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About Diane Clancy

Diane Clancy creates vibrant paintings that feature color and vision to inspire and uplift people. Says Diane, “I feel that I am very blessed to have this opportunity to express myself through painting. I love that people say my artwork enhances their lives.”

Animals V

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Purple, yellow and green are spring colors to me. That is why I have chosen a digital painting of a design in these colors on a day many celebrate as Easter. Purple and yellow are traditional Easter colors – at least for us growing up. But I want to continue the discussion started in comments in yesterday’s post about licensing – in the post Flowers XVII. Animals V, Digital © Diane Clancy Sue O’Kieffe said that some of my designs reminded her of wrapping paper and fabric. She also suggested that I pursue licensing for some of these images. Sue asked if I had considered that. Many people have also stated that these designs would be outstanding wallpapers. I have actually had people (I didn’t know) want to order my wrapping paper from seeing these designs on my website. The only problem is that these designs are cards and prints but not wrapping paper yet. I sent samples to one company and she was very nice but said they weren’t the kind of wrapping paper her clients want. Yet many stores and individuals have seen my fine art greeting cards and wished for the matching wrapping paper. They have said how much more enticing they are than current choices in wrapping paper. Here I am back at one of my dilemmas. Which direction to pursue and how to best use my time. Also, how much to create for myself and how much to pursue the market. How much to persist … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Flowers XVII

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This is an example of a type of my digital painting that you haven’t seen yet. It is part of my design series that I created in the computer program Painter. I like the colors, flowers, and sense of Spring. Flowers XVII, Digital © Diane Clancy The creative process was fairly complicated – I started with vector clip art. I then brought the images into Painter and made nozzles out of them. The post Nature Reflections II talks about the difference between vector and bitmap images. The post Freckles in Flowers I discusses nozzles. Once I made the flowers and such into nozzles, then I created the pattern. It is a 4-way repeat. Painter has cool tools so it is easier to get the corners to match up when repeating a pattern – using it more than once – in a seamless way. As with many thing, once I get the rhythm down, it is simple and easy. But then I have to relearn when I go to use this process again. I really enjoy the colors and the sense of movement in this image. Several stores have bought this painting as a card to sell in their stores. I like looking at the flowers in this image – I think they are very interesting. Thank you for looking and reading. In the comments there is a discussion started about licensing and more technical details about creating this kind of design. ~ Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: digital painting, design, Painter, … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Watching Over I

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Angels and other non-physical guides are part of my everyday life. I meditate in the morning – every morning – to align myself with the Life Force. I ask angels and my higher self for guidance throughout the day (I need it!). There is a new website, Angelic Letters, where Jessica Bernard brings “messages of love and peace from your guardian angels.” I have found Jessica’s messages very loving and intuitive – I have known her for over a year. Watching Over I, Digital © Diane Clancy Usually when I am painting, I am asking my Muse and angels to guide me to hear and see the essence of the image so I can bring more light, love and beauty into the world. This is my purpose as an artist – to inspire – myself and others. Bryce is a computer program that creates 3D worlds and universes – it creates environments. Poser is a program that with 3D models – human, animal and other. In playing with these programs to learn them, I took a girl from Poser, made her crystal and brought her into a vibrant Bryce sea. I decided it looks like an angel coming down to be with us here … so I decided it was worth saving. I like the vibrancy … I love the color of the sea. I hope you have enjoyed hearing about my creative process. ~ Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: angels, Jessica Bernard, Bryce, Poser, color, creative process, inspiration, Angelic Letters … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Woman and the Sea

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I was thinking about Matisse when I was creating this pastel painting. Many people have asked me where I have gotten my (they say) unusual sense of color. At one point my mom and I pulled out all the artwork we 4 children had made to sort out whose was whose. Woman and the Sea, Pastel © Diane Clancy I was amazed to see that my color sense was already fully developed as a child. I remember painting a pink bunny in a pink field in the 4th grade. The pinks were intense and many different variations closely related. But I was surprised to see that the rest of the pictures I created were also true to my future sense of color. Each of us as children had a very disctinctive flavor to our creative process. Mine was easier to tell apart from the others, but we were each individual. What fun my mom and I had as we went through these memories. How I wish she were alive and healthy today! Matisse’s paintings inspired my spiraly and curlycue things … I used to make afghans and quilts with these kind of color combinations. Afghans are one place I could play and explore color with freedom. Thank you for joining me down Memory Lane. – Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: Matisse, pastel, color, creative process, quilting, inspiration … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Inner Flow III

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I can use some “inner flow” internally at the moment. I have been pushing very hard to get this blog and Susan Elkin’s Blog up and running and to establish the habit of posting every day. It is cold and rainy and I miss the warmer weather we had a week or two ago. I am in a maintenance mode rather than an inspiration mode. But I do feel inspired when I look at this digital painting. That feeling of being uplifted by my images is one of the highlights of my work! Inner Flow III, Digital © Diane Clancy One of the ways that I decide if an image is finished, is by how it makes me feel. If the results of my creative process make me feel more connected to my soul, then it is a painting that works for me. I want to be creating more beauty and bring more light into the world. This is a painting I created in Photoshop with KPT filters with many transluscent layers. This layering gives this image the depth of field that it has. My posts of Creativity – Balance of Play and Persistence and The Light Within give more details of using these tools to create layers and light. Thank you for being with me as I have been enjoying “Inner Flow III” and, in the process, strengthening my own inner flow. – Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: Susan Elkin’s Blog, inspiration, digital painting, creative process, Photoshop, KPT filters, layering, … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Abby in Butterflies

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Abby in Butterflies is another example of someone’s special animal companion enhanced by nature. Again, this is a complex layering process where Abby is scanned into the computer, “cut out” of her own background and placed onto a neutral background. This neutral background is actually my aunt’s photo as before. Abby in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy Then butterflies are placed gracefully encircling Abby through the computer program Painter and then manipulated further in Photoshop. For more details of this process, see the post Freckles in Flowers I. The order of the layering is especially critical with these butterflies. Notice that I have sized them differently to give them perspective. As far as I know, I am the only one using this particular creative process for digital paintings. I made it up and perhaps others have also – but I haven’t heard about them. Most people use Painter in different ways than I do. Thank you for accompanying me through this journey. – Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: animal, nature, layering, Painter, Photoshop, creative process, digital painting, enhanced animal images … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Nature Reflections II

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I am being inspired by Sue O’Kieffe’s mandalas to share this digital painting with you today. Sue’s mandalas are very different from this, but tonight after looking at her blog, Sacred Circle Mandalas, the vibrancy in her latest mandala sent me searching for a similar “feel” in my own work. Nature Reflections II, Digital © Diane Clancy This image was created in Studio Artist (SA) from a pretty photograph of yellow and blue birds. This program specializes in transformation of images. If you would like to see another variation made from the same photograph, you can check out post Nature Reflections I. There you can find the start of the following conversation. I have been asked the difference between SA and Photoshop. SA is vector based, like Illustrator, rather than bitmap or pixel based like Photoshop. In a vector based program, one can make a circle and it is determined by a mathematical formula. If one enlarges it to as big as a house, it is still a perfect circle since it is created by a formula or vector. With a bitmap image, when one increases the size, the circle will get ragged because it is based on a certain number of little squares next to each other. When one makes those squares bigger, all the jagged edges of the squares are more obvious. Truly the circle never was a circle, but a circle drawn by squares. More about this another day … I love the vibrancy of the colors … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Reflections in Blue I

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I love the aqua color in this pastel painting. Especially the light, bright aqua arches behind the figures. They always look like angels to me. Many people have wanted to buy this particular painting. “Reflections in Blue I” is what started me thinking about licensing my art work. Reflections in Blues I, Pastel © Diane Clancy I figure that if so many people feel that this image is uplifting, then I want lots of folks to be able to be inspired. Right now I make this image available in cards and prints that I sell to stores and to individuals. Licensing is allowing someone else to use one’s images for a particular purpose. I have licensed some of my images for music CD’s, yoga CD’s and publicity. People have paid me a reasonable flat fee for using my images. I want to find a business that would want to produce cards, calendars, mugs or such with this painting. Then I would receive royalties for their usage. The amount I receive would depend on how much of their product sells. In the research I have done about licensing, companies tend to want a related series of 4 images. This is the first of this set of 4 “Reflections in Blue.” I am in the process of researching which licensing companies would be the best matches for this particular painting. I hope YOU are inspired! – Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: color, pastel, licensing, uplifting, inspiration, marketing, online gift shop … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Freckles in Flowers I

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My “Enhanced Animal Images” are another kind of digital painting that I create. This particular image is of my beloved kitty companion of 18 years – who merged with the universal life force over 10 years ago. My 90+ year old aunt, that I have mentioned before, took this photograph years ago (in black and white). One day I decided to put Freckles into a field of flowers … Freckles in Flowers I, Digital © Diane Clancy I scanned the photo of Freckles into the computer so I could work digitally. Then I enhanced this image with layering as I did with some of the other digital images. The computer program Painter has a great feature called “image hose” and “nozzles.” One can load up a type of digital brush with images and then paint with the images. I have many layers so that I can non-destructively make changes and try different things out. From trial and error, I have learned to have an individual layer for each kind of flower, grass or butterfly in general. Usually, I flip back and forth between Painter and Photoshop. Painter has these nozzles and other great features but I find Photoshop is easier to work in with layers. Again, the order of the layers make an incredible difference in the final painting. Another great advantage with the layering of these enhanced animal images is that I can slip in another animal. Once I have a file (very large) with a neutral background (from … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Emanate II

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This image has me going in several different directions at once. Sometimes it looks very cosmic to me with vision or an eye in the center, with cosmic rays radiating out. Other times it seems to be an icon for modern culture – somewhat garish and not quite on target. Either way to me it does look like a mandala – not like Sue O’Kieffe’s mandalas – but one nevertheless. Emanate II, Digital © Diane Clancy This is a digital painting that I made with Studio Artist. Sue has asked in a comment about this program and how it differs from Photoshop. When I am less tired, I will explain some of the differences. If you look at “Conundrum I” in “2 Collages With a Quilting Influence,” and then look at “Emanate II” again, you may be able to see some resemblance. In this creative process I was playing with Studio Artist to understand how it works and I used “Conundrum I” as a base image to play with. Hint: with Studio Artist, you always start with opening a “source image.” You don’t have to use it – but you need to have it. When I look at “Emanate II,” I see “Conundrum I” very strongly – having spent dozens of hours creating “Conundrum I,” I know many of the scraps of quilting fabric quite well! Let me know what you think. Do you see “Conundrum I’? Do you see an icon or a mandala? Or what else do you … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Nature Reflections I

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I’ve always enjoyed the colors blue and yellow together – ever since I was a child. There is some way my eye goes back and forth, back and forth between a bright blue and a bright yellow. Many people have been drawn to this particular digital painting – from my aunt who was over 90 to young children. The birds, representing nature, are part of what I think draws people into this picture. Also, this image is at the border between realism and abstraction – where I think much interesting transformation happens. Nature Reflections I, Digital © Diane Clancy I created this image using Studio Artist, a very unusual art program. I started with a beautiful photograph of several birds and then digitally transformed the picture. I think many people are drawn by the fact that they can see birds – but often they keep looking trying to understand what is going on. As with much of my own creative process, I can never quite reproduce what happens by accident. I do much better when I am aligned with my muse and allow the flow to happen than when I try too hard to “make” things happen. Of course, technical skills are still crucial – but, for me, the greatest reward comes when I feel in the flow. I wish for us all to be able to live in that flow. – Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: color, digital painting, nature, transformation, Studio Artist, creative process … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Dance of Life

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A fine artist, Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circle Mandalas who creates nature mandalas, posted a comment yesterday in my Heart of Fire post. Her comment inspired me to write “I think of this “hard edge” painting as painting with “sheets of light.” That is part of what is going through my mind when I am painting … Just applying “sheets of light” to the canvas. Sheet after sheet after sheet …” I am again taken by this imagery of sheets of light as I meditate with this “Dance of Life.” This idea is important enough that I am sharing this metaphor in the beginning of this post. Dance of Life, Acrylic © Diane Clancy “Dance of Life” is also from the “Luminous Angles” series. Again, the light comes from behind the canvas. I think this sense of the light coming from behind is part of why, as I paint, I alternate between applying sheets of light and creating stain glass windows. These are images and ideas that flow through my mind as I paint with this type of technique. For more detail about the technique, you can look at the “Heart of Fire” post mentioned above. That post builds on the information in the earlier “Freedom” post which will reveal more information about this particular technique. – Diane Clancy Technorati Tags: mandala, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Sue O’Kieffe, Luminous Angles, hard edge painting, creative process … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Heart of Fire

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Life’s magic often happens in unplanned ways. My job as an artist is to be open to the possibilites, to see and to follow-up on opportunity. I like the way the light comes from behind the image, “Heart of Fire,” – my eyes keep being drawn in. I think the quality of light is very similar to Susan Elkin’s “Tunnel I” which is featured on Susan Elkin’s Blog today. The vibrancy and mystery of the light from under the tunnel is related to the ambiguity of radiance in this image in Susan Elkin’s Blog. Heart of Fire, Acrylic © Diane Clancy “Heart of Fire” is another painting from my “Luminous Angles” series – the hard edge painting (acrylic) I refer to in Freedom – Code Almost There. In the “Freedom” painting, the lines were predominately straight. I ripped the masking tape, put it on the canvas then paint with acrylic paint thinned by some kind of gel medium – which makes the layer of paint transluscent. In this painting, you can see that the black shapes are not sraight lines at all. So you can take masking tape and bend it as you are putting it on the canvas. This gives you more options for creating different shapes. These are the technical details. But something else happens in the creation – a kind of magic that is beyond my control. I feel like the channel for what is happening, not the creator. This creative process is so exciting! Please consider … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

The Light Within

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The “Light Within” is the name of this digital painting. Each day I need to nourish that light within as I dance my way through life – balancing maintenance and creativity. Today I have gotten the code on this blog as well as I can for now. Please let me know if you have any problems with this blog. Light Within, Digital © Diane Clancy This frees me up to get back to other work. That light within is so important whether it is attention to close technical details or playing with paint spontaneously or figuring out what isn’t working with a painting or de-cluttering. In all these pursuits I must – to the best of my ability at the moment – align with and support that light within. This image is made with KPT filters in Photoshop. There are several dozen layers in this image. (See the post – Creating “Inside and Out” – if you want more details on this layering process.) It often took an hour or more for each layer. So, you can see, an invloved process. But fun! Changing the order of the layers, changes the look. Again, see the post listed above for more details. I put a black background to have the light vibrate. These layers of “light” look very different when there is a different color behind them. My light within feels very nourished knowing that at least one person is reading what I am writing, looking at the images and following … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Freedom – Code Almost There

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(Warning: I overused, by far, the world “many” tonight.) Another day of getting things in order with this new blog – but that is OK. Because it is close to where I want it. The people in the WordPress (the software that runs this blog) community are so generous. As are so many, many people on the web! 8 days ago I never even heard of WordPress and certainly never did anything with a blog. Freedom, Acrylic © Diane Clancy I am constantly impressed how often help is there from unknown people who are on the web. They take time to look at my problems (and others) and give their advice. Of course, I do that for different people and groups in my life – but it is always so gratifying to see so many people make the time and effort – and seem to enjoy it! It is uplifting so see so much good in so many people when the world is full of contrary examples. This painting is part of a series I have done with acrylics in hard edge painting style. It is many, many layers on top of each other. Most of the layers are thinned with some kind of transparent medium to make the acrylic more translucent so one can see the multiple layers below. There are many different kind of gel mediums for different effects. The hard edge part is taking a straight edge – like masking tape – and gently but firmly – … [CLICK TO READ MORE]

Creating Inside and Out

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Today has been a day of loose ends. I have been completing several projects and trying to figure out how to put a calendar into this page without dominating the blog. But I did get outside and take my walk. Inside and Out, Pastel © Diane Clancy I was just going to share the above, but then I realized this is too good an opportunity to miss for talking about the creation of this image. I can tell a whole lot of people at once – if I am lucky! I painted this while I was in school. Our teacher, Michael Coblyn, had us go into a dark room with our pastels, a slide projector and a model. Michael Coblyn shined a slide on the wall with the model standing in front. In the dark we had 2 – 3 minuters to paint with pastel. Then he flashed a second slide on the model for 2 – 3 minutes. We went back and forth between the 2 slides many times. We had to pick and choose between the different views we saw with the 2 slides to create one coherent image. Since then I have been meaning to try the technique using a 3D computer model and figuring out how to shine slides onto the 3D model. But it hasn’t reached the top of the list yet … will it ever? But, in the meantime, I am delighted to have this image. Thank you for looking at it with me … [CLICK TO READ MORE]