A New Class, My Tea Towel Calendar and Some Tiny Paintings (but not in that order)

I want to thank everyone who voted for my Tea Towel Calendar design in the Spoonflower contest. My design was one of the top 25 and is now available for purchase on Spoonflower's sister site Roostery as a Spoonflower Special Edition Tea Towel. If you're more into DIY, you can also purchase it as fabric on Spoonflower. A fat quarter will give you one tea towel.

Even better, right now until November 9th, fat quarters are buy one get one free on Spoonflower!

tea towel calendar, 2017 tea towel calendar, watercolor design, Spoonflower, Kitchen Garden, Anne Butera, My Giant Strawberry

Your support and encouragement mean so much to me. I truly appreciate each and every single vote (and every blog comment and every heart on Instagram and on and on. Thank you!!).

This week I debuted a new class on Skillshare. Want a peek?



Leaves are a great subject for watercolor because they are everywhere, giving you no shortage of inspiration. If you're just starting out with watercolors leaves are a great choice because many have very simple shapes. In this new class I demonstrate painting simple leaves (and leaf clusters) using a variety of watercolor techniques which will help you to build your skills.

I'd love to have you join me in class. You can sign up here and if you're not already subscribed to Skillshare I'm offering you an introductory rate of $0.99 for three months. You'll have access to all four of my classes and thousands of others on many different subjects.

The nasturtiums are still barely hanging on in my garden (in the trailer for my new class you get a glimpse one of those plants -- can you spot one of the flowers peeking out from beneath the leaves?) Any day now I'll wake up and find the plants destroyed by frost. It always makes me a bit sad, the end of my garden for the year. One of my repeat customers shared a beautiful thought with me in a recent email. She wrote:
"The nice thing about your paintings is that it's like having a garden year-round to enjoy, especially when you don't have a garden of your own. While the flowers from this summer may be gone, you capture the memory and spirit of them so well it's like a scrapbook with old friends."
I love that! And it made me want to hang a lot more of my paintings around the house.

One thing I've been pondering for a while is how to make use of some of my tiny paintings. I really wanted to do something with my series of miniature nasturtium paintings, but they are so little, only two inches by four inches.

watercolor paintings, nasturtiums, botanical watercolor, watercolor nasturtiums, Anne Butera, My Giant Strawberry

Mounting them on mat board was one idea I had, but I kept forgetting to look into buying mat board. And then I thought, what if I were to mount them on watercolor paper?

nasturtium paintings, watercolor nasturtiums, botanical watercolor paintings, Anne Butera, My Giant Strawberry

So I did. Those four nasturtium paintings are now available in my Etsy shop as are three of my miniature houseplant portraits.

watercolor, miniature paintings, houseplant portraits, plant paintings, watercolor houseplant paintings, Anne Butera, My Giant Strawberry

The houseplants are a bit bigger than the nasturtiums, measuring two and a half inches by five inches, but all seven paintings are mounted on five by seven pieces of watercolor paper, ready to slip into standard size frames to coordinate with any decor. A few more options for your year-round garden.

With so much time I've been spending lately in front of a computer screen I'm ready for some time away from it, back with my paints.

Wishing you a wonderful, joy-filled weekend!

Comments

  1. The tiny paintings are so cute! I would imagine that it is more difficult to paint in miniature with watercolour paints? Do you use tiny brushes for this Anne? Good luck with your new Skillshare class. I haven't got round to doing the last two classes yet - where does time go? I hope that you have a lovely weekend. :)

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    1. Thank you, Simone. I love using tiny brushes. I use them for tiny paintings, but also for painting details in my larger paintings.

      Time does have a way of evaporating!

      Hope your weekend was lovely, too!

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  2. Best to you Anne, I am so inspired by you.
    I am working on brainstorming a new idea regarding selling my fresh cut flowers. I will have to share some of my ideas with you as I continue to brain storm.
    I love the idea of tea towel calendars. My mom use to always have one hanging in our kitchen while I was growing up.
    xx oo
    Carla

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    1. Thanks so much, Carla. It's lovely to hear that you find inspiration here. :)

      I'm excited about your plans for your fresh cut flower business. I'm so proud of you for going ahead with your dreams this past summer! Wishing you even more joy and success with this in the coming years!!

      xo

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  3. You are doing so well, Anne, teaching, painting, writing, designing and being published! So happy to have witnessed your growth as an artist! You are such a beautiful speaker, also. Sending loving wishes for your continued success. xo

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    1. Thanks so much, Judy. It's been a lot of hard work and considering what this year has been like I'm a bit baffled that all of this has been happening.

      I truly appreciate your friendship and your ongoing support and encouragement! It means so much to me.

      xo

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