Inspiration found in fashion: Lena Hoschek

I've always found inspiration for paintings in the works done by fashion designers.  My paintings tend to be heavy in the use of texture and craft materials that I've translated from clothing numerous times.

Recently one designer  Lena Hoschek a European designer that finds inspiration from the traditional costumes worn in Germany.

You can see more of her work on the blog Q's Daydream the blog that turned me onto Lena in the first place.

I really enjoy how she combines colors and textures into her clothes. Plus I'm a big fan of wearing boots with dresses and she does that fantastically in her Fall/Winter collection for 2013.

 Her Fall winter line also reminded me a lot of Henri Matisse's Red Room piece painted in 1908.

Bear tree Illustration finished

With teaching sometimes it's hard to find time to get to the studio as much as I'd like to. This piece took me a few weeks to complete but I'm really happy with the final result.

It's 18x24 watercolor on paper.

It's available for purchase on Etsy and I'll have prints available soon too!

I'm considering turning this image into a short children's book about the behavior both real and make-believe of these fuzzy fellows.