🎂🎨 Growing Older, Making More Art & Keeping Life Fun

🎈 Apparently Nothing Is Funny After 26

Chandler turns 26 today, and lately we’ve been seeing all these social media posts that are clearly targeted at us saying, “Nothing is funny once you turn 26.”

Guitar pick holder I handmade out of clay and painted.

Life is getting serious, the bills are stacking up, and some might even think I’m applying to grad school just for the health insurance. Trust me, there’s a lot more to it than that, but the health insurance is definitely a bonus.

All jokes aside, life really is getting harder, but I think there’s something beautiful about realizing that we have to try a little harder to make it fun, too. Chandler and I have both been returning to old hobbies and becoming more intentional about how we spend our time.

Time feels more valuable now, so we want to fill it with more meaningful activities, conversations, games, people, and experiences. I think growing older is partly about learning how to appreciate the little things a bit more.

🌈 Islands of Imagination Is Finally Finished!

As for art, I finally finished my worlds piece, which I’ve officially titled Islands of Imagination!

The piece feels absolutely full of life, and I think I can finally call it done. I spent so much time looking over every little inch, making sure I was completely happy with it, and I can confidently say that I am.

Nothing feels more me than this finished piece, with all its colors, monsters, little worlds, and, of course, Mooncake features. It feels like so many of my favorite things and ideas have come together in one painting.

🌻 A New Commission & A New Challenge

On the commission side of things, I have two lined up and one that I’m currently working on! The piece I’m working on now feels somewhat similar to my Bird of Paradise painting, but this time I’m painting sunflowers with a more textured background.

Interestingly, this sunflower piece reminds me a lot of my commissioned dog portraits. Not because of the subject matter, obviously, but because of the texture. And texture, especially the rougher, more organic kind, is not exactly my area of expertise.

I mentioned in a previous newsletter that I think of my work as somewhat cartoon-like, except instead of drawing cartoons, I like to paint them. I love clean, pristine lines, smooth shading, and a kind of softness.

My Bird of Paradise painting ended up capturing that style really well, with defined shapes, smooth transitions, and a softness that still felt playful.

🎨 Making a Sunflower Feel Like My Sunflower

Sunflowers, on the other hand, are a little trickier. Much like fur, their petals and centers have a natural roughness and irregularity that I find harder to translate into my style.

Right now, the painting looks like a sunflower, but it doesn’t quite look like Rosalie’s sunflower, and that’s what I’m working toward.

I think one of the biggest challenges of developing your own artistic style is figuring out how to make something recognizable without losing what makes your work yours. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to that, but I’m enjoying the process of experimenting and figuring it out as I go.

🐱🥢 Cartoon Cats Are Coming Next

The next commission I’ll be starting is going to be completely Asian-inspired and filled with cartoon cats, so needless to say, I’m VERY excited about that one!

I already have so many ideas and can’t wait to get started. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on both pieces as they come together.

💗 Here’s to 26 & Beyond

For now, here’s to getting older, making more art, finding joy in the little things, and remembering that life can still be funny after 26. Even if the internet seems to disagree.

With love and color,

Rosalie 

🎃👻 October, Monsters & Making Things by Hand 🐈‍⬛✨

🎨 Back Home & Back to Creating

Since coming home, I sold a painting, started and finished a commission, and have found myself slowly working on the same piece every single day.

I’ve realized that when I have a reference to work from, like a dog, a house, or something that physically exists, I paint so much faster. Sometimes I can finish an entire piece within a few days or even a day. But when I’m painting completely from my imagination, it is a very different process.

I don’t have reference photos for my monsters. I usually don’t even sketch them out or think too much about what they are going to look like beforehand. I just take a paintbrush to the canvas and let them start coming to life. That means figuring out the lighting, shading, proportions, and everything else as I go. Is it always technically accurate? Definitely not. But I think that has become part of the fun and, at this point, part of my style.

🌎 Little Worlds to Escape Into

The piece I’ve been working on lately is filled with different little worlds that I would love to escape into. It has also pushed me to combine mediums in a way I don’t normally do.

I’ve been incorporating clay into every little world, adding physical details that actually come off the canvas. I love that these pieces are becoming something you don’t just look at, but almost want to reach out and touch.

Recently, the topic of AI has somehow made its way into almost every conversation I have or overhear. And, unsurprisingly, I usually have some thoughts.

I struggle with the way AI-generated imagery is beginning to replace work that artists and designers would otherwise be hired to create. Branding, marketing, posters, illustrations, and so much more can now be generated in seconds. While I don’t think AI can replicate the creativity or personal history an artist brings to a piece, its growing presence has made me think more about what I want my own work to be.

Oddly enough, it has pushed me to become more physical with my art.

Clay has become one way of doing that. I want to make things that have texture, dimension, imperfections, and evidence of the person who made them. Things that exist beyond a screen. So, for now, I’m leaning further into making things with my hands and seeing where that takes me.

💌 Commissions Are Open!

As for commissions, I am open and ready for more!

It is always a little nerve-racking starting a new month without commissions lined up, so if you have been thinking about having something personalized made, or know someone who might, please reach out. Pet portraits, homes, places, people, strange ideas... I’m always happy to hear them.

I also have a limited-time discount on my minis online right now, so go check those out while they’re still on sale!

Shop Minis

🎃 The Best Month of the Year Has Arrived

October is here, which means HALLOWEEN IS HERE, and I genuinely believe Halloween is the best holiday and season to exist.

For one night, you can be whoever you want to be. You can step into a completely different world, which is probably why I love it so much. It feels a little like the worlds I try to create in my paintings. Bright, strange, happy places I can escape into, especially when reality is feeling particularly... Monday.

And for some reason, love is especially in the air right now.

Maybe it’s because October is secretly one of the best times of year in LA. We call it local summer because the tourists have mostly disappeared, but the sun is still out and the weather is still beautiful. Okay, maybe slightly too “beautiful” considering this heat wave, but I’ll take it.

💕 Weddings, Anniversaries & an October Birthday

Last night, I went to a family dinner to celebrate my cousin on my mom’s side, who is getting married tomorrow. The week before that, I was in Raleigh, North Carolina, celebrating another cousin’s wedding on my dad’s side.

And the day after that wedding was Chandler’s and my two-year anniversary.

Oh, and did I mention Chandler was born in October too?

Seriously. Best month of the year.

🐈‍⬛🏚️ Mooncake’s Halloween Town

One of today’s very important projects is building a miniature Halloween town for Mooncake.

Unfortunately, I cannot take artistic credit for making the town itself, but I can take responsibility for constructing an entire tiny spooky village for my cat.

Obviously, photos will be coming in the next newsletter.

Happy October & Happy Halloween Month!!! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻

With love and color,

Rosalie 

Big Paintings, Venice Nights & Shanghai Days 🦆✈️

🌺 My Biggest Canvas Yet

This past week, I completed my large-scale commission and officially painted the biggest canvas I have ever worked on! The piece is a whopping 5 by 6 feet and is headed to Hollywood as soon as we can figure out how to actually get it there.

I quickly realized after purchasing the

canvas from Blick that it did not fit in my Jeep or my boyfriend’s car. Thankfully, I was not the first person to face this dilemma. Blick had the number for a mover posted on the wall, so I called him up and managed to get the canvas delivered to my house right before the store closed.

The problem now is that I cannot find his number, and the building where the painting is headed is also on the hunt for someone with a truck or van. No luck so far, but they’re keeping me posted! For now, the piece takes up about a third of my art studio, so I’ll be hanging out nice and close to it.

I posted photos of the finished piece a few days ago, and almost everyone I’ve seen in LA since has said the same two things:

One, I love the piece.Two, it doesn’t seem like your usual style.

And I totally understand what they mean. It isn’t necessarily cutesy, but it is still whimsical, and I think it feels like a natural evolution of my work. I don’t say that to diminish my current style in any way because I still love the colorful, playful world I’ve created. If anything, this piece proved to me, and hopefully to others, that I can take my artistic voice and adapt it to so many different spaces. Whether I’m creating something for a personal home, a gallery, or a corporate space, I can still find a way to make it feel like me.

🦆 Art Crawling Through the Venice Canals

I live just a few blocks away from the Venice Canals. Not the ones in Italy, the canals of Venice Beach, California! They’re absolutely beautiful, lined with some of the most unique houses in every style imaginable and, of course, filled with lots of ducks.

Last Thursday, the canals hosted an art

crawl featuring local artists and bands. It was so much fun weaving around the different canals and stepping inside homes I’ve admired for so long to see the art displayed inside.

I did, in fact, love all of the art, but I will admit that I was equally excited to finally get a peek inside these insanely cool homes. And the interiors did not disappoint. Every house participating in the crawl had its own art, snacks, wine, and people coming in and out throughout the night.

More than anything, it was such a nice reminder that all of these creative people are my neighbors. I feel incredibly lucky to live in such an artistic little pocket of LA, especially one where my boyfriend can mix up delicious margaritas, pour them into cups, and we can spend the night wandering the canals, looking at art, listening to great music, and meeting very cool people. Pretty dreamy if you ask me.

🎨 More Art Is Coming...

As for everything else I’ve been creating, I promise there is a lot more to share. Unfortunately, there are a few things I still can’t reveal quite yet, but hopefully by my next newsletter I’ll finally be able to show you what I’ve been working on.

Stay tuned!

✈️ Back to My Home Away From Home

I’m hoping my next newsletter will still make it out on its planned date of September 7th, although I’ll be overseas on my last big trip of the year!

I’m finally returning to my forever home away from home, Shanghai, while also venturing somewhere new with stops in Shenzhen and Malaysia. I’m beyond excited to return to a place that has influenced me and my art so deeply, especially now that I’m going back with an entirely different perspective on my own work.

And yes, I know. I have traveled a lot this year! But every trip seems to leave me with new colors, objects, ideas, people, and little moments that eventually find their way into my art. I have a feeling this one will be no different. 💗

With love and color,

Rosalie