Choosing the Right Direction

One path leads to personal freedom, and a good, healthy, honest space within which to experience life while the other leads to tyranny and decay.   Which would you choose?

It's Not Complicated

 Things might look confusing, but it's not complicated to tell reality from fiction.

Something New, Something Blue, Something Quilted Too

 

Latest obsession - making quilted 16x16 throw pillow cases.  Above are three pillow backs and a front facing, flower garden inspired, applique, quilted, abstract on pink satin.  The backs shown are gift pillows - face designs are still top secret.  The blue back of the left pillow sports my own fabric design.  More original fabric designs can be found at Lucy Autrey Wilson Art Fabric, Wallpaper and Home Decor | Spoonflower.  Working on some other custom quilted pillow cases.  Stay tuned, or let me know if you want a custom quilt pillow case!

Having Fun with Adobe Illustrator AI

 I was playing around with Adobe Illustrator, when I discovered the ability to create new vector art based on a sample style I could define.  So I asked the program to create a scary shark based on an old watercolor painting I did called "At the Beach."  The result is above.  It could be a great logo for a line of surfer apparel.  

In The Garden from watercolor to digital painting

 Years ago, I painted a little mini series of watercolor paintings, each about a place, and each 10 x 7 on Arches paper.  I then blew some of them up and printed them larger.  I liked this one, so I did an illustrator version continuing the "In The Garden" theme.  I thought I could turn it into some loud fabric design, but now realize I'll have to work a bit more to have the pattern repeat successfully.  

Wearing clothes covered in Corona Virus designed fabric?

 Happy to find an unknown guest has purchased my Corona Virus fabric design from Spoonflower Lucy Autrey Wilson Art Fabric, Wallpaper and Home Decor | Spoonflower.  Maybe I should design more virus and bacteria designs!  They are certainly interesting.

Crows flying away from their Winter Nest

A short animated still photo of a winter's crows nest with a murder of flying crows shot separately

After Image I Color Theory short animation

Youtube short video created by combining an old watercolor painting, Boris FX Optics software, and some original music to illustrate an example of afterimage color theory.

Baby Isabelle Jackson's New Quilt

At the end of 2023, a new baby girl was welcomed to the extended family:  Baby Isabelle Jackson, daughter of my niece Rachel and her husband Court.  Happily, this gave me an excuse to create an original crib quilt measuring 49" wide by 53" high.  Some history:  In 2015, I went to India with two friends on a quest to discover fabric artists in the state of Gujarat.  Along the way we discovered the Rann of Kutch's wildlife santuary and stayed briefly at the Rann Riders Resort.  On a mini safari we saw many exotic (to me) birds including Painted Storks, a Snake Eagle, black-headed Ibis, Egrets and Greater Flamingos among others. I drew many of the birds once we got back from our trip, and created the bird fabric printed on the quilt back above.  Unfortunately I had only taken a little Canon Powershot G15 camera, which was not good enough for great bird photos. The beauty of applique is that I could use my photos as reference to create the stork image on the quilt front.  This was done by making an Adobe Illustrator image, which was then used as a template for the final fabric applique design.  Many of the quilt fabrics were purchased from Britex in San Francisco with a mix of soft whites, pastel pinks, cotton satins and more. The basic design was created with Electric Quilt's EQ8 software, then modified by accident, or intent, as the quilt was being built.   The memory of the trip, bird motif, and the quality of the different fabrics made working on the quilt another level of pleasure.

2023 Quilted Apparel Round-Up

 

A Day at Bondi Beach - video

Spent some quality time at Bondi Beach in Australia in October and spent the day taking photographs.  This one added a soundtrack of me playing Satie (not very well) with the addition of various other sound effects to tie in with the action onscreen.  I've done another one uploaded to Vimeo (vimeo.com/user1980254/)

which has a different soundtrack.  Let me know which you prefer.

Science Cowboy Digital Art

 

Daughter Amber Taylor wanted a digital painting of her Grandfather E.A. Autrey as a cowboy.  It was true he lived many years in Texas and owned and wore a Stetson but that was as close to a cowboy as he ever got.  He was a chemist, photographer, artist, rocket scientist and unique individual.  The top image is the final work.  It includes a photo of his face with mustache after the end of WWII when he got out of the army.  The body is from a photo of E.A. with friends after climbing Mt. Whitney.  The cowboy hat is from another Texas relative.  After the war, on the GI bill, E.A. got a law degree but when he moved the family to California he practiced chemistry professionally.  I've included a camera icon, various science icons and a few elements (Hydrogen, Oxygen and Californium) along with some drawings of violets.  I had so much fun cobbling the cowboy together I created a few other backgrounds including a fill pattern of a self portrait done by E.A. as an older man; an AI Generative fill pattern of black and white cows in a field (I wonder whose art got ripped off?) and a pattern I created as my latest fabric design.  More fabric designs are at Lucy Autrey Wilson Art Fabric, Wallpaper and Home Decor | Spoonflower

Photographing the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns and Port Douglas, Queen...

A great vacation with friends and family in Australia (despite the 15 hour flight to get there).  Highlights include two snorkel trips about 90 minutes out on boat to the Great Barrier Reef, one from Cairns and another from Port Douglas in Queensland.  

How I Discovered the World of Fabric Design

 

        I first discovered art quilts on a trip to the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio in 2013 for the Annual National Quilt exhibit that year.  Much impressed by this new (to me) art form, I started quilting.  At first, I was interested in building my fabric stash with fabric designers I was discovering, including some favorites such as Luella Doss and many of the Westminster Fabrics artists (Amy Butler, Martha Negley, Dan Bennett, Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably).  Some fabric designs I like are on Pinterest. (link)  I wanted to make my quilts more personal, however, so I started adding original pieces printed 8 ½ x 11 on cotton and silk fabrics with an Epson inkjet printer.  This was soon too limiting, so I learned to upload digital image files to Spoonflower.com (link) which enabled me to print my own designs on as much fabric as needed.  Now I could generate enough fabric to sew my own designs into custom T shirts, and quilted jackets,  as well as print more yardage for quilt backs. My first forays into T shirt design used a drawing done in art class of noses, mouths, eyes and ears, and some pen, and ink drawings I had done over the years of a variety of reptiles. 

Updating My Website to Showcase More Art - Check it Out!

 

I've added a new collection to my website.  Now you can find Collection #1 (All About Birds) and a new Collection #2 (Flowers in Art) by clicking on the small image on the GalleryLAW page.  Each collection features 12 images which are a combination of paintings (oil, watercolor, pen & ink), printmaking, photography, fabric creations, etc.  Link: Lucy Autrey Wilson Art | Exploring My Creative Impulses

Family Fun July 2023

Can't Help Falling in Love soundtrack (played by sister Susan on Cello with Cubase midi additions by me) is the perfect expression for how I feel about family.  With daughter Amber Taylor and family visiting from their current home in New Zealand, a delightful reunion with the entire Bay Area family occurred!

Cartoon Stories: A Circus Story in 10 Acts: Act V The Strongbug

Forgot to post this video so it is out of order!  Links to YouTube video, and is part 4 of a 10 part series of short videos.

Cartoon Stories: A Circus Story in 10 Acts: Act VI Bird Ballet

This video includes bits from 3 ballets:  The Firebird, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and brings back great memories from my childhood when I was lucky enough to take classes from a Russian Prima Ballerina named Madame Maria Kedrina in the 1950s in Santa Barbara and to dance (only in the Chorus) in a number of ballets she put on at the Lobero Theater.  More on Madame Kedrina can be found in this Issuu piece done by the Santa Barbara historical society:  https://issuu.com/santabarbaramuseum/docs/noticias_30_3_fall_1984 

Circus Story Act IV: The Magician

Part IV now live!

Cartoon Stories: A Circus Story in 10 Acts: Act III TheJuggler

Act III!

Cartoon Stories Act II: The Talking Heads

Act II of a planned 10 act series of short circus animations featuring characters from a 2022 oil painting.  

Cartoon Stories Act 1

Part 1 of a planned 10 part series of cartoon circus stories featuring original characters created in an oil painting by me, and an original soundtrack featuring cello music played by my sister Susan.

Some new music now up on my website

Check out the 4 track sample, from the CD Fiddle Tunes and Waltzes, now available on my website.  Go to Lucy Autrey Wilson Art | Exploring My Creative Impulses and click on the new Music link at the top of the page.  

Devil's Dream - new video

My sister Susan and I had fun collaborating on a number of fiddle tunes.  Susan recorded them on her cello, and I added various digital tracks.  This one called out for a video that featured dreamlike imagery with a bit of humor.

Flower Garden - new little video with original soundtrack

My sister Susan recorded some little jigs with her cello.  I wanted to use some of the music, so I put together a little video of recent flower photos with older insect drawings and computer-generated fractals to go with the music.  I added a few Cubase loops as well.

Website has been Updated. Check it out!

https://lucyautreywilsonart.com/..  The new website has been updated!  Any and all comments welcome.  

East Bay Hills - latest video!

Hiking in the east bay from 2016 to March 2023.  Such a beautiful place!

I'm Moving

 Not physically, I'm moving my website from wix.com to a GoDaddy site.  Same name:  lucyautreyart.com.  More flexibility.  New site should be active by the end of this month.  Stay tuned.

Alternate Reality in Mendocino, California

I recently took a week-long trip to visit friends and shoot photos in and around Mendocino.  I was trying to relearn how to shoot video with my Nikon camera.  Even with a tripod, the footage is shaky.  Once home, I combined the Nikon footage with Google Pixel cell phone footage and added other elements using Adobe Premiere Pro.  Then I added a soundtrack with some of my late mother's recorded music, syncing it up to the footage in Cubase 11.  It's frustrating.  A million files are opened and saved all over the computer taking hours to figure out what has gone where and why.  And all I ended up with is this short tidbit.  But, I kind of like it!

Fog Dance

A Mood Video with simulated fog and waves 

Art Access - new Video

Trying for a new way to showcase some of my latest oil painting.

Season of the Witch short video

Short little Witch video for Halloween using local Halloween decorations shot in and around Marin County, California

September Oil Paintings Progress Report

 Top to Bottom

1.  "Gulls at the Barn Door," 24x18x 1 1/4 oil on hand stretched Belgian Linen 66J

2.  "Bird Lovers," 28x22x 1 1/4 oil on hand stretched Belgian Linen 66J 

3.  "Daffodils and Gazania with Hidden Bird," 10x8x 3/4 on Linen

4.  "Skywalker Ranch Hills," 7x5x 3/4," oil on linen

Hot Days at the Beach in Marin County

During prior heat waves it made sense to escape the temperature by driving to the beach.  A search of my beach photos led me to hot days at the beach in 2017 and 2021.  But the 6 days in September, where the temperature exceeded 100 degrees for 6 consecutive days, was too much.  The only way to survive without air conditioning was to just lay around the house with the fan on.

When Painting Ideas Go Astray!

I was mocking up a few photo composites as reference for some new oil paintings I was planning, using old family photos.  Having learned the hard way that some people are sensitive about memories associated with certain images, I thought to ask permission.  Permission was denied!  One alternative suggested, by my entomology specialized sister, was to replace human heads with insect heads, as I had been doing with bird heads.   I tried a few versions, but they all looked quite unattractive.  The best was this photo composite with a few pen & ink insects drawings covering the faces.  I kind of like it for what it is, but it will not be the basis for any future oil paintings.  

Blue Tanager in the Candelabra

 Oil on Linen 8x10.  Latest edition to my bird/flower series.  The Candelabra flower is from a photo shot at the UC Berkeley Botanic Gardens.

Capped Parrot in Mendocino Now Finished

 I added grass and touched up the parrot's red cape.  Oil on Belgian Linen 22 x 28 now done.

August Oil Painting Progress Report: 3 Finished 2 Nearly Done and 1 Just Begun

 Finished Works:

1.  One Flew Over the Puffin Tryst:  Oil on Belgian Linen 18x18x1 1/4

2.  The Courtship:  Oil on canvas 20x24x1 1/2

6.  Sunflowers & Hibiscus:  Oil on canvas 8x10x 1 1/2

Nearly Done:

3.  Capped Parrot in Mendocino:  Oil on Belgian Linen 22x28x 1/1/4

4.  A Lot Going On (Cartoon style):  Oil on Linen 12x16x 5/8

In Process:  

5.  Bird Lovers:  Oil on Belgian Linen 22x28x 1 1/4

Dog Adventures in the Garden - a mini video adventure

A little dog adventure

More Birds and a Raft

 Top to Bottom:

1.  Soft Landing: Red Crow on a Magnolia Flower - 8x10 oil on linen

2.  Bald Eagle Flying over a Fractured Rainbow - 8x10 oil on canvas

3.  4 Parakeets in a Arthur Dove Inspired Sunset - 11x10 oil on canvas

4.  In Process:  Three Girls in a Raft - 8x10 oil on linen