"GODDESS" Challenge: Three Days Left

Our "Goddess" theme blog challenge continues until Sunday.  Don't miss out on your chance to win a $10 gift credit at LUNAGIRL.COM where you can find hundreds of digital collage sheets, printable downloads, and fabulous images on CD. 

Remember the winner is chosen by random drawing so everyone has an equal chance of winning!  You can enter up to 3 projects, and if your project uses any Lunagirl images that doubles your chances of winning! Pretty good odds, right?

To help you out, here is a freebie: a beautiful "Spirit of the Summit" goddess from Victorian neo-classical art.  And don't miss all of the gorgeous inspiration from the DT. 

Get creating to express your inner goddess!

Reverie: Art for an Autumn Day

Today it certainly feels like Autumn -- the air is cool, and a light rain falls from a grey sky.  Trees are turning orange and red and gold.  The rain is welcome for my fading garden, and it's a perfect day for curling up with a book or just getting lost in reverie.  I'll steal a few moments with a cup of tea, then it's back online to work!  Here is a suitable freebie image I'd like to share, entitled "Reverie." (more like this on Lunagirl Pre-Raphaelite Art printable digital images on CD):

The Spinner

Some thoughts about spinning, inspired by this old postcard. Spinning was a magical act ~ think how often it appears in fairy tales (like Sleeping Beauty and Rumpelstiltskin).

Fairy tales are remnants of old mythologies, often girls' initiation stories whose roots are lost in the mists of time. Spinning was connected with coming of age for young women, and you can see that in the old stories if you look.

Spinning and weaving (like baking) are transformative, turning one thing into another, and at least in European mythology these tasks were nearly always performed by women. Spinning is sometimes associated with the moon, which measures the months and pulls the tides.


The Three Fates in Greek myth were portrayed as spinning our lives and our fates.

Clotho spins the thread, Lachesis measures it out, and Atropos cuts it! In Greek mythology even the gods feared the Fates (usually called the Moirai). In Norse mythology the Norns are very similar.

On the third night of a child's life, the Moirai were supposed to come and determine a child's destiny. Sound familiar from The Sleeping Beauty? Three fairy godmothers?


One more spinner who often shows up in mythology and folklore all over the world:












Neith, the spinner of destiny, to the Egyptians. Arachne, whose weaving rivaled that of the goddess Athena, to the ancient Greeks. Anansi the trickster in West African stories, who is also the bringer of rain, the king of stories and the giver of gifts such as agriculture. From the Native Americans, Iktomi the wise/foolish god of the Lakota and Ojibwa dreamcatchers (ever notice that they are like spiderwebs?) Spider Woman or Spider Grandmother in Hopi mythology is the creator of all life. In the Southern U.S. it is good luck when a spider weaves her web in your house or garden (not the poisonous kind of course!)

That's a lot of stuff from just thoughts about a lady at her spinning wheel! Spinning stories, spinning lies, spinning thoughts into words, measuring our time and destinies ~ girls and goddesses and sleeping beauties and brides spinning straw into gold ~ maybe all this meandering will inspire someone's art.

Lunagirl Wall Calendars featuring art and vintage photos

We are pleased to offer four beautiful 2012 wall calendars, available for purchase in our Lunagirl Cafepress Gift Shop:  Vintage Beauties featuring lovely Edwardian women, Vintage Bellydance, Bouguereau paintings, and Bouguereau Little Girls paintings. I'm happy to say that they have been pretty popular since we introduced them last year!

Click on the pictures below to go see the listings with all the calendar pages, twelve different images in each of course. (In our cafepress shop you'll also find all types of Lunagirl images on apparel for women men children and babies, as well as journals, tote bags, mugs, magnets & more.)
  

 

Reverie on an "autumn" day

Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer, and today at Lunagirl it certainly feels like the beginning of autumn -- cool air, grey skies, and a steady rain.  The rain is welcome after a dry month, and the 58-degree morning feels wonderful after a hot summer!  It was 99 degrees two days ago -- and being a Southerner I know the heat will come back several times before Halloween -- but for me today is a lovely early autumn day perfect for curling up with a book or just getting lost in reverie.  Here is a suitable "Moonday" freebie image I'd like to share (Pre-Raphaelite Art):

 For those of you with sunshine this Labor Day, enjoy your picnics! I will enjoy my cool rainy day, dream of the past with the history books and old novels I like to read, and pretend it's already Autumn, my favorite season.

The Three Magi and Twelfth Night

In celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, traditionally celebrated on January 6 (or the preceding Sunday), here is a lovely pre-Raphaelite painting by Burne-Jones showing the adoration of the magi. In many countries Christmas greenery is taken down on January 6 which is the Twelfth Day of Christmas. We always took our Christmas tree down at Epiphany. The time between Epiphany and Lent is the King's Cake season culminating in Mardi Gras! more pre-raphaelite art

Elizabeth Siddal

Another, more tragic muse for Dante Gabriel Rossetti was his wife, Elizabeth Siddal. She was the model for many of Rossetti's early paintings, the model for Millais's Ophelia, and also a painter and poet herself. Although her family was neither wealthy nor educated, she learned to read and write and began a love of poetry after finding a Tennyson poem on a scrap of newspaper that had been used to wrap butter!

After Dante Gabriel Rossetti met "Lizzie," she became the model for all his paintings of women and stopped posing for the other PreRaphaelites. They fell in love and became engaged, but Rossetti, who feared his family's disapproval of Lizzie's working class background, repeatedly postponed the wedding. Their engagement lasted for over ten years, during which Lizzie became increasing depressed and frail.

They finally married, and honeymooned in France. However, Lizzie remained ill and had become addicted to laudanum (an opiate that was legal at the time and used by many Victorian-era women as an "elixir"). She became pregnant but the child was stillborn. She overdosed on laudanum shortly after a second pregnancy ~ whether her death was accidental or a suicide is not clear.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti mourned her loss deeply, and buried his journal containing the only copies of many of his poems with her, tucked into her long red hair. The journal was later recovered from her coffin and the poems published ~ something which haunted him the rest of his life.

Rossetti adored and idealized Elizabeth Siddal in his paintings and writings. It is difficult and dangerous to pass judgment on another person's love, but perhaps if he had seen her more as a real woman ~ rather than as an idealized medieval maiden or, at the other end of the spectrum, the working class girl his family scorned ~ they could have been happier.

Christina Rossetti (who was Dante's sister) wrote about his idealized love of Lizzie in the poem "In an Artist's Studio":

One face looks out from all his canvases,

One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:

We found her hidden just behind those screens,

That mirror gave back all her loveliness.

A queen in opal or in ruby dress,

A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,

A saint, an angel -- every canvas means

The same one meaning, neither more nor less.

He feeds upon her face by day and night,

And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,

Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:

Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;

Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;

Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

New: Rossetti Charms collage sheet ... and Jane Morris

I can't believe it's March already! Here is a new collage sheet featuring women from paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the best-loved Pre-Raphaelite artists. These gorgeous, richly colored images are already sized in 1-inch circles and squares and 1x3" microscope slides, perfect for charms, pendants and other jewelry. Also nice if you just like some small images to embellish your altered art cards and crafts. Purchase and download "Rossetti Charms" and other Lunagirl collage sheets here: http://www.lunagirl.com/W-Lunagirl-Collage-Sheets-MINIS-microslides.htm

The face in most of these paintings is that of Jane Burden Morris. Jane was the daughter of an English stableman and a housemaid, and grew up in poverty with very little education. Rossetti and fellow PreRaphaelite Burne-Jones "discovered" her while she was attending a theater performance.

She was model and muse for Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris (whom she married). After her engagement to William Morris, Jane obtained a private classical education and basically reinvented herself. She was highly intelligent, a voracious reader and accomplished student of languages and music, and moved with ease and grace among artists, philosophers, political activists, and the upper classes. She and Morris lived an artistic, bohemian lifestyle at Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswolds. She may have been Rossetti's lover as well.

You'll find some interesting information about Rossetti and his work at this website by the Walker Art Gallery: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/rossetti/works/

Enjoy these images .... we'll be back!

We have been so busy here, scanning and editing new photographs, there hasn't been much time for blogging. But I promise to be back with new CDs and new features on stage beauties of the past. For now, some free images for you to enjoy!

Someone got me thinking about Italy the other day, so here are two beautiful images inspired by ancient times on the Mediterranean.

See more like these on our Victorian Neoclassical Art CD!

And here is one of my favorites ... I love irises and I love the colors in this painting ... enjoy these last days of summer.

Gothic

I've always loved this photo. The little girl looks like she doesn't really want to step out of that doorway and into the next room. What is her mother whispering to her? What is the little girl looking at, and why doesn't she want to go into that room?

Inspired by recent messages/conversations my head is full of imagery that for lack of a better word I call gothic: windswept cliffs over stormy oceans at night, annabel lee in a white dress, the bronte sisters dreaming out on the moors, a disheveled cinderella, abandoned brides and ragged wedding veils, silent little girls, angry little girls, moonlight through swiftly moving ragged clouds... stuff like that!

I'm sure in time all this will give rise to some cool new collage sheets (and other projects I hope)

but for now I'm content to post a few favorite photos with a 'gothic' feel.





As a kid I always gravitated toward songs and stories that were melancholy, or dark and sweet at the same time. I'm still inspired by beauty and sadness, especially when they're combined...

Edgar Allen Poe said something about how art is inspired by loss and beauty, and that the greatest artistic inspiration was the loss of beauty or love. Or something to that effect....

Then's there's this lady below! What's on her mind?

Hurry, Springtime

I find myself even more anxious than usual for the arrival of Spring. Nothing to do but wait, and share this lovely painting, Primavera by Botticelli. Venus stands in the center, clothed as an elegant lady of Florence, with her son Cupid above. On the right you can see Zephyr, god of the west wind, blowing in warm breezes as he chases the nymph Chloris, bringer of new growth, whose name means "yellow-green" or "fresh."

Then there is my favorite, Flora adorned in flowers and scattering blossoms of forget-me-not, hyacinth, iris, periwinkle, anemone, and wild roses, all flowers that would have bloomed in Tuscany in May. On the right the three Graces dance while Mercury watches the sky to keep away storms.

There is a beautiful image I heard once in some myth or tale, describing how at the arrival of spring Flora spreads her beautiful floral dress out across the earth, covering the ground with flowers and new grass. Hurry up, please!

New: Marie Antoinette Collage Sheets

By popular request, three new designs featuring images of Marie Antoinette, the fabulous, fashionable, but ill-fated Queen of France (and some vintage postcards that seem to us inspired by Marie and her times). Print to enjoy in your altered art projects, ATCS, card making and other paper crafts ~ because our files are jpgs you can print them smaller to make jewelry charms and pendants. Available at this link, exclusively from Lunagirl Images!

Beautiful New Collage Sheet Designs!

Antique children's books have some beautiful illustrations. We know you'll enjoy these brand new Lunagirl collage sheets featuring Little Red Riding Hood, Nursery Rhymes Characters, and Storybook Animals and Birds! Click any of the pictures to see them (and more new digital collage sheets) on Lunagirl.com ... ready to purchase with instant download!

The Faerie Queen

A simply gorgeous new Lunagirl collage sheet!

The Victorians were fascinated with fairies, and often portrayed the fairy world as dark and mysterious, not just cute and light as we think of it now.

You'll love these beautiful sensual faerie queens of the night! This digital collage sheet is available for purchase and instant download at Lunagirl.com.

More new collage sheets in the works.....

It's Monday Again!

Let's do a Monday free image today ~ this pretty lady with her red hair and distant gaze seems perfect for this time of year. Here the locusts buzz and hum as summer drifts off, and there is cool air in the evenings and early mornings. Days are still warm and sunny, but the light is slanted and you can feel the wheel turning toward autumn. While the cooler air is energizing there's a sense of sadness and longing, even loss .... I guess I'm a romantic in the original sense, who likes my beauty mixed with a little darkness, because it's my favorite time of year!

Enjoy this image for your personal, non-commercial projects. Please credit Lunagirl Images if your work is displayed online or published. If you want to use this image for commercial use, just email at info@lunagirl.com

You'll find a great variety of images of women on our Lunagirl Victorian Vintage People CD! It's soon to be discontinued in favor of a revised edition, so get this version while you can.

What we've been up to lately

We haven't been posting as much here because we are so busy creating new collections and new editions! Just published, a revised edition of our beautiful Victorian Flowers image CD, with more newly acquired, newly restored and embellished flower images. I've been collecting floral postcards for awhile and am glad to offer over 100 beautiful new images on our Flowers CD. Over 900 flowers.

DETAILS & SAMPLE IMAGES HERE

Also just published, we now offer a Victorian Birds CD! We have taken the birds that were formerly offered with our flowers and added to them over 300 new birds images, to create a fabulous new collection of over 500 birds.

This collection includes sweet Victorian greeting cards, pretty watercolors, and a great selection of antique prints. There are whimsical and humorous birds as well as detailed realistic nature prints. Bird eggs, too! ALL 300 DPI and ready to print.

DETAILS AND SAMPLE IMAGES HERE

This image CD includes 100 Audubon birds in a size appropriate for card making, altered art, etc., but if you want large Audubon prints suitable for framing, see my post earlier this month about our Birds of America 2-CD Set!

Beautiful Birds Prints on CD!

Our latest CD release: BIRDS OF AMERICA by John James AUDUBON. This 2-CD set includes 110 high-resolution digital images ready to create large prints to frame for your home or business OR print at smaller sizes for gorgeous nature images for your altered art projects, scrapbooking, fabric prints, paper crafts, etc.

CLICK HERE to see all the details and beautiful sample images!

Submit your creations for our gallery!

We enjoy seeing how our customers use Lunagirl images in their artwork and craft projects ~ you'll find handcrafted items using our images in many of our customers' web stores and auctions, as well as crafts fairs and shops all over the world ~ and we would love to create a special customer gallery page at Lunagirl.com.

If you would like to share your latest creation, please email us at info@lunagirl.com.
Examples could be:
your latest ATC, ACEO or other mixed media or altered art creation
a favorite scrapbook page using vintage imagery
fabric art such as a handbag, quilt or fabric collage
captured fairies, assemblage, altered art jewelry creations.....
our customers are very creative, so we can't wait to see what they wish to share!

Your picture should be a jpg image ~ a minimum size of about 400 pixels on the longest side would be best for a quality image. Please be sure to tell us which Lunagirl image CD or collage sheet you used in creating your work.

Fairy Furniture & Fairy Houses!

Wow! Look at what Sarah & Michael at Sunflowerhouse have been creating! Their beautiful Fairy Treehouse is amazing, created all from nature. Don't you wish you could explore it in person?

Sarah has an etsy shop Sunflowerhouse with the most charming little handmade fairy furniture. If these don't bring a smile to your face, I don't know what will!

Indie Artists: Discover ESBQ

Here is another fantastic on-line resource for mixed media artists (in addition to ZNE), really for all self-representing artists:

ESBQ: http://www.ebsqart.com/

You will find a treasure-trove of information. Be sure to click on the "Learn" icon at the top of the page to find their archive of "Live Studio" pages. There are informative "how-to" tutorials about everything from Collage and Watercolor and Art Quilting to Transferring Images and using Polymer Clay to creating business cards and buying digital cameras!

The ESBQ website also has helpful information about promoting your work, authenticating one's work, listing on feepay, etc.