Ink Vanilla

Parrots And Canaries

Here's another hand-painted floorscreen. This three panel piece is called Parrots And Canaries. Made of birch with cradled framework in back, its painted with acrylics and varnished for protection. Measures  7' x 5' with 1/4" depth. The back has solid midtone dusty green color similar to grass seen on front of screen. Weight: 25 lbs. (Note: although this photograph shows distortion due to camera lens angle, this screen is very true and square).

Closeup of screen.

If interested in price and other pertinent details you're welcome to Email me. Serious inquiries most appreciative. 

Upcoming Posts: 1) photographs depicting various wall murals created for client homes. 2) updates about the ever-impending website shop. 3) new art works with colorful contemporary flair. Imagery depict various interior scenes, animals, portraits, figurative, fruit and florals. All are gouache paintings and will be reproduced as digital Epson prints. Also, originals will be available for purchase. More details coming soon.

Alas, must return to my studio but beforehand, I would especially like to thank Shawn Stucker for mentioning my blog over at her fabulously elegant blog Country French Antiques. As I write this, she is leaving Kentucky on her way to Paris, France. Perhaps she is already there. Lucky her! Not only is Shawn's blog a delight to visit, so too her import store carrying French and European antiques. Absolutely fascinating items. Look forward to her return from lovely Paris.

Until next time, cheers everyone.

Reflection

Here is another of my hand painted floor-screens intended for Junes Melange shop. This four panel piece is titled "Reflection". Neoclassical in theme, my intention was to convey a place where one might imagine wandering within this garden... find quietude and time out of their busy days to stop and reflect. Hence the reflection pool in background. The two foreground statues give the impression they are more real then the two statues further in the distance. Midway while painting this, I felt a story unfolding. Something intriguing, mysterious is going to happen.

Closer view of the screen.

Painted with acrylics onto solid birch wood. Protected with matte varnish. Back side has cohesive pale cream color relative to front side imagery.

This screen including previous one, have required a vast amount of time and labor to create. Materials used are high quality.

Dimensions: 6' x 6' when fully opened.

FOR SALE If interested in purchasing, you can email me. Please, serious inquiries only. Thank You.

Stay tuned  for next post! Floor-screen depicting a Chinoiserie scene.

Long Ago Venice

Hello.

Sorry for my absence lately. Very busy designing and painting Junes Melange shop products. In the next few posts to come, thought I'd go ahead and show you a few original hand-painted floor screens. Therefore, here is a charming three-panel floor screen titled "Gondolas". This is a highly detailed imaginary scenic piece painted on both sides using acrylics. Made of solid birch wood. For long lasting protection, several coats of matte varnish applied to both sides. Photo above depicts the front side of screen fully opened and standing flat. 

Closer view of floor screen.

Back side of floor screen.

Dimensions:  72" x 54" inches when fully opened.

Available for Purchase Now! Note: until this piece is placed on my upcoming website describing full details . . . you can currently obtain purchasing information such as pricing, dimensions/weight, shipping costs, by emailing me. Please, serious inquiries only. Thank You.

Attributes: Original one of a kind ~ Quality handmade workmanship.

Stay Tune for more Floorscreens!!

New Design For Shop

Here is a small sampling recently completed to use as my new design for upcoming Junes Melange Online Shop. This one is for keeps. Slogan reads: Timeless Art and Craft...From the studio of June Parrish Cookson. Felt previous design was too gloomy. If interested in viewing what it looked like before, check out November 8th, 2007 post. Perhaps you might prefer this lighter more elegant version? I certainly do.

Meanwhile, busy working on lots of products to sale at the shop. Also continually designing website! Original product designs will consist of primitive to somewhat contemporary motifs. There are hand-painted Chinoiserie designs on linen scrolls including paperclay sculptures; a variety of figurative and landscape motifs applied to boxes; folk art portraiture similar to styles of Rufus Hathaway, Ammi Phillips, Dennison Limner to name a few. The portraits are painted onto wooden panels including linen and canvas. Finally, watercolor and ink on paper depicting subjects such as floral, insects, and mammals. Printed paper is applied onto wooden plaques then covered with a layer of melted beeswax. All of these products are taking a lot of time and effort to design and produce. My goal is to create art with a bit more decorative appeal for people's homes.

Once I'm confident items meet my particular production standards including website properly working, I'll finally be ready to open for business. At first, only a few will be showcased then gradually add more pieces to sale. Nevertheless, your patience greatly appreciated.

Well, that's it for now. Hope all of you are doing well.

Until next post ~ Cheers!

Fashionable Ladies Completed

They're finished!! Simple yet elegant.

If you compare previous post photograph the color there is not true. However, these photographs are about as true as I could get them with my digital camera.

Pine plaques painted with extra bond 'Old-Fashioned Milk Paint'. I love this stuff! Undercoat color is driftwood and top coat is a mixture of slate and oyster white to obtain the soft gray. Once thoroughly dry, sandpaper was used around edges and other areas to reveal the undercoat color. This helped lend a distressed aged apearance. Finally, plaques were treated with matte varnish for protection.

Images of ladies are from my own original ink drawings and printed on Entrada Rag Natural premium archival fine art digital paper. For a final protective coating, the images were treated with  heat-set Dorlands Wax Medium.

The hooks are the antique brass hardware seen in previous post. Decided to add a little more personality to the ladies by giving them names. Handmade nameplates read: Mrs. Grover, Mrs. Hamilton, Miss Wilkins, and Miss Rosamond.

Dimensions: 5.5" x 9"

Price: $150.00 (Set of four not sold separately.) Ribbon not included.

Free shipping available for U.S. residents only.  

Accept PayPal including other payment options. Please feel free to email me for further purchasing and shipping information. Thank you.

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Note: Pine plaques were hand built by my talented hubby. He also built the Shakespeare lightbox including Poe boxes. I have lots more woodworking in store for him to do for Junes Melange.

Fashionable Transformation

Almost Completed!

As stated in last post, the fashionable ladies required background interest. This was achieved by scanning a piece of vintage fabric into photoshop. Then I was able to manipulate design and colors to correspond with the ladies. In addition, there is an interesting textural effect reminiscent to the look of linen material.

Now it's a matter of cutting out the images in an oval shape in order to fit them onto small oval plaques. These will then be adhered to larger rectangle plaques (seen in background of photograph).

The small brass hardware items which will be used as hangers for the wall plaques, were purchased at an antique architectural salvage store located in Tacoma, Washington called Sanford & Son. Two weeks ago, I'd made the half hour drive with the intention to find some antique stores on Broadway Street. I spent several hours in some, then finally ventured over to Sandford. Upon entering, I was first greeted by Scruffy the cat (more about him in another post) then I began roaming around the three floors filled to the brim with antiques salvaged from old homes and businesses from long ago. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that I was pleasantly flabbergasted! It's fantastic! So much so, that I had to return again for the second time last Sunday. The owner Allan Gorsuch has been quite generous when it comes to bargaining certain items I would like to incorporate into my art. Once I told him I was creating assemblage art for my upcoming online store, I've been able to get quite an abundance of architectural metal and wooden items at very low prices. Some items had been marked individually for ten dollars and upwards! Luckily, I managed to get most of the things I wanted into two large boxes all for a mere twenty-five dollars per box! All together there's at least fifty pieces of items per box. I'm estatic! Unfortunately he wouldn't go down on his price regarding a stack of wonderful assorted late nineteenth century art prints and fashion magazines. A bit too expensive for me at this time. Nevertheless, I placed them on hold even though the chance of purchasing them seems but a pipe dream. Oh well, other financial priorities must come first! Anyway, I'll eventually post pictures of the store including items purchased.

Next post will be the finished wall plaques!

Note: Actual color has a more subtle grayer tone then this photograph is revealing.

Fashionable Victorian Ladies

Junes Melange Store:

Here are my original ink drawings on paper depicting four fashionable Victorian ladies. Intentions are to adhere them onto individual wooden wall plaques. But before doing so, I want to add some interest to the presently plain backgrounds. Also, need to manipulate colors to coincide with recently painted plaques. Therefore, it's now a matter of scanning the pictures into photoshop; create an original decorative background design to each one; and adjust colors.

In the next post,  you'll see how the ladies appear within this background design. Also, a glimpse of the plaques.

Cheers.

Illuminated Shakespeare

Front View of Box Lighted from behind with a 5-watt bulb.

The William Shakespeare Illuminated Box

Hand Made Mixed Media Assemblage Piece

Price: $350.00. Accept PayPal including other payment options. Please feel free to email me for further purchasing and shipping information. Thank you.

Materials: Backlight film, matteboard, metal frame, poplar wood, antique brass hardware, inks, damar varnish/resin, milk paint, 5-watt bulb, plexiglass, and patterned tissue paper.

Overall Dimensions: 13" x 10" x 5.5"

This is the first of a series of illuminated lightboxes which will depict historical figures of the Elizabethan period. Original hand-drawn picture of Shakespeare has been printed onto archival transparent inkpress backlight film.

Front & Side Views without light on.

More information and pictures showcasing the back side and light fixture coming soon at Junes Melange Online Webstore.

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Other Matters. . .

To begin, I'm creating a new blog banner for Ink Vanilla. It will correspond better with my upcoming Junes Melange WebStore. Instead of the present illustration and inscription, I'm considering using a montage of different photos representing my art and other various interests that inspire me. And I will definitely be changing the inscription due to current changes here with my mixed media assemblage art.

While working on this, I'm contemplating about creating another blog regarding home decorating! Or if not another blog, possibly just having occasional posts describing my decorating ideas here on this blog. I've been wanting to do this for a long time because I have a great love for decorating! Of course, Ink Vanilla will continue to show my artwork and some items over at Junes Melange.

In any case, with the impending arrival of spring, I thought it would be nice to post new changes that will be eventually taking place at my house. Two years ago, my husband and I purchased a home here in the Pacific Northwest, and at that time had no desire to make too many radical changes to achieve a more vintage look. The move itself was exhausting and we both were far too busy with our jobs. There's still some vividly modern floral wallpaper in the bathrooms and hideous gold brass hardware on all the doors from previous owner. We'll be replacing these elements with antiqued wall treatments and dark oil-rubbed tarnished hardware for doors. When we first moved in I did manage to find time and repaint most of the walls in preparation for specialty antique patina treatments. Although I'm busier then ever before, the desire is too overwhelming to procrastinate any longer. Time for those decorating dreams to come true!

Meanwhile, my husband will be installing wood floors and we'll be doing other various changes to the house. The house is only twelve years old, but is very charming and replicates a Victorian style home. Has plenty of potential for the vintage look I'm after. Regarding specialty painting, I have a substantial background having owned and operated a decorative painting business for several years with my husband. My specialty was not only decorative painting, but also designing and painting small/large-scale murals for residential and retail places. This also included painting furniture and design work. I'll be posting some of the photographs of homes we did in the past for you to view when this new decorative blogging venture begins. Also want to post about one of my favorite addictions . . . shopping for antiques and flea market hunting! Eventually I'll be selling some of my old furniture I've grown tired of and will be on a quest for more vintage furniture and accessories. My goal is to create an eclectic look blending together French/Swedish Country and whatever else strikes my fancy.  And I would really enjoy showcasing some of my favorite places to shop including introducing you to antique dealers and anyone else who has an interest in house decorating. Soon I'll be adding to my sidebar links some of inspirational home design blogs. A vast amount of them reside in Scandinavia! But for now, enough rambling. It's three thirty in the morning. Time to get some sleep! Sorry if the writing is bad. Hope you like the illuminated box!

Cheers!

Much Ado About A LightBox

The Illuminated William Shakespeare.

Act First

Scene 1

A studio in house.

Enter June, artist. Her cat Coco asleep on chair, snores.

June. With mirth and laughter, original charcoal drawings I've just completed.

Close up of William

Globe Theater

Thus, hath reason for it, drawings of Shakespeare and Globe Theater to be digitally transformed in Photoshop. I tell thee, to create illusion of antiquity. Nay, unsure whether to use the border surrounding William. Behold, best regarded the inclusion of text from one of Shakespeare's plays. Bring thy the fairest Elizabethan-style font!

Pause: June momentarily distracted watching Coco awaken, stretch a wee bit. After circling three times, Coco lies back down and proceeds snoring.

June. Tell thee all, once satisfied upon overall digital imagery, thus thou printed onto translucent material. Forthwith, creating beeswax plaque base. With thy in motion, embedding print material with more layers of melted beeswax. O, then be bold to say all this in order to create depth and luminosity! To try my fortune, as the piece further develops, found objects thy shall include. Be it locket or vintage material?

No more pertains to me, than to attach beeswax collage upon wooden box illuminated from behind by a low wattage lightbulb. Hence, a light box! Methinks, thy light  turned on, piece will come alive lending a magical ambiance.

In measure, I foretell posting next week finished piece.

And so farewell: for hath a tuna-melt sandwich bestow upon thee.

Snoring ceases

Exit. First Coco, followed by June.

A Kind Act

Hand-Made Mixed Media Plaque. Size: 10.5" x 14" x 6.5"

Price: $225.00 

Please email if interested in purchasing. I accept PayPal but also happy to arrange other payment options.

Note: Digital photographs are a bit overexposed resulting in the lady appearing ghost-like.  Sorry but I spent two frustrating days photographing and trying my best to capture actual colors and details. Unfortunately these pictures will have to suffice. Not used to photographing three-dimensional objects. Anyway, difficult to describe, but her face is similar in color to a creamy pale ocher tint along with subtle pinkish cheeks. Her eyes are brown.

This piece is basically a little tribute to those who care about animals. Being a real softie for animals myself, I decided to create an imaginary person named Diana who just happens to have a kind heart. If you read the text above her, it's self explanatory.

Text reads: In a winter garden, Diana discovered the wounded creature. Under April sky, she would set it free.

This unique wall plaque was created utilizing original sculptures, ink drawing, and found materials. Each individual  item has been implemented to lend a vintique appearance. The lady and bird in cage were sculpted using paperclay. Once sanded and thoroughly dried, both objects were treated with acrylic inks. The entire piece has been protected with wax/resin sealer. Back has my Junes Melange label and date of completion including picture hanger. All items are thoroughly intact and if treated with great care will someday become a true antique piece!

   

Background is embossed wallpaper that I trimmed and then distressed using milk paint.

Diana is securely attached to the birdcage. Hand-dyed vintage lace fabric trim wraps around her shoulders. In actuality, due to having used ink media and wax sealer, she looks similar to porcelain. Very beautiful.

Behind the little bird set upon Spanish moss there is an original miniature landscape ink drawing. This charming drawing has been printed on archival paper and protected with wax sealer.

So there you have it.

Next project coming ~ illuminated lightbox!

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A big thank you goes out to Joanne Molina who posted a very nice blurb about my blog here Be sure to check out this fascinating new blog. Currently, she's preparing to create a professional  site showcasing her own  work. Looking forward to seeing. Cheers Joanne.

Another interesting site for women who love vintage clothing is Vintageous. Link leads to a vast collection of formal & cocktail dresses and whatever else your heart desires. Oui, if only I had extra money to splurge on clothes rather then art supplies, this is the place I'd love to purchase some wonderful vintage cocktail dresses. Partial to classic black strapless figure hugging ones; embroidered lace, tulle, and Bolero's. Talk about being different then other women at a dinner party! In my humble opinion, some of these dresses are truly the icing on the cake.