October 5, 2011

Pansies: My First Digital Print


I have been working so hard the past few days on trying to produce prints of my paintings.  My printer seems to be quite temperamental.  It has moments when it obstinately refuses to do anything. Occasionally, I can be that way too. Stubborn character aside, it is finally producing some very beautiful results.

I wanted to share my first digital print of a painting.  It's a painting that you haven't seen before.  The painting is of a pot of pansies, nemesia, diascia and euphorbia that I had on my back porch a summer ago.   The framed images you see in this post are of the print.  I feel that it looks very similar to my original watercolour image (seen below).


Pansies are one of the most cheerful garden flowers I know and they are a favourite of mine. They belong to the viola family.  I usually grow both pansies and violas. I love how despite their sweet appearance they are one of the hardiest flowers in the garden. They can brave chilly weather, even snow, at the start and end of the gardening season.

They have a really special childhood association for me. I spent most of my childhood in Toronto but we travelled frequently to the western outskirts of Montreal to visit my grandparents.  My mom's dad turned to gardening when he retired and he was a master at it.  He won all sorts of prizes from the local horticultural association for his beautiful roses. I would follow my grandmother around as she fed the birds and squirrels in the backyard and tended to the annuals. One of my favourite memories is of her letting me pick pansies from the garden to put in the beautiful silver and glass posy vase she owned.  

My grandmother and I were very close and I was very sad when she died.  I was twenty years old at the time. The memory of gathering pansies with her was so special to me that I tracked down an almost identical vase for myself years later from an antique dealer.

And, oh yes, one more thing.  My grandmother's name was Viola.


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GIVEAWAY

To celebrate my progress and the production of my first print, I am going to give away one unframed Pansies print to one of my blog readers.  

All you need to do is add a comment on this post before midnight (Eastern time) this Friday, October 7th.  Please make sure that I have a link or your email address, so I can contact you if you are the winner.  I will post the name of the winner on Saturday afternoon.


Here's a little information for those of you who like to know about the technical side of things.  The image measures about 5½ inches across and 4¼ inches down.  It fits perfectly in a Ikea Ribba frame (in photo) or any frame with a 5 x 7 inch opening. The paper itself measures 8 x 10 inches. The print is on very beautiful cold press, natural white archival paper that is made in Italy. It has the feel, weight and look of watercolour paper. It is 100% cotton fiber and is acid and lignin free. It is printed with Epson Ultrachrome inks and a whole lot of love.

14 comments:

  1. oh congrats!!! I love it! the colours are fabulous!

    ...I've always had a soft spot for pansies as well :)

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  2. My tub of pansies went all spring, all summer and now are powering thru the fall. My grandmother and I shared the love of 'turkle' - my first attempt at pronouncing purple. She had a big purple *jewel* as her keyring. I was entranced!

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  3. kathleen
    your work is beautiful and delicate
    the digital print turned out lovely - it doesn't even look like a digital print. I had pansies on my wedding cake - that my mother-in-law made.

    enjoy your day
    xx

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  4. Congratulations! It can be touchy getting art & technology working smoothly together.

    I love the "winter annuals" as they are known over here. They look like little faces peering up at you from the garden beds.

    Now it's petunia and salvia time - summer is not too far away.

    I wish you many many sales of your beautiful work!

    Cheers,

    Cindy

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  5. looks great! TA DA!

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  6. it turned out beautifully! the pansies are especially delightful.
    and the vase you found: is that silver?? just so lovely

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  7. Thanks for all of the lovely compliments and comments so far. I'm really enjoying reading them. I like how so many of you have associations with pansies.

    Gia--Ta da indeed. :) I was thinking of that expression this week too.

    Barbara--It's silver plate and the insert (or frog as it is called--no idea why)is glass and has several holes for the stems).

    Lots of time still for comments (until midnight on Friday).

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Kathy

    This is my first attempt at communicating with a blog!! I love your print and your comments about your grandmother put a lump in my throat. So glad your amazing daughters helped you master the printing process!

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  9. Kathleen,
    What a lovely tribute to your Grandmother! I recall pansies in the planters in front of my Grandma's walkway when I was a girl.
    The print looks lovely. Great job!
    Cheers,
    Jody

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  10. Hi Kathleen,
    first of all, you work is so pretty! And I loved reading about your beloved Viola and her posy of pansies. What a sweet story.

    Thank you for leaving such a sweet comment on my blog. Too bad we didn't get to talk at Geninne's workshop. Perhaps our paths will cross again...

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  11. Kathleen-

    what a beautiful print!! Congratulations!!!

    I'll tweet about this giveaway. Have a great weekend :)

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  12. Entries are now closed. Thanks to all who took part. I loved reading the comments.

    My first giveaway! Quite exciting.

    The winner will be announced tomorrow.

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  13. Sad I just missed out on this! Your work's stunning. x hivenn

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  14. Jazzy E--Thank you for your lovely words! I plan to hold another giveaway in the next few weeks when I open my Etsy shop, so visit again. :)

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Thanks so much for taking the time to visit my blog and to leave me a comment. I love reading them. -- Kathleen

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