New Art Finds

This weekend winter came barreling down on the front range of Colorado, just in time for the second weekend of Boulder's Open Studio Tour. Wet turned to snow and the fall leaves came tumbling down. While last week sported temps in the high 70's, Saturday reached just 18. I snapped this lovely shot with my iPhone (! I know! great lense for a phone!), as I was walking up the sidewalk to Pattie Lee Becker's charming Victorian home and studio. She is new to the Boulder arts scene, having moved from Brooklyn, NY recently.

This lovely piece, entitled, "Valentina on a Green Beach," was one of my favorites from the 20 or so she had displayed on the walls of her home. She creates these lovely, intriguing, almost magical worlds, with pen and colored pencil. Her website describes her work as, "residing in the complex space that connects humans with their physical and psychological landscape. Personal stories are transformed into imaginative invention. Color and pattern narrate; images conjre both the familiar and the fantastic." Well said. The playful quality leads you in and then amazement takes over and I found myself going back to each piece again and again. She has a lot of work on her website, you can have a look here.

And one very good piece of news is that if you don't have the dough to shell out for an original, you can get a very, very high quality, gorgeous 8 X 10 limited edition print (with certificate of authenticity) of the piece above, "Ramona's Bright Idea," at a fabulous website called, 20 X 200. The idea behind 20 X 200 is simple: there are a lot of people out there that want to sell their art and there are a lot of people out there who'd like to buy it. They introduce 2 new pieces each week, one photo and one work on paper. They print in editions of 200 for $20 each. They have other larger sizes for a little more, but lower print runs. Truly art for everyone. Click here to see what artists and pieces are available and while you've got your hand on the mouse, click over to their blog to see what's new. I LOVE this! Art for the people!

While I was obsessively poking around 20 X 200 all snowy Sunday morning with a cup of tea in hand, I found this stunning alphabet created by 20 X 200 artist, Linzie Hunter. Wow-za. I love this. Reminds me of Linda Barry a little bit and her new book, What It Is. A very talented Scottish illustrator, you can see  more of her work here.

I also just loved these birds by illustrator, photographer and antique shop owner, Laura Levine. She still has a few prints left at 20 X 200. I'm coveting the Meadow Lark.

I'll post some other 20 X 200 finds to soon. Even in these lean times, we all need beauty in our lives and what a great way to support other artists while enriching our own art collections.