Living a LaBelle Mariposa life

Cypress Sunset painting created for a original art pendant.

I came up with the name of my business, LaBelle Mariposa, because it brings together two languages to say the beautiful butterfly. Butterflies represent transformation, flight, beauty, living for the moment, and so many other things. Monarchs pass their knowledge on to generations who complete a journey that their ancestors have made for countless generations. This communicates tradition. In so many ways, the monarch, and butterflies in general, are a special symbol of rebirth, transformation, and grace. So, living a LaBelle Mariposa life is embracing personal transformation, finding our purpose, and living each day to the fullest. 

Lately, I've been so blessed to have so many of my dreams coming into reality. Today, Jim and I will travel to Monetery to visit Cheryl Watt Pottery & Gallery on Cannery Row so that I can drop off more art. Then, tomorrow, we'll attend an opening at the gallery! Also, today, I will get to spend time working with a dear friend on her own personal journey before I purchase the vehicle that will be my art car to promote LaBelle Mariposa!

So, today, I am feeling very blessed and happy to be living my transformed LaBelle Mariposa life!

Wellness Sanctuary and Spa

I'm so excited to be a part of Wellness Sanctuary and Spa in Placerville, CA. Joaquin Fioresi asked me to bring some of my art to his place connected to the Carey House Hotel and my work fits in with the vibe of the place perfectly. I posted an image of the painting I did for Joaquin and Jen already. Here's a pic of Joaquin and I at the spa yesterday. 

Joaquin Fioresi and Laura Pallatin of LaBelle Mariposa.

You can see some of my work behind us. I am offering my work at the spa at a special price so if you're interested in adding one of my paintings to your collection, this is a great time. I promise that I wont be offering my work for sale at this price again.

I will be making signs for the Wellness Center soon, too, and will be posting pictures of the signs in process and finished.

Wellness Sanctuary and Spa artwork gift

Heart Chakra tree by Laura Pallatin of LaBelle Mariposa

I am so excited to be part of Joaquin Fioresi's new endeavor called "Wellness Sanctuary and Spa" in downtown Placerville, CA. As a business warming gift, I created a painting for his space. I love it! I was sitting with Joaquin in his healing space and opened myself for inspiration to create a piece of art for the room. The Heart Chakra Tree is the image that came up in my imagination and now exists in the real world for all to see. I hope that Joaquin and Jen enjoy the piece and have incredible success with their venture.

Joaquin has invited me to display and offer my art work for purchase at his place and I am just so pleased! I look forward to creating inspirational projects including Joaquin's music in the near future.

From art to pendant

Recently, while my mom (Maralee Lowder) and I had a booth at the Butterfly Festival in Mariposa, Calilfornia, I met a lovely photographer/jewelry maker named Joelle Leder. We immediately formed a mutual admiration society as I love her photography and handmade jewelry, and Joelle loved my art and pendants. Joelle has been successfully selling her work at art and craft fairs for over ten years and, thankfully, she was more than willing to share tips and tricks for being successful at shows. Soon after the show, Joelle asked me to consider creating a line of pendants that complimented her "beachy" jewelry. I love the ocean and jumped at the idea to create art that brings to mind the casual and laid-back feeling of the beach.

I started with this sea start painting...

Sea Star Painting for LaBelle Mariposa pendant

Once I'd completed the painting which is 12 by 12 in size, I photographed it and re-sized it using Photoshop. Painting something bigger and shrinking it down for a pendant is such a fun process. All of the details are so cute and crisp when shrunk down from a large size to an itty bitty piece of art. :)

There are several factors that influence the final product when printing the images. Therefore, I usually have to do a few test-prints before I get the final image that I want for the pendant.



I'm very happy with the final result of this image...

I love the dimension and the shading. In real life, it looks like you could run your finger along the side and feel the starfish. :) Now I'm working on a sand dollar, and next will come a painting that represents Manhattan Beach, CA. I'll share photos of those paintings as they come along.

Sea Star Pendant

Blessings,
Laura P.

Miwok Sun Maiden

I've been working on this little 4x4 painting for a contest at my local Indian reservation. I was inspired by the beautiful women they have working in their Tribal Health office. Long almost black hair frames lovely young women. The workers often bring in their children to work and family members bring their children in to hang out with the rest of the family. The atmosphere is an interesting mix of modern medical facility and family reunion with lots of love an laughter. It's such an amazing place to take my family in for medical care. 

I really like the painting.  I hope the people who evaluate the art like it, too. It's just what I envisioned in the lobby, but now I'm thinking it may need something else.

If I add more to her, I'll share it here. 

I hope that you get to create what you envision, too.

Blessings,

Laura P.

Living our best lives

I have lived parts of my life thinking that I just needed to hold on till things got better. That's not a bad way to live, sometimes it's the only way to survive things. However, some of those years I could have been enjoying the company of people I would have to say goodbye to and I didn’t even know it at the time. I also lived in a nice home, had good friends, and many other neat benefits that I didn’t fully enjoy. I was so busy white-knuckling the scary stuff, I missed much of the nice parts. And, of course, much of what I feared never happened anyway.

Today, I try every day to focus on the wonderful people and good things in my life. Letting fear of the future hurt my present is very destructive, so I avoid that fervently. Choosing to live our best lives every moment of every day, is the best way to have happy productive lives.

Blessings,

Laura P.

Good choices inspire courage

 

What I did this weekend

The weatherman threatened rain, so I made plans to get some work done. As it turned out, it was  a mixed weather bag but I'm glad I got some work done anyway. I have a couple of events coming up that I thought some tiny paintings would work well for. I love to work on these darling paintings and, because they are much less expensive than larger works, it gives folks a chance to own an original without the higher price tag.

Please visit my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/WalkInYourOwnFootsteps to see the Inspirational Image for today. I also updated my website www.WIYOF.com and added a page for the Inspirational Images.

Have a great week!

Blessings,
Laura P.

Here's my entire weekend's work... All finished!

The quarter give you an idea of how tiny each piece is. :)

Smaller grouping

This sunflower needed a happy little lady bug. I added a shiny product that adds dimension to the lady bug, I love how it turned out.

this painting is only 4 x 4. Big look for a tiny piece.

A new series of paintings

I just love it when I wake up in the morning with fully formed creative ideas on my mind. Last week I had just such a morning. I had just bought a whole bunch of canvases at Aaron Brothers because they were 70% off!  Some of the canvases were a size I've never used before, 12x30. I didn't know how I would use them until I dreamed up this chakra tree idea. Since I love symbolism, I thought this would be super cool, if I could pull it off. My goal is to a three painting series (at least!)

In case you're not familiar with chakras, according to Wikipedia: Chakra is a concept originating in Hindu texts, featured in tantric and yogic traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. They include seven colors, starting with red at the base of your spine (root), orange for the sacral (reproduction, creativity), Yellow for solar plexus (gut), green (sometimes pink) for the hear (compassion, love), light blue for the throat (speak your truth), dark blue for the third eye (intuition), and white or purple for the crown (enlightenment).

I used these symbols and the tree to represent the human body. The first one I did in a primitive style.The second painting is in a bolder more whimsical style. I love them both and can't wait to work on the third.

Chakra Tree Prim

Chakra Tree Bold

Butterfly and Lantern Gallery visit

Jim and I went to visit Sunshine, the owner of the gallery in Pacific Grove that carries my art, Butterfly and Lantern. Since I've been invited to show my work at J27, we motored over to the coast to get a few of my pieces so I'll have plenty to show. Here's a picture of me at the gallery with Sunshine.

While I was admiring Dick Crispo's work, I noticed this cute little birdie pair in a nest that I created! How fun! Now I've been shown with Dick Crispo! I'm really moving up in the world. :)