The artwork of London-based, Spanish visual artist and designer Ana Montiel takes me to a happy place today. The first two works were part of a show at the Pop up Galerie recently in Paris. Artists were invited to choose an album cover and revisit it for the show. Ana combines her passion for flowers with a favorite album, New Order's iconic "Power Corruption and Lies". About this project she says, "I love the album, the original Fantin-Latour still life and the Peter Saville album design. I originally made the drawing with watercolour and sumi-e ink to then translate it to a 3 ink composition ready to be screen printed." The album is shown below the first two paintings below. Lovely, right? By the way, I know we're heading into Christmas but I'm really into yellows and greens lately. Crazy!

I really like seeing work like this because I'm a music lover and actually miss the care that I feel once went into album covers. It seems thoughtful covers are a dying art these days, at least in mainstream music. In fact, the last more mainstream album art that I got excited about was Keane's, "Under the Iron Sea". I must confess though, my ultimate favorite record cover was from The Smiths, This Charming Man, which I have framed on my wall at home. I love the image showing Jean Marais from Cocteau's film Orpheus.

Below you can see more stunning watercolors by Ana for the ultimate eye candy escape today. You can also learn more about Ana here (I love her bangs!) and watch this charming video about her life and work. What an interesting woman! I especially enjoyed seeing her paint and hearing her thoughts about, "Living in the NOW", which I feel are so important. Some of her clients include Anthropologie, Carolina Herrera, Jo Malone, Nina Ricci and Rolling Stone Magazine to name a few.

Lucky for us, she has an online shop where you can purchase lots of these paintings as prints to frame. Aren't these pretty?

By the way, do you have a favorite album cover? I'd love to know more!

(images: Ana Montiel)