Painted Plums Postcard

Painted Plums Postcard


I love Photoshop. (which helped me place the type on this card) And I think Vista Print is pretty good, too. I had run out of promo postcards and decided I should order some. It took me a while to decide which image I wanted to use and how to do the type on the front of the card over the painting. The last one I did was an apple on a blue plate. The plums seemed obvious since it is the image and name for my blog. Vista Print sends out emails offering deals on various promotional products. I honestly don't know how they come up with such good prices, but this artist is happy about that. The back of the card has my contact information, so mailed or hand delivered, this card has everything someone will need to find me. The cards will arrive in 10 to 14 days...so now I am anxious to see them and start passing them around.

The picture at the top of the blog is more the real colors of the actual painting. That one was done with my camera. The picture for the postcard came from scanning the painting. I did that to get the 300dpi that Vista Print needed to reproduce the art. For some reason the scan came out bluer, even with adjustments in Photoshop. But I think it will work for the postcard. It just goes to show you how difficult it is to reproduce colors. So many variables come into play. Each time I go to reproduce a piece of art in any medium, I find it takes a lot of tweaking and time. Anyway, this is what I sent them. We'll see what comes back to me. Last time they did a terrific job.

Sunflower Nod

"Sunflower Nod"
9X12
Oil on Canvas
Available

Click on image to enlarge the view

Contact to Purchase

Hat tips to Vincent Van Gogh who made everyone love Sunflower paintings. This is also my daughter's favorite flower and she grows them ever summer. They grow tall and heavy and nod over with the weight of the blossoms. (The goldfinches love them...yellow upon yellow.) She has loved the color yellow since she was little. Her bedroom was painted sunflower yellow, too. So painting sunflowers is always somewhat with her in mind.

Have a happy weekend...

Contemplating Liberty Poster

"Contemplating Liberty 2010"
11X14
Oil on Linen Panel
Available / price unframed $525.00
©Cheryl A. Pass

Yeah, I know. The original tea party was ages ago. And tea party symbolism is ridiculed by leftists and progressives as so archaic and passe. Those tea party activists of today have been called terrorists, unhinged, delusional, every derogatory epithet the left can call them. But you know what? I've been saying to myself and to my family for about 20 years now that we need a tea party against the more and more oppressive government intrusions into our lives. About two years ago as the election (with no good choices) of 2008 approached I watched things go from bad to worse. I watched the media lie and create walls around the truths about Barrack Obama. I watched my country fall into an abyss of manipulated despair and vote for a cloak called "Hope and Change." That cloak was a ruse and a pathetic ploy to elect an anti-American to the highest office of our land.

Sometimes, as I paint, I listen to radio. Talk radio. Voices to keep me company in my studio and to fill in the blanks that are missing in mainstream news. While I try to keep my mind on painting beautiful scenery or still lives or animals, I listen. My head becomes two tracks. One on the subjects of my art. The other on the subjects of my heart. My country is indelibly imprinted into my heart. The original Constitution is the foundation of living in America and the blessings I have received by the fortune of being born American. This is something I never took for granted and have respected all of my life. Maybe because my father served America in Guam in WWII. Maybe because my son is career Air Force. Maybe because I know in my heart how lucky we have been to have been defended by courageous and patriotic men and women whose lives I revere for the privileges I have received.

So I paint. It is what I do. This one is for all of those who are working so hard to save us from the corruption and degradation of our founding principles. It is a tribute. And symbolically, it is also for God from whom our liberties come and for the Founders who recognized this so that corrupt politicians would not be able to take away those liberties. Unfortunately, tragically, I am seeing this basis for living taken away. First, it was inch by inch over many decades. Since Obama, it is mile after mile at breakneck speed.

And, no, to those liberal / democrat / socialist people I know out there....it isn't "for our own good." (While it isn't my desire to insult you, or anyone for that matter, there comes a point when paths diverge) It isn't "for the good of the world." It isn't "for the sake of the children." It isn't "for saving the earth." It isn't "for the turtles and the whales." It isn't "to save our economy" (not even close) It isn't "to save jobs." (obviously not) It is for the sole purpose of taking our country down and for the corrupt power of a few very evil people who don't believe in individual liberties or even basic property rights. You have chosen a path that never ends well....a path that ends in government control of every breath you take. I'm sorry you've been conned, but America needs you to stop the insanity, wake up, and start fighting back with the rest of us. As much as I love some of you, I respected your freedoms and I am completely and utterly insulted that you would not respect mine or those of each individual American. The privilege to vote was not meant to vote away what you don't own....my liberty. The U.S. Constitution was not meant to be spat upon, bent and twisted into contemporary socialist causes. It was written before Marx and does not hold Marxist tenets. It transcends Marx and every other failed state before and since. It is "Forever" because it derives from God's natural law and lives in the hearts of all who believe in the true America.

There you have it. My Fourth of July poster / painting. As an aside, I took some cyber trips to study Steve Penley's patriotic paintings to inspire this poster. I don't think I came even slightly close to his exuberant expressions, but I appreciate his work. You can see his work here