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Kristine
M. Cummins Collectables
Striking
watercolor paintings of Goddesses, animals, flowers and people.
Kristine
Cummins has a deft hand with watercolors in a strong but delicate
style whose bold geometric forms, softly shaded, at first
put me in mind of Tamara deLempicka's paintings; though on
reflection, I wondered why her gentler, more organic treatment
didn't make me think first of Georgia O'Keefe.
 Her
online
store concentrates on greeting cards, or "gift cards",
as she calls them. There are a few other items here and there,
and she's also happy to take your favorite painting and make
a special order item for you on a variety of shirts, coffee
mugs, journals, and other products.
Watercolor is famously difficult and
unforgiving. A watercolor painter needs to know how to do
exactly the right thing, the first time; there aren't many
second chances. Ms. Cummins has quite a few right things to
share with us.
Goddess and Animal Art
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These
two sections of the shop are where I found my favorites.
There are a number of Goddess
paintings with images drawn from ancient cultures
- some very ancient, like the Willendorf
Venus.
The non denominational "Spiral
Goddess" at top left is wonderful and possibly
the strongest design in the Cummins pantheon, but I have
a special fondness for Minoan
Snake Goddesses, too.
In the "Animals"
section we find beasts, fish, birds, and even a spider
- all of them rendered in very rich, softly shaded forms
that meld with the large strong shapes that Ms. Cummins
tells us represent elemental and symbolic forms which
symbolize the attributes of the subject in these "Essence
Paintings".
The same sure hand and evocative
design sense is visible in all of them. |
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Butterflies and Flowers
 
There are
also sections of greeting cards with floral
and butterfly
paintings - every bit as nice as we've come to expect
by now - along with very small sections for "People"
and "Holidays"
- possibly they're new areas that just haven't filled
out yet, at the time of writing.
And finally there's an atypical
"Political"
section, quite different in both character and style
- this is the one place where t-shirts are featured
as anything other than a special order item.
What's not to Like?
You
should remember that although it's mainly greeting cards
on display here, you can contact the artist if you'd
like to special order a t-shirt, journal, or some other
item.
Other than that, there is an oddity
about the structure of the site - When you come in on
the main page and select a section - like "Animals",
for example - you often find yourself on a page where
there's only one subsection, like "Gift Cards",
and you need to click again there to get at the actual
art merchandise.
Chances
are this is a fairly new site, and Ms. Cummins plans
to add other subsections, at which point this structure
will make sense. But it's a little odd in the meantime.
This is really all there is to
quibble about, though - this is a fine example of an
independent artist / designer who has established her
own online gallery in which she can offer her art directly
to the pubic. The work's exceptional, unusual, and just
plain lovely. Do
have a look!
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