My Blog Has Moved!

Hello friends!

I have got lots to share, and the first is that I've MOVED!

After many wonderful years here, Elizabeth Floyd Studio, has a new home. Come over and celebrate with me.

Thank you for visiting me here and being part of my journey as an artist finding her way. It's been a time and place I will always cherish, and it would not have been the same without you.

Hope to see you at my new online home.

Liz

PS. please update your feeds and links, and join me in my new home and tool around my new website.

PPS. and I couldn't be happier with the way my new site turned out! Thanks to Leah and R.T. at Leah Creates for my beautiful new website and blog

Changes are afoot...

Hello,

I am about to begin on a big change... well, not so much me per se, but that of my blog and website.

Elizabeth Floyd Studio is about to launch its new unified self... the blog and website will be an integrated whole.  Both will look different but hopefully feel the same.  Welcoming you to find inspiration and ways to live a creative life.  When you visit the new unified site, I want you to feel at home, welcomed like a friend visiting over a cup of tea.  I want us to get to know each other more, maybe chat more... and share our love of beauty and the everyday moments that make life so special.

I am hoping that you will find it easier to look around, browse, and find what you are seeking, and maybe share... I have so many ideas to expand upon and explore with you that I cannot wait to get started sharing them in their new home.

I feel such a sense of excitement because all the hard work is about to be born and presented to the world to see.  Creating a new website from scratch is a large project, one I have been working on for several months... It has been a team effort and one worth while... up until now it has been completed in the background while everything else was going on... as if it did not exist.  So much was thought out and decided up, colors, fonts, and formatting.  I hope you like it.

Tomorrow is the big day...

Three Yellow Roses {Bountiful Observations no. 48}

Three Yellow Roses

Hello,

Have you ever been inspired about something, and despite other obligations you jumped in and went for it?

This was such a painting. I had a ton of tasks waiting for my attention, but the pull of these three roses just won. And I am so happy they did because now this painting preserves the special quality of light that only shines into my studio when there is snow on the ground.

The light was so bright and vibrant, and these roses were just asking to be recorded before their time was over.

Here is an in progress photo I shared via Instagram {efloydstudio}

{8" x 8" (20.3 x 20.3 cm) – oil on canvas panel}

{14" x 14" (35.6 x 35.6 cm) with frame}

Click to Purchase

Framed painting: $400.00 + S&H

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This is a painting from my Bountiful Observations series, with 25% of the net proceeds of each sale being donated to the American Horticultural Society.

Snow! {Friday Inspiration}

Thursday morning we woke up to a few inches of snow, and I was so excited to finally have the white stuff around. Before breakfasst in our pjs, I bundled up Naomi and we headed outside, she was captivated by by the snow, and she kept trying to grab it, brush it off things, and overall just understand what it was. We headed inside just has her fingers were getting cold and she began to express her distress.

After breakfast, we bundled up again and headed outside. This time we set out with her stroller, so if she got tired and cold I could bury her in blankets. At first, she did not want to go out in the stroller, instead she was all set to walk and make the most of the experience. It was fun watching Naomi explore, going off on her own path, leaving a path of small boot prints in the snow. Eventually, she got tired and her hands got cold, so into the stroller she went with my warmed gloves on her hands.

On the return home, I liked how graphic the road looked with ruts from cars and our stroller.

Here are a few items I also noticed on the walk. I was captivated by the small details and patterns, that are always present, however the snow made them seem more special.

Snowy Vermont Farmland

Snowy Vermont Farmland

Its nearing the end of January and so far, winter has not really arrived in the way of snow. So I have been experimenting with painting snowy landscapes in the studio.

Working from photographs is new for me, as I have always preferred to paint from life. I have found this to be a bit liberating, because when working from a photo I feel like I can alter and interpret the colors more, knowing that photos never "truly" record color accurately. So I shift colors, warm or cool, play with variations within the same value range, and even make stuff up if I want a specific feeling to occur.

I am beginning to love this series because of all the additional design freedom that is involved with each painting.

Here is a detail of the how I warmed up the foreground and cooled and neutralized the background. In life I love the "lace" that bare trees make, and I am going to continue to work on representing this detail in paint.

Have a wonderful day, and I hope you stay warm.

Liz

{How the painting looks matted, ready to pop into an 11” x 14” frame}

Snowy Vermont Farmland

approx 5” x 9” (12.7 x 22.9 cm)– oil on gessoed paper }

Click to purchase

Matted painting: $175.00 starting bid + S&H

Work in Progress: Irises {Bountiful Observations Series}

{an in progress painting and the setup beyond}

This year as I continue working on this series, Bountiful Observations, I still have the goal to post a new painting every Monday, however I have also decided to allow myself time to absorb and slow down if the composition I am working on seems it would benefit from extra time to contemplate and dive deeper into the ideas that are informing the process.

With this painting of irises, I was drawn into the idea of creating a painting that bridged two schools of thought, that of the impressionistic bravado of Sergeant and that of the scientific and deliberate realism of Dutch still life. I am grappling with this idea on this painting, should I develop some areas while leaving other areas more sketched in and untouched and to what level of refinement to I achieve overall.

All of the objects in this painting are specially selected, and play a crucial part in how this painting is being developed. First the palette is based around the complementary colors of purple and yellow. The pewter plate and lemon is in homage to the Dutch artist, Pieter Claesz, the books support in color as well as in the ideas of the different schools of art. The top two books are volumes 1 & 2 of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake’s Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters, and the bottom book is Albert C. Barnes book on The Art of Henri Matisse.

These ideas informed my decisions on what to include in this painting.  However, it is the love of what I see that has kept me captivated on this subject and continues to draw me in, the beautiful nuanced notes of light, how the window is reflected in the glass vase, how light gets refracted onto the wall beyond, how shapes within the painting overlap and interact with each other.  All details that keep my senses activated and energized, and inspires me to keep painting.

On sunny days in January, I am also learning that there is a brilliancy of golden notes in the light that is not present any other time of year. This may be influenced by all the brown notes in the landscape outside, lack of green foliage in the trees, and also a lack of humidity in the air.

I am not sure, but I am discovering it this is a special time of year.

………………………………………….

This painting was completed last year at the same time and was the first time I really began to notice and appreciate the special quality of light on a sunny day in January.

I cannot help but ask after sharing my thoughts on this time of year.  
Is there something you think is particularly special about January?

Five Things to Admire on Gray and Rainy Winter Days {Friday Inspiration}

1. Puddles

Whether it is the pattern rings from raindrops, the mirror-like reflectivity, or the varied reflections from debris, puddles can be beautiful.

2.  Drops of Water on Branches

Water droplets are like little jewels dangling from branches. 

3.  Surface Textures

On damp days, textures seem to stand out more.

4.  Pattern of Tree Branches

5.  How Green Green Appears

I love how bright and brilliant green seems on gray days, this is something I had never noticed before.  

The weather has been particularly gray and somber this week, and I began to wonder what was worth noticing and appreciating.  And after a few days of going out in the cold drizzle I found many details to admire. 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Liz

Snow-scape of Rural Virginia

Rural Virginia – Snow Scene

approx 5” x 9” (12.7 x 22.9 cm)– oil on gessoed paper }

Available for purchase via my online shop

Matted painting: $175.00 + S&H

Have you ever notice how blue the sky is on a sunny winter day when there is snow on the ground? The deep blue of the sky is something I love on sunny winter day.

Over the holidays I watched many facebook feeds of friends who were posting photos of snowy landscapes, and I was jealous. I so wanted to have a snowy holiday season and to see Naomi frolic in the snow in her new snow-bibs we had gotten for her, just in case...

This week I finally accepted that the DC region may not get cold enough for snow this winter, so I dug into some photo archives and painted a snow scene from about three years ago. And I have to say this did satisfy my longing for snow...

{How the painting looks matted, ready to pop into an 11” x 14” frame}

A Tulip {Bountiful Observations no. 47}

Pink Tulip

{8" x 6" (20.3 x 15.2 cm) – oil on canvas panel}

Available for purchase via Online Auction

Framed painting: $300.00 starting bid + S&H

Thank goodness for cut flowers during the winter months! It is during this time that I appreciate them the most.

What are you most thankful for during January?

{14" x 12" (35.6 x 30.5 cm) with frame}

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This is a painting from my Bountiful Observations series, with 25% of the net proceeds of each sale being donated to the American Horticultural Society.

{Friday Inspiration} Winter Wonderlands

Do you have snow where you are?  Here in DC, the weather is unseasonably warm, and I am dreaming of snow, the heady stuff that turns a mundane bit of ground into a wonderland.

When I was younger {when I was in jr. high} after a heavy snowfall, I would often go out on a long solitary walk in the woods behind our house.  I loved how all sounds seemed muffled, how the falling clumps of snow would harrumph to the ground when a breeze would touch the upper stories of the tree branches, and how black the tree trunks and vines would look in contrast to all the white.

I enjoyed how all the ordinary sights were altered, elevating my senses and encouraging me to admire what was all around.

If you are lucky to have snow, venture out in the stuff.  Listen, look, and admire.

Wishing you a happy weekend,

Liz

{This is what I am dreaming of... a heavy snow that blankets everything}