Happy Holidays everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I am extremely grateful for a renewed sense of creativity and artistic passion, and I’m so excited for some big projects I have for next year!

Yesterday I released a series of photographic prints. They are archival quality, signed and matted, so all you have to do is buy the frame!

I personally love collecting photographs and probably have more prints than original paintings or drawings. They are so great for smaller walls like bathrooms or hallways.

There are also quite a few gift options on my website you may want to check out. The first is the Heirloom painting. I’ve been loving doing these! You and I do a 15 minute zoom call to discuss who you are and your family’s story. We then distill certain traits down to images or words and include them in the king paintings. These painting are designed to be passed down from generation to generation. If you would like to give one as a Holiday Gift you can purchase off of my website and I can send you a gift certificate!

Here are a few other gift ideas!

Canvas Print

Throw Pillow

Beach Towel

Metal Print

Framed Print

Puzzle

Canvas Print

Throw Pillow

Kid’s Swimsuit

Original Piece

Happy Holidays everybody! I am thankful for all of you!

Please follow me on Instagram.

All Photos by Blayne Macauley

When I started this summer project of photographing the kids and writing about it, I had no agenda. I wanted to just take is slow and focus on a few things I knew I loved. As soon as I committed to that practice things started happening, and they started happening pretty quickly. It almost feels like the universe saw these purposeful steps I took to reconnect with myself and the artist inside of me, and then kind of reoriented to make some space for me again.

The first thing that happened was that I genuinely rediscovered how much I love taking photos. I’ve worked as an interior photographer for the past 15-16 years. While I appreciated the opportunity to make a living doing my passion every day, it did turn into a job and took away a little bit of my love for the creative freedom of the medium. Even when the kids were little I would purposefully leave my camera at home because it felt like work. Using an iPhone always seemed good enough, but there was always a tickling in my brain because I knew the images were too flat - if that makes any sense. The space between the objects isn’t the same, and that’s where the magic hides.

I was falling so in love with some of these images so quickly that I dipped my toe back into submitting to photography shows. I used to love doing that and honestly built up a fairly extensive CV, but I’d taken a long break. Starting maybe 3 weeks ago I started submitting again, and the images keep getting accepted. It literally feels otherworldly. I’m now trying to figure out shipping and printing to send work to galleries across the country, and it just feels like such an incredible second chance.

Another thing that happened is that it really dawned on my how obsessed I am with the intangibility and fleetingness of childhood. That’s what I love about these photos, and that specific subject matter is boundless.

I’m not really sure where I am going or what to do with the images, but I keep wanting to look at them in a coffee table book… I have no idea how to get a book published, but what an absolute joy of a thought.

Focusing just for a little bit on a creative act that was outside of my normal routine lit a fire of creativity inside of me. I’ve never remembered feeling more creative. I’m having trouble sleeping I’m so excited.

In another extradorinaiy coincidence, I’m starting a new/different podcast. It’s one that’s been on my mind for ages… like, why did I start a podcast about the stock market when I knew nothing about it? Why didn’t I start one about art or photography?

The answer to that is because the act of painting is life-giving and every-changing. It fills me with a sense of wonder… but talking about the act of painting is boring as hell to me. Nobody wants to talk to me about mixing colors or selling prints… I barely know how to do those things and am constantly flying by the seat of my pants. Truth be told, Quinn mixes a lot of my colors because she has a gift for it. Truly.

Anyway… so I don’t have a podcast about art because I feel like talking about art is boring and stuffy and not something I would be good at; however, creativity is a different story. We actually talk a lot about creativity in The Penny Lane Podcast and how looking at the market in different ways is actually an innately a creative act. I knew creativity was fascinating, but I didn’t know what to do with that information.

When I started taking the photos and this dam of creativity broke inside of me, I reached out to a friend of mine who I thought might understand the idea. He’s actually a movie producer who lives in LA, and I met him through my husband. He even came to our wedding. I explained this idea to him and he agreed to do the podcast with me, which is just unbelievable.

We are calling the podcast “Move Me Brightly: An Exploration for Inspiration,” and we’re hoping to get it launched next month. This is the elevator pitch: (note - we’ve changed the title since this instagram post)

If you are interested in either advertising on the podcast or if you want to suggest a guest, please click here.

Below is a series of photographs I took last weekend of my daughter and her cousin finding a snail and building a habitat for it from a fig tree. To quote the classic American Beauty, “There is so much beauty in the world.” I could live inside these photos forever.

A gently reminder about the Heirloom Paintings. Click below.

Click here to read this post on my blog.

I love telling stories. It’s really been the connective tissue between all my passions: writing, photography, painting and podcasting. Stories are powerful and unique to every individual, and I’d love the chance to tell yours.

Throughout my career as an artist I’ve had the honor of doing Heirloom Paintings for many clients.

What’s an Heirloom Painting? It’s a painting where you and I work together to create the theme of the paintings and come up with a list of special symbols or words to include in the painting. These are unique to you and your family. These are pieces that can be passed down to children and grandchildren.

This was a piece for designer Brian Patrick Flynn and his husband to celebrate their wedding in Iceland.

This was for a family with four little girls. Details below.

If you’d like to work together to create one of these pieces, please email me at blaynebmacauley@gmail.com and we can schedule an in person or zoom meeting to get started!

View this post on the blog here.

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I am thrilled to announce that these prints are now available on my website and will be framed through Framebridge. Once click shopping and you could have a fully framed piece ready to hang on your wall delivered straight to your door!

Art prints make wonderful gifts. Whether it's for a housewarming, birthday, or other special occasion, an art print can be a meaningful and lasting gift that your loved ones will cherish for years to come; especially the dinos and owls as baby gifts!

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Cheers, Blayne

For more of my work, please visit my website.

To read this post on my blog, please click here.

Blayne

For the past 3 years I’ve been kind of obsessed with the stock market. I write a blog with news stories, stock market commentary, and funny things I find on the internet. Please subscribe here.

Did you know you can buy prints of my original paintings? These are gallery wrapped canvases and are available at much lower prices than my originals! (Shop now)

Are you interested in buying a bathing suit (it IS pool season)… Click here to see all the latest styles.

Do you like golf?

We are sponsored by Rhoback and truly love the products. Use code Penny20 for 20% off your order.

We spent last week in Lake Tahoe, which is a trip I just insisted we take… but I didn’t know why. It was one of those intuitive things. I found an incredibly affordable house on air b&b. It was a 70s ranch perfectly preserved and felt like stepping back in time; complete with a brass fireplace, vintage cookware and a record player (which of course Jimmy loved).

Jimmy had to work during the day, so the kids and I were off to explore. We drove the perimeter of the lake and spent our time hiking and exploring old historic mansions.

I had my camera the entire time, which was new for me since I’d gotten lazy and relied on the iPhone for a long time.

Having the camera forced me to really SEE so many things around me. I took thousands of photos.

The last day during the last few hours of the trip I took these. The images came all at once, and it felt like the universe handed me a perfectly completed series… just put it right in my hand.

One of my favorite quotes about Art is, “When the muse comes, let the muse find you working.”

I’ve been focusing on my art so much recently - in a new way with a different perspective. I’ve been working.

These images might be my favorite body of work I’ve ever produced. So much so that I’ve started submitting to galleries again… which I didn’t really ever expect to say again. I’ve been satisfied with where I am in my art career for years, so taking a step forward and reaching for more is unexpected and honestly exciting.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I do, and of course for any inquiries please just email be at blaynebmacauley@gmail.com. I’d love to see them printed HUGE and mounted on acrylic.

Blayne

The Walk by Blayne Macauley

She Goes This Way Alone by Blayne Macauley

She Can Fly by Blayne Macauley

Digging to China by Blayne Macauley

Eyes on the Prize by Blayne Macauley

Keep Going by Blayne Macauley

A Piece Of The Foundation by Blayne Macauley

The Perfect Shell by Blayne Macauley

A Moment of Reflection by Blayne Macauley

Supervision by Blayne Macauley

Kings and Queens by Blayne Macauley

For more of my work, please visit my website.

Te read this post on my blog, please click here.

Blayne

For the past 3 years I’ve been kind of obsessed with the stock market. I write a blog with news stories, stock market commentary, and funny things I find on the internet. Please subscribe here.

Did you know you can buy prints of my original paintings? These are gallery wrapped canvases and are available at much lower prices than my originals! (Shop now)

Are you interested in buying a bathing suit (it IS pool season)… Click here to see all the latest styles.

Do you like golf?

We are sponsored by Rhoback and truly love the products. Use code Penny20 for 20% off your order.

Happy Memorial Day.

I spent a lot of time taking pictures this weekend, and amazingly I feel more like myself… more like who I was as a child… than I have in a long long time. Watching the children and photographing them is giving me a way to see them in a whole new way. There is so much magic inside of them, and I can feel it coming through in these images.

I’m also in love with the firework images. There’s an idea there for sure.

Blayne

See this blog post on the newly revamped blog website

If you know someone who may like this blog, please share it.

In high school, amid hormones, hopes for the future, and first loves, we read Walt Witman’s Leaves of Grass. Although the bulk of the prose and nuance went over my head, it was the first time I learned the word ephemeral and instantly fell in love.

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Ephemeral: noun: something that lasts for a very short time: something ephemeral. specifically : a plant that grows, flowers, and dies in a few days.

The ephemeral nature of time and its continued march forward makes moments fleeting, achievements transitory, and long term goals less valuable than the riches of the present moment. I’ve lived this moment by moment with my children, instants where you would do anything possible to pause time and live in it longer, but the clock ticks, things change, and the moments run through your fingers like so much sugary sand.

Photography is the one tool that can capture the truth of a moment and allow you to trick time and hold it longer. Concurrently to when I was reading Walt Witman and grappling over college decisions, I was convinced I wanted to be a photojournalist for this very reason.

I truly believed I had a gift for telling stories through photos; but just like shiny rocks at the bottom of streams, those beliefs get worn down and washed away through the river of life - but the core remains. This last week of documenting our lives has reawakened some spark inside of me that I feels like something from another lifetime.

Last night, sitting in the car at the OK Cafe intersection, I had a vivid flashback and said to the kids, “There was a time in my life when I thought I was one of the best people in the entire world at telling stories through pictures.” Without talking to each other or missing a beat the BOTH said, “You are.”

Those kids, I tell you… they’re magical.

Today is my Quinn’s 7th Birthday, and this is how we’ve been celebrating. Oh how I love you, my real life Queen of the Slipstream… with eyes that shine.

Queen of the Slipstream

Van Morrison · Song · 1987

open.spotify.com/track/5BiP3yHLqaW9dL3r6ZSGJK?si=7de206f5f2bb4739

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Oliver Macauley

Quinn’s Bean Fork - a Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Happy Birthday Quinnster.

I love her so.

Please follow me on instagram.

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I am selling bathing suits for babies, kids and adults to fund my dream of starting a shoe line. please consider buying one.

The Quinn

Last year I ordered a prototype of this for my daughter to check the quality, and we absolutely loved it. It is far and away her favorite suite. If you purchase this bathing suit I will use 100% of the proceeded to go toward building my dream... owning a clothing/custom shoe line. • 82% polyester, 18% spandex • Fabric

blayneart.com/collections/the-quinn/products/all-over-print-kids-swimsuit

Did you know you can buy prints of my original paintings? These are gallery wrapped canvases and are available at much lower prices than my originals! (Shop now)

Queen #1 - Canvas Print

Bring your artwork to life with the texture and depth of a stretched canvas print. Your artwork gets printed onto one of our premium canvases and then stretched on a wooden frame of 1.5" x 1.5" stretcher bars. Your canvas print will be delivered to you "ready to hang" with pre-attached hanging wire, mounting hooks, and

blayneart.com/collections/canvas-prints/products/queen-1-canvas-print

For the past 3 years I’ve been kind of obsessed with the stock market. I write a blog with daily news stories, stock market commentary, and funny things I find on the internet. Please subscribe here.

Do you like golf?

We are sponsored by Rhoback and truly love the products. Use code Penny20 for 20% off your order.

The Sandstones

Stay cool and comfortable with The Sandstones Everyday Shorts for men in solid khaki. Rhoback Everyday Shorts are moisture wicking with four-way stretch for amazing recovery. The Sandstones Everyday Shorts have an elastic waistband and are designed to transition seamlessly from a workout to a night out, whether it be a

rhoback.com/collections/all/products/the-sandstones-everyday-shorts

Hi friends,

About six weeks ago I discovered I had some heart issues. High blood pressure to be exact. Those of you who’ve followed my story for a while know this is an ongoing issue for me, but this past time was kind of scary - or at least it scared me. Although I’d love to believe it’s all heredity, I know some of it is stress and lifestyle. I take on so much and really require the absolute best out of myself constantly, so I tend to just bury myself in stress that’s usually self-inflicted.

Since it’s fairly evident this is a problem that finally needs to be addressed, and because I want to go into my 40s healthy and happy, I’ve decided to give myself the summer.

What does that mean?

Well, I’m a worker. I work. I take on projects. I make huge goals. I strive. While that’s all well and good, the result is that I’m usually left feeling disappointed in myself. I could have done better. I should have done more. I’ve somehow fallen short or taken the wrong path.

I’m tired of feeling like that. I’m tired of not feeling like I’m enough, and I don’t want that anymore.

There are only so many childhood summers left, and I want to live IN this one.

There are books to read, paintings to paint, ice cream cones to eat, photos to take, meals to cook, and moments to capture.

Enter this blog. This is our summer. These are my moments. Welcome.

Happy summer.

Blayne

Instagram post

Did you know you can buy prints of my original paintings? These are gallery wrapped canvases and are available at much lower prices than my originals! (Shop now)

Instagram post

Do you like golf?

We are sponsored by Rhoback and truly love the products. Use code Penny20 for 20% off your order.

Photo by Blayne Macauley

Welcome to the new and Improved This Photographer’s Life Blog written by Blayne Macauley. For those of you who are new here and don’t know the history, you can find all the archives here. I started the blog in 2006, and it grew to the 5th ranked Top Real Estate Blog in the world.

It chronicled the story of me falling in love with my husband, becoming a mother twice over, and finally stepping into a career as an artist.

Photo by Heidi Harris

Over the pandemic, I got really interested in the stock market and created a podcast called The Penny Lane Podcast. I really enjoyed creating the podcast, and am still enjoying different iterations of it but found myself missing writing.

Twitter tweet

I recently founded a blog to accompany the podcast called The Penny Lane Journal, which is a morning newsletter full of interesting news stories. While I love the creation of that community and the subject matter itself, I’ve found myself missing this subject matter… the food, art, fashion and houses.

There are so many fun ideas coming in the next few months, but for now, please share the newsletter and enjoy this orzo salad I’ve made 5 times in the last 4 weeks!

Lemony Orzo With Asparagus and Garlic Bread Crumbs Recipe

Every spoonful of this pasta has a happy jumble of lemony orzo, grassy asparagus, garlicky bread crumbs, fresh herbs and salty Parmesan The pasta and thinly sliced asparagus cook together in the same pot, then rest in a lemony dressing while the garlic bread crumbs are toasted, so the pasta has time to absorb as much flavor as possible.

cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021068-lemony-orzo-with-asparagus-and-garlic-bread-crumbs?ds_c=71700000052595478&gclid=CjwKCAjw04yjBhApEiwAJcvNodB4Sn0OtcOxEsU0K0QYYZFKZQF_Lx2O_OUv_JoDvnQC0bMtqFRrYRoCtUcQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Please follow me on Instagram!

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Talk soon,

Blayne