Blue Bird and Fairy painting Little Friends inspired by Victorian fairy art

I’ve always had a deep love for the whimsical children’s book fairy art of the Victorian era, and have a lovely collection of classic stories illustrated by Arthur Rackham, Kate Greenaway, Beatrix Potter and Walter Crane, to name a few.

Arthur Rackham remains my biggest inspiration for his inimitable style, his illustrations being rich in whimsy, detail, lyricism, with gothic darkness and fantastical elements blended in…

 

 

I recently discovered a gorgeous Australian illustrator of a slightly later time, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, whose  illustrations are just as delightful. A contemporary of similar Australian artist May Gibbs, Ida’s art is utterly charming, featuring the sweetest fairies and sprites all in beautifully imagined settings amidst trees, flowers and butterflies. I immediately fell in love with her way of depicting little folk in relationship with nature elements, often showing fairies with frogs, birds and rabbits.

 

 

Her work inspired me to paint a little whimsical picture of a Bird and a Fairy, similar to one of hers, sitting together in cosy friendship on a branch of cherry blossoms.

We get BlueBirds occasionally at our birdbath, and they are so bright and magical to see, so I thought it would be fitting for such a bird to have an equally enchanting friend to cuddle up to.

 

 

It started off with a pencil and pink pen outline on my favourite Stonehenge paper, keeping note of the movement and flow that I wanted with the blossoms and branches.

 

 

Then, lightly colouring it with layers of watercolours and coloured pencil: this stage in itself could have been the finished painting, but I wanted a bolder more detailed artwork.

 

 

The finished painting has been further layered with colored pencil, gouache and watercolours. I kept the color palette fairly simple with corals, blues, pinks and greens. It measures 4 x 6 inches, and is available as a lovely art print, perfect for a children’s room, in my online shop here.

Thanks for visiting, take care and stay well!

 

Cat Inspiration !

Just before Christmas last year we adopted two very special cats from our local animal rescue center the Decorah Humane Society.

Orson & Emily

These gorgeous kitties are good friends, and are already providing me with so much entertainment, love and inspiration.

This is a new artwork of little Orson doing her favourite thing: chasing anything that moves. I imagine if she could swim, this is what she’d be doing 🙂

This delightful Cat and Koi artwork is available as a $10 print in my Online Shop.

I am currently working on a magical realism-style painting about Emily, who is named after our favourite poet Emily Dickinson and writer Emily Bronte.

She is such an enigmatic and beautiful cat, and is proving to be the perfect muse. She has a fascination for water and loves staring at this fountain…

This is a playful piece using Emily and photoshopped artwork of mine – I liked the pattern motif of Arts & Crafts / poppies with her stark black and white markings.

I’ll be posting more about the new painting soon ~ thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly sketches for wax carving and a New Jewelry Design!

I’ve been pretty busy with some new projects which I’ll be writing about soon.

One of them is a new jewelry design of a butterfly / moth hybrid. I’ve nearly sold out of both my Art Nouveau Butterfly and Art Deco Moth jewelry design which come as gorgeous brooches, keychains & choker necklaces.

At the moment I have 10% discount on all my jewellery in my Etsy Shop, so don’t miss out on one of these very unique pieces as I will no longer be making or selling them when they are sold out.

Butterfly Art Nouveau statement necklace

Art Deco Moth Brooch

These are some sketches I’ve been looking at for my new design – butterflies and moths make for wonderful subject matter as there is so much variation with wing shape and size.

 

I’ll post more updates, in the meantime, here are some more lovely jewelry designs that are perfect gifts! They are all available in my Online Shop, with free USA shipping for orders over $40.

~ Thanks for stopping by!

My Garden Fairy ~ the inspiration of nature, creativity and art

One of my biggest joys is spending time in my beloved garden. I talk to the flowers, trees, birds, bees and other animals that visit, but there is another little spirit that resides here that is harder to see…

This whimsical fairy was created with watercolours and dried pressed flowers that I picked from my garden: petunia, lilly, rose and pansy petals amongst others. I also included mulberry ink from our beautiful old mulberry tree’s bountiful supply.

You can see the remarkable detail of the petals’ veins in the prints.

She sits amongst the mushrooms and flowers, keeping watch on all the elements that grow in this magical realm.

She is part of an exhibit at The Left Bank Shop & Gallery in my hometown of McGregor, Iowa. The exhibit, “Local Inspiration” features work of selected gallery artists interpreting local themes. She is for sale there, or you can buy a gorgeous archival reproduction print here on my website Liza Paizis.com/Fairies

 

Thank you for visiting, and have a magical day !

 

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A Love of Drawing in Detail….

This is an older artwork that I recently found while tidying up my studio. It was done with a Rotring technical drawing pen and watercolour washes.

My first love was drawing in black and white – I love to do intricate detail as a form of meditation, and the Rotring pen provides a nice stable line with a dependable flow of pigment ink.

This lovely drawing depicts the greek myth of Poseidon and Amphitrite, a sea nymph. Poseidon had to persuade her to be his lover, and enlisted the help of Delphin the dolphin god to bring her to him. As a reward, Poseidon turned Delphin into the star constellation we see today as Delphinus.

It is available as a gorgeous archival print here.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Autumn Poetry & Inspiration

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry’s cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I’ll put a trinket on.

~ The Inspired Emily Dickenson ~

Autumn Angel & Fairy Art and Moth Art Deco necklace © LizaPaizis.com

Sketch of the Day

Recently I bought a beautiful sketch book from Barnes & Noble – just the right size not to be too daunting to work in, with lovely ivory coloured paper. I’ve been sketching away, and putting some on my new Instagram account @lizapaizisart . I have been neglecting my sketching practices of late, so this is good motivation! It also reminds me of a wonderful book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron in which we are reminded how therapeutic daily creativity is….

Today, I just felt like the first sketch needed to be a heart design – perhaps a tattoo design. The world definitely needs more love, and beautiful hearts right now….

I used a nice new Galaxy Marker for white highlights, and one of my favourite Caran D’Ache colored pencils, for this Filigree Love Heart sketch .

Humminbird tattoo design sketch, inspired by the hummingbirds outsude my window :

Red Dragonfly tattoo design sketch :

– hope to see you on Instagram, and thanks for stopping by!

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A little mermaid and a barn owl original pewter designs

I have created many original and whimsical jewelry pieces from the lost wax casting method, and here are two new ones!

As described in my previous post  I carve the originals from wax and get them cast into precious metal. Here we have a beautiful barn owl totem charm, and also an exquisitely detailed mermaid. The mermaid is actually double sided – there is a different mermaid on each side of the charm.

This has been my most detailed small wax carving to date, and it was such a joy to do as I always love anything to do with mermaids . This mermaid is available as different items in my online shop including a lovely keychain with seahorse and shell, a pendant necklace and a wonderful pair of earrings – perfect gifts for a mermaid lover!

The owl is my interpretation of a barn owl, and this totem animal jewellery is available as a keyring, pendant, pin, earrings and even a ring. You can also find these exclusive pieces and wonderful owl gifts in my shop.

Both the mermaid and the owl, like all of my original jewellery items are cast in lead-free pewter, but can also be custom made into copper,and silver. These are unique, original creations.

This is the Owl cast in beautiful red bronze, for a special beaded necklace I am creating with semi-precious gemstones, Czech glass beads and pearls…

     Owl pewter pendant necklace

I’ll be creating more owl and mermaid art next year – I just cannot seem to get enough of either of them as a subject matter, as they really resonate with my imagination and creativity – so keep an eye out!

Gorgeous Lizard and Cat bracelet cast in pewter from my original design

I love lizards, and this bracelet was one I just had to make from an original design of mine. It is cast in lead-free pewter and has a beautiful curve that sits snug on the wrist. It’s inspired by the sinuous designs of Art Nouveau jewellery, which drew so much on Nature’s creations.

It has chain on both sides that allow for shortening or lengthening, and is finished with a little silver finding.

A perfect jewelry gift for any other lizard or gecko lover ! It’s available for sale in my online shop here and the price includes free shipping.

I have also transformed my cat design into a bracelet for cat lovers :

…you can buy it on Etsy here !

Cat Dreaming : Stunning cat beaded necklace, with birds and fish

Today is National Cat Day !!

This is my “Cat Dreaming” necklace I made inspired by my love of Cats.

I have used a selection of gorgeous Czech glass beads, as well as Turquoise gemstones, to compliment the little silver tones bird and fish charms. I wonder what this cat is dreaming about….!?

I have also created some adorable little bird earrings to match with turquoise beads. I have been making a lot of very unique jewellery pieces lately for the local galleries here in Iowa and Wisconsin, along the beautiful Mississippi Valley where I live. These items feature my unique pewter original castings, from my hand carved designs. I carve the designs from a hard jeweller’s wax – you can read more about the process on my website here.

Both are available in my Etsy shop here.

I have been carving wax designs and casting these in lead-free pewter for about 10 years now. I am largely self taught, having gone to a 4 hour workshop at a music festival in Australia to learn the basics, I really took to it with a passion and developed my style from there – and I am still learning! It is a process I love and my original pieces of jewellery are becoming increasingly popular, as they are exclusive, hand made and entirely original. They include cats, a dragonfly, moth, lizard, butterfly, tree of life, pixie, owl and mermaid jewellery designs in lead-free semi precious pewter.

Tree Brooch

Dragonfly brooch

I get a master caster to create and cast the molds in South Africa, where pewter casting and design is very popular, from items such a cutlery, to jewellery and giftware…Below are some more creations I have been working on which feature my exclusive pewter designs and carvings, all of which you can find in my shop:

Cat face pin

Owl pendant

Lizard necklace

Art Deco Moth keychain

Pixie keychain

Owl Earrings with green glass eyes

Cat Face Ring