Local Santa

One of my favorites images I’ve painted is a single portrait of a herring gull that appears to be giving a hint of a side eye. I titled it, “Local” because it captures the attitude of most gulls (and local humans) that are looking to enjoy the water, clams and french fries in an unbothered way on the beach.

For a holiday promotion one year, I drew a little santa hat on my local friend and posted it on social media. Followers started asking what product this little guy would be on. I was only using it as a promotional piece and hadn’t created any products with, Local Santa.

I didn’t make that mistake the following holiday season. I made note cards and gift tags. Then I thought how fun it would be to have an ornament!

It was a big hit and it is a nice addition to my own holiday gifts. I’m so glad my followers encouraged me to go down this fun path to Local Santa.

Free Poster for the Great Tap Water Challenge

If your school is doing the Great Tap Water Challenge and would like to use this poster, click to download a printable version of the poster: Great Tap Water Challenge Poster

If you want to share on social media please credit me or find me and tag me. Thanks – Moira

Staying on her Toes

This is my daughter’s ballet bag that I designed for her when she first started ballet.

At the time I didn’t know how long she or the bag would last with ballet. Twelve is a little late to start and the classes only get more intense as you get older.
I’m proud to say that at 15 she’s still dancing, taking classes and performing.
As for the bag it is still in great shape. And the drawings on it of her 12 year old feet in the five positions are a great reminder of where she started.

ART SALE

Buy some art for Holiday gifts or a gift for yourself.
I recommend ordering by December10th.
If you order from my Etsy shop between November 26 and November 29 you will get a FREE Rainbow Bird poster.

As always, you can contact me directly to buy my art or to schedule at studio visit at moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com

For Original Art – https://www.etsy.com/shop/atlanticmo
For Prints and Merchandise – https://society6.com/atlanticmo
For Fabric, Wallpaper, Wrapping Paper – http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/atlanticmoira

Crowe Quill

A few weeks back I was contacted by literary agent, Sara Crowe to do some hand lettering of her name for the relaunch of her website.

With a name like Crowe, how could I resist?

After some initial emails I got an idea of what she was looking for.

My first step was to brainstorm by writing her name over and over again like a middle schooler does her crush.

I used mostly a brush with either ink or black watercolor on bristol board or watercolor paper.

After looking through all of the versions, I narrowed it down to the hand lettered styles that I liked and that would suit a website for a literary agent that specializes in children and young adult literature.

I also wanted to incorporate a crow somehow, of course.

I looked through my existing crow drawings and drew a couple of new ones hoping I could figure out a way to make them fit in. They all distracted from the hand lettering and Sara’s name which I wanted to keep the focus on.

One day I was having lunch in the back yard when I noticed a feather in the grass.

I finished my sandwich and went back in the art studio with a new idea.

Now it was time to put the pieces together in Photoshop and email them to Sara to get her feedback.

I sent her three designs to choose from and this is the one that she and I both liked best.

Sara sent it to her web designer, IceyDesigns who did a great job incorporating it into her beautiful new website. http://www.saracrowe.com/about

This was a fun project to work on.

Let me know if you or any of your friends need custom lettering or any bird related artwork at moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com

or find me on social media

Facebook Moira Birch Swiatkowski

Twitter @atlanticmoira

Snapchat @atlanticmoira

Instagram @atlanticmo

Visions of Sugar Plums

We haven’t seen any real snowflakes at our house yet. But I have been in the holiday spirit because I have been working on pictures inspired by the Nutcracker Ballet.

My mini sketches that I paint every morning have been characters from the famous ballet.

I also have been working on a picture book idea about a little ballerina’s first performance. I am using one of the images from that story for my next promotional postcard. Here is a sneak peak.

If you are not already on my mailing list and you want me to send you a postcard let me know. Tell me your address at moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com .

A couple of picture book authors I know, Debbi Ohi and Josh Funk wrote blog posts about how you can support an author besides buying the book. So I was inspired to make my own list of ways you can support me in case you are not in a position to publish my book or to hire me as an illustrator.

Number One: Buy Some Merch.

I have items for sale that are either handmade or print-on-demand from four online retailers.

My Etsy shop has original watercolors and pen and ink drawings on paper. https://www.etsy.com/shop/atlanticmo?ref=l2-shopheader-name

My Society6 shop has quality prints as well as other merchandise such as fun t-shirts, tote bags, mugs and leggings. https://society6.com/atlanticmo

My Spoonflower shop is for my pattern work which is available as fabric, wallpaper or gift wrap. http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/atlanticmoira

OK, the main reason to go to my CafePress shop is for the Breaching Mermaid Shower Curtain. http://www.cafepress.com/atlanticmo

On demand printing requires a couple of more days to receive since they aren’t sitting ready to go in a warehouse so keep that in mind if you are holiday shopping.

Number Two: Share

If you do buy something, please take a photo and share it on social media or send it to me to share. I love to see that stuff out in the world.

I also appreciate it when you share links to my shops, website, blog posts and pictures.

Pinning something to Pinterest from my website or shops is also greatly appreciated.

Number Three: A Kind Word …or Heart or Thumbs Up

I do truly appreciate all of your encouragement whether it is in private or on social media. I mostly talk to myself up here in the art studio and those little bits of encouragement from my friends goes a long way.

Now I will pirouette my way back to the drawing board.

Moira

Falling Forward

Last week I took the boogie boards, beach chairs and umbrella out of my car and put them in the garage for winter storage. I even vacuumed the half ton of sand that we progressively brought home from the beach this summer.

Summer is over, for real.

Thankfully, Fall is so dang beautiful here in New England that it distracts us from what we know to be true, Winter is coming.

I had some other good distractions this month.

I had a show of the Mini Sketches at the Dennis Public Library. The show had a good response and even some sales. The show is currently down now but you can check out the Mini Sketches for sale from the show here https://www.etsy.com/shop/atlanticmo?ref=hdr_shop_menu

The other fun thing I did in October was Inktober. I drew 31 ink drawing for all the days of the month. This year I did a sequential story based on a real story I heard about some birds that helped each other out. I made a video so you can see the story unfold. It’s on my YouTube channel here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTF-dscagu8 .

I’ve started a new series of morning sketches. I am randomly choosing different characters from the Nutcracker ballet. I am working on a story about a little ballerina and this will help me work out some ideas and keep my mind on ballet.

If you want to follow along check out my Instagram here, https://instagram.com/atlanticmo/

As per request I have added some dogs to my Society6 shop and I will be adding more as we get closer to the holidays. They have leggings now which I think I might just need a pair. Check those out here, https://society6.com/atlanticmo/prints?show=new

For the next couple of weeks I’ll be working on some stories and portfolio pieces. I will have another postcard going out after Thanksgiving. Email me if you want to be on the mailing list.

moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com

It should be a pretty busy month which hopefully will end with me eating some pumpkin pie.

Watercolor Memories

I was excited to sell this little painting (3″x4″) at the reception for my “Quick Mini Morning Sketches” show.

As much as I was happy to get the money. And I was delighted that I successfully managed to charge the buyer’s credit card by using my phone (for the first time). These weren’t the things that gave me the most joy about the sale.

mini All of the paintings from this series are done on a small scale without a lot of contemplation (as explained here https://moiraswiatkowski.com/2015/06/16/coffee-and-watercolors/). The idea for this one quickly came to my mind. I had recently heard a friend talking about their kids camping in the back yard which made me think of my own memory of pitching a tent in the backyard with my sister. Those fresh thoughts were right there for me to grab and put on paper.

The man who bought the painting saw the picture at the reception and it reminded him of his own childhood and an experience with his sister.

His sister is a friend of mine and that’s how he happened to be at the reception with her. While he was holding the painting in his hand he shared the story of how he and his brother would play army and make the sister be the red cross nurse. This role mostly involved sitting in the tent waiting while the brothers ran off and played.

I could see as he was telling the story that he was putting himself right back there and that’s what really made me the most happy. This little painting that was created out of a few sparks from my own mind could act as a little window into the mind of someone else.

To see more paintings for sale from the “Quick Mini Morning Sketches” series follow the link to my Etsy page https://www.etsy.com/shop/atlanticmo

Just Checking In

In between swimming and ice cream eating this summer, I was able to sneak off to the art studio just about every day. Here is an update of what I’ve been up to up there.

I finished a new promotional postcard and sent it out. If you didn’t get one and you want one email me your postal address at moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com and I’ll send it right out. Dog Postcard

I also finished some portfolio pieces from the Peter and the Wolf Story.

The one thing I was able to do almost every day was my “Quick, Mini, Morning Sketch“.

It is a good thing they are small since they are really stacking up in the art studio. I am still doing a daily sketch almost every day. The best way to follow that is on Instagram.

In an effort to get some of those little paintings out of the studio I am going to have a show of some of them at the Dennis Public Library for the month of October. All of the framed originals will be for sale.

There will be an opening for the show on October 15th at 4:00pm at Dennis Public Library. I hope you can make it.

I have updated my Etsy shop with some of the Mini Sketches, framed and not framed for sale. Buy one, give it a decent home.

Check them out https://www.etsy.com/shop/atlanticmo?ref=hdr_shop_menu

I was trying to figure out a way to print some of the Mini Sketches when I remembered that Moo lets you make cards with up to 50 different images. So, I uploaded 50 of the Mini Sketches and ordered their square business cards.

Now they are even more mini. I have enough to give away at the opening and to mail out to anyone who wants one. Email me your postal address if you would like one. moiraswiatkowski@gmail.com

Specify if you want a particular one and I’ll see if I have it otherwise I will take the next card from the deck.

In other news; Did you know I had a YouTube channel? Well, I do. https://www.youtube.com/user/atlanticmo/videos

Thats about it for now. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you at the opening of the show.

See you in Inktober,

Moira

Breakfast Special

We’ve got a lot of breakfast joints around here. There are more breakfast places than ice cream parlors here on sunny Cape Cod. Most places have lines out the door in the summer and a decent crowd of regulars in the off season.

I love to go out to breakfast.

I usually get one of those big meals with a name like, “Farmer’s Special”. Eggs, bacon, homefries, toast and coffee. Yes, please. I’ll have some coffee.

I got this love of breakfast from my dad.

When we were kids, Dad worked a lot of hours as a repairman for for the phone company. On weekdays, Joe would pick him up in the New England Telephone van before we left for school in the morning. We’d see Dad again at dinner and shortly thereafter say we’d say “goodnight”.
Saturdays were for running errands, doing yard work or repairs to the house, as well as keeping an eye on a good percentage of us five kids.

Sundays were a different story. If you got up and went with Dad to the early Mass at St. Mary’s there was breakfast in the deal.

I’m no early riser. There are few things I cherish more than sleeping in. Breakfast with my dad is one of them.

From my Sunday morning slumber, I would hear Dad getting ready to go. In a semi-conscious state I would get myself dressed and in the kitchen just in time to go with Dad. “Ready?”, he’d say and we’d be out the door.

There wasn’t a lot of conversation. I would still be waking up on the short ride to church. Other than, “Peace be with you” we didn’t talk during Mass. At the diner, Dad would say, “Hello” to a few folks. He’d say a few words about the headlines or the Red Sox to the guys sitting at the counter seats. Those guys would wave to me as he reminded them which kid I was.

The meal itself was usually pretty quiet. When we were done, Dad would say, “All set?” and we’d head back home.

These days I see Sunday morning from the mom’s perspective. My husband takes the kids out to breakfast and I stay in bed on the one day that I can. I don’t do this purely for the love of my comforter and down pillow.

I’m staying out of the way of breakfast with Dad.

* I originally i posted this on my old blog in 2011.