SarahKate's Blog

Enjoy a magical trip through the imagination of SarahKate and the women she paints.

  • Full Moon Pregnancy Celebrations

    17 Nov 16 SarahKate 0 Comments

    This is a really special art project that I've been working on since April. I first met Laura through another art project (breastfeeding body art) and told her that I was looking for a model to get adorned every month of her pregnancy. To my surprise, she contacted me as soon as she knew and we began in April to honor her pregnancy - due in December. She chose the design idea of a seed to a blooming flower, with the design getting bigger and bigger each time. This month's session took 4 hours an involved adorning her belly, breasts, hands and arms up to past her elbows. As you can see, this flower is blooming in front of the Boulder Flatirons, because Laura is a long time Boulder resident. Just like me, she attended Boulder High School. It's really rare to meet someone who is native to this area!

     Each henna pampering session is followed by a photo session a few days later when the henna is peaking in color. We decided to meet at sunrise so we could see the morning's first light hit the mountains each time. To our surprise, the first time we met for these sunrise photos, the moon just happened to be setting over the mountains. It was gorgeous! We decided to time the rest of our photo sessions with the moon setting. 

    (below is the same location but 7 months later:)

      In addition to monthly henna sessions, we are incorporating monthly silhouettes, so you can see the belly bloom over 9 months. For this session, Laura's daughter (nearly 3 years old) came along and loved on her mama. 

      For the November full moon photo shoot, I watched the full moon come up and I drew my rendition as a doodle. (for more doodles, check out my Instagram feed). I was incredibly excited to photograph with the full moon setting, but also very nervous - because you never know if it will be cloudy. The day came and we got some great shots of Laura with the moon! I love how pink and purple everything gets at sunrise. 

      This art project isn't done! Next month we will do it again and catch one more full moon before Laura's due date. I can't wait! 

    Posted by   SarahKate

  • Goddess Mural in Progress!

    04 Nov 16 SarahKate 0 Comments

    Many of you know that in addition to henna adornment, I love to draw. I find myself doodling all over things, usually in a sharpie marker. It's amazing, now they make acrylic paint markers and so my art can go on a wall! 


    Earlier in the year I met this amazing woman - Mindy - who has touched so many women's lives with her positive energies. She is about to open her 2nd location for her Yoga studios (Maitri Yoga!) in Arvada and requested a mural of the goddess Saraswati. She is the goddess of music, wisdom and the arts. Above is my sketch plus a detail of the work in progress. Below are some photos Mindy took of me working on it. There's still a few details list to add in! I hope to see some of you at the Grand Opening on November 11th at 6pm! 

     

    Posted by   SarahKate

  • Honoring each pregnancy with body art

    04 Nov 16 SarahKate 0 Comments

    I first met Katy when she came to me to be adorned for her first pregnancy. This Longmont mama requested her henna design have 2 birds and a poppy, and it ended up filling both her belly and her breasts - gorgeous! 

    Now for her 2nd pregnancy, she told me about how she calls her sweet boy a "pumpkin" and wanted a family of 4 pumpkins on her belly, along with some hearts in the design. She returned for photos a few days later and we photographed her in our backyard, by the roses. Then we headed out to our local open space and captured some sweet moments with her family in the fall foliage. I love these yellow flowers against her glowing belly! 


    We kept going, and drove to the location we used for her 1st pregnancy and got more images of her and lots of family photos too. After working on all the photos, I sent Katy a beautiful book with images from her 1st and 2nd pregnancy. It's my passion to create memories like this and honor this important rite of passage for women and their families. 

    Posted by   SarahKate

  • Embracing the fall pregnancy

    30 Oct 16 SarahKate 0 Comments

      What a gorgeous fall we've had here in Lafayette, Colorado! It was so warm for this session mid-October and the colors were so delicious for this session with a first time mama. I love listening to the visions behind designs, and this unique woman wanted to represent her homeland (Austria) with edelweiss flowers and represent her husband's ancestry in Colorado with columbine flowers. During our 2 hour session I spontaneously created a lovely bouquet, incorporating mountains in the design as well. After a few shots in the studio, we went out into our backyard where the wind lifted the blue silk... 

      This sweet mama-to-be returned a couple days later for sunset photos at a park in Boulder. I love the golden orange colors of fall, I love seeing a woman with a whole new exciting chapter ahead of her, I love capturing moments like this! 

    Posted by   SarahKate

  • Dancing in the dawn ~ Pregnancy celebrations

    03 Sep 16 SarahKate 0 Comments

    This first time mama from Littleton, Colorado asked for a blooming lotus henna design to celebrate her pregnancy! I had time to adorn her hands with a little henna too. After painting her and photographing her in the home studio, we drove to a nearby wilderness area and snapped this lovely one with the fern like leaves behind her. She returned a few days later just before sunrise for more photos. I love the light at sunrise! Just before the sun came up, we got this gorgeous silhouette where you can see her dancing in the dawn. We climbed to the top a hill to get the shots of Boulder flatirons. I love celebrating pregnancy!

     

    Posted by   SarahKate

  • A little bit about SarahKate

    23 Aug 16 SarahKate 0 Comments

      Hi! My name is SarahKate Butterworth and I love to create art! I've been enjoying the medium of henna since 2003. My favorite canvas is the pregnant belly, but I love to adorn women for all kinds of reasons / places. I live in Lafayette and usually paint & photograph out my home studio, but I do travel all over Colorado to adorn women in their homes. I also love to draw with black pen - an expansion of the doodles I've been doing since I was a child. I am currently working on a coloring book, as well as the magazine that I publish: Artfull Mother (devoted to the interests of mothers and the art that empowers them). You can see more of my art-work-stream on ......
    Instagram (  https://www.instagram.com/artfullmother/?hl=en ):

    or pinterest ( https://www.pinterest.com/artfullmother/ ):

    or facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/Sarahkatebutterworthcom-118157254894/  https://www.facebook.com/ArtfullMother/  ):

    And check out the magazine Artfull Mother through our website artfullmother.com:

    Or flip through the summer issue (Boulder area) through Issu.com
    https://issuu.com/artfullmother/docs/artfullmother_summer_boulder_16/c/smbu4tz

    I am also seeking pregnant models for some upcoming projects! Space is limited. See the details:

    http://www.sarahkatebutterworth.com/modeling-opportunities

      If you are ever curious about how I came to create art focused on motherhood, read this article about me:

    https://issuu.com/bellamiamag/docs/issue4_bellamia_october2015/c/sme7x1k

    Posted by   SarahKate

  • Belly Dancing Body Art!

    16 Aug 16 SarahKate 0 Comments

      This summer our family (and home businesses) moved to Lafayette, Colorado and I am so pleased with our new space. Today I had a lovely mama-to-be come for prenatal henna, with requests for flowers and mountains. I loved that she wore her special belly dancing outfit! 

      After her adornment I snapped a few photos of her in the henna chair, and then we stepped outside into our backyard. Such a graceful dancer.... a pleasure to witness her pregnancy dance ~

      We slipped through the house and down the street to the trail and took some lovely photos gazing over the hills of Lafayette. All my outdoor photo sessions are accompanied by my amazing husband Rob, who took these photos of me and assisted with lighting, exposure, etc with all the shots. I absolutely love working with my beloved! 


      This sweet mama is part of an upcoming project - Dancing for Birth & henna body art - just after Labor Day at Longmont's Family Garden. I am currently looking for women that are interested in modeling for this!

     

    Posted by   SarahKate

Pages