20% savings on limited edition prints

Just a quick announcement that we're having a print sale! From now until Mother's Day (May 11th) we are offering a 20% savings on all limited edition giclée prints. These signed and numbered reproductions offered on both canvas and paper. They have meticulously color matched against the originals and the quality is amazing. Click here to shop and save. * Note: I had a glitch in the shopping cart system but have corrected this. Everything *should* be working fine now. If you notice any difficulties, feel free to contact me.

Miniature landscape painting of the Tuscany sunset

This painting sold last night at my gallery exhibition preview, but it's still on view tonight for the First Fridays downtown art walk. It is a companion to another Tuscany painting I blogged about a couple of days ago:

"Lingering Light, Tuscany II" Oil on linen, about 3.5" x 7.75"

If you're doing the downtown art walk tonight in Richmond, come by Jennifer Young Studio & Gallery and see all of the "Small Stuff" -- miniature paintings and prints --on display for the holiday season. The gallery is located at 16 East Main Street between 1st and Foushee.

If you're not in Richmond, I am continually uploading new paintings to my web gallery, or you can see them offered first here, on the blog. I'm also offering free shipping (with some restrictions) until the end of the year, for holiday shopping convenience.

Useful links:

Ideas for hanging "small stuff" How I pack paintings for shipping My purchasing FAQ's My gallery information (and virtual tour)

Fun new mini prints and free shipping!

If you subscribe to my email newsletter, you may already know about the charming new mini prints I'm offering. But if you're exclusively a blog reader, you may or may not have noticed that they're also newly linked here on the blog (scroll down to the end of my sidebar on the right side of the screen.)

These new prints are made on acid free fine art paper with archival inks, and sizes range from very mini 2.5" x 3.5" (such as the one pictured, matted to 5x7") on up to 8" x 10". All are signed and make great holiday gifts. I'm offering these prints via my new Etsy shop for online shopping convenience.

As an added bonus, right now shipping is free one-way in the Continental U.S. for all purchases of $30 USD and over. Customers outside of the continental U.S.A.: You will receive a shipping credit (based on my listed shipping charges) towards your actual shipping costs! (Contact me for a custom shipping quote prior to placing your order.)

By the way, I'm offering the same shipping promotion for any paintings and limited edition prints purchased via my website as well. Click here or just contact me for more information.

A Provence Watercolor Vignette and a Newsflash

 

It has been a busy week tending to other things, so not much blogging. Above is a little watercolor vignette of one of my favorite subjects--the Provincial countryside! I may go back and add a little detail to the lavender rows...not sure. This is a small piece, a 4x6" image on 5x7" paper, so I kind of like the simplicity and freshess right now.

I've decided to change the "Art Sketches" category of my website to "Vignettes". The above image details and the change to the site are not yet live, but that's part of what I am working on this week. I think Vignettes is more appropriate and encompases both watercolors and other media in small format. I will be doing a lot more of these in the coming weeks as I prepare for my next opening in early December, entitled "Small Stuff".

Speaking of small stuff, here's the other thing I've been working on: I'll be releasing a series of mini-prints soon. These are archival prints of a selection of images in mini format, sizes ranging from 2.5" x 3.5", to 8 x 10". They'll be offered matted with acid-free materials, and they are soooo cute! I've been color correcting and proofing all week, sometimes tearing my hair out, but I expect to launch this line by the beginning of next week. Let's hope I'm not completely bald by then!

Do you Squidoo? My new lens on hanging artwork.

According to Wikipedia,

"Squidoo is a network of user-generated lenses --single pages that highlights one person's point of view, recommendations, or expertise."

According to me, it's pretty addictive! I've really been enjoying surfing it, and I've also created a couple of lenses of my own. My most recent lens is: Hanging Artwork and Caring for Your Art Collection. While I've blogged some of this information before, I've included new content on my lens that I hope will be of interest to art lovers and art collectors. I've also just updated my other lens on landscape painting with new content, so check them out! And if you enjoy my lenses, please consider leaving a star rating for them at the top of the screen.

Art for the bathroom

I have written about some of the pitfalls with hanging art on canvas in the bathroom before, but that doesn't mean you can't hang other forms of artwork. Here is my response to a recent email inquiry, which I hope will offer some additional clarification: Q: Could you please advise me what sort of artwork could I hang in my bathroom?  I would like to hang a painting or one of those photographs printed (screen-printed?) on canvas-type material (I am not too sure of the material).  Please advise.  Best regards, S.L.

A: Hi S.L.- Art for the bathroom has some challenges but it is certainly not an impossible dream. If the bathroom has a tub or shower I would stay away from hanging art on canvas or wood panel. Over time, the moisture from the bath or shower steam could cause the canvas stretchers or wood panels to expand and contract, warping the support.

I think artwork on paper, such as my giclee prints, is better suited for bathroom. Your best bet is to have the art framed professionally with mat, glass, and backing paper to seal the art in the framing. That will help to prevent moisture from getting in under the glass.

On the other hand, if you are talking about a half bath without tub or shower, I would think you could feel reasonably secure hanging most any type of art. You may also wish to ask the opinions of a professional picture framer or art conservator in your local area. I am not an art conservator, but offer my opinion based on my own experience with the materials. I hope this helps!

New giclee print offerings

Here are two paintings I completed recently that I am having reproduced as limited edition giclee prints:

"Off The Beaten Path II"

"Along the Route to Dieulefit"

 

My giclee prints are offered in limited editions in a selection of sizes from small to quite large. They are perfect for home decor as well as corporate art, art for hospitals and art for hotels. I expect the prints to be released in January 2007. Please contact me if you would like to be notified when they become available, or if you would like any additional information about the prints. To see my current print offerings, please visit this link.  For more information about the original oils shown here, please click on the images above.

Large format prints

This morning I am off to the printer's to do my final round of proofing for my new series of large format giclee prints. I am excited to be launching this new print series. The proofing has been a rather involved process. Apparently according to the printer I use an extraordinary range of greens in my paintings that are difficult to replicate. I will take this as a compliment, especially since I just recently posted about the difficulty of mixing greens ;-). In any event, my last round of proofs were looking really great. Just a tweak here and there one last time and I expect to sign off on them today. So hopefully I will have some new offerings sooner than I thought! I'm offering a pre-order special of 10% off the regular print price on my website for anyone who would like to purchase one of these prints prior to the official release on 11/1. The release date will allow me some extra time to get the canvas prints stretched and secure packaging for the paper ones.

I hope to post some more artwork to my blog soon. In the midst of running back and forth for the print proofing, I am working on a large commission of three 30x40" paintings. I'm 2/3 of the way there though, so that should open the way for more image posting here.

Tags: art prints landscape prints artist French landscapes Tuscany landscapes

New art greeting cards now available

I am pleased to announce that I now have a new line of greeting cards available for purchase online. These cards are offered in packages of 6, with white envelopes included. They are printed in full color on heavy stock and have a blank inside, so they are perfect for including your own personal message. The cards are produced by a company called Cafe Press. I have ordered some samples for myself and was very impressed with the printing quality. Right now I have a small selection of images available, but I plan to offer more in the future. Please visit the greeting cards page on my website for more information.

Tags: art painting landscape painting note cards artist greeting cards

New art note cards in development

I have been looking for a way to offer a new line of note cards to sell on my website. Up to now I have been offering ones that are hand assembled with images on Arches deckled edge paper. They are really nice looking, but not the most practical in terms of the time and cost required to produce them. I believe I have found an alternative that will enable me to offer some new images at a reduced cost to the customer. I've just ordered some "test cards" to get an idea of the product quality, and they look mighty good! Now I just have to go about picking out some more images that I think might appeal. I should be offering these new cards very soon on my website.

-Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes www.jenniferyoung.com Contact

Travel Plans

Travel is one of the most joyful parts of my life as an artist. I love traveling to new and beautiful places to paint and gather inspiration, and I feel so fortunate that my business is able to support my adventures. This February we will be taking a much welcomed trip down to sunny Key West. We were supposed to go last Spring, but bad weather caused us to cancel those plans. Here's a scene I painted from photos I took on our last trip to Key West. It's called "Sunset Celebration". It measures 11x14", oil on canvas. For more details about the painting, check out my scenes of the American South section on my website:

I've also started planning for a June trip to Lake Como, Italy! I think the scenic views of the lake regions in Northern Italy are some of the most striking and beautiful in the country. The uniqueness of Lake Como is that it is distinctively Mediterranean, with lush flora, palm trees and cypresses, but set against a stunning backdrop of the Alpine mountains. I am so excited to be returning to this area, since the last time I went was many years ago and my camera broke on day two!

I will be painting on location both in Key West and in Como. I am primarily an oil painter but I'm considering bringing watercolors instead, since they allow for easier cleanup and are more portable. Plus, with the new airline regulations I have heard many instances where other artists have had their oil paints confiscated by the airlines. That's quite a setback to experience, considering the painter has to buy a whole new set of expensive paints at the destination site. Supposedly you can bring a letter from the paint manufacturer insisting that the oil paints are made with vegetable oils and do not contain but a trace of ingredients that would be considered "flammable".

But in past trips since 9/11 I have not wanted to take the chance. If I wanted to paint in oils overseas I ended up just shopping for small tubes of paint in the destination country. This can actually be a really fun experience, because there are so many fine products in the art stores of France and Italy. But it does take a bit of extra planning and time if one is going to be staying primarily out in the country.