Artist’s Statement As an artist and photographer, I watch light and beauty in everything I do. How light lands on a subject and how beauty is found in the lines of an interesting face. I have always loved the shapes and beauty in flowers, the colors, the emotions they evoke. I love to put together a drawing with the dimension and depth of flowers. These designs come from the heart, this art is fleeting as the flowers wither. Like a good movie or a great painting, I want these Drawings with Flowers to take both the subject and the viewer to a more vivid and meaningful appreciation of their world.
So many neighborhoods have cookie-cutter-every-one-the-same house with no trees or character. I think the best and my favorite thing about this house is the uniqueness of it – that there is not another one like it.
I love our home, because it is has been more than a home to me and my family, it has been a lifestyle choice in that it is quiet, tree-covered and in a district with great schools. It is less than 10 minutes to the mall where we go to the movies almost every Tuesday night, the Publix where I love to grocery shop and great restaurants. Many times we ride our bikes to these places on the Cross Seminole Bike Trail which is right along side of our neighborhood.
The high vaulted ceilings caught my eye first, with the windows way up 28 feet – it almost makes me feel like I am outside. Even if you brought the second floor in this house you would still have 10 foot ceilings on both floors. Sometimes I can look up see the full moon from those windows. It makes me feel very peaceful.
I love that is has a corner lot filled with many different of plants, flowers and trees that make me feel like I am on a huge amount of land. We see hawks, egrets, wood storks, deer and even bald eagles here. We love to sit out on our deck and drink a glass of wine at sunset and coffee in the mornings. We have the best neighbors in Huntington, we’ve made many life-long friends here. I love having property with no high wall or fencing – creating that spacious feeling. There are Friday night happy hour get-togethers, book clubs, a big Spring Picnic, an Octoberfest Festival party, a Holiday Walk through the neighborhood – a progressive party from house to house. On Christmas Eve, every family puts up luminaries around their homes making the neighborhood so beautiful that people come from all over to see it.
This house has a big wide open feeling in the family living areas, a feeling spaciousness. We love that the house is laid out so that the family living spaces are upfront and all of the bedrooms are set up in the back of the house. The master bedroom has 16 foot ceilings vaulted and open. When my kids were younger, I loved that all our bedrooms were right together, though the master bedroom still felt private with it’s own hallway. And so big!
The kitchen is always where our family and friends gather. It has been wonderful to entertain here and have had many parties though the years. Even with all the space in this house, our friends always crowd around the island there.
Take a 360 tour here. Find out more about our house here.
Heading for Rome we decided to take the train into the city. Up early and off the boat to Rome we went. In Rome we played tourist all the way. The temperature was 98 degrees before you factor in the wind and heat coming up from the road. We had to be careful how far we walked from place to place. Truly an amazing place to go sight-seeing and hang out. We had a lot of fun walking around and checking out Rome. The food in Rome tasted so good to us – maybe it was because we walked everywhere and sitting down to amazing food after working up an appetite helped. Whatever the case, it seemed like the plate of spaghetti we ever had.
Having my own art gallery show and opening is a dream come true for me. So much fun to have my work at Blake Elliott’s Salon and Gallery this past month! It meant so much to have my family and friends there to support and encourage my work. Prints and commissioned work are still available! Contact me at kelly@thecanoavsphotography.com
Artist’s Statement
As an artist and photographer, I watch light and beauty in everything I do. How light lands on a subject and how beauty is found in the lines of an interesting face. I have always loved the shapes and beauty in flowers, the colors, the emotions they evoke. I love to put together a drawing with the dimension and depth of flowers. These designs come from the heart, this art is fleeting as the flowers wither. Like a good movie or a great painting, I want these Drawings with Flowers to take both the subject and the viewer to a more vivid and meaningful appreciation of their world.
We loved our family trip to Ireland with my sister Karen, her husband Jeff, niece Hayley, my mother Margot and daughters Jordan and Devin! It’s the prettiest place I have ever seen. We drank lots of Irish coffee, kissed the Blarney Stone, met some wonderful people and traveled from Dublin to Killarney. We stayed in the Kilronan Castle, visited Galway, The Dingle Peninsula and drank at Durty Nelly’s. We can’t wait to go back ?
Courtney and I had so much fun walking through DeLand and checking out all the very cool artists, boutiques, vintage and handmade vendors at Artisan Alley in DeLand – the city’s second Indie Market, a curated event featuring various artists and creators of handmade wares. Hope you enjoy some of our favorite shots from our just-for-fun photo tour.
The DeLand Indie Market is curated by Rusty and Courtney Hamil. It is held 4 times a year showcasing the artists along with Food Trucks and Live Music. If you are interested in being a participant in this amazing event please email Courtney at newfangled.deland@gmail.com
For me, this is one of the funniest little slice-of-life things to do in Florida – go to one of my favorite little towns in Florida and watch people dress up their dogs and parade them down Main Street. It's always fascinating and fun. To me it looks like everything a small town should do for fun. Everyone should check this out in DeLand at least once.
Mardi Gras on Main Street is presented by the Krewe of Amalee and takes place in beautiful Downtown DeLand. Celebrating more than 15 years of parading pups.
We just took an amazing Mediterranean Sea vacation on the Royal Princess. The weather was warm along with all of the greetings we received from all the countries we went to. What a great time to spend with our family – Courtney and me, my daughters Jordan and Devin, my sister Karen, her husband Geoff and my neice Hayley, and my mother Margot – traveling through all these beautiful European cites. In this blog post is Barcelona, Spain, Toulon (for Provence), France, Florence and Pisa Italy. Next: Rome, Naples and Venice! Then we took off to Istanbul, Turkey and Greece. The whole trip was so much fun and gave us the wonderful opportunity to take a glimpse at some really beautiful cites of Europe. The schedule left us a little exhausted but we can't wait to go back.
Plaza Catalunya to the sea, where you can find the monument of Christopher Columbus. It’s always busy with mime artists, musicians, flower stalls. So interesting just to walk up and down.
La Boquería comprises not only the market itself, but an entire human itinerary.
Very excited to have been invited to the Photography and Fashion … Snap! Orlando and Neiman Marcus Event! My favorite things were there – beautiful fashion, champagne and fabulous art. There was a photography exhibit from one of my most favorite people in the world – talented fine art photographer Paris Carter. Her black and white self portraits are amazing. Also a presenting sponsor was my talented friend, photographer Gian Carlo Brand and whose beautiful work was also on display.
Do you need a fashion photographer in Central Florida? Contact The Canovas Photography today for more information.
DeLand's Historical murals take you on a journey through the history of the community and draws visitors from all over – many take their photo with the sailor on the WWII mural – they all invoke awareness and pride in DeLand's history.
I was very honored to be a part of the planning, art direction and production of many of the murals – now time for some restoration and preservation…
This is a detail of the mural on the Fish Building in Downtown DeLand. The biggest challenge as I started to paint was getting my brush down into the rough texture on the masonry wall.
The weather in DeLand was running around 100 degrees up against the wall as we put clear-coat on the wall.
The original map we worked out for the mural walk through Downtown DeLand. The mural walk starts from the DeLand Chamber building and works its way passed the Mainstreet Center all the way to the Artisan windows.
