Summertime....

And the living is easy at least I hope it is! I pulled this piece out of my archive of art. I always liked the border layout plus it’s Friday & gets me thinking about what kind of outdoor summer fun I can take part in this weekend! Happy Friday

Let's make music!

This is another example of how I take a print from start to finish.
I cut the instruments and background shapes out of bits of paper that I painted.
Then I scanned, cleaned, added some text and played with the layout.
And... Voila! Let's make music

Flutter...

There is something I always like about butterflies- (besides the fact that their wings are a bit iridescent and they 're SO darn pretty)
For me they have a real sense of freedom. Seems I make them a lot as they are often requested by my clients. That said how do you make them different each time???? So far here are a few recent variations: -painterly collaged butterflies with fun circle dingbat bubbles -line work butterflies -fabric butterflies "Metamorphosis" girls bedding collection available through The Land of Nod

Odds and ends

I made this little pattern quickly earlier today. I thought it turned out nicely. I’ve been inspired by all those floral, viney stripe patterns I’ve been seeing.

Happy Memorial Day

So Antonio is back from the show.
I thought it will be fun to show you the banners we had.
It was a great show and whew... It's over!


With that over, It's now time to celebrate.
Happy Memorial Day!
This piece was inspired by the small town we live in, Parkville.
I tried to included all the activities that make Summertime
fun and my favorite Season.

Christmas in May

I know is not Christmas yet. But the giving away buttons kind
of gave me a good excuse to use this silly illustration.
Now to the results..... And the winners of the "Button (aka Flair) Giveaway" are:
Joyce, Jayme and Toystory
Your buttons will be in the mail as soon as you tell us where to mail them.
Send us an email to info@jillmcdonalddesign.com.

To all the ones that participated, Thank you very much!
Your comments are very welcomed.

And now off to Surtex.... This year I'm not attending the
show. I'm staying home with our little one.
My husband, Antonio will be representing the studio.

Here are some pictures of our booth at a previous Surtex.
That year our theme was "Lemonade stand"
as I always feel at a show as I did when I was a little girl
selling lemonade at my corner stand.

Construction

First thanks to all who participated in the pin vote.
It is fun to see everyone’s favorites & interesting that it is
pretty varied. Friday I’ll post the 3 winners. So you have
until Friday to enter the draw.

Now on to the neighborhood improvements.
So the city is paving the little alleyway behind
our house. We live in a funny little town just a few
minutes outside of Kansas City. Anyhow it takes them
significantly longer to do anything than it should. Since
the studio is just a block away I run up the hill from time
to time hoping to see signs of progress. The street
was supposed to be done in just one day, we’ll see. In the
meantime my son has enjoyed seeing all the big trucks
& machinery parked out back.
This leads me to think about a wall art piece I made for
Oopsy Daisy

Button (aka Flair) Giveaway

So before each show we exhibit at we make buttons with the studio name/ website. People seem to really like it which makes me happy & it’s a fun way to advertise. I’d love to know your 5 favorites I plan to draw 3 names from the people who play along and send them their very own favorite 5! Looking forward to hearing from you...

Safari

I recently finished this safari print. I make several safari prints each year as they always sell. That leads to the dilemma of how to make each one feel new & different. This time I relied on color & some more ethnic pattern. I like the peculiar orange ground it’s on. I worked in my usual style of painting swatches then cutting out the animals / icons & scanning the pieces in. I would love to someday go on a real safari- think that is a must do....