Solstice Eclipse

I had nothing to give my friends for Christmas. They have everything and it just seems ordinary to give them goodies from Trader Joe's. But they like my art, so why not give them art. I didn't have any art that I could give them, so I made some. Originally I thought to make three different "artist trading cards," these miniature paintings on little 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" cards. But then I thought, why not make one piece that is 3 of these cards together, and divide it up after I'm done? So I did this geometric abstraction, based on recent astronomical events. On the Winter Solstice we had a total lunar eclipse. This piece features the big round Earth, in light blue, shadowing the Moon which is dark red, to the right of center.

After I did the long piece, which is 10 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches, I decided not to cut up the original into three parts. Instead I scanned it, cleaned it up in Photoshop, and printed it in three sections corresponding to the size of three artist trading cards. I'll trim those to size, and that is what I will give for a holiday gift...along with the original for their own collection.

Here's one of the trading card sections:

"Solstice Eclipse" is 10 1/2 " x 2 1/2", mixed media on Fabriano illustration board, December 24-25, 2010.