Art by Maria Woods

New designs in my Etsy shop

Maria — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:53:32 +0000

My take on some wild beasties…

When will I be Tall? by Maria Woods.

Tall Medium Short by Maria Woods

My new Etsy shop, Maria Woods Fine Art, is now live!

Maria — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:30:49 +0000

For the last few weeks I’ve been busy colating and creating artwork for my new Etsy shop Maria Woods Fine Art. For now I’ll be specializing in handmade prints for the nursery and children’s bedrooms, based on some of my book illustrations and greeting card designs as well as a load of new stuff. It’s been really enjoyable, just letting my mind wander off into crazy, quirky scenes with naive animals and fairy princesses.

In the future, if I’m not having just too much fun with my characters, I’ll expand the store to include limited edition prints and original artwork of a more grown up nature.

I’ll be regularly updating the shop with new designs, so please drop in to see what’s new…

I'm Fairy Good Art Print by Maria Woods

Too Wit Too Woo Art Print by Maria Woods

Pretty Kitty Art Print by Maria Woods

Color trends for 2011

Maria — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:38:54 +0000

Being an artist and licensing my artwork to many fashion-led industries such as greeting cards and home decor, I need to keep abreast of color trends. It’s the perfect excuse to buy great magazines like Italian Vogue and W with their insight into what’s hot for the coming year and their coverage of the runway, showing what we’ll be seeing in months ahead. Also I like to take a daily peek at the wonderful Etsy website with its array of up-cylced, re-cycled, handmade treasures.

The whole cottage industry movement is so big at the moment resulting in a color palette reflecting this. We’ll be seeing lots of pale, eggshell colors – soft blues, buttery yellows, the palest of lavender – teamed with marigold orange, earthy greens and organic rich browns.

Another trend, which has been with us for a few seasons now, has a very eclectic global feel. Mixes of textures, patterns, embroidery, beading and hot bright colors sit harmoniously with earthy tones of dark golds, deep reds and corals.

Probably my favorite of all the trends is influenced by Steampunk. There’s a lot of black and the new blacks – darkest of reds and forest greens, inkiest of blues, rustiest and deepest of chocolate browns- teamed with gorgeous dirty shades of pink, gold, blue and grey. Opulent -yum!

And my least favorite… Pantone’s color of the year – bright pink! Pantone 18-2120 Honeysuckle. Oh well, at least little girls will be pleased!

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

Maria — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:53:34 +0000

To our friends around the world, old and new…We wish you the merriest of Christmases and a New Year full of fun, health and happiness!

Short-listed for the Henries 2010 awards!

Maria — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:07:05 +0000

Every month I eagerly await the delivery of my Progressive Greetings Worldwide trade magazine – which provides a wonderful insight into the industry’s news of the day, publishers and their new products.

This month however, I was proper excited! I knew it had the announcements for the finalists of the prestigious Henries Awards – the industry’s ‘Oscars’ – and a range of my cards would be up there! After being a freelance illustrator and artist for over 20 years I’ve finally had my designs – Gg (Girls’ guide) published by The Art File – selected, by a judging panel of 30 retail buyers, from over 15,000 entries!!!

About the Henries Awards
This year the gala evening takes place on the 7th October at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, and is the glitziest event in the greeting card industry calendar. The Henries Awards recognize the best the industry has to offer and for the last 14 years the annual event has shone the spotlight on greeting card ranges showing exceptional quality of design, print and manufacture.
It is acknowledged that, in terms of design, the UK is ten years ahead the of rest of the world in terms of greeting cards. According to the GCA Market Report, 800 UK publishers produced over 1.5 billion cards in 2009!

I love being part of this fast moving fashion-led industry and now I have everything crossed – fingers, legs, toes and eyes – that my lovely, sassy, quirky, fairy will be a winner!!

A Girls’ Guide to wall decor

Maria — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:59:50 +0000

My little fairy friend has been on more adventures this week – she’s to grace the walls of many a girl’s bedroom in poster and canvas form!
I revamped some of my original drawings by adding a patchwork of muted pink and neutral colors and new teenage friendly wording.
I wonder if I’m too old to have ‘drama queen’ on my bedroom wall?

Gg (Girls’ guide) launched at Progressive Greetings Live

Maria — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:33:56 +0000

Hooray! My new range of greeting cards, Gg (Girls’ guide) has been launched today by The Art File at Progressive Greetings Live 2010 in London. I’m currently working on new designs to license in other areas. Here are more of my favorite designs…

A Girls’ Guide to life!

Maria — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:39:56 +0000

A little while ago, I was asked to design a fairy character – she was to be all grown up and typical of a fun-loving, modern woman. Think “shopping, chocolate, shoes, purses, chocolate, diet, partying and oh… chocolate”!

I fell in love with my new character; she is me after all – but a lot thinner! – and was so pleased when a British greeting card company asked me to develop her further.

Here’s a little taster of the new range…

New artworks using photography from my archives

Maria — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:42:12 +0000

I was browsing through some photographs of flowers Mark and I had taken last year in our studio and decided to get a little creative with them. I love collaging my hand-painted images with textures, so why not throw in some photography too? I created a serene color palette, added some text and the end result is two new designs for greeting cards and fine art prints. Licensed for fine art posters.

Here are the new artworks:

and here are the original captures:

2010 Christmas Color Trends

Maria — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 02:20:17 +0000

I’ve recently completed this commission for a US greeting card company, targeted for a Christmas 2010 release.
The fabulous color palette combined with fabric textures is predicted to be a big trend for Christmas 2010 (predicted first at the Frankfurt Christmasworld Show). Let’s hope so; much more exciting than traditional red and green or the ice palette!