Book Cover for John Eidemak's Upcoming New Crime Novel

Oil painting on canvas with text added afterwards.

Author John Eidemak hired me to do the art and design for his upcoming new crime novel about a London barrister whose wife and child are murdered. His wife was a ballet dancer and he becomes involved with her sister, another dancer.

This is all I know! We shall have to wait for his book to come out to find out the rest of the story.

Detail of the two dancers.

He has now hired me to re-do the cover of his already published book titled Sincere Deceit. Check it out on Amazon:
John Eidemak on Amazon

Fine China Illustrations for Rude-Chintz

A start-up company named Rude-Chintz hired me to create three designs for fine china tea sets. All with a traditional look on first glance but if viewed closely revealing a "rude" aspect to them. Due to the nature of the work, I can only show one of the designs with an area deliberately out of focus!

Delft inspired Farm Scene for the center of a plate.

Book Cover for Telling Stories in the Dark

My grandfather has written a wonderful book on how to tell "head stories", as my family has always called them, to your children titled Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book. It is out of publication now, and he wants to do a second publication with the new title of Telling Stories in the Dark (the name he originally wanted for it.)
He asked me to illustrate a new book cover for it. I recently completed a version of it. I'm not sure that this will be what goes to print. I put some text in to indicate where I intended it to go. No doubt when an art director is involved, there will be changes requested.

My Wedding Invitation Artwork

Columbine block print

 I

Well, five years down the road, I thought I might post the artwork I made for my wedding.

I've been bidding for freelance jobs on Freelancer, and have come to realize that while my versatility as an artist is pretty broad, in an effort to keep my portfolio consistent, I have not shown a lot of the work I've done in the past on my website. (That said, it's also terribly out of date! I really must get on that one.)

My blog seems like an appropriate venue to showcase some of the other things that I've been up to as an artist!

Columbine block print II

First version of doves that I didn't end up using.

Kissing Doves - part of my save-the-date mailer

Columbine Heart - this had text in the center and was used as my save-the date mailer.

This is the Doves Block Print that I used for my actual wedding invitation. Each one is numbered and is an original artwork. I used an overlay on a semi-transparent vellum with the details of the wedding.

This was the border I created for my Valentine's Day engagement announcement. I had text in the center.

Greeting Card Collections

I've been building collections of greeting cards with six different paintings in each. I've been selling them both individually and in sets at my various shows and am thinking about adding them for sale on my Etsy site.

This is the first collection of fruits and vegetables.

I've also done a collection of butterflies and dragonflies as part of my "Little Gem" series with one hummingbird thrown in, but I plan to do another whole series of birds.

My most recent series that I'm still building is my Dancing Dandelions collection. I've got one more to do to have a set of 6 different cards.

 And new on the scene, as of this past week, I started doing abstracted floral watercolors that I showed in my last blog, but I'll add them in again because I'm excited about doing more of these!

Competition entry & Visual Diary for September 15th

This is the piece I entered for the competition.

I've been busy working on my Visual Diary every day since I started on July 1st. It's been an eye opening experience. My computer's memory is tapped out, and until it's resolved and I can again scan every painting in, I'll have to post only the especially meaningful ones. Stay in touch for a post coming soon showing the last two months' worth of highlights!

Abstract Floral 2   My Visual Diary September 15, 2013

Meanwhile, I've been on the job hunt and decided to enter a competition for a website banner for a wedding floral company on Freelancer.com. Here is my entry and it got me inspired to make one similar for my daily diary. They want something dotted and abstract/ geometric. I tried to adapt to that but still keep in mind that is was for a florist. Though now it looks like they really wanted something much more geometric than I thought they did! Oh well, at least it was fun to paint and has me thinking of pursuing this to see where it leads. A range of greeting cards perhaps?

More new paintings in the "Little Gems" Series

Dragonfly with Dewdrops

Yellow Fairies

Thistles on the Isle of Wight

Thisles on the Isle of Wight

Another painting to be in my Isle of Wight show, which I'm hoping to have in the fall of this year.

This is a very recently completed painting inspired by the beautiful countryside on the Isle of Wight in England where my parents-in-law live. The path is along where an old railroad used to go and is now a lovely lane to walk or bike along that takes you from the center to the edge of the island. This particular winter morning was cold and frosty, but nonetheless enchanting.

Reflections

My newest painting titled Pink Water Lily Reflections

I taught an art class for the first time on Sunday this past weekend at the Merton Abbey Mills art market. It was really fulfilling to be teaching again after this past 2 and half year hiatus! There seemed to be interest in the classes, so I'm hopeful that they will grow into a solid future enterprise.

 This month I'll be focusing on painting with watercolor. Teaching these watercolor basics: how to choose what tools are needed, how to prepare your painting surface, painting light to dark, using the transparency of the paint, what common errors to watch out for and how to correct mistakes, building a painting up layer upon layer versus laying the paint on thickly, and with an emphasis on color mixing and color theory as the situation permits.

In preparing for teaching the course, I've been going over my notes in old sketchbooks from my CCA(California College of the Arts) days. Wow, do I ever miss art school! There is nothing like being surrounded by people who feel as passionately as you do about art and the feedback and interaction are to be treasured.

Another New "Little Gem" Painting: Dragonfly with Dewdrops

I painted this "little gem" painting, as I like to call them, while I was at the Merton Abbey Mills Art and Craft market last weekend. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to meet new people in London and start to get a little bit of time to myself again. It's been super to double task it. I'm both showing my work and making more at the same time. Right now I'm trying to decide what to work on first when I bring my oils this coming Sunday!

Etsy Gallery Up and Running Once Again & New Facebook Page!

After a two and a half year hiatus (during which I moved across the world, learned how to drive on the other side of the road, had my firstborn, and bought my first house- a serious fixer-upper which we are still working on) my Etsy Gallery is up and running and finally out of "vacation mode"! I still don't have much of an art studio, but there is enough space to work on small pieces. I'm looking forward to summer weather to enable me to paint larger oils plein-air and work on some other pieces I've had in mind for a long time now which require space to stretch out.

I've completed two more paintings in my Dancing Dandelions series, number V is shown here. This is the first painting I've listed for sale on the gallery. I get more exposure by eeking the listings out one at a time, so it will be a week or more before every new painting is up on the site.

Check it out:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CassandraSeeger

Also, more marketing hoo-haa prompted me to build a new Facebook page. Feel free to take a look:
https://www.facebook.com/CassandraSeegerArt

Two New "Little Gems"

Butterfly with Tiger Lily and White Flowers

I have been using the left-over paper from my wedding invitations (on which I did a linoleum block print) to make "little gem" paintings to sell on my Etsy gallery. They are just 4" x 5" and so can be placed into a picture frame one would normally put a 5" x 7" photograph in.

Dancing Dandelion IV

I usually like to paint bigger, but I've been using these as a way of experimenting and playing with my style. They really are studies, but perfect for my goal of the elusive "20 minute" painting. They take much longer than that, but my teacher at CCA, Robert Hunt, set me the goal of producing a 20 minute piece every day and, though I've failed to work that fast so far, I like these as a way of pushing myself a little bit.

Getting My Feet Wet

My husband and I have just bought our first house and this week I've been working on setting up my art studio in our new home!
Whenever there's been a break in art-making for me, I find I need to do a quick painting to get back into the swing of things. I painted this piece on December 3rd from a photo I took this summer on the Isle of Wight at the beach.

 Sandown Beachscape I, watercolor and ink on paper 8 1/4" (21cm) x 12" (30.5cm)

Blue Tit Landing

Well, I'm on a roll! Over the Easter holiday my parents-in-law babysat and I had the chance to paint down on the Isle of Wight while visiting them. They have several bird feeders that attract a lot of the lovely little songbirds in the area, including blue tits. The weather warmed up a couple of weeks before and the plants are starting to sprout their leaves and bud blossoms. Spring is becoming my favorite season. After the dull greys and browns of winter, seeing a little color is so wonderful!

Red Dress series write-up!

It's getting close, East Bay Open Studios starts this weekend!

At my open studios I'll be selling some of the paintings and drawings from my series titled "The Red Dress". The series was inspired by my dress hanging in my bedroom for so long up on the candelabra. I kept looking at it, thinking, it has a story hanging there. I wanted viewers to be intrigued to stop and wonder what occasion it was worn for, who the woman was who wore it and whether it was about to be worn, or had already served its purpose. The series is a group of studies, all done with the intention of exploring ways of conveying this sense of mystery.

My good friend and fashion guru, Nerissa Pacio, is a freelance fashion writer who has this great blog: Nerissa's Notebook with fashion tips and goings on in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nerissa has included a write-up about my series and the open studios in her blog. Check it out: http://nerissasnotebook.com/2010/06/02/red-dress-as-art-at-east-bay-open-studios/

I used the Red Dress project as an opportunity to explore different combinations of drawing and painting mediums, often used together as well as on their own. I played with capturing the light at various times of the day, and settled eventually into evening lighting to heighten the sense of mystery I was going for.

Nerissa asked me, "Why a red dress?" Well, the red dress is iconic. It has a totally different message than the little black dress. Unlike the black dress that every woman has in her closet, not every woman has a little red dress. A woman who wears a red dress is not afraid to be noticed, in fact, the boldness of the color speaks to the personality of the woman in it. She is confident, sexy and alluring, and knows it.

Hollywood has helped to create this image, for sure. The bombshell walking down the street that captures the eye is more often than not in red. So, I think, interest in who might be wearing the red dress is built in from societal expectations and long established fantasies created around the icon. The series just wouldn't have the same appeal if it were the blue dress or the brown dress. Also, visually, red is such a striking color that it gives more opportunity for playing around as an artist.

ProArts East Bay Open Studios

I just finished this painting to hang at ProArts in downtown Oakland. It's a plein air piece begun last Fall at apple harvest time in my backyard. It's up for their group exhibition highlighting the artists participating in the East Bay Open Studios.

This will be my first time doing Open Studios and I'm really excited to be joining in with 36 other artists in a huge space (formerly a Barnes and Noble) in Jack London Square. I'll have a nice wall space allocated to show my work. I'm madly painting new works, all inspired in some way by nature and it's myriad of forces. Some will be motion studies of dancers, some plein-air homages to nature's beauty, and some illustrative pieces based in pure fantasy. I'll also be offering prints of some of my most popular paintings for the first time. I like the idea of accessibility to everyone. There should be work available for any budget.

Come check it out if you're in the neighborhood!
Two weekends: June 5 &6, 12 & 13, 2010
Pavilion Building @ Jack London Square
98 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607
http://artrospection.com/jls/
http://www.proartsgallery.org/ebos/index.php