. I took the vibrance of the blue water down a little and added yellow to the foreground. And I signed it which must mean it's finished!

Now it's time to move on.

by the way, I still don't really like the pastel seascape I did and I will probably change it again. : )

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. I can't remember much about Palm Sunday except everyone waving palms at Jesus, praising him... and I think the point was that later that week the same people crucified him. I could be way off, of course - I'm pretty sure I am. : ) I have a very good friend who is a Methodist minister and the Easter holiday came up in an email conversation.

And I (like many others) have been reading "A new earth" by Eckhart Tolle which is very thought-provoking. So, I've been thinking about when people feel MEAN and do mean things to others (like crucifiying Jesus for his beliefs for example) it's ALWAYS their ego involved, isn't it? If someone is ok with themselves they would realize us humans (and animals and plants) are all CONNECTED and when suffering happens to one, it happens to all. (animals are suffering too - if Factory Farming were illegal like it is in many countries there be a lot less suffering.) When people get AWAY from their egos and realize God, themselves, awareness is always in them there's no choice but to have peace - the whole world would have less suffering and fighting. When you're 'conscious' and think about WHERE the meat came from that you put in your mouth or WHY a person said something to you that hurt your feelings and take it for what it REALLY is you'll make a more conscious choice and be less likely to hurt another being.

I like this better.

I changed it a little. I smoothed out the wave lines in the middle and added more white.

Seascape

I did this the other night, it's a pastel 22" x 30. It was kind of an experiment and also just my subconcious coming through. I've really felt the need to simplify. I covered the whole sheet with a very vibrant red. I then, working top to bottom, brought in the blues and other colors. You can see a red glow from underneath in the original. I'm not sure how much it shows up on the monitor. Anyway, it was fun. I want to do more.

New domains

I'm very excited because I just bought two new domain names that lead to my site. marysart.net and marylovesdogs.com - hopefully easier to remember. Go to my site!

I did a pastel seascape the other night... well, it's almost abstract, but still representational. I'll get a photo of it later today and post it.

Helen in Coffee

We're doing coffee and tea paintings this week in my classes. Here's my daughter in coffee. It's not finished. I thought it was very much like watercolor painting. I had to use instant coffee really strong to get the darks. Anyway, it was fun!

There are no words to express my sadness over what happened at NIU, my school, last week.

Shadow

My friend, Sandy just had to have her little dog, Shadow, who was about fifteen put to sleep. She feels really bad and I can relate because I just lost my Argus two weeks ago. I hope she likes this pastel I did. What a sweet dog!

Step 11 - Finished Dubrovnik

Finished the foreground... added the arch on the right side. Finished! I'm fairly happy although if I were to do it again I'd make that tower off to the right a little more. I tried not to make it perfectly centered, even though it was in the photo, but I could have moved it more.

Step 10

After getting away for a while I noticed something was not right... so I added more color to the water. I like this better. But I did have some trouble because I already had that tower there - so I had to re-draw some of it.

Step 9

Step 8

Foreground started.

Step 7

Used some beiges for the tower.

Step 6

when I blended in the water I went across the little tower because I could still see my pencil lines and then it doesn't look like the water is in front of the tower. There's no 'halo' effect.

Step 5

Put in the first layer of water.

Step 4

Got the basic mountains and sky.

Step 3

Starting on the mountains. I'm using unison pastels again and Mattson paper. I love the way the pastels come in lots of really dark values.

Step 2

Working top to bottom as I usually do in pastels I added some color to the sky. Besides messiness, the other reason for doing this is I'm working background to foreground. It makes it easier to physically lay the pastels in front of the next section as it is in life.

Pastel of Dubrovnik, Croatia

My friend, Bob sent me some photos he took while in Croatia. They were beautiful photos and I wanted to continue my 'cities' series and do a pastel of one of them. So, I took photos along the way as I worked on it. This is step 1 - the pencil sketch.

Robb Telfer

So, I mention in my links my nephew, Dan named third funniest person in Chicago by Time Out Chicago magazine - here's an awesome article they wrote this week about my other nephew Robb. I'm so proud! http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articles/books/25540/robbie-q-telfer You can get the magazine at Borders nearly everywhere in the Chicago area.

By the way, this is a pastel I did of him last summer with Ram horns. He jokingly mentioned wanting a picture of himself with ram horns, not once, but twice, so what was I to do? All I can say is be careful what you ask for.

Argus

My dear, sweet, wonderful dog, Argus went to heaven on Tuesday. I miss him so much and will continue to miss him, but I know he's not suffering and I have to take comfort in that. I love you, Arg.

Nancy's Brooches

I heard from my college roommate, Nancy. She wanted me to make her a brooch similar to one on my website with these colors. I liked working in both the triangle shape and the rectangle so I made both and she can choose. I hope she likes them! Nancy is great - she looks like Mary Tyler Moore with blonde hair and plays and teaches the viola as she did in college.

iPod update

I just thought I would mention that my days of being pathetically iPod impaired are over! I now know how to turn it on, change songs, adjust the volume, charge it and turn it off... and I only had to call my daughter who's in Nashville this week 3 times for help!

It's hard to remember how I lived without it, actually. I have spent many hours in my studio so far this weekend - cleaning, working, and planning for my Monday morning class, etc. But I must say who can sit still while listening to "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls - or - "She's My Man" by the Scissor Sisters!

Happy New Year!

Keep taking care of yourself and all of the animals you encounter this year. Not assuming anyone wouldn't - but remember that they can't speak for themselves so we have to speak for them. HAPPY NEW YEAR and thanks for reading my blog. Oh yeah, go to my website too! www.telfleur.com