Take a look at my Pinterest account if you like equestrian art.
As many of you know, I collect antique postcards with equestrian themes. I also horse-themed digital collages.
Recently I opened a Cheval Nouveau Pinterest account to showcase my collection and some of my new artwork. Please take a look as I’m always adding more images.
On some of the older postcards in my collection, the message is on the front with the image. Only the address is on the back.
I collect vintage postcards with images of horses on them. All of the cards in my collection are pre-1925. I love the images, both the drawings and the real photos that were so popular. But I also love the words.
Most people who collect vintage postcards seem to prefer the ones that are in mint condition; the ones that were carefully put aside before they could be used.
Not me.
I like the cards that were used. The ones that have elegant handwriting from a long gone era when penmanship was valued. The ones that have addresses like St. Louis with no street names, just the name of the recipient. Can you believe that’s all you needed?
Some of the postcards in my collection are written in different languages or feature stamps more than 100 years old. I love the thought that these lovely old postcards are reaching through time to carry the messages of people who are long dead . . . but who chose the card because they loved the image as much as I do. Each of these postcards is a little time capsule that does just that. It has reached into the future (some by 100 years more!) and created a window into the past life of the person who wrote it.
This image was adapted from a circus poster created in the late 1800s. To me it looked like a sea nymph riding under water so I created an underwater environment for them.
This image came from an old and tattered postcard. The woman, dressed as an angel had feathery wings that were hand tinted and overdrawn with oranges and reds. It's hard to tell with a postcard this old how much of the coloration was original hand tinting and how much was added over the decades. I gave our angel and her horse a more exotic and dreamy background to match her wings.
Into the Woods is a digital collage using artwork from La Vie Parisienne. I wanted to capture the sense of adventure you get when you ride off into the woods, your dog by your side.
I love the vintage postcard that is the base of this collage. It’s from the early 1900s. Her hat is just adorable! And I’m pertty sure she’s doing her best to ignore the horse. I layered this with four other images.
Can you tell I’m still wasting time with photoshop?
These two collages use vintage real-photo postcards that show couples dressed in foxhunting garb. A nice image to hold in my mind as I look at the slush outside.
Foxhunters on a misty morning
Kissing Leaves
For Christmas I bought myself PhotoShop Elements 10. I’ve been itching to make collages using some of the vintage postcards that I’ve collected. This weekend, I finally had the chance to start playing with the program. Here’s my first one.
The images are beautiful on their own . . . and creating layers is so much fun. Just what I need: Another way to eat up time!
