Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

Zazzle has recently introduced several new products just in time for Christmas shopping.  I am busy adding the new products featuring my artwork to my Zazzle shop, but if you would like a particular artwork on a product not currently available in the shop, just send me an email and I will add it for you as soon as possible.

Ceramic Tiles

Drink coasters

Dinner Plates

iPhone cases

Gel Mousepads

iPhone 3 and iPhone 4 cases

iPad cases

Jewelry Box

Notebooks

I am really upset to post that one of my digital paintings has been stolen by an artist in the UK, who has not only stolen the digital copy of my painting, defaced my artwork and removed my watermark *and* signature, but is only claiming ownership of the original painting AND to add insult to injury is holding art classes to teach other people how to paint MY painting, the next one is on Saturday April 9 in Bristol, United Kingdom:(

I am SICK AND TIRED of people stealing my photographs and artwork.  It is NOT ok! It is ILLEGAL!  I am not a nasty person, I do not like having to be heavy handed to protect what is LEGALLY mine and I do not like having to take legal action, but ENOUGH is ENOUGH!  Any and all people found illegally using my artwork or photographs will be named and shamed and legal action taken and I recommend other artists and photographers do the same thing.

The first offending artist’s website is http://www.paulbryantart.co.uk/ and my Meerkat painting can be viewed on his ‘Classes’ page

The second artist who apparently runs classes with Paul Bryant as listed on his “Events and Shows’ page is Carolyn Stevens and she is also culpable as she has a painting displayed on the ‘Gallery’ page of her website that is a derivative of my original photograph and painting.  Her website is http://www.colours2canvas.co.uk/

Both of these artists have broken International Copyright Laws.  It is illegal to take an image off the internet and use it anywhere you please.  It is illegal to remove the copyright and artists signature from any artwork.  It is illegal to claim another artists creation as your own work.  It is illegal to publicly display or sell any derivative artwork created from a copyright artwork or photography without written permission from the creator.

Paul Bryant is also guilty of false advertising as he is claiming that my painting was created as a result of his one day oil painting class and that a similar painting can be created by anyone attending his oil painting class.  News for you MR Bryant – my original is a digital painting created with Corel Painter XI, a wacom tablet and my computer – good luck teaching your students how to recreate it!

This artist has not even got the talent, experience or creativity to develop and teach his own unique instructional classes, but rather has become a “Certified Instructor”  or copycat teacher of  a painting system as taught by a world wide franchise system (that by the way I have nothing against).

Legal action has been taken and the head honcho of the art instruction franchise has been notified.  I would expect both of the artists in question to have their “certified Instructor’ status revoked immediately and other legal requirements met without delay.

I suggest other artists reading this check the offending websites immediately to see if any of your landscape, seascape, floral or wildlife art has also been stolen, as past experience with this type of thing clearly shows that one painting or photograph is rarely stolen in isolation.

The image below on the left (click to enlarge)  is the digital image of my painting showing the clear, unmistakable Copyright watermark and my signature.  The smaller image below right is the digital image stolen by Paul Bryant, and clearly shows the editing that he has done to remove both my 2009 copyright and name from the Meerkat’s chest AND my signature from the rocks on the right hand side of the painting.  I also have screen captures of the offending website pages that have been taken as legal proof of the infringements.

And a link to my original blog post for this painting in September 2009 http://michellewrighton.com/2009/09/meerkat-wildlife-painting/

Original Meerkat Sentry digital painting by Michelle Wrighton ©2009

The digital image of my Meerkat Painting Stolen and defaced by Paul Bryant

I am sure that some of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook will already know that I have recently opened a shop on Etsy for selling signed Fine Art prints of my drawings, paintings and photography.  I will eventually also add some original artwork (drawings, paintings and ACEO’s) as well as some of my handcrafted sterling silver and gemstone jewellery.

My Etsy shop Art By Michelle is now all set up and I have been busy stocking with new items.  Many of the 8″x10″ and 8″x12″ prints listed are in stock ready for immediate shipping, smaller sizes and different papers, canvas, and paper finishes (matt, lustre, gloss, metallic) can be custom ordered.  The shipping price applies to the first print only, additional prints in the same or smaller size ship free of charge.

Prices are currently listed in $US as the Etsy market is predominantly North American, but I can change that to $AUD in the future if necessary.  Listed fine art and photography prints for sale can also be ordered directly from me via email and payments can be made through Paypal or Direct Deposit/Money Order for Australian customers.

I am adding new art and photography prints for sale on a daily basis, so if there is a painting or artwork that you would particularly like that is not currently listed, please drop me an email and I will add it to the shop for you.

Softly - Fine Art Dressage photography print ©Michelle Wrighton

Sunset Silhouette | Fine Art Landscape Photography print © Michelle Wrighton

Fire and Ice - Siamese cat portrait painting Fine Art print

The Blue Between | Abstract Nature Photography © Michelle Wrighton

My Art and photography prints and gifts are available for sale in the following places;

Art By Michelle Etsy shop – signed and custom prints options for sale

Redbubble Art Shop Gift cards, matted, laminated, canvas and framed art prints for sale

Zazzle Art Shop Posters, ornaments, t-shirts, bags, posters, coffee mugs, canvas prints magnets, shoes, photo cards for sale

I can also be found on:

TWITTER – artistMichelleW

FACEBOOK – My Art Page

FACEBOOK – My Photography Page

SOUTH WEST PHOTOGRAPHY – my photography website

Thanks for sharing my art and photography with your family and friends!

Michelle

Just a quick update post this time, no art to share at the moment, sorry!

Regular visitors to my blog may have noticed the change in the Facebook buttons on the right hand side of the page. I have decided to separate my art (drawings, paintings) from my existing South West Photography page. The new Facebook page is Michelle Wrighton Artist. I’m not 100% sure how I will utilise the Facebook page as opposed to this blog which I will obviously keep updating, but the ease of sharing photos within Facebook makes me think that running a few competitions for pet portrait paintings might be easy and fun to do, so if you are on Facebook, please add my new art page Michelle Wrighton Artist to your favourite pages and you will hear from me soon about the first competition!

Bright, bold and colourful, this impressionist digital oil painting is based on a photograph I took of Canola fields in full bloom north of Kojonup (a small country town in the south west of Western Australia).

Canola out of Kojonup by Michelle Wrighton

Art prints and gifts featuring my ‘Canola out of Kojonup’  painting are available for sale in the following places;

Art By Michelle Etsy shop – signed and custom prints options for sale

Redbubble Art Shop Gift cards, matted, laminated, canvas and framed art prints for sale

Zazzle Art Shop Posters, ornaments, t-shirts, bags, posters, coffee mugs, canvas prints magnets, shoes, photo cards for sale

I can also be found on:  TWITTER FACEBOOK – My Art       FACEBOOK – My Photography     SOUTH WEST PHOTOGRAPHY – my photography website

Thanks for sharing my art and photography with your family and friends!

This is the latest piece I have been working on, an acrylic landscape painting created in a modern minimalist style on gallery wrapped chunky canvas. This painting developed quite differently from my original inspiration, so differently in fact that I initially started painting purple clouds! I am quite pleased with the way this one is coming along, as it was the strong contrasts in the light and darks of a desert sunset that I wanted to capture, and in particular I wanted to achieve this with rather bold brush strokes (considering the size of the canvas) and some pallette knife work for added texture. After looking at this piece for several days I am contemplating whether or not to further lighten some of the area around the sun, and some of the reflections in the middle of the painting.

One of the things that I am finding rather surprising with the modern, minimalist, abstract/contemporary styles that I am experimenting with at the moment is just how long they take to complete to my staisfaction – simple and less detailed definitely does not necessarily equate to less time to create, and I can definitely say that I have a new found respect for artists who work in these styles!

“Desert Sunset”, Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 2006

Right side view

Left side view

Cheers

Michelle

I’ve definitely been on a water kick lately, I guess maybe because in the last few weeks we’ve finally had some hot summer weather, if of course you don’t count the rain we are having today (although of course that is water too!). I’m really enjoying experimenting with these paintings and reducing the amount of detail that I am including in them…not always so easy given my background in bery detailed and realistic art, but lots of fun none-the-less.

This modern beach painting was created from my imagination, and is 4″x4″ acrylic on canvas.

“View from the Dune”

Currently Available on Art By Us

These two ACEO’s (2.5″x3.5″) were also done in acrylics on mattboard:

“Dune with a View”

“Tropical Sea”

Michelle

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this acrylic painting of an incoming storm over the ocean, blues and greens and water in general seem to be playing a big part of creativity in the last week or two. Maybe its my subconsious trying to tell me to be flexible and flow with things at the moment.

Storm Coming, 5″x7″ acrylic on canvas board

I’ve been experimenting with a new Abstract series based on this concept, this first one, ‘Blue Flow’ is ACEO sized (2.5″ x 3.5″) acrylic on mattboard.

Viewed as Portrait format:

Viewed as Landscape format:

And the first one, as yet untitled, 3.5″ x 5″ acrylic on canvas:

Viewed in Portrait format:

Viewed in Landscape format:

The scanned digital images of these are rather disappointing as they have lost much of the vibrancy and depth of the originals. I havn’t varnished them yet, so will do so and see if I can get better images.

Michelle

Just to be different I have painted several modern/contemporary abstracts which are very different to the more normal highly detailed and realistic animals I normally do. My aim with these was in fact to avoid lots of detail and take the minimalist approach. These are all 4″x4″ art squared pieces, acrylic on canvas. I really enjoyed doing these and have listed two on Ebay to see how they go – they were a lot of fun and in between commissions, I plan on doing a lot more in this small format size.

Solitaire

Tall Poppies

View From The Dunes

Michelle

It really is no wonder that these ACEO’s are taking the art world by storm, they are so much fun to do and I am finding them quite addictive:)

I will admit that it is really difficult to get a lot of detail into a painting that is a maximum size of 2.5 by 3.5 inches (the same size as normal trading cards), I’m finding that they are a really good oportunity for me to experiment with a looser, less photorealistic style.

Here are a few that I have done this week, I might try listing some of them on ebay.com.au and the new art auction at the Art-Cards.Org site (I’ll post an update when they are listed for auction).

The first one is a lovely golden retriever ACEO portrait:

A sweet little Siamese Kitten:

A bird this time, a Pink Flamingo:

and something different for me, a landscape – impressionistic in style?

I do have a few more but I will post them on the new ACEO gallery that I am setting up on my website Pencil Portraits as soon as I sort out an image size problem that I seem to be having.

I’m contemplating opening an Ebay store for my ACEO’s, small format art and art jewellery…if I can find enough hours in the day! I’d love to hear if you think this is a good idea or not (what can I say, I’m a Libran and making a decision takes forever!)

Ciao for now!

Michelle