In the Studio

Growing up, my family’s tradition was to tag a tree at a Christmas tree farm on Thanksgiving morning and then go back about a week or two later to get it chopped down. The past few years my husband and my Christmas tree tradition has been a bit less romantic. It involves going to Lowes on a weekday night when few shop, so that I can look at every 6-7′ Frazier Fir tree there is in the store! Mind you, this is not something my husband is very fond of, but it is our little tradition. I think everyone has Christmas tree traditions…what’s yours?

Painting by Hand-Painted Weddings.

One of the clients I am working with right now on their wedding invitations is interested in hand-painted lettering. Now I don’t pride myself as a calligrapher. I believe that calligraphy is an artform and sometimes a profession unto itself, like photography is to interior design. I do, however, have very good hand-writing, have a lot of experience with typography, and am incredibly detail oriented in my painting, so hand-painted lettering is a natural technique for me.

Hand-painted text is a pretty exciting undertaking for me as it opens the doors to very unique designs. Sometimes fonts can be very limiting.

Above is a bit of practicing I’m doing. I started off with turquoise lettering and then added emerald and purple to create some more dimension in the lettering. Hand-painted lettering takes a certain skill. It reminds me of yoga. It is controlled but you have to let go and flow with it. It is amazing how much I learn from yoga that I bring into other aspects of my life.

Painting by Hand-Painted Weddings.