New in the shop today: Card sets!

Coming soon to the Etsy shop: card sets! New in the shop: 8" x 10" prints!

New in the shop.

The spectacularly beautiful illustrations of Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853 - 1919).
My favorite collection of his illustrations is never far from my drawing table.

OPEN!!!!Yup, the shop is finally open.
It's a soft opening, so I only have a very few print options up for sale at the moment, but more will arrive on a daily-ish basis.
So stay tuned to TheVoyagers on Etsy, and my illustration blog Les Voyageuses, for updates, new work, and more options to come!

Sooooooooooo close...

Because I have done both gallery work and illustration over the years, I end up with various different styles of work in my stacks. Here are a few random odds and ends I found recently:
A detail from a book illustration.
A gallery piece from a series I did in Italy.
A "mock portrait" I did just for fun of a friend of mine as a "Renaissance maiden".

I took this photo of a friend's boys playing in our playhouse last summer. I have kept it in a folder every since because it always sparks my imagination. You can just see them making up dreams and adventures in their minds.

Talk about inspiration! Go see caramelcaramelo blog for some incredible images from the Arts de l'Islam show at L'Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. These horses (and the gorgeous calligraphy) are really inspiring me today. Thanks, Kenza!

Children playing ball, Le Marais, Paris.
It's funny to think that, when I took this picture, the seed of the idea of adopting a child of our own was just beginning to plant itself in our minds. I was not yet illustrating children, but I was already photographing them!

It's exciting, really...things have been picking up speed as we roll toward the opening of my shop. Yesterday, I viewed the proofs for my limited-edition prints. I had to wait an extra few days for them, since watercolor is hard to duplicate accurately in a print. But the print shop I use is the best in town for artwork, and in the end they did a masterful job. I was terribly impressed. The prints are gorgeous. The Hahnemuhle watercolor paper is velvety and rich, and gives the images the quality of heavy cream.
With the proofs approved and the printing begun, the image captures ready, and the shipping materials on the way, I am thrillingly close to being able to open my virtual doors!

A couple of days ago, this hand-carved rubber stamp arrived - just one of the little details for the packaging.
Isn't it lovely? I love homespun craftsmanship and one-of-a-kind things - so much better than the mass-produced! This one was made to my request by Etsy seller brownpigeon, and I just love it.

A vintage circus poster...
Painting by Kailish Raj...
Indian elephants and...
...the exquisite photography of Nick Brandt.

I am often inspired by fashion photography. Though I am not a huge fan of sartorial trends, I am a fan of those stylists and photographers who make fashion, at its best, the grand illusion that it is.
Fairy tales are told in fashion photography all the time. It is, of course, a whole team who creates these images...but what an art!
I wish I knew who took these two stunning photos of Devon Aoki, but they were not attributed when I found them. If anyone knows, please let me know so I can add the proper attribution.

What a difference a scan makes! I recently took the bulk of my larger pieces to the art printer to have "image captures" made...the first step to the limited edition giclée prints I will have made on fine cotton Hahnemuhle watercolor papers. What a delight it is to see these larger pieces scanned in perfect detail! Such an improvement over the photographs I've been using up until now.

Shoes and ships and sealing wax....the alchemy of the shop has begun! I'm busy ordering rubber stamps and jute, staining tags and measuring paper, poring over proofs and contemplating fonts.

Here are two of my mock-ups for business postcards...what do you think?

Exciting!

Who needs fairytales?