Books! Lots and lots and lots of beautiful gouache & ink books drawn by American artist Jane Mount. These are just a few pieces from a huge, ongoing series titled Ideal Bookshelf :

I paint people’s ideal bookshelves: your favorite books, books that changed your life, books that made you who you are.
Picking your ideal books is not an easy task (try it!). I think of this project as an intimate form of portraiture; a way to illustrate who the subject is on the inside instead of out.
I love that a book is something created very personally and then mass-produced in order to affect many other people very personally. I paint them to turn them back into something very personal and intimate. In the age of the Kindle (which I also love, btw), it’s very satisfying.

Ok, that’s it… I’m going to look through all of my books and make my own ‘ideal bookshelf’ right this very minute!

{I found Jane’s work on 20×200, when I was putting yesterday’s giveaway post together… stay tuned, at 3pm EST today I’ll announce the winner of the 20×200 gift certificate! You could get yourself some of Jane’s books!}

Yep, the lovely folks at 20×200 are giving away a $75 gift certificate to one of you! These are just a few examples of the GORGEOUS prints {from a few of my favorite artists} that I would buy in a heartbeat… um, can I enter this giveaway?! No, I guess that wouldn’t be ethical. Ok, you enter instead then. Here’s the deal:

One lucky reader will win a $75 gift certificate for 20×200. To be eligible, please leave a comment on this post and let me know which piece of art you’d want to buy from their huge collection; and subscribe to the 20×200 newsletter {they announce new artists and new work all the time, so you’ll want to be in the know with $75 burning a hole in your pocket!}

The winner will be announced right here, and on Twitter, at 3 p.m. EST on Thursday March 1, 2012 Good luck!

{UPDATE! The winner was announced on Thursday afternoon – congratulations Nicola Sheahan!}

{1. Amze Emmons 2. Hollis Brown Thornton 3. Martha Rich 4. Jane Mount 5. Lisa Congdon 6. Aili Schmeltz 7. Trey Speegle}

Icebergs? Pastel-hued boulders? A land made entirely of forgotten bits of chalk? Maybe!

Toronto based photographer Evonne Bellefleur envisioned these places, and asked a very talented stylist, Caitlin Doherty, to build these lovely blocks… or bergs or rocks or chalks… for her. The result is a photographic series of very pretty, airy, geometric landscapes that I desperately want to frame and hang on my wall… and arrange on my end table too!

{The prints of this work range in size from 10″x6″ to 30″x22″ –  oooh, I want a big one!}

In a sunny garden, or in a strange mushroom patch… yep, I love found imagery collage just about anywhere. One place that is unbelievably full of such things, is the portfolio of UK based artist Ben Lewis. Neon head dresses, hungry owls, flowery tears… sigh… inspiration overload.

{via ML4U’s Pinterest board}

Seinfood: An Art Show About Nothing by Rinee Shah

Um, I love this! Food from Seinfeld…

Yes, yes it is.

{…currently showing until March 10th at Pot + Pantry, in the Mission, San Francisco}

Ok, I realize that it’s only February, but this series, titled EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL by UK based artist Hayley Warnham, has me counting down the days til summer! I want to jump in that bright blue pool, throw on my insanely yellow shades, and eat what I can only assume to be a strawberry lemonade popsicle. YES!!! I’m going to close my eyes and pretend that I’m that lady in the blue dress… here’s to a weekend full of that!

{via curate 1k}

Gasp! I want the houses, the pools, the huge/beautiful trees, and the colors… oh, the colors! Yep, Australian artist Paul Davies has me wanting to relocate into a 5’x4′ painting. Someone call my real estate agent – immediately!

{I found the first image in this post on Pinterest, pinned by Joy Cho of Oh Joy!}

Whoa… has it really been three years? Yep, just checked my archives, and sure enough my first post went up three years ago today! And so to celebrate, three fabulous pieces of art that seem to fit the occassion {because you have to celebrate with cake, no?!}

Thank you so much for coming along for the ride! xo

{1. Ashlie Chavez 2. Will Cotton 3. Claire Grill}

When you hear the name Dottie Angel, I’m quite sure you immediately think of the faceless, crafty goddess who resides at Mossy Shed, and looks a little something like this, yes?

Well, I am so excited for you to meet the woman {with a face} behind Dottie Angel… the insanely talented, Seattle based artist, Tif Fussell:

Tif and I have planned an AMAZING, collaborative, creative tea party for Seattle! The theme… “assembling”, and I’ll tell you why. Twelve of us are going to “assemble” at the very lovely “Assemble Gallery & Studio“, where we will “assemble” a collaborative, mixed media collage {using vintage papers, thread, text, images, buttons… whatever Tif and I can dig out of our studios, really}. After spending the morning talking artist blocks & inspirations, we’ll have plenty of ideas to work into our piece! Now, the most exciting part… our finished, “assembled” piece will hang as a group show at Assemble Gallery! Seriously. When the show comes down a few weeks later, the collage will be snipped into individual pieces, and you can each take one home for your very own studio wall. Here’s a quick look at an example that Tif put together:

Ah, so lovely! Oh, and did I mention that we’ll be eating stacks of sweet little cupcakes while we do this?! Yes, yes we will. If you’d like to join us on Saturday May 19th, in Seattle at Assemble Gallery & Studio, just click here to register. YAY!

{Thank you so much to Tif, and Andie & Emily at Assemble… and to Seattle blogger/writer/photographer Melanie B. for getting this whole Seattle Girl Crush rolling on Twitter! I think she has it almost sold out, so sign up soon!)

I am always awe-struck when I come across this kind of work. The patience and control required to create cut-paper installations is truly beyond me. American artist Sharon Arnold, on the other hand, has completely mastered this art. These pieces are from a series called “nixe, chimaera, muff” {the very first piece in the post is titled Nixe 2010, and is made from an 8′ roll of Strathmore drawing paper!}

{… thanks to Mudchicken for the link to Sharon’s work.}