It's Mark's dear mother's birthday soon., Instead of giving her a big bouquet of flowers, that he knows that she will appreciate very much, this year Mark decides to go one better. While browsing through our WahooArt.com website, the bright idea dawns on Mark that giving his mother painted flowers will give her a more permanent gift that lasts much longer than real flowers.

A special birthday gift 

It's Mark's dear mother's birthday soon. 

Instead of giving her a big bouquet of flowers, that he knows that she will appreciate very much, this year Mark decides to go one better. While browsing through our ArtsDot.com website, the bright idea dawns on Mark that giving his mother painted flowers will give her a more permanent gift that lasts much longer than real flowers.

But Mark finds in our archives almost an overwhelming number of artwork about flowers, almost the all-time favorite subjects for artists. Then, through random browsing at the site, he is somewhat struck by this painting, entitled Tazza with flowers, painted more than 500 years ago by the Flemish painter Jan Bruegel the Elder.                   

Initially fascinated by the "je ne sais quoi" in this painting that had stopped his search in the first place, Mark tries to work out its attraction for him.

Two lovely butterflies are worshipping the flowers, even though this is a still life, painted indoors. The beautiful fresh flowers Mark feels should convey to his mother his overflowing love for her on this special day. All the beauty and fruitfulness are being offered to her on the precious-looking golden presenting offering plate that normally has fruits displayed.

The picture fits so well with the way he feels about his mother on her birthday.The stillness of the picture also will fit perfectly in his mother's home that has the same kind of atmosphere.

Clicking the tab for Artists at the top of the website page, another page pops up to show all the work of this prolific artist, who painted ordinary scenes and ordinary villagers in such a loving way. The artist's favorite was still lifes with flowers, which are in fact far from still but full of life, so that he was nicknamed "Flowers" Bruegel.

Clicking the tab Buy Art at website, Mark is taken to the page where he can choose whether to order a reproduction of this beautiful painting to be printed on canvas, or even to have an artist at ArtsDot.com hand-paint this still life for his mother in any size that Mark specifies.

As he needs to have the present very soon, Mark decides to order instead a giclée inkjet print that promises to be a fine and very accurate reproduction of his chosen image. At the Customization page at the website, he is able to view the print already framed in a frame that he is able to try to fit around the image along with other framing choices.

Mark pays for his order with his credit card and anticipates the free and prompt delivery of the present by courier service to his front door.

While dreaming about being able to give this original priceless painting to his beloved mum, Mark is happy when the next best thing, the fine canvas print of the picture arrives, already framed and securely packed.

He can't wait to see his mother's face when she opens her surprise big present.                                                                                                           

Brightening up the office 

Sophie's boss, David, the busy lawyer, one morning asks her to "please brighten up" the office's reception area "with some art", then he disappears as usual into his office.

While not knowing all that much about art, Sophie just about loves nothing more than to be surrounded by art, such as at lunch time when she often visits the New York's famous Museum of Modern Art down the road.

Often when it gets a bit quiet in the office, Sophie browses to one of her favorite sites on the Net: ArtsDot.com. There she can spend a lot of time browsing through the site's huge archive of images of Western art that come with good information about hundreds of artists there, many of whom were new to her. 

She has no hesitation then to go to the ArtsDot.com site again, this time to choose some prints of art masterpieces on canvas. But how to look for suitable paintings, two of which should fit nicely on the large blank walls of the office? She might also put one in David's office.

But how to look for suitable paintings, two of which should fit nicely on the large blank walls of the office? She might also put one in David's office.

While wanting some work of American artists, Sophie also feels cooped up in the office, and seeing mainly just clouds as the office is high up in a skyscraper. She decides to find American paintings with clouds in them.

Clicking the tab Categories at the ArtsDot.com site, Sophie finds that she can click "clouds" to be presented with a lot of paintings with beautiful clouds in them and to quickly be struck by the romantic grandeur of a painting  entitled Western mountains, by Albert Bierstadt.

Sophie discovers from the informative site that this German-American painter lived from 1830-1902 and painted other spectacular landscapes of what was the spectacular New World to him. For her, the picture will always remind her of the wild America that she loves and to be able to look at that every day would be a treat at work.  

If she orders a canvas print of a large size, perhaps bigger than the original, Sophie  feels sure also that clients waiting for their appointments can easily lose themselves work for a while and escape to that breathtaking national wonder. The autumnal colors of the painting also reflect the color of the office wall.

Sophie orders a suitable carved golden frame, after matching it with her canvas print online at ArtsDot.com's very handy virtual  Customization page.

There, with some excitement, she finds her picture straightaway, entitled South Carolina morning. It simply describes her current life in America. 

For the other picture in the office, Sophie decides to indulge herself. As she has always loved the work of American painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967), she clicks the Artists tab on the web page and finds her painter listed alphabetically by his first name. Clicking on his name takes her to Edward Hopper's page with images of his work with reproduction available at this site, floating on the page in a virtual gallery.

For her boss, who is an older man deeply-interested in history and a keen yachtsman, Sophie orders the canvas print of Along the Hudson, an oil painting by American John Frederick Kensett (1816-1967) who painted so sensitively.

When her orders are delivered soon to the office, she will hide them and stay behind after work hours to hang them up and surprise boss David when he arrives for work in the morning.