I really like this rose painting

 This is a magnet made from an acrylic on paper painting I did in 2010. Back when I was selling original painting, these rose paintings were my go-to. They always sold, and they were easy to paint. I'm looking at this painting now and I wish I still had the original. I guess I'll have to order one. I like the way the light works in this.  It is probably my best painting in this style.

Red green orange abstract floral rose painting art magnet
by MelskyArt

How did Joshua Trees get their name?

 People who settled in the area during the period of western expansion named them that because their branches reminded them of the biblical Joshua raising his hands towards the heavens.

I learned that as a child because we used to go camping in the desert a lot, and the rangers would have educational walks where they would lead us on a little hike and tell us stories about the history, plants and animals of the desert.

When I grew up, I spent three years living in a very isolated part of the Mojave desert, and I did a lot of paintings there. This is one of them! The original is acrylic on canvas, and you can see the brush strokes.

pop art desert sunset joshua tree art magnet
by MelskyArt

Christmas in the Desert

 I painted this when I lived in the Mojave desert. I've always been inspired by the desert, even before I lived there  I went camping there a lot.

This magnet features a cat looking out the window at a Joshua tree. You can only tell it is the winter holiday season because there is a Christmas tree in the house and Christmas lights, so the magnet will look fine on the fridge year-round.

Now that I think of it, having Christmas magnets would be kind of a fun tradition. They could be kept with the holiday stuff, and once a year I would have fun refrigerator magnets. (I don't have magnets on the fridge because they add clutter, and I want the outside of my fridge to be the only uncluttered thing in my house :)

Mojave Desert Christmas Cat Joshua Tree art Magnet
by MelskyArt

Today's magnet of the day - abstract floral plus whimsical

 Describing a lot of my paintings is hard. Are they abstract? Sort of, but almost all of them have some sort of identifiable flower or object. They are not what I'd consider pop art. They are just weird and wonderful colorful paintings with details of animals, flowers, objects, so much stuff. Art Brut is probably the most accurate description, but most people don't know what that is, and  I don't think that people use that as a search term. It means art that is just painted without really planning beforehand.

It is much easier to have a straightforward painting, where I could just say Blue Cat painting, or whatever it is.

Anyway, here is today's magnet, a gem from 2007 in rare landscape format :)

Whimsical abstract floral art cat sun fish magnet
by MelskyArt

Roses and daisies bright floral magnet

Bright abstract floral art flower colorful rose magnet
by MelskyArt

 Here is another in the abstract floral art magnet series! This one has rose and daisy flowers, and a bee, and leaves, and seeds.

Abstract floral, I love it

Another bright, vivid, vibrant abstract floral painting that has now become available in magnet form. It is not as abstract as most of my flower paintings.

The original of this one is acrylic on wood, and I have it hanging in my hallway upstairs.

Abstract floral art colorful rose daisy lilac magnet
by MelskyArt

The Ghost, The Cat and the Tiger Lilies

This is one of my favorite paintings I have done. The original hangs in my house today, but you can buy it in magnet form.

 

Actually, you can buy this image on a lot of products. The way Zazzle works is that you can take an image from any product and put it on any other product (if the artist has marked that option for their products). It just really isn't practical to spend the time putting every one of my images on everything they have. 

Ghost tiger lily cat abstract floral art magnet
by MelskyArt

Abstract Floral Painting

 This original painting is acrylic on paper and from around 2008 I think. Looking at this now, I want to do a series of paintings in this style.

Abstract floral bright colorful happy magnet
by MelskyArt

Vintage Melsky Art - a problem and a solution

What to do with my older paintings? 

Most of my older paintings don't really lend themselves to products very well, but I still want to offer them in my store. Most of the paintings are sold and I don't have large enough file sizes to put on most items. (A lot of my art is from a time period where it wasn't possible to get the large file sizes on the equipment I had at the time.)

I decided to basically put everything I have onto magnets, both old and new. Magnets are small enough so I can use the files I have. They are a fun small gift item that you can put in an envelope with a card, or give instead of a card, as they are only slightly more expensive, but they stay around much longer than a card. With magnets, you don't have the kind of practical issues that you might have with other products. Pretty much everyone has a magnetic surface somewhere in their life to stick things on, right? If you give someone a card, they might stick it somewhere they can look at it for a while and then it either gets tossed or it ends up in a pile or file somewhere.

This is the first one:

Cat ghost guitar record player pop art painting magnet
by MelskyArt

I did this painting while living in Toronto, probably around 2005. It was inspired by the street I lived on, which had a coffee and donuts sign, a dj bar, brick buildings, lots of music venues and cats. It might have had ghosts too, but I never saw one. It was incredible to be in Toronto after living by myself in the Mojave desert. I wish I still lived there.

The big Zazzle store overhaul

Yesterday I got a form letter from the people at Zazzle that basically said they reviewed my store and they liked my art. But I need to work on my metadata and descriptions.

I try not to read too much into this, as it is a form letter. I think the problem with my store on zazzle is not the metadata, but that the store lacks a cohesive focus. The designs look like they belong together. I need to design banners for the different categories of the store. Because this is a pretty sad looking page:



It needs more products too. (I actually sold this folk art bear mask though!)

This has been on my to-do list for quite a while. Time is marching on, and I need to finish my Christmas card designs.

One of my issues is that I really like designing things rather than using those things in a design.

For example, the cherry blossom icon in this card:



I loved making it, but it is hard to get excited about making things with it. This business card is something that will be leaving my store due to the awkward design.  I am going to make some better products that feature the image closer up.