Sketchbook Pages

I've never been great about keeping a sketchbook, but I actually worked in one on and off last year. Here are a few pages from the 2013 sketchbook. I've started a new one this year, and I hope to keep up working in it.

Wedding and the New Year

Happy New Year! I have been largely absent from blogging for the past 8 months or so because I was busily planning my wedding, which took place a couple weeks ago on January 5th. Part of what kept me so busy planning for the wedding was that we decided to design and make many of the details for our wedding ourselves. We worked together to "diy" our save the dates, invites, place cards, and programs. I also made the bouquets for myself and my bridesmaids out of paper.
Here are some photos of the invites, which included tree illustrations done by me, and a custom ink stamp that we designed from one of my tree drawings:

Also, here are a couple photos of the bouquets I made. They are based off a paper flower pattern that I found at ellinee.com.
The bridesmaid bouquets were white and black.

My bouquet was gold and white.

New Work: Four Seasons

I have not been a reliable blogger lately at all. Apologies. But I have some new work to share, so I'm back! I made these four pieces as a short series inspired by the four seasons. I've been playing more with watercolor lately and it has been pretty fun.
"Winter":

"Spring":

"Summer":

"Autumn":

And here they are installed in a recent show that I took part in:

Big Move

I have been really negligent about posting for the last few months. But there is a good reason why. I've moved out of Brooklyn and back to my home state of Massachusetts. For a while my life was a lot like this all the time:

I am excited to be back in the Boston area and I am beginning to feel settled in. The move went well and included a lot of incidents like this one:

I am happy to have a bright, sunny new space to work in as well:

I am in fact going to go sit there and work on some new projects right now.

Distance

My recent move has been a strange experience for me, filled with a lot of conflicting emotions. I am excited for all the new things I am starting in Boston but I am also sad to have left behind people and places that I love. Today I decided to take some time and make a simple accordion-fold artist book about moving. I titled the book "Distance."

Recent Private Commission

I recently finished this piece for a family in New York. It is three separate drawings on paper that will be framed and hung together as one piece. The imagery came from a personal source provided to me by the family. I really enjoyed working on this project, especially the challenge of making three drawings that would work together as one. I can't wait to see how it looks framed and installed in their house! (You can click on the above picture to view it a bit larger).

Moving and Etsy Sale

This blog has been hibernating for the past coupe of months... apologies for my neglect. There is a really good reason for it, though! In the coming month I am moving out of New York City, where I have lived for the past 10 years, and back to my hometown of Boston, MA. I am getting really excited about this move, but it is also taking up a lot of my extra time and energy. I hope once I get settled there to be able to update again with more projects and things I have been working on. I am currently working on a commission that I am excited to share once it is finished.

Also, getting ready for my move I am having a big sale in my Etsy store until June 1st. Everything is 20-30% off, which is a really great deal (I think)! The store will probably be closed for a good part of June while I am moving, so if you want prints or cards, get them now while they are super cheap! lauramccabe.etsy.com

Three images from my new "Swarm" series

About a month ago I started working on a new series. I have always enjoyed drawing multiples of things. So I decided to focus on drawing some "swarms" and make them into a little series. I have completed the first three images, and here they are:



The backgrounds of these images are watercolor wash, which is a new way of working for me, and I am really enjoying experimenting with it. I've always used gouache before, and it is interesting to see what different effects I can get from watercolor.
I have more images planned and will continue to work on this series for the next few months. I hopefully will have these available as prints in my Etsy shop soon as well.

Pictures from Three Graces Teeny Tiny Art Show #8

This past month I've had some new tiny works at Three Graces Gallery Teeny Tiny Art Show. Here are some pictures of my work at the gallery. I think it looks great!




You can still go check out the show through March 6th! All the work is also available to see and purchase online.
Thanks to my friend Erin Ellis for taking these pictures and sending them along to me!

January News Review

January has been a busy month! In addition to launching my great website redesign, I've been getting ready for the next Teeny Tiny Art Show at Three Graces Gallery! I made some new tiny paintings for the next show, including these butterfly "specimens:"



I've been very interested in drawing butterflies recently, and I have a project in the works involving them that I will be posting about soon, hopefully. In the meantime, you can check out all my work in the Teeny Tiny Art Show right here.

I'm also excited to be working with a few new stores carrying my work, including Assemble Gallery and Studio in Seattle, WA. They have been great to work with and I am really excited to have my prints and cards there! Check out their website or if you are in the area go check out the shop!

I'll be updating soon about some more new great stores and venues that I'm going to be working with.

Website Redesign!

Yesterday I launched the redesign of www.lauramccabe.com. I think it looks really great and will really help visitors to learn more about me and my work.

Please go and check it out! I added a few new pieces as well and I hope to be updating again with new work in the coming months.
Also, thanks so much to Kjell Reigstad for helping with the redesign and building the site!

Happy Holiday Season!

I have been very much getting into the holiday spirit these past few weeks. I love this time of year, figuring out and making gifts for everyone! I have been working on a couple of seasonal sorts of things I wanted to share.
First, I did this drawing that I am calling "Neighborhood Tree."

It is kind of my take on a christmas tree if it were decorated with the buildings from my neighborhood.

I also made some new ornaments this year. I was pretty happy with these day and night ones:

And then I did a new version of the tree ones, similar to the ones I made last year:

I think they came out pretty well.

As always, of course, these items are all available in my Etsy shop.

"Black Friday" Etsy Sale

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone! I'm giving in to the post-Thanksgiving consumerism that is Black Friday and am offering free shipping in the USA on everything in my Etsy shop from now until Sunday night. I'm also offering free worldwide shipping on all orders over $10.
Check it out: lauramccabe.etsy.com!

Governor's Island piece finished

I had my studio on Governor's Island until the beginning of October. I made good progress on this piece through that time, but I had to take it back home to finish it up. I finally got it done this past week.

The work was inspired by the historic yellow houses where my studio was housed. The island was a military base for a long time and families of officers lived in the house where I was working. I tried to let the environment of Governor's Island influence and inspire the imagery in my work there. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Here is a detail of the moths:

These photos may not completely do the work justice. I am going to get a high res scan of it done soon. But the piece is about three feet tall so it may take a while for that to happen. I just wanted to get the finished product up for people to see.

New Drawing: "Caged"

Governor's Island Studio

I got the wonderful opportunity to have a studio in an old house on Governor's Island since the beginning of August. The space was given to the teaching artists at the Children's Museum of the Arts, where I work.

I've been super busy since August but I have tried really hard to get out to the island at least once a week to work in the studio. I am working on a couple larger pieces there that are inspired in various ways by Governor's Island.
Here is a detail of one of the works in progress:

I have the space until the beginning of October and I hope to make some real progress on the pieces I've started in the next couple of weeks. I'll update with more images of the work as it progresses.

Teeny Tiny Art Show #7 Opens Tonight!

I'm excited to once again to have my work in the Teeny Tiny Art Show at Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, NH.

The show opens tonight and runs through September 26th. You can also see all the work online in the Three Graces online store.