Art Nouveau for a Happy New Year

Check out my four latest designs for an upcoming Spoonflower challenge dedicated to Art Nouveau:

Art Nouveau Dirigibles throw mockup

Steampunk Dirigibles

Momma's blessing pillow

Momma’s Blessing

Art Nouveau seasons vignettes with spirals wallpaper

Art Nouveau seasons with spirals

Art Nouveau Seasons round tablecloth mockup

Art Nouveau Seasons

 

While the two with seasonal vignettes are similar in design, the other two designs are very different, yet they are all Art Nouveau. In researching art styles for this challenge, I realized that there are significant differences between Art Nouveau and Art Deco.

  • Art Nouveau (or ‘the new art’) is more organic: it flows. Colors are more muted but very rich. Blues, greens, and purples provide gorgeous backdrops for brown, gold, and cream tones.
  • Art Deco is more geometric and structured. It can be boxy and is often very glitzy and glamorous.

Circular designs, curves, and spirals define Art Nouveau. Designs repeat organically and feature layered elements. Themes from nature are juxtaposed with celebrations of the human form and even the odd mechanical wonder from the beginning of the industrial age.

I wanted to explore these themes in my artwork.

My first design: Seasons’ Vignettes

Art Nouveau Seasons Vignettes For Seasons’ Vignettes, I played around with circles and botanical shapes to create a progression of seasons:

    • from an iris for spring,
    • to roses for summer,
    • to an acorn and oak leaves for fall,
    • and finally, holly leaves and berries for winter.

I tilted the circle motifs at interesting angles and overlapped them with foliage. Then, I layered more leaves behind them. Every piece of the design also received a thin brass outline.

The end result reminds me of beautiful pieces of Art Nouveau jewelry.

For a first try, this artwork made me very happy, but then I asked myself: what I could do to improve on it? That led to my second design…

Seasons Vignettes with Swirls

Art Nouveau vignettes pillow I wanted to create more ‘white space’ in the design while improving the cohesion of the theme.  To that end, I shrank the circular motifs down so they would fit in a diamond pattern. Removing some of the background foliage and texturing the background allowed more of the beautiful classic blue to show through, but it also left a large empty space. After experimenting with several other options, I filled the space with a spiral in a lighter hue.

Not everyone seems to like the spiral though–but that’s okay because I’m going to create customizable designs without it on Zazzle. That space is perfect for a photo or some text, or both–

Please note: this pillow mockup is courtesy of Roostery and I have no control over the placement or centering of the design. However, I will correct the centering when I add this artwork to Redbubble and Zazzle.

Momma’s Blessing

Momma’s Blessing celebrates a cause very near and dear to my heart: the beauty of bringing a child into the world. As you may already know, I’m pro-life. My goal here: to dignify the beauty and preciousness of motherhood. So, this design features an expectant mother, an unborn child, a baby, and in silhouette, a preschooler and an older boy playing ball with his dad. Every baby, every child is precious in the eyes of God and deserves to be loved and cared for. In my artwork, the dad may be in the background, but he is present and active, playing a vital role in supporting his wife and the mother of his child as she gives that baby her love.

My fourth and last Art Nouveau design: Steampunk Dirigibles

For this design, I wanted to have some fun with early blimps or dirigibles. I appreciate the juxtaposition of streamlined gas envelopes with puffy cloud shapes. I wanted to also show air currents and include a steampunk rendition of a sun.

I created this design using custom shapes that I then customized some more. I added textures and colors–and softened some shapes and warped others to where they are unrecognizable. Would you believe that, in each blimp design, I included a lemon? It doesn’t look like a lemon–but it’s there as part of the ‘seams’. I also used grass shapes and adjusted them into the necessary curves. Each dirigible required multiple layers of color.

I plan to antique this design with sepia and also do a version in a soft peachy-pink.


If you like my artwork, please leave a comment. I can always use the encouragement! Of course, I’d love it if you’d buy some, too…

  • Shop my fabric and wallpaper designs on Spoonflower
  • Buy hundreds of different product designs in my store on Zazzle

If you don’t see just exactly what you want, please contact me. I’d love to create a one-of-a-kind design for you.

Here’s hoping you have a happy New Year with lots of blessings for you and your family, too.

 

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