My painting Pink Rose was recently featured in Takao Nursery‘s 2008-2009 Art Imitiates Life Catalog.  Here’s my spread! 

And a closer view:

In other news, I’ve finally finished up my new website (woo-hoo!!!) and I’m hoping to get back into more regular posting on my blog.  So much of my computer time the past few months has been wrapped up in creating and tweaking my new website… now I’m ready to spend a bit more “relaxed” time online by keeping up with my blog, as well as my art-related accounts on flickr, trunkt, etsy, myspace, etc. 

I also need to do an update post on my Spoonflower fabrics!!  I think they are fantastic, but I won’t go in-depth until I can post good photos of them to compare with the digital files.  So that depends on waiting for the new camera to arrive…

I’m so excited about the new camera!  It’s a Canon Powershot S5 IS, 8-megapixels.  It’s been out for a while now and I hear they are ready to release the latest in this line of Powershots, so I got a decent price from CircuitCity.com ($300 + tax).  (Although it’s pointless to do this, I kept mentally comparing the price/quality of this camera with the 4-megapixel Olympus C4040 that I bought back in 2001 or so for $1000 – which was top-of-the-line in the consumer range back then!  My, how much things change in the world of consumer electronics in 3/4 of a decade.)  I chose this camera because I needed the ability to take excellent macro shots, and I am confident that this camera can perform splendidly in this area.  A friend of mine had the Canon Powershot S2 IS, which I got to play with a couple years ago.  I was incredibly impressed with the camera back then, so I feel certain that the S5 will not let me down.  Here is one of my favorite shots that we took with the S2 that summer in France:

Since I’m in picture-sharing mode, here is a photo I took a year later in France using my old Olympus C4040:

Here is a closer view of this shot:

I’ve still got loads to learn in terms of taking good photos, but the brilliant quality of affordable cameras these days makes learning so enjoyable.  Also, having a good camera is indispensable for artists, not only for taking good photos of one’s artwork, but also for capturing a variety of good-quality images to be used as references in artwork.  I can’t wait to photograph the millions of sheep here in Wales.  Did you know that there are 4 times as many sheep here as there are people?  I am certain they will find a way to creep into my artwork…