Sifnos

My favorite part when going to the Greek Islands is the boat ride! even if that means getting up at 5am to get to the port. This mini getaway was just what I needed after 5 weeks of intense learning with Lilla. The boat ride was 5 hours and it gave me time to just relax and get into summer mode :)

As soon as I got to Sifnos I went to hang the paintings, but Nikos had already done that and also displayed a few of them in the courtyard.

Can I tell you, I think I gained a couple of lbs from all the fabulous food I had there. This island is famous for its food! omg!! I'm glad it was only a weekend because at the rate I was going...I just couldn't say no to anything that was offered to me!

I'm only posting pics from the courtyard, because the indoor pictures came out lousy.. I'll have to retake them when I go back.

One of my favorite places in sifno, is the Kastro,which means castle. It's built on a hill and has five entrances which were gated with iron at one time, to protected against pirates.

The Kastro is like a labyrinth, with very narrow streets, and now is full of small cafes, bars and shops.

Walking these cobblestone streets is like walking in a different era, it's just so beautiful!!

The views are just spectacular and very dramatic!!

Have any of you been to Greece?

xoxo

Don't forget to breathe

I think the title of this latest piece suits me just about right  My head is just exploding with all that I learned from this awesome-est course!! If you are seriously considering art licensing you should definitely look this one up. The topic for our last market was the gift market and Lilla not only is a gifted teacher but gave us so much business advice and information for each of the markets we covered. I am just blown away and to think I had no idea what art licensing was, until last year..

   Did you know that we can lend our art to different manufacturers and they can use it for product development? They can take a whole painting or just a part of it and use it on fabric, stationery, gifts and all sorts of stuff! All this is done with a contract and we get royalties for each piece, sold!
Awesome?!  I would be thrilled to see one of my designs on a shower curtain or a greeting card! aaahhh :) 

My other news is that I'm getting to leave this weekend for Sifnos, for my show opening! I really need this mini vacation soo bad. These last five weeks were so intense with little sleep in order to fully concentrate on my course.
If you are visiting the Greek islands, stop by Cayenne in Sifnos. I would be so happy to meet you in person :)
 I shipped my paintings last week and already had sales on them, even before show opening which is on the 19th. Niko who's in charge posted this pic on fb :) 
xoxo

Zen Garden

My latest painting done for the Lilla Rogers e-course. Our market was Wall art.
 I'm loving this course so much, I know I will in withdrawal after this week, when it ends.. I have learned so much and grown as an artist in just these past few weeks! I know my life will not be the same after this :) I really mean that.
  We are learning how to make our art more sellable and more appealing to future clients and art agents, if one chooses to seek an  agent. I really haven't had time to do anything else, but work on assignments and explore all the different markets out there! There's demand for all kinds of work, especially for us painting. yeayy. I really was feeling tiny at the begining of this course, because the majority in my class is working digitally, and I do plan to learn as soon as I'm done with this class.I want to vector everything! haha

 Well it was intimidating to see all this gorgeous digital work, but when the time came for us to do a painting...they were in my shoes. Some of them hadn't touched a brush in years. The nice thing though,  about working in Illustrator is that it's faster, you work in layers, so if you mess up, you just go back to your layer and correct.
Hope you are enjoying the summer!! Have you been to the beach yet? I haven't...but will be going to Sifnos for my exhibition on July 19th :)) I Am so looking forward for a break..
Ohhhh and Happy 4th of July!! to all my American friends...You are bbqing today right?...wish I was there...

The Snail and the rose tree

The e course I'm taking continues into week 4 and has been an amazing experience . Last week we focused into childrens' books and our assignment was to create a book cover from the Hans Christian Andersen story of '' The snail and the rose tree''.

Every week for this 5 week course, we explore different markets and focus on how to approach them. Let me tell you, I haven't felt so alive in a long time! Having to stop to eat and sleep is really annoying! and inconvenient! hahaha I'm serious!

The only thing is, that I'm missing Kristen's Summer of color... but I hope I can catch up next week.

Home Decor

Home Decor was our topic this week at Lilla Rogers e-course and our assignment was to make flower designs for dinner plates :)  This one of the most inspiring,intense and exciting courses I have ever taken! I've been putting 12 hour days to get my designs right and still I feel I can do so much better..
Most of the artists are working digitally and are so advanced in design that makes me feel so tiny..but I am so privileged to be among them.

xoxo

Retro kitchen

The first week with Lilla Rogers is over and what an incredible week it was!! This course is so inspiring and full of so much information on how to sell your art. Our assignment this week was retro kitchen and we had to draw and design art appropriate for fabric bolt! This is something I have never done before and had no clue of anything..but Lilla gave us small steps everyday with a lot of encouragement.
I spent 10-12 hrs per day for this assignment, but it seemed like nothing to me, I was too excited to stop!

This is some of the sketches .

I also made a coordinate fabric to match my main design.

Athens Concert Hall

So much catching up to do!! I wish there were more hours in the day and that I had an assistant to take over the business part of selling and all the other details... and I could just paint and paint :)
I have been sending emails and visiting shops all over Greece and have been successful in making new contacts. You can now find my art at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaro Mousikis) and on the Greek Islands of Mykonos, Sifnos, Serifos. I will be posting the shops as soon as I get pics.

My other great news..... I'm going to Art School! I've just signed up to take Lilla Rogers e-course on how to Sell what you make. I think this is the next step for me, to be able to reach a broader audience and to sell my work word wide! wow, that's mind boggling and I so pray that my work is well accepted.  Although I'm super excited about this course, I'm a bit nervous that I won't be good enough... The class starts June 3rd and our first assignment will be bolt fabric, and I'm clueless about it..yikes and yikes again!! 
oh and I added some buttons on my blog, please tell me what you think.
xoxo