What Was She Thinking?

Tags

art, beach, beach house, beautiful, beauty, bradenton, canvas, clothes, coast, coastal, dress, dresses, emotion, emotional, fashion, Fine Art, florida, girl, heal, healing, health, lady, meditation, memories, memory, miami, naples, nature, ocean, oceanfront, paintings, prints, red dress, sarasota, sea, sharon cummings, siesta key, solitude, strolling, sunbathing, vacation, walking, woman, yoga, zen

 

In a calm moment before a storm broke out on Siesta Key Beach, I look up and down the coastline and spot a lone woman walking slowly beside the waves.  Her dress catches my eye immediately.  The bright red in direct contrast to the darkening surroundings.  She carries her matching shoes in one hand.  She appeared completely unconcerned by the ominous clouds forming overhead.  What was she thinking about?  A lost lover…..her career choices….the baby she gave up for adoption….her next novel….I will never know, but I find this image incredibly seductive with so many possibilities…..

See more of her here:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-red-dress-beach-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

Walking On W.A.T.E.R…

Tags

art, beach, florida, florida beaches, naples beach, naples fl pier, naples florida, naples florida pier, naples pier, ocean, pier, piers, vacation

 

If I could walk on water…If I could find some way to prove…If I could walk on water would you…believe in me…my love is so true.  Ok this post isn’t about Eddie Money, but his song definitely comes to mind when I think about walking on water.  Oddly more than it makes me think of Jesus.  When I was a little girl I marveled at the long piers that dot our Florida beaches.  There was something magical about walking way out into the ocean and looking around.  It got you closer to the sea birds, the dolphins and fish.  It was simply amazing to “walk on water”.  Even as an adult I get a little giddy when I walk out onto a pier.  This piece is a reminder of a wonderful vacation in Naples, FL.  Enjoy!

More Pier Art Here

I’ve Been C.A.P.T.I.V.A.ted…

Tags

beach, Captiva Island, florida, florida beaches, Perfect Weather, vacation, Winter in Florida

 

I’ve been spending a little time in Ft. Myers and Captiva Island. The weather is just too perfect to stay inside. Be back soon!

I Couldn’t Resist…

Tags

abstract bird, adorable, art, art prints, artwork, bahamas, beach, beach home, beach house, bird, birds, bright, california, canvas, canvas prints, caribbean, cheerful, colorful, costa rica, cute, exotic birds, eye, feather, feathers, florida, fun, funny, island, islands, jimmy buffet, macaw, miami, naples, ocean, ocean life, paintings, parrot, parrots, pets, prints, sarasota, sea, sharon cummings, st. thomas, tommy bahama, tropical bird, tropical colors, tropical decor, vacation, vibrant

“Parrot Head”

New Mixed Media Art Painting

Sharon Cummings

2014

I really couldn’t resist naming this guy “Parrot Head”.  After all it is both, literally and figuratively.  And I do live in paradise close to margaritaville.  I’ve got tropical shirts and a hammock.  I just need to turn on some Jimmy Buffet tunes and I can convince myself that it is 5 o’ clock somewhere. 😉

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What Was She Thinking?

Tags

art, beach, beach house, beautiful, beauty, bradenton, canvas, clothes, coast, coastal, dress, dresses, emotion, emotional, fashion, Fine Art, florida, girl, heal, healing, health, lady, meditation, memories, memory, miami, naples, nature, ocean, oceanfront, paintings, prints, red dress, sarasota, sea, sharon cummings, siesta key, solitude, strolling, sunbathing, vacation, walking, woman, yoga, zen

In a calm moment before a storm broke out on Siesta Key Beach, I look up and down the coastline and spot a lone woman walking slowly beside the waves.  Her dress catches my eye immediately.  The bright red in direct contrast to the darkening surroundings.  She carries her matching shoes in one hand.  She appeared completely unconcerned by the ominous clouds forming overhead.  What was she thinking about?  A lost lover…..her career choices….the baby she gave up for adoption….her next novel….I will never know, but I find this image incredibly seductive with so many possibilities…..

See more of her here:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-red-dress-beach-art-by-sharon-cummings-sharon-cummings.html

Not So Angry Birds

Tags

art, Artist, beach, beaches, birds, bradenton, coastal living, faabest, florida, gull, gulls, miami, naples, photograph, photography, photos, sarasota, sarasota beaches, seagull, seagulls, sharon cummings, siesta key, Siesta Key Beach, siesta key florida, vacation

Growing up, my Mom always admonished me to “never feed the seagulls!”  For one thing they may poop on your head and for another they can become aggressive and come for food that you have not released from your hands yet. Then Alfred Hitchcock came out with the movie “The Birds” which further instilled the idea that these creatures were angry little monsters.  The truth is that I have been around these beauties of the beach my whole life and I have never been attacked.  Yes, I have fed them (shhhhh….don’t tell Mom!).  I find them to be shy and aloof most of the time.  To photograph them, you have to be quiet and move gently.  It is true that they will swarm for food, but that is just normal animal behavior.  In this photographic art piece I try to capture their beauty and gentleness.  These two look to be dancing.  While they may not be angry after all….they just might drop a bomb on you when you aren’t looking. 😉

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A Little Summer C.O.O.L…

Tags

beach, beach home, beach house, blue, bradenton, breeze, breezy, caribbean, coast, coastal, coastal living, florida, home, house, island, lifestyle, light, light blue, movement, ocean, oceanic, palm, palm fronds, palm trees, sarasota, sea, seaside, shadow, shadows, sharon cummings, sky, summer, tommy bahama, tropical, tropical art, tropical decor, turquoise, vacation

Yesterday was hot hot hot!

Today is cool cool cool!

A little shade.

A little breeze.

“Tropical Shadows”

New Art by

Sharon Cummings.

D.O.G. Days Of Summer…

Tags

animals, art for sale, art marketing, art sales, artists, big dog, dog, dog days of summer, dogs, fawn, fawn mastiff, marketing, mastif, mastiff, mastiffs, pet portraits, pets, selling art, summer, Summertime, summertime blues, sunshine, travel, vacation

It’s that time of year again.  Around the second week of July I start to get frantic emails from other artists asking me why the sales have all dried up. Some are so afraid of the lack of traffic and sales that they fear that the online art market has crashed.  These emails come from people who are relatively new to selling their work on the Internet.  Relax.  This is normal. Sure I am still making regular sales, but only at a fraction of what I earn most of the time.  This part of the year it always slows down to a crawl.

Why?  It’s Summertime!!  And folks who have been trapped inside all Winter are finally able to get outside and enjoy sunshine and green grass.  Families go on vacation, prepare older kids for college, go to family reunions and travel a lot in general.  It is not a time for decorating your home or office.  There is plenty of time for that when you are stuck inside 9 months out of the year.  Those in academics do not get paid over the Summer which is something I always factor in since I married a professor.

So what can you do?  I find that this time of year is a great time to do some traveling myself.  I plan trips to visit family and old friends every year.  My husband and I head to the beach as much as possible since it is not crowded and prices are super low.  Studio cleaning is always on the agenda as I love the freshness of organization come busy season.  You can also enjoy the freedom to create artwork that is fun and free from thoughts of marketability.  I have been stocking my stores with new items in preparation for the Fall rush.  It is a lot of work that has no reward at the moment, but I expect it to pay off later.

Join a new site.  Learn a new Social Media avenue.  Take a photography class. Forget about sales for awhile. They will come back.  They always do.  For now just enjoy this doggone Summer!

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B.E.A.C.H. Bunnies…

Tags

art, bahamas, bather, beach, beach home, beach house, beach sand, beach towels, beaches, beachy, coast, coastal, colorful, cottage, cute, female, florida, fun, girl, girls, home, house, key west, ladies, lady, laying out, legs, lido, miami, miami beach, ocean, painting, people, prints, sand, sarasota, sarasota florida, sea, siesta key, sun, sun bather, sun tan, sunbather, sunbathing, sunshine, suntan, tan, tanned, tanning, tommy bahama, travel, trip, tropical, vacation, whimsical, woman, women

They sizzle.

They turn.

They worship.

They burn.

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Enjoy this Summertime treat from my Mother-in-law Betty Cummings.  She was inspired by a walk along Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Florida.  She used bright colors in her oils to achieve this tropical look.  I am so fortunate to own some of her original work.  And now everyone can enjoy prints too!

S.U.M.M.E.R.’S Brightest…

Tags

beach, beach sunflower, beauty, florida, flower, flowers, gardening, landscapes, nature, ocean, sarasota, sarasota florida, sea, sharon cummings, siesta key, summer, vacation, yellow, yellow flowers

The Summer sun is particularly brutal this time of year in Florida.  Temperatures soar and it is nearly impossible to spend time outside during the hottest part of the day.  As I head back to my retreat after a long walk along the ocean, I am always stuck by how parched and dead everything is on the dunes.  It looks brittle and bare.  But there are these little bursts of color dotting the landscape.  Yellow flowers that withstand the most demanding months of Summer.  The Beach Sunflower……Summer’s brightest!

I will be away for awhile….see you when I get back!