Saturday, December 6, 2014

Not a moment too soon … 1st annual Christmas poster

© Sugar Plum Tree

I so wish that in July, someone would dump snow into my studio and pipe in continuous holiday music. That way, I might get on schedule with my holiday greeting cards, tags, etc. But, no, here it is Dec, 6, and what am I doing? Designing a new card, and, "wait," she thought, "why not turn it into a holiday poster, too."

So, I have. Both the card and poster debut this weekend at the Showcase of Art at the Woman's Art Club of Cincinnati, which opens this morning at - gulp - 10!

For the design I used one of my favorite Christmas images in which tiny children dance around a ginormous Christmas tree laden with all kinds of goods from the practical (soap, coffee, furniture) to the whimsical (candy cones, fish, toys).

The tree is adapted from an engraving a black-and-white engraving in the January 1882 issue of St. Nicholas, a popular American children’s magazine published by Scribner’s. The pastries are from “The Trade’s Cake Book,” by T. Percy Lewis (MacLaren & Sons Ltd, London, 1912). I altered their colors substantially to make them more fanciful.

The 11" x 17" poster is titled "Sugar Plum Tree," and is a limited edition of 25 signed copies. It's printed with archival ink on Legion Paper's Somerset Enhanced Velvet 100% cotton rag paper. It may be the first of an annual series of Christmas posters. And, who knows, maybe next year's will be designed earlier.