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Cheers

A while ago I took a week to post about the serendipitous events that led to my painting wine labels. At that writing, only one label had made it to the shelf but I promised to keep you posted. This week I was shopping for a wine to go with Easter dinner when I happened upon a whole section of wine with my painting on it. Excuse the poor quality snapshots, I had to stop in the isle and take a picture with my phone.

I’m honored that Livingston Cellars is using my painting as it’s corporate identity and has placed it on every variety. The California wine is wildly distributed and is available in a wine or liqueur store near you. Cheers!

Happy Easter.

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Finale

Detail

The art direction asked to include a specific piece of architecture, a weathervane that hinted at the name of the winery, and a landscape of California hills and vineyards.

This was my first go at it.

First attempt

Okay, the designer liked it, the client liked it, but it wasn’t quite right for the label. They wanted less texture, less brush strokes, less saturated colors, made to look a little old, more atmosphere in the distance…and while you’re at it, loose the weathervane.

I started from scratch and painted this….

I am honored that Bridlewood Estate Winery has my work represent their Central Coast Syrah and Central Coast Chardonnay.

A shipment of a case of Sarah 2006…(to answer Bill’s question from yesterday: I paid for it.) Cool that they have an engraved version of my illustration on the box.

How cool is that?

Ask your local wine shop to order some for you, Bridlewood describes the Syrah as opening with aromas of smoke, cedar, and chocolate leading to bright cherry fruit framed with spicy oak. As it evolves, a nose of dark fruits and violets gives way to dark chocolate. On the palate, this wine shows rich flavors of blackberry, dark cherry and sweet brown spice with a hint of mocha. Full of soft, chewy tannins, this wine has a long, clean finish.

…and you get my illustration as a bonus.

Post Wine Week Note: I’ll be taking a sabbatical next week. I will resume Drawing On Observations Monday, September 21st with an all new portrait of the day doodle. Due to spam issues all comments will be held for moderation until then.

Cheers!

Other wine related musings

Wine label posts

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A Bottle Of Red

Detail

It’s not every day an art director calls and asks you to paint an ethereal California landscape in a red pallet.

Detail

What could be more fun?

Finished Illustration

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Fruit Of The Vine

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Life can be serendipitous. It’s good to have a plan, but often what unfolds has no resemblance to your grand scheme. Continuing from yesterday, I’m going to take this short week to feature more wine label work and the serendipitous way it came to me.

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It wasn’t by design or hard work, but had it’s seeds in my seeking a little rest and relaxation.

We spent a weeks vacation in San Francisco and Napa Valley and I was floored by the beauty of the region. I had been busy with commissioned illustrations and hadn’t painted a landscape in far too long.

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This was before I had a weblog, so I thought I would do a few quick sketches for fun, post them on my illustration site, and tell family and friends what we did on our summer vacation with an email and a link…. more travel log than portfolio piece really. Within a month I got my first call to paint a landscape for a California wine label. Gotta love Google.

finished illustration

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Creative Quarterly

A while back I was commissioned by Timothy Harris Design to paint this wine label for Livingston Cellars, an E&J Gallo Brand. I was honored to learn that it was selected in the Professional Illustration category of Creative Quarterly 16 as a runner up.

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I fell in love with painting landscapes as a young art student when I was fortunate enough to study abroad in the Parsons In Paris program.

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Six weeks of lugging my French easel around Paris and the South of France painting every day en plein air was an invaluable life experience.

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So, getting an assignment that basically calls on me to paint a landscape, with or without floating car, is a real pleasure, and having it recognized by Creative Quarterly is especially gratifying.

Finished illustration

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