Tag Archives: art

And…a New Artist Crush

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My stalking of Jackie VonTobel’s blog for yesterday’s Style Key West post led me to a new favorite artist: Gabriela Ibara.

This Atlanta, GA artist’s multi-media works are fairly diverse, including the use of collage, acrylic, oil, and pastels, as well as printmaking and drawing. The still life paintings are impressionistic in style, but with a contemporary interpretation. And the colors are an interesting study in soft and muted with bold and bright.

Here are a few that caught my eye:











You know – just one or two… I’m enchanted.

Liza’s Things

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My favorite French painter, Liza Hirst has been featuring a series called “My Things” on her blog, Liza Move On.

Here are some of my favorites:






(and the silver earrings are still available in the shop)

What a fun concept. If I was a talented artist, I could spend years painting all of my pretty things. Alas – I don’t paint. So I’ll just enjoy Liza’s work as a Plan B.

Fashion Art in Decorating

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Several months ago I read a great guest post from Anh-Minh on sfgirlbybay. It included some lovely images of fashion sketches as art.

In her work for an article on secondhand shopping, she discovered some original 1970s fashion sketches. Once framed, these inexpensive pieces created a very unique and charming display:


She then found images of other fashion sketch displays that I love:




I’ve got soooo many “pretty things” that I’d like to display and I would add fashion sketches in an instant.

One of these days, I’ll have a little room for myself (an office perhaps) and one wall will be dedicated to the treasures I’ve collected over the years. The ones deemed too girly for shared space with my husband, that is (which is pretty much all space – though in his defense I’ve gotten away with a lot of girly stuff!)

So I’m now on the lookout for some fashion art to add to my stash…

Valentines Day Gift Buying Guide

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A gift buying guide for ME that is…

I think I’ll devote the next couple of days to gift ideas for everyone’s favorite Hallmark holiday.

Here are a few items that you might want to consider (okay – for YOU if you insist – but be aware that I have ME in mind):

The lover of pretty things in me wants to display these on a shelf…


…while the book nerd in me wants to run my fingers across the spines and wish I knew how to read French.

*I was originally going to feature a gorgeous cinnabar bracelet from FrenchBlue, but by the time I came back to grab the image, it was GONE. Quel dommage… Instead I selected these books which I just noticed are also now sold. Mon Dieu, one must act fast when shopping at FrenchBlue!

Moving on… I’m in desperate need of a gold cuff bracelet.

This one will do.

And would love another Liza Hirst to hang on my wall…

I’ll take a painting of flowers (and an abstract one at that!) over dozens of roses any day.

That’s enough for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more gift suggestions (for me).

One New Addition (Almost One Week Late)

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Last Wednesday, I promised that “tomorrow” I’d be posting a picture of my brother Matthew’s Christmas present to us. Tomorrow – as in last Thursday.

Sorry about that! But the additional time works out for the best since I got inspired to take some pictures of all of his paintings that we own (don’t worry – it’s not THAT many).

First, our new piece:



It’s the second panel in a series titled “Amiable Virgin Cycle”. To see all three, you can visit his website HERE.

I love that we’ve collected his work over the years, because you can see a definite progression of style and mediums.

The very first painting of his that I acquired was probably a high school art project.


He deigned to let me have it (as in “that old thing?“) over ten years ago. But I loved it and still do. It’s in my dining room.

Then there are these two – both presents for different occasions:



The first is larger and was originally framed in the smaller painting’s frame. I never liked that skimpy matting, but I did love the frame. When I decided to frame the smaller painting later on, I realized that I could just switch them. And it worked out perfectly.

This is one that Chris “commissioned” for my birthday close to ten years ago.


It’s fairly unique among his other paintings from that time (or any time really). I don’t think I’ve seen any others with similar colors. I love looking at it every time I walk up the stairs (I placed it at the landing).

Finally, these two smaller watercolors are a couple of my most treasured possessions. They’re like little jewels and I never tire of looking at them.



I especially love the moon (or sun? sorry – can’t remember…) in that second one. Matt let me choose from several and when I made my selection, he said he knew I’d want that one. Apparently, I’m very predictable.

And predictably enough, I’m a proud big sister. God – my brother’s talented. His work is full of light and texture that isn’t well captured by my terrible photography. His website has far better quality photos.

In the market for some art? Matt and his girlfriend would like to attend a wedding in Greece this summer…and those plane tickets don’t come cheap!

Two New Additions

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This Christmas, we had a couple of exciting new additions to our dining room.

The first was a present from my mom. This pretty little chandelier:




She really hated the admittedly ugly lighting fixture that was up when we purchased the house three years ago (sorry – no before pics – never occurred to me to capture its hideousness on film). I never cared for it myself, but when pregnant with twins, moving house and chasing after a 17 month old, one can only focus on so many home improvement projects…

The other gift was from me: a charming oil painting from Lisa Hirst, whom I’ve featured here before.



She’s beeen a favorite of mine for months and it makes me so happy to have one of her pieces in my home.

We actually got another painting from my brother, but I’m going to do a separate post on that tomorrow. So check back then!