Reconnecting with Creativity: Heirlooms & Ornaments Show 2024

Watercolors

Nov 26

Celebrate the holidays with unique heirlooms and handmade ornaments inspired by Scottish botanicals and Italian landscapes. Discover how reconnecting with creativity transformed my art this season.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Christmas. Since I was little it’s been my absolute favorite time of year. I start getting into the holiday spirit WAY before it is socially acceptable. Most years you’ll find me listening to Christmas music pretty much any time of the year, but usually, I’m full-on holiday beginning September 1st!

I think part of my love for this season has to do with my childhood. I remember so many happy times. I know there are many people who don’t have the greatest memories of their childhood holiday seasons, and I do realize how blessed I am to have that.

My parents always made the holidays fun and festive—

Little Emily putting the topper on the tree

hot cocoa by the wood stove,
Christmas crafts, baking cookies, decorating inside and outside the house, driving around looking at all the other homes’ decorations in our small town… visits to see Santa at Daddy’s workplace where I got a huge stocking that was taller than I was!
…our annual Christmas trip “home” to Virginia where my Dad grew up (where there was almost always snow on the ground in December), and where Momma spent most of her youth…

The whole season always felt so magical to me.

One of my oldest friends is a full-time artist and years ago he began hosting an annual ornament show in his art studio. Since then (this is the 8th year!) a group of friends and I have been participating in that show, along with other local and regional artists. The studio was always filled with beautiful artwork, and vintage Christmas trees covered with all sorts of handmade ornaments… It was always an amazing time!
This year we are celebrating in his new gallery, and I cannot WAIT to see it all decorated for the holidays and filled with ornaments and artwork!

The show features small works of art that are perfect for gifting, and so many beautiful ornaments! (And not all of them are “Christmas-y”, so you can leave them hanging in your home all year long!) I hope you’re able to stop by!

— Reconnecting with creativity —

Over the past couple of years, in the months leading up to this show, I was struggling to push through creative burnout (I talk about some of it here), and I really felt that struggle throughout the holidays.

This year, however, has felt different.

I feel refreshed and revived. I’ve felt like being in the studio, looked forward to painting, enjoyed organizing my space, and getting reacquainted with my art supplies!
(To read my 4 tips on how to get back into a creative mindset after burnout, click here!)

I was so excited to work on my ornaments this year, and I’m even more excited to reveal them to you!

Hand painted watercolor landscape ornaments in vintage style brass frames for this year’s Heirlooms & Ornaments Show.
©EmilyLandrumStudio

I was inspired on our recent trip to Europe and, after creating a few watercolor paintings while traveling, I came home ready to paint more! I fell in love with the botanicals and foliage in Scotland, and the landscapes were amazing. I decided for this year’s ornaments that instead of creating work from the Scottish landscape, I wanted to revisit some other landscape photos I took while we were in Italy a few years ago. I don’t know if I’ll ever be tired of the views from the water on Lake Como!

For my small heirloom works I created watercolor artwork highlighting those Scottish botanicals, as well as herbs, and landscapes of Lake Como, Italy, to match the ornaments.

“Herb Garden” small works that will be available at this year’s Heirlooms & Ornaments Show.
©EmilyLandrumStudio

I’m absolutely in love with these little frames and finished pieces! I painted each of the watercolors, deckled the paper by hand, and painstakingly finished each wooden frame by priming, painting, and sanding between each coat.