The inspiration for this painted chandelier came from a collector last fall who ordered two 36″ Vineyard Romance chandeliers—one had grapes and song birds and the other intertwined roses, sunflowers and columbine flowers through the grapes and vines. Both pieces had Tuscan colors and also deep burgundy colors to match the richness of the dining room. That got me thinking that I’d like to incorporate countryside flowers into my vineyard chandeliers.

When I paint grapes, they are full with color and depth. They shine and also have waxy areas. My grape clusters look as if you could pluck them right off the vine. The roses have soft petals and my sunflowers are full of motion, gazing towards the sun. If you’d like to see more pictures of Napa Valley Romance, look for it on my Chandeliers page.

All of my reverse hand painted glass chandeliers are hand crafted and painted by me, Jenny Floravita. My studio is in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. I live surround by vineyards. Painting my vineyard inspired chandeliers brings me back to early childhood memories of my grandparent’s shade filled trellised patio that hung heavy with dark blue grapes. They would tend to their garden. I’d sweep the red patio clean from leaves and rock in the swinging patio couch.

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To my blog followers: these new painted chandeliers will likely go to one or two of my galleries so if you are interested in any of these specific works, please contact me and I’ll put you in contact with the gallery staff. They are all unique and original.

This is a different view of the same chandelier above.

The reverse painted chandelier bowl below is a romantic flower piece that has wisteria and roses, peonies…very stunning in person, very soft and lushly painted, very elaborate in overlapping. I just love all the sides, so I’m showing you 4 images…

Below is another abstract…

Below is a “window” abstract and floral—these are a favorite for me to paint… It has desert flowers alternating with color sections that have abstractions.

Below is an abstract…

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The opposite side has cool aqua and violet hues and is accented by lime greens, yellows and soft pink magenta colors. My Circles Series represent cycles of life. Everyone has their own unique path yet we all travel closely. When I paint, I try to feel the composition. Sometimes I go into the process of creating one of my abstract painted chandeliers with specific colors or an idea that I want to convey. Other times I try to simply create and I let my intuition as an artist speak through my brush.

Nautilus symbols frequent my designs. They are found in fossils in the desert areas that inspire my desert hued reverse painted chandeliers. What was once water is now desert until the land sinks beneath an ocean once more and that is another cycle of life. The sun gives energy and warmth and is critical to our lives. Sun symbols are often found in my abstract works. The aqua areas often represent bodies of water.

My Contemporary Swirl forged fixture style was designed specifically for my abstract reverse hand painted glass chandeliers. I had chosen to photograph this piece in my Standard hand forged fixture because my abstracts look good in all of my fixtures.

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Flower of the Coast

Prior to moving to the Delta which flows into the San Francisco Bay I lived in Santa Cruz and Aptos—both two colast town here in California that will always have a part of my heart. One of the things that I liked to do best and found very soothing to my mind was to walk the many villages and beaches. Sunflowers, chrysanthemums, roses are very popular as are ferns and other wildflowers that will grow in such a temperate climate. These walks were very meditative and allowed me to fully enjoy life and the outdoors. I learned to greatly appreciate the blessings that have been bestowed upon my life in general and as an artist.

Artists need to gather inspiration for their work and the coast and it’s flowers and essence have always been my primary inspiration. It makes sense, as I was born in the San Francisco Bay Area. Everyone has a place that they gravitate towards. As I began to travel I discovered that visiting islands and other coastal communities fill me with continued inspiration for both my oil and watercolor paintings and my reverse hand painted glass chandeliers.

It’s a true blessing to be able to live life and work as an artist. There are only a few days each year where I do not have the desire to create…and on those days, I rest. For a few other days, I travel to my galleries or I travel with my husband to our getaway in Hawaii. The longer that I live as an artist, the bigger my body of work. If I could give everyone a sense of what it feels like to live a dream (that I work so hard for) and feel the same blessings, I would.

That said, it’s Saturday and I need to begin my studio work for the day…to see what my brushes create.

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This may seem like a very odd problem but we all know that all people have their quirks. And when you consider what an artist puts into their work in terms of time and thought, it’s actually quite easy to understand. Over the course of my career I have now sold a few hundred paintings—I have lost track and have no desire to count anymore. I simply create. Becoming a prolific artist was necessary in order to make a living. I had to learn to create a lot of oil and watercolor paintings in the years that I sold them through fine art festivals here in California. That is how artists live—it is very expensive to be in business as an artist, to buy materials and to take your work to market bet it galleries or festivals. Travel is still a huge expense for me. I’d like to point out that it’s far more expensive to create chandeliers than it ever was to create and sell ‘wall art’.

To get back to my point, becoming prolific helped me to slowly let go of my fears of knowing that I’ll never see that precious original again. There was a very specific point in time where I had created an over-sized watercolor for a client in Walnut Creek, California in which I can point to having broken that fear. I delivered the painting and realize that I was able to walk away and not look back. I loved that painting. Just recently I came across it in photos from the early part of my career in the early 2000s. It was a surprisingly good painting and I remember the entire process like it was yesterday.

The picture here is one of three tropical flower and parrot themed revers hand painted glass chandeliers that were created for one client. This is my favorite of the three. I took a lot of photos of this piece in order to preserve the memory. When my painted glass chandeliers leave my studio, the go to be packed and then travel on their way to their new home. As an artist, I know that I’ll never see these pieces again so I send them with ‘light’ and prosperity. I hope that my clients will receive the same joy from their reverse hand painted glass chandeliers as I did in creating them. That said, I now need to go up to my studio to move a large tropical flower oil painting towards completion…and yes, I’ll be photographing this time-consuming labor of love before it travels to Oregon!

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Personally, my home has a lot of aqua colors. I’m always accenting with watery blues—ocean colors whereas my mother always chooses hot fiesta and fall colors, a color palate that has been all the rage for a few years as it is energizing and cheerful.

What I like about blues and water colors are their soothing effect. Most of the rest of my color palate in this piece contains cooler versions of hues. Magenta colors are cool as are the violets that I am using.

Green is also a soothing, calming color. Evening Oasis does have a section with those hot fiesta yellows and oranges but it is less pronounced in this particular piece.

All of my reverse hand painted chandeliers are  painted by me, Jenny Floravita, and are originals. A lot of time and thought goes into the painting process. My form of reverse glass painting requires the ability to both plan and yet be very spontaneous. It is like being fluid in a language. People have often asked me how I was introduced to this art form: and it was through an interior designer many years ago. Since then my style has blossomed. I also cannot emphasize enough that my fixtures are my hand forged designs and my glass bowls are fired and created here, my my studio—these are not big box lighting fixtures that I’m simply painting with. A lot of work goes into each of my reverse hand painted chandeliers before my brush ever hits the glass. At this point, a lot of years have also gone into the way in which I now create my work. Art is an evolution.

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La Quinta Arts Festival

March 7th— 10th •  10am—5pm
Booth # 319, La Quinta’s Civic Center Campus (78495 Calle Tampico La Quinta CA).

Though I have exhibited in fine art festivals for the past decade and used to carry an exhibition schedule of 15+ shows per year when I was exhibiting more of my tropical oil and watercolor (wall) paintings, this will be one of the only shows for 2013. As you can all imagine, showing chandeliers outside is a challenge so these days I’m doing few festivals. This show will have some of the top artists in the country. It is not a craft show, this is a fine art show. I will have my gorgeous reverse painted glass night lights there as well as samples of my art form—they make great gifts!

If you are in the Palm Springs area or Southern California—most cities are within a two hour drive—it’s well worth the effort to come over to this show. You will see artists who do not participate in the local shows. Do bring an umbrella, we could have some slight showers here and there, possibly on Friday. If you have favorite artists at this show, it’s actually best to come on Thursday so that you can have first picks!

And to all from out of town, safe travels!!!

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I have spent my youth on my craft. I went directly to college to pursue an art degree at age 17. I was already accomplished as an artist by age 15/16—having been awarded 4 California State Seals and 4 Governor’s Medallions by the age of 17. These were (and might still be) the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a high school student in the arts in California. In college, I completed my undergraduate courses and unrelated major courses by the end of my freshman year—by spring quarter I was taking the upper division courses. Where many waited until their senior year to take advanced drawing, I did it as a freshman and in fact took a year’s worth. By the time I was a junior I had done so many upper division  classes that it was time to try the graduate program of Science Illustration—where I took classes for a year, maybe completing 2/3 of the classes that the real graduate students took to complete their degrees.

Well, those years were long ago now, and I do consider myself still young…but they are the backbone of who I have become today.  My middle years through college and right after were also spent working as a graphic designer—a skill set that I use almost every day as I am my own marketing machine. It took a lot of work to get to the point where I was able to walk away from the securities of graphic design to launch and feed my budding fine art career. And yes, I sacrificed not having a family early—that is another big distinction in me and it was a sacrifice.

So I write this open letter to all the artists who look at me and wonder how I arrived at where I am today. I am flattered when artists contact me but I am also very busy and my time resources are scarce as are my emotional energies (and of all people, I do love speaking with artists). My work in creating and showing my chandeliers is very demanding. This is a most rewarding life that I have and I wouldn’t trade it but it has demanded sacrifices thus the literal blood, sweat and yes, many tears through the years. Heck, I could have a lot of those elements between now and the end of next week, depending on the wind conditions at La Quinta, if I hurt myself setting up my massive booth, knocking myself out getting in and out of my trailer (and I’ve fallen out, too), the dozen dolly loads of display equipment and weights, steaks, rebar for wind.

To artists and with much kindness and Aloha (as I know others would not be so kind): please understand that my work is my livelihood and this is true for any working professional artist who has a unique and innovative art form. Because my work is special and because it has a part of my soul it’s like giving a part of myself with each chandelier and I do think most people require a part of the artist to invest in their work, I do understand this and give as much as I possibly can. Good thing we are creative people with abundance of soul!!! For now, I feel the need to hold my work’s creative soul and energies close. I think having expressed my life’s journey in this light, it will be easier to accept.

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