Artwork for Artist: Billie Crain

Click on artwork name for more information or to purchase on-line.
 
Tag # Artwork Quant Price Image
14872 Gingko Leaves
Original fluid acrylic on gesso coated 140# watercolor paper. A duo of ginkgo leaves. I love their graceful and unique fan shape. I completed the painting by embellishing it with gold oil based enamel paint and framing it in a contemporary antique gold frame.
1 $90.00  
14867 Sunflowers, Blue Skies Card
Reproduction card with envelope
1 $4.50  
13730 East Meets West (Orchids)
Original watercolor

This painting was inspired by the work of Lian Quan Zhen. I named this floral 'East Meets West' because it contains elements of the Chinese style of spontaneous painting with what Zhen calls the western style of painting which involves detail work. I chose orchids as my subjects because they are so exotic looking and they worked well with the combined techniques.
1 $100.00  
13486 Crabby Cat Birthday Notecard
Crabby Cat Birthday note card (blank inside) with envelope.

The perfect card for those special family members and friends that love seeing another birthday roll around. Yea...right.
2 $2.50  
13080 Pond Life III (Turtle)
Watercolor on matboard.  Framed and float-mounted
1 $70.00  
13078 Pond Life I (Frog)
Watercolor on matboard.  Framed and float-mounted
1 $90.00  
12636 Crabby Cat Christmas Note Card
Christmas note card with envelope
1 $2.50  
12589 Catitude Note Cards (Set of 4)
Set of 4 different watercolor print "Catitude" note cards (blank inside)
6 $10.00  
11666 Pomeranian
Original watercolor

Pomeranians are wonderful dogs....smart, energetic and very protective of their owners. A few years ago I was asked to be present at the birth of a litter of poms. The mother dog belonged to a good friend of mine who breeds these dogs. This was my first experience attending such an event, playing assistant 'midwife' and it was so exciting to see each new pup enter the world. I've painted this pomeranian in a very loose style, applying juicy watercolor onto wet paper with quick expressive brush strokes. I paid more attention to detail when painting the eyes as they must convey the soul of the dog.
1 $100.00  
11665 Catnap III
Original watercolor

This Tonkinese cat looks very comfortable in his slumber. Tonkinese cats are a mixture of Burmese and Siamese. All cats looks like little angels when they sleep and this fella is no exception.
1 $110.00  
11663 Catnap I
Original watercolor

This is one of my own cats, Digby caught in the act of taking a snooze. He looks like such an angel when he's sleeping and I wanted to convey this in the painting with soft colors applied in a very loose style. He's also one of the few cats I've met that adores babies and little kids. Even when they pull his tail he's so patient with them and never growls or scratches. He seems more like a dog than a cat...most of the time anyway.
1 $110.00  
11228 Gingerbruiser

Original watercolor

Gingerbruiser was inspired by one of the tomcats in my neighborhood. He was the neighborhood bully and 'top cat', so to speak, and liked to remind the other cats of his superiority.

1 $75.00  
11227 Undercover Kitty

Original watercolor

Undercover Kitty was inspired by my youngest female cat, Gizmo. She was so named because she was all huge eyes and ears as a kitten and looked like Gizmo from the movie, Gremlins. She's always been terribly skittish, can run like the wind and hides under my bed covers when company comes calling.

1 $75.00  
11225 Green Apple
Original color pencil matted
1 $40.00  
11224 The Cat That Swallowed The Moon
Reproduction print matted
2 $45.00    
11223 Miss Willmott's Ghost II

Macro color photograph of Miss Willmott's Ghost, a white sea holly.

1 $225.00  
11222 Miss Willmott's Ghost I

Macro color photograph of Miss Willmott's Ghost, a white sea holly.

About Miss Willmott

Ellen Willmott (1858-1934) was an independently wealthy British amateur horticulturist who had several plants named after her, including a white double flowering lilac and a pale, pink edged rose.  The best known plant that bears her name, however, is a biennial sea holly, eryngium gigantium, known as 'Miss Willmott's Ghost.'  Apparently Miss Willmott enjoyed sprinkling the seeds of this particular plant about -- in effect, leaving her "ghosts" to appear in the gardens of her friends and acquaintences long after she had departed those places.  These plants were also said to match her 'prickly' personality.

She began gardening at her home at Waverly Place at seventeen years of age.  In her later years, the never married Miss Willmott became a bit eccentric and cantankerous.  She bought properties in Italy and France and continued creating gardens.  At one time she had one hundred gardeners on her payroll. She was arrested for shoplifting (the charges were eventually dropped), carried a revolver in her purse and booby trapped her daffodils to thwart bulb thieves.

 When she died penniless in 1934, the garden which once held over 100,000 species of expertly culitvated plants from the world over, was sold to pay her debts.

 I've grown this plant in my moongarden for several years.  Even though it's a biennial, it's a prolific reseeder.  The plant at maturity is approximately 2-3 (or more) feet tall with multiple stems erupting from the main stem, each bearing a 2-3 inch wide set of bracts surrounding umbels of florets similar to thistles.

1 $225.00  
11221 Cat'ching A Midnight Snack

Reproduction print

Here's a bit of whimsy inspired by a friend of mine. I have a 'thing' for cats and the Moon, by the way. To me, they just seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly.

1 $45.00  
11219 Karaoke Cat Style

Reproduction print of original watercolor

Karaoke Cat Style was inspired by a simple photo of a cat yawning. In that same photo was a flower bud roughly in the position of a microphone. American Idol popped into my head and the concept was born! Why not replace the bud with a flower more microphone-like(in this case, a prairie coneflower) and turn a yawn into a song?

2 $35.00  
9679 The Cat That Swallowed The Moon

Reproduction print

Cats tend to be nocturnal and everyone has seen pictures and paintings of cats lined up on a fence backlit by the Moon. I decided to take things a step further with this concept. Just a bit of whimsy. The cat was inspired by a fat tabby named Peek-Peek who sits on the sofa on his rear end like a human, feet splayed out in front of him with his fat tummy resting in his lap. Really!

1 $35.00  
9458 Nosy Rosy Notecard
Reproduction notecard from humorous series 'Catitude' 
4 $3.50  
8114 Karaoke Cat Style

Reproduction card with envelope from humorous series, 'Catitude'

4 $3.50  
8113 Gingerbruiser

Reproduction card with envelope from humorous series, 'Catitude'

1 $3.50  
7753 Yellow Wall
Unframed print
2 $25.00  
7752 Catch of the Day

Unframed print

Double matted

2 $30.00  
7504 Waterlily
Original watercolor  
1 $125.00  
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