I’m so excited to announce the launch of my new Etsy Shop! It’s already all stocked up with a bunch of gorgeous greeting cards featuring fine art prints of some of my favorite paintings from the past couple years.
I’m especially thrilled to be able to offer this set of cards from my “Birches at Sunrise on the Winter Solstice” series. I first created this series during the 2018 holiday season as gifts for family and friends. While most winter holiday cards feature red-and-green color schemes or nighttime scenes, I wanted to create something that spoke to the sense of nascent hope and expectation that’s so magical about this time of year.
Birches have long been a symbol of new beginnings — they’re a pioneer species, one of the first to regrow in an area after a natural disaster, and their bark contains oils that make it especially good for kindling life-giving fires in the hearth (and heart) during the coldest, darkest months of the year. Birches seemed like the perfect subject for a series of paintings about rebirth and the celebration of life in the midst of difficult times.
When I sent out my homemade watercolor cards that year, I was just overwhelmed by the reception! People loved them! For the first time, I wondered if maybe folks beyond my little circle of loved ones might enjoy my paintings as well.
And so, my journey as an actual-honest-to-goodness-artist began…. Who knew these birches would spark such exciting new beginnings!
Alison Leigh Lilly 