Les Fleurs de la Terre Custom Tile Wall Mirror

Available for purchase in this configuration, or with any other artwork and configuration you choose. Oh I love these colors together! This custom tile wall mirror can transform a space. Click image for full size view.

Fully Customized Tile Coffee Table from Color Bakery

Color Bakery is the *only* company who can take any image of your choice, custom manufacture it on tile (ceramic, stone or glass), hand-adhere it to a beautiful rubberwood coffee table, then custom stain and grout it to your liking. If you want to learn more, click here. Click the photo see larger. Shown: “First of May” from our Organica Gallery.

What your color choices say about you.

What does it mean when you choose to paint your walls pink? Why are you so attracted to purple? Find out below (If you want to explore color and its impact on emotion and expression, learn about the Dreaming in Color Luman Deck.)

RED
Red denotes assertiveness, dominance, power, attention, sexual energy, robust health, determination, passion, persistence, excitement, strength, aggression. Red increases enthusiasm, energy, engenders confidence, protects us from fear and anxiety.
Did you know? Red light is used to treat migraines; in China, it is associated with good luck and good fortune. Since blood is red, it is considered to be a symbol of life.

“I love red so much; I almost want to paint everything red.” - Alexander Calder

PINK
Pink denotes romance, lightheartedness, happiness, good health, serenity, friendliness, compassion, faithfulness, femininity, calmness. Pink is sensual without the aggression of red.
Did you know? Pink’s calming qualities make it a very easy color to live with; in fact, a documented experiment with prisons painting the walls pink in the 1970s proved successful in the calming of the inmates.

“Pink is just mauve trying to be purple.” -James M. Whistler

ORANGE
Fruits of the earth, congeniality, happiness, socializing, courage, success, enthusiasm, boldness, adventure, friendship, warmth, informality, welcoming, movement, energy.
Did you know? In  marketing, orange is used for packaging because it has a “freshness” appeal. Orange is often found in cafeterias and fast food restaurants because it has been proven to generate higher sales.

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” - Vincent Van Gogh

BROWN
Informality, solidity, authenticity, order, reliability, approachability, relaxation, stability, wholesomeness, earthiness,  masculinity.
Did you know? Chocolate brown and robin’s egg blue are a very popular Feng Shui color combination. Too, men are more likely to choose brown as their “favorite color”.

“God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” -Anne Sexton

YELLOW
Alertness, joy, optimism, confidence, stimulation, enthusiasm, playfulness, cheer, communicativeness, expression, intelligence, intellectual power, the sun.
Did you know? Yellow is an appropriate color for a room used for studying because it has a stimulating effect on the mind. Its intensity is also good for stairs and corridors that don’t receive natural light. Although yellow has become symbolic for caution or, semantically, cowardice, it is a joyous color that promotes freedom, inhibition and intellectual curiosity.  It enhances concentration, but can be unsettling if either overused or used in over-saturated tones.

“Yellow is capable of charming God.” -Vincent Van Gogh

GREEN
Nature, balance, freshness, relaxing, soothing, renewal, fertility, earth, compassion, prosperity, prestige, growth, abundance, money, vitality, harmony, efficiency.
Did you know? Leonardo DaVinci declared that green was the color to represent water. In addition, green is most people’s second favorite color, second only to blue.

“Absolute green is the most restful color, lacking any undertone of joy, grief, or passion. On exhausted men this restfulness has a beneficial effect, but after a time it becomes tedious.” -Wassily Kandinsky

AQUA
Soothing, crisp, dynamic, active, imagination, clairvoyance, creative adaptability.
Did you know? Many consider aqua to be the definitive color symbol of the art deco movement.

TURQUOISE
Refreshment, idealism, control, compassion, clarity, peace, sophistication, retro, cool, imaginative, innovation, youth; name is based on the stone.
Did you know? In holistic medicine, turquoise’s calming effect on patients is used to treat panic attacks. Similarly, hospitals use turquoise on the walls for a calming effect. Like aqua, turquoise is prevalent in art deco. Too much turquoise promotes aloofness.

“The tones of gray, pale turquoise and pink will prevail.” -Christian Dior

BLUE
To love and be loved, high regard, knowledge, authority, trust, serious, responsibility, peace, social status, caring, health, intuition, caring, happiness, calmness, honesty, loyalty, integrity.
Did you know? Fashion consultants recommend wearing blue to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty. People are more productive in blue rooms. Studies show weightlifters are able to handle heavier weights in blue gyms. The majority of people are likely to say blue is their favorite color.

“Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the Deity to be a source of delight.” -John Ruskin

PURPLE
Spiritual advancement, sacredness, eccentricity, wealth, creativity unleashed, passion, higher consciousness, vision, regal, power, respect, dignity, luxury, mystery, royalty.
Did you know? Only the most expensive dyes were used to make the color purple, which is one reason it is associated with wealth and power. Synonymous with royalty, purple is often preferred by artists, spiritualists and deeply creative people. Purple is the ultimate bridge between warm and cold, as it is comprised of red and blue, two opposite primary colors–making it the “ideal” color, the blending of Yin and Yang of the spectrum.

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” - Alice Walker

LAVENDER
Romantic, imaginative, elegance, fantasy, gentility, grace, preciousness, nostalgia, romance, some of the characteristics of purple but without the mystery or level of passion.
Did you know? The complementary color for lavender is olive. Lavender is considered the color of intellectual thought as opposed to action.

“Add a drop of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you’re laughing at it.” -Bill Bailey

MAGENTA
Outrageous, healing,  imaginative, innovative, daring, anti-conventional, anti-authority.
Did you know? At the expressive level, used in artistry, where magenta is less aggressive and more spiritual than red, it is more realistic than purple. It is volatile, optimistic, and affectionate, creating a feeling of satisfaction and  self-respect, while being imaginative and innovative as well. Ivory, black, warm gray and ivory work particularly well with magenta.

“I’m like, hey girl, magenta! and she’s like, oh, you mean purple! and she goes off on her purple thing, and I’m like, no – I want magenta!” -John Mayer

GOLD
Illumination, wisdom, prestige, expensive , good health, optimism, personal power, success, worldly riches.
Did you know? In Elizabethan times, permission to wear the color gold was decreed by law.

“The color of gold is gold. That’s why it’s called gold.” -Unknown

SILVER
Prestige, richness, scientific, distinguished, earthiness, abundance, the awakening of the cosmic mind.
Did you know? Silver is the best-selling car color in North America. Dorothy’s ruby slippers in “The Wizard of Oz” were originally silver (as per Baum’s book) until Louis Meyer decided a ruby red would be better.

BLACK
Elegance, power, protection, control, authority, dignity, sophistication, seduction, mystery, solitude, nobility, elegance, that which is hidden.
Did you know? Black is the absence of all color and light. Black is known to provide freedom from distraction. Because black color brings the feng shui energy of grounding and stability, its best use indoors should be not much higher than the eye level. Black is one of the boldest, most powerful colors; and the most intense against a white background.  Because of this, designers and advertisers often use just black and white for greater effect, despite all the other colors available.

“I’ve been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.” - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

GRAY
Brainy, class, efficiency, sophisticated, confidence.
Did you know? Completely colorblind people can only see black, white and shades of gray. Gray is known to blend well with almost every color, but is especially lovely with aqua, purple, pink, red.

“The color of truth is gray.” -Andre Gide

WHITE
Virtue, fertility, cleanliness, status, prosperity, innocence, peace, silence, wholeness.
Did you know? In the West, white is the color for weddings. In the East, white is the color of mourning and funerals. Unlike black, which is the total absence of color, white contains every color in the spectrum.

“White is not a mere absence of color; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black. God paints in many colors; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.” -G.K. Chesterton

Color Bakery Posters and Prints

Shop other personalized gifts from Zazzle.

Photographers, make paintings from your photos.

I am not a photographer, nor do I play one on TV. I freely admit my technical skills as a photographer leave much to be desired, as far as TTL (Through-The-Lens)  know-how. Much to my everlasting regret, I pretty much forgot everything I learned when I studied photography as a kid.

No, I do my manipulation in Photoshop. It is not depth of field or light through the lens that I play with, it’s using the photo as a blank canvas for a digital painting after the photo is taken. Now, I know, for purists, this is a blasphemous remark. It may even make you shake your head with pity. That’s okay. I am more of  a digital artist than I ever was a photographer.  But if you can get past the “purity” thing, you will definitely expand the depth and breadth of services you offer to your clients by being able to offer them paintings or images with special effects in addition to traditional photography. Or, more importantly, these programs can enable you to explore new horizons for your work in a way you never dreamed.

With a digital program like Photoshop or Painter, there are so many ways to parlay your digital and photographic skills and learn how to make digital paintings or add stunning special effects to your pieces…opening up an exciting new market. In this post, I just want to offer some possibilities for you think about and experiment with. The upshot of it all is this: you will not only find an expanded market for your work, but you might find yourself enjoying yourself tremendously and giving your work a whole new level of depth. In fact, you might become addicted to all the artistic possibilities of no-holds-barred digital photographic manipulation. Whether it’s full blown digital paintings you want to create, or unique special effects that dramatically enhance the images, the main thing is to have fun. Because if you’re not having fun, it defeats the purpose and will definitely show in your work.

Photo to painting by Mindy Sommers.

Now, we all know photographers who run their photos through Photoshop’s native filters–a few clicks and they’re done. And that’s exactly what those pieces look like-a click of a few filter buttons and that’s it. That’s no more digital art than Hamburger Helper is cooking. Here are some filter, plugin and software recommendations to start you off with your experimentation. Hopefully, one or more of these ideas will prompt you to find your own voice and embark on a whole new level of photographic creation. None of these filters are ends unto themselves–no filter is, nor should they ever be. They are, however, means to an end. With them, talented photographers (and artists, too)  can use them as jumping off points to their new creations.

Gertrudis Pro
Gertrudis Pro is a fabulous stand-alone software with which you can create some stunning paint and brush effects. Load your image, click “auto sketch tool” and you’re ready to rock. Your photo will act as the “trace” image and Gertrudis will pick up all the colors, shapes and shadows automatically as you move your brush around. Gertrudis Pro comes with its own native brushes, like “Van Gogh” and “Scratch Style”,  but you can create your own brushes to use over and over again by changing the density, size, direction, stroke and color settings of your brushes, and a host of advanced settings. Gertrudis does not allow you to work in layers, but you can easily export your image to Photoshop (or another program).

Alien Skin Snap Art
Alien Skin Snap art is a Photoshop plug-in that turns your photos into beautiful paintings, sketches, illustrations and even cartoons. You don’t use brushes with this software–you apply the effects to the whole image at once. However, you do have control over the filter’s parameters before you apply it. This control includes paint coverage, style, light, canvas texture, etc. I like working with layers for painting programs, putting the paints on separate layers…that allows me to fully control the intensity of the effects I apply and the way in which I choose to apply them.

Color Efex Pro by Nik Software
This is not a painting program, but one that revolves around Color with a capital “C”. This is, hands down, my personal favorite coloring program because the sheer diversity of effects, possibilities and ability to control each effect is just stunning. I couldn’t live without Color Efex Pro, a Photoshop plugin filter.  The sheer number of effects (around ninety if you get the Complete Edition) boggles the mind with exciting possibilities. From tonal and color contrast to old photo and full-control-black-and-white, this program is an amazing amalgam of powerful effects that will turn into an addiction. You will go nuts experimenting. I promise.

Filter Farm (free)
One of my favorite filters is called Filter Farm, one of the best-kept secrets in the digital art world. A simple little program, and only accessible through Photoshop as a plug-in, Filter Farm uses random algorithms and non-predictability to create the most beautiful transitions and color effects. No two effects will ever be the same, and the author claims that they “grow genetically” based upon the users’ choices and image data. I use Filter Farm as a separate layer for my image, enabling me to control the amount of effects I want. Filter Farm comes the closest to magic, and I highly recommend it.

Art Rage
Art Rage may look like a simple program, but it’s not. It’s a sophisticated stand-alone software that gives you many ways to make beautiful paintings. Art Rage supports layers, and you can export/import layers and create new ones within the program.  You have the option of using a “tracing image” to paint over and the program will automatically select all the subtle gradations and hues that are picked up from your image, or you can paint freehand. And you’re not just limited to a paintbrush—there is a palette knife for scraping and smoothing, glitter spray, airbrush, paintbrush, and more. You can also control the amount of “water” added to the paint (thinner), how much paint you want on your brush, the brush pressure, and opacity. (The glitter brush is really cool, it has three dimensional texturing). Art Rage supports Photoshop format files.

Virtual Painter
Finally, a fun little stand-alone program (it can also work as a plug-in) which offers lots of fun options but virtually no control. Virtual Painter will automatically take any image and turn it into any one of a variety of styled paintings including oil, watercolor, gouache, pencil and more…for a total of sixteen styles. Just click and the program will do the rest. You do have some control over the intensity of each effect–such as variations in canvas, color, scale, deformation and focus. While it’s not exactly a serious artist’s tool, it *can* be used in a more sophisticated fashion for serious artists when used as part of a layer or group of layers.

To sum, the world of digital art continues to become not only more exciting, offering an ever-increasing array of fabulous filters and plugins for the digital artist and photographer, but digital art itself has gained the credibility and respect once garnered exclusively to the paint-and-brushes canvas artist. The sheer amount of tools, techniques, programs and options now available to today’s digital artist require a massive array of knowledge and skill to adeptly master. Certainly the breadth and possibilities of effects available to the digital artist is something Van Gogh could only have dreamed about. Like my husband says, “if you’re not growin’, you’re dyin’.”  The skilled artist is always changing, growing and adding to his/her arsenal, and the tools outlined above are a wonderful addition to any artist’s.

Color Bakery posters, framed art prints and art canvas

Color Bakery’s new official store for poster prints, fine art giclee prints and art canvas on Zazzle will also have greeting cards you can customize right online and much more. You can also order custom frames and preview it before you buy. If you purchase from our Official Print Store in from now through the end of July, write to us and you will get a free gift.

Free Screensaver for new Color Bakery Facebook fans

It’s that easy.

Go here.

Become a fan of our Color Bakery page on Facebook.

Email us at peapod_grrl at yahoo dot com and give us a way to send you a download link. Or post to us right here.

Get a fabulous screensaver with dreamy animated art by award-winning artist Mindy Sommers. (Windows only)

Whisper Forest Moon, Japanese Dreamcape Art from Color Bakery

Available for printing on our all products. For more info, contact us.

Sunrise, Sunset, new art by Mindy Sommers and Color Bakery

More new art from Color Bakery is comprised of two complementary sunrise and sunset images that can easily be coordinated for custom printing on any of our products. Rich, bold organic colors for a color-soaked Yin-Yang, day and night display. To order any of these images, visit our store and type either “sunrise” or “sunset” into the blank field when filling your cart. If you have any questions, please contact us.

SUNRISE

SUNSET

Customized Cosmetic Case

Brand new from Color Bakery, beautiful artsy cosmetic case which can also be used as a clutch. Zippered closure.

Click here to purchase and/or learn more. Click photo for larger view