More Summer Sale Goodness

Sun Worship - Ink and watercolor on 2.5" x 3.5" watercolor paper


As part of my huge Summer Sale on Etsy, I'm offering all of my ACEOs at about 50% off my standard ACEO price. See all of my available ACEOs for sale HERE!

I take that back - Finished.

Patchwork Bliss
Acrylic on 30" x 40" canvas
Available in my Etsy Shop - HERE

Ok. I got my wish for more sun and looking at this painting with fresh eyes I knew - I'm done. If I added just one more block of color, I'd *need* to add a whole new layer. I'd end up losing some of those first layers that are still present in places, and those are some of my favorite "moments" in the painting. So - finis!

I also took a drive out to West Hartford to Jerry's Artarama to get a bunch of new supplies. Since most of the people that read this blog are fellow artists, y'all KNOW how great it feels to get a batch of supplies! It's kind of.... delicious. That feeling plus a cup of coffee (I'm usually a tea drinker so coffee to me = ZING!) has me in a pumped up and sort of spazzy mood. Ready to rock more canvas with my lovely new set of paint. I've got a commission to begin, and that is going to be a lot of fun. I estimated production time to take about 2-3 weeks, but I have a feeling it will be a matter of days. I'm just really excited to jump into this one. Speaking of.... the sun is out and I'm going to go paint! Have a great day....

JT

Multi Purpose Art Paper

Tis the season for some serious creative energy! I've been a busy bee over here, and I worked on a few more collages as well as these handpainted art papers.

This is all inspired by the desire to find a purpose for every saved piece of art on paper I've collected over the years. Little drawings are great for my collages, but there are some paintings that are just such duds, they deserved to be painted over completely. Instead of painting over the surface with a new fine art painting (because I'd like to focus on canvas for my fine art work), I've been cutting these paintings up into 4" x 6" pieces (more sizes coming soon) and painting simple designs on them to be used as a supply for all sorts of art and craft projects. By working fast and recycling my materials, I'm able to keep the cost down and offer these original, one of a kind works of art at a very reasonable price. Great for scrapbooking, making greeting cards, decoupage - you name it!

Check them out in my Etsy shop - www.livefunky.etsy.com

Some older work

This diptych was created in NH when I was still living there in acrylic and watersoluable crayons on two 16 x 20 canvases. You can find this and a selection of other older work I rediscovered since moving out of my old studio in my Etsy shop at www.livefunky.etsy.com

More painterly sketches

Happy Day
Acrylic on watercolor paper, 2008

Tempted

Acrylic on watercolor paper, 2008.

Face of a Friend
Acrylic on watercolor paper, 2008

Alternate Landscape
Acrylic and oil pastel on watercolor paper, 2008.

All available original art and prints at www.livefunky.etsy.com

Back on Track

What Are You Thinking?
Original acrylic on 8 x 10 canvas panel, 2008.

Bits and Pieces and The Path

Original acrylic on 8 x 10 canvas panel, 2008.

After a long break from painting, I'm back to the brush. The colors in these two paintings are inspired by this spring feeling I have inside (not quite outside yet, but it's coming). Even just seeing the tips of green from my irises starting to poke up makes my soul sing. I'll be painting for the rest of the day, so hopefully I'll have more to share by this evening.

All available artwork at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

Examples of Commissions

Etsy has a new feature where buyers can request custom orders. If you look at my shop's page at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/ you will see a button that says Request Custom Item

I thought it would be nice to give buyers an idea of what I have done in the past working with customer's ideas and color preferences.

This is my most recent commission. It is a 48" x 48" acrylic painting on stretched canvas. The composition was based on the painting White Out in colors that fit my buyer's decor.

This altered playing card was created for a buyer that found another 6 of clubs card I made online (see here) that was already sold. She had a personal connection to this card, and since the first creation was already sold, I created this new card with an emphasis on the two connections she had to the 6 of clubs - luck and love!



An 18" x 24" acrylic reproduction of the painting Breakthrough





A pair of two 36" x 36" acrylic paintings on canvas. I love this set! I'd love to do ten more of these or more!

A 24" x 36" version of the slightly smaller acrylic painting available for sale Here

Featured on Vintage Indie!

Woo hoo! My spring green vintage purse (seen above) was featured in a post on Vintage Indie! Check out this awesome blog and scroll down to see the post http://vintageindie.typepad.com/

To see my vintage shop go to www.VintageJunction.etsy.com

Vintage Junction

Please visit my new Etsy shop for sassy vintage accessories! www.VintageJunction.etsy.com

Spring Thinking

Spring Thinking

Acrylic on 5 x 7 canvas panel, 2008

Available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

A few updates

First off, I'm officially declaring 365 Sketch is a great idea, but it just isn't going to work for me, at least not right now. I've got so many things I want to get done in a day, I feel like even if I participate, it will just be something I throw together because "I have to". That isn't the spirit of that flickr group, so I'd be doing a disservice to everyone else participating as well as myself. I think it is hilarious that I only got to 7 days. I guess it just wasn't meant to be for right now - maybe in the future it will fit right into my creative patterns.

Onto other updates.... you may have noticed that I used to have a ton of prints in my shop and then they all of a sudden disappeared. I decided that I'm only going to offer prints on Etsy of paintings that have sold because otherwise it can be a little confusing to look through and see the same pics coming up for prints and originals. I am listing each print as having 10 available and once those sell out, I probably won't renew the listing to keep things fresh in my shop. This doesn't make them limited editions, just "limited to Etsy"!

Rediscovering Older Work

Two Has a Dream by Jessica Torrant

Prints available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/



Yesterday Rob and I went up to the studio in Indian Orchard to make our first of two trips clearing out all my stuff. After packing my Suburu to the brim, we brought it all to our new storage unit right in our own hometown. (Unloading was so much easier than loading! My sympathies with anyone that has to move any time soon!). As much as I may miss some parts of having a studio in the mills, this new "system" is going to be so much easier for me. Now I can paint at home and when I'm done photographing, I can take a canvas five minutes down the road to our storage unit. No more 45 minute drives just to pick up a painting! Yipee!



Part of going through all of my things at the studio meant finding my binder with all of my watercolor and ink illustrations from 2004/2005 (such as the piece above). I'm going through them looking for my favorites to list as prints on Etsy. There are also some drawings that I plan to scan and color in Illustrator (including one on an old envelope! My best drawings were always on scrap paper - there's got to be some psychological reason for that, which I won't look into now - hahaha).



At this point my Etsy shop has 237 items. Is that ridiculous? Too much? Should I put some of the older pieces that haven't sold in edit mode just to make my shop more user friendly? I am inclined to put it ALL out there, but there is A LOT and it just keeps coming! What are your thoughts on this, fellow artists? I could use your expert eyes and input!



(Oh by the way! I just got accepted by Trunkt - woo hoo!)

Tranquil

Original acrylic triptych by Jessica Torrant, 2007.
www.livefunky.etsy.com

New Paintings

Wandering Dreams - original triptych by Jessica Torrant

Acrylic on three 5" x 7" canvas panels, 2007

Now available at http://www.livefunky.etsy.com/

The other night I got some new supplies and today was the first day in a while that I got to do what I love - PAINT!!!! Don't get me wrong, it's fun playing with Illustrator, but painting is my true love, it always will be and that's just the end of it. :)

I started by opening up my brand new pack of canvas panels. They are packaged in threes and it just felt natural to lay them out before me and begin to create a composition using all of them. The tradition of painting triptychs is ancient, and it's always interesting to me how this translates across time into and beyond modernism. It works. Because as we all know, three is the magic number! :)

I am eager to get back to work, but this was the first set I finished so I had to post it here and on Etsy ASAP. Back to painting I go! I'll post more as they are completed.

Annie The Cat With Stars

Digital illustration by Jessica Torrant, 2007
Prints are available at www.livefunky.etsy.com

An ode to my parents' wild and wonderful cat, Annie.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Me and You

Me and You - art print available at www.livefunky.etsy.com


This drawing colored in Illustrator is a silly/sweet version of my husband and I. Sometimes I feel like we're mirror images of each other! Can you tell I love him?


Holiday Sale!!!
From now until the new year, I'm offering a buy two get one free sale on all of my art prints!
Just purchase the two same sized prints and include the title of the third print you'd like in your order (or just email/convo it to me afterwards).

Sizes and Prices:
5" x 7" - $10
8" x 10" - $18

All reproductions are printed on matte finish, archival Epson paper that is 8.5" x 11". The images are centered on the page leaving a white border. I ship worldwide and shipping is combined for multiple purchases. For more information, and a list of my prints, please visit the Art Prints category of my Etsy shop.
Art Prints on Etsy

I got a Treasury!

For those of you that don't know what I am talking about, a Treasury is a feature on the site www.etsy.com that allows you to curate your own little gathering of Etsy listings with a theme, or color connection or just your favorite things. There are limited slots and time limits to each list, so they aren't super easy to get. It's been on my mind to try and get one for the last few days and finally today the timing was right and I snagged one on Treasury West. Check it out while it lasts! :)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1787

The Passage

Available for purchase at www.livefunky.etsy.com

Ed, You are the man!

Good friends are hard to come by, and we are quite lucky to know and love our Ed (shown here in process of giving me Slayer hands). He and Marissa stopped by today with this awesome machine that lays piping deep under the ground. It's the first step to getting power out to the studio. Thank you Ed! You seriously are THE MAN!

I did some painting today and here is one that I finished called Looking Up.

It is available in my Etsy shop here. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7453969

New Etsy Shop

Sea Of Faces, originally uploaded by livefunky.

NEW SHOP ON ETSY!!!

www.IllustrationStation.etsy.com

I am excited to announce my new Etsy store called Illustration Station. It focuses on my digital illustrations created with the helping hand of Illustrator. Just to clue others in on what my process is with these images, I begin with a hand drawn sketch, which is scanned and then I add color and tweak the design in Illustrator.

The prints are created from my home with my new fantastic, wide format Epson printer. Epson is the only way to go with art prints, as their archival inks and papers are of superior quality. I am thinking I might create a new blog too, just to document my images as I make them, but we shall see. Painting is something that I am ALWAYS going to do. this project is just sharing a different side of me. I hope you like what you see!