For most of us, the wheels are definitely turning at warp speed right now. We’re always trying to find that key to unlock the secret to business success when everything seems to be crumbling around us. Truth is, creative juices are overflowing! What an exciting time!

My outlet for all that creativity is through painting. The tougher things get, the bigger the pieces are. Right now I’m wrestling with floorcloths (painted rugs) for a plantation museum in Louisiana. Canvas is everywhere in my studio, making it hard to move around, but that’s OK. It keeps me inspired! The nice thing about floorcloths is their size. It’s very hard to get cramped and negative, when a big blank canvas sits before you, awaiting your first playful splash of color. Then it grows, and a pattern emerges, and the dollar signs in your head dwindle to nothing. I am lost in paint and movement and pattern!

Letting go of number crunching and analyzing can be SO liberating. And even if you “can’t even draw a straight line” you can grab a big old paint brush and slap some latex house paint around for awhile. Give it a try. You’ll amaze yourself!

I value my readers’ input and now I’d especially like to hear your comments about the Gallery part of my website. I’m thinking about making some changes so that the images are more easily found and viewed, and so that the information about each design is more readily available.

If you would take a look and answer a couple of questions, either in a comment on this post, or by email, that would be very helpful.

1. When you click on “Gallery” and you end up on the header page, do you scroll down through all the albums before you pick one, or do you just click on the photo that appeals to you most?

2. Were you aware that there are additional albums within those first albums?

3. Would you rather see one album with all of the images in one place? That would be about 300 images that you’d have to scroll through. Is that OK, or would you prefer to have them sorted in some fashion, like they are now- geometrics, floral, etc.?

4. If I just had one album with all the designs, would you like a link from each image to a separate page which would give a full description of that design and the pricing, colors, etc. ? In other words, you’d scroll down through the Gallery album until you saw what you liked, then you’d click on it and be taken to a new page explaining all the other stuff, and maybe show some other options of the same design.

5. Would you like (or do you think others would like) to be able to order (by credit card) any design right from that description page, or would you prefer to discuss details, ordering info, etc . with me on the phone or by email, and then place your order?

6. Do you like room shots with table and chairs etc, or full screen, flat layouts?

  or 

Room Shots                                             Layout View

OK. That should get me started. Thanks for your help. Maybe you’ll see some changes soon!

-Lisa

I thought I’d take a break and just send along some Valentine-y images. Maybe some of these would be really cool for floorcloth designs some day… I found these by searching the web for Valentine designs. If you’d like the source, I’d be happy to send that along to you.

Freehand hearts with splashes of soft colors- very whimsical. Hmm, for a floorcloth? Maybe just a bunch of these scattered all over the cloth in various sizes and color combinations.

This looks like a tole painted design- very pretty and dainty.

I love quilt designs for floorcloths. You can repeat the square and make a great all-over pattern.

These tea cups are great! Imagine them all around the border of a floorcloth.

This Queen of Hearts would be a hoot to paint. What  terrific design for a game room!

    I will be conducting a class at the Rufus Porter Museum in July. This Museum has a lot of really interesting classes offered, and when they asked me to teach the Advanced Floorcloth class I felt honored. My class will run over a day and a half on Thursday afternoon (the 9th) and all day Friday, the 10th. We will be focusing on painting techniques to make a landscape scene on a floorcloth.

More information about the class and sign ups can be found at www.rufusportermuseum.org.