Wednesday, January 14, 2026

💜🌻 What If a Place You Loved Could Stay With You? 🌻💜

 Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty


Our bikes race up and down the gentle hills of Provence. Everything has a distinct texture, the colors are vibrant, and the perfume in the air is intoxicating. Every twisting road reveals new rows of lavender stretching endlessly under the sun. I will never forget the fields of France.

This little painting is small, simple, and easy to bring into your life. It fits in almost any room and ships securely to your door, ready to brighten your space. No stress and no extra steps. Just color and memory waiting for you.

Art is more than something pretty on a wall. It carries feelings, memories, and a little bit of hope. If this piece speaks to you, it may be because it already belongs with you.

This piece would look best in a small-to-medium space that is red, orange, dark yellow, light green, dark blue, purple, white, black, grey, beige, or wood.

💜🌻 Sunflowers and Lavender In Provence 🌻💜
Museum-quality posters made on thick matte paper
© copyright Mike Kraus Art Inc.
201801012
To enjoy more relaxation in your home, please visit: 

I’m Mike Kraus, a lifelong artist who believes color, movement, and curiosity can quietly change how a space and a day feel. More about me at: https://mikekraus.blogspot.com/p/bio.html
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Monday, January 12, 2026

🐳 Where do you let yourself drift when you need space for Freedom? 🐳

 Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty


When I painted this piece, I was thinking about what it feels like to move through the world while quietly holding a much larger sense of possibility inside yourself. The great fish drifts forward with calm confidence, its body buoyant and steady, as if it already knows it can become more than it appears. There is no urgency here, only motion, curiosity, and the soft freedom of becoming. I return to this image as a reminder that expansion does not have to be loud or forceful, and that even small spaces can hold vast ideas. This painting is meant to be a gentle companion, something you can live with and come back to when you need to remember your own capacity to grow.

What part of you is ready to move forward without rushing, trusting that it already knows how to become?

🐳 Great Fish of the Northern Deep 🐳
acrylic paint of canvas board
5" x 7" (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)
202102005
© copyright Mike Kraus Art Inc.
To remind yourself of good things to come, please visit: 


I’m Mike Kraus, a lifelong artist who believes color, movement, and curiosity can quietly change how a space and a day feel. More about me at: https://mikekraus.blogspot.com/p/bio.html
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Friday, January 9, 2026

❄️☃️🌞 Where do you find warmth when everything else feels cold? 🌞☃️❄️

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty


I stepped into the winter woods expecting quiet and cold, but instead I felt a warmth waiting for me, glowing low and steady behind the bare trees like a held breath. The snow softened my footsteps, the branches reached upward in patient lines, and that deep red light pulsed at the center of it all, a reminder that even in the starkest season something alive is still burning. Standing there, I felt my worries thin out, as if winter wasn’t an ending but a place where strength learns how to glow from within. A warmth I knew I would want to return to, again and again. 

What part of yourself is quietly keeping its warmth, even now?

❄️☃️🌞 Warmth That Remains 🌞☃️❄️
acrylic paint on canvas board
8" x 10" (20.3 cm x 25.4 cm)
202112104
© copyright Mike Kraus Art Inc.
To add more cozy comfort to your space, please visit:


I’m Mike Kraus, a lifelong artist who believes color, movement, and curiosity can quietly change how a space and a day feel. More about me at: https://mikekraus.blogspot.com/p/bio.html
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Wednesday, January 7, 2026

🦊 What Are You Rushing Toward In 2026? 🦊

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty


I was walking the same quiet street I always do when I noticed the fox standing perfectly still, as if it had stepped out of a thought rather than the brush. It didn’t rush away or look afraid, just watched the world with a calm that felt earned, its rusted coat bright against the soft lavender of evening. For a moment, the noise of schedules and worries loosened, and I felt invited into that pause, reminded that wildness can live beside us without asking permission. This painting holds that moment for me, a quiet meeting I can return to.

When was the last time you let yourself stop, notice, and meet the world with that kind of quiet attention?

🦊 The Stillness Before Moving 🦊
Museum-quality posters made on thick matte paper
© copyright Mike Kraus Art Inc.
202512075
Created to hold a moment of quiet attention and shared wildness 

I’m Mike Kraus, a lifelong artist who believes color, movement, and curiosity can quietly change how a space and a day feel. More about me at: https://mikekraus.blogspot.com/p/bio.html
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Monday, January 5, 2026

❤️💀 If Love Stripped Everything Away, What Would Still Be Left? 💀❤️

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty


I stand proud. Even if I'm stripped down to bone I still remember how it feels to be seen with warmth instead of judgment, the air around me humming with quiet laughter and the soft pulse of affection that does not ask for perfection. I have learned that love is not about what is filled in or missing, but about presence, humor, and the courage to take up space exactly as you are, even when the world feels sharp or loud. There is a playful ease in this moment, a gentle reminder that tenderness can survive time, loss, and change, and that kindness can still glow bright and familiar like a shared smile across a room.

When you think about love in your own life, who makes you feel most comfortable standing exactly as you are, and how often do you let yourself stay there?

❤️💀 Pin-Up Skeleton #606 💀❤️
pen, ink, and colored pencil on Bristol paper
2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 cm x 8.89 cm) 
NOT A PRINT OR REPRODUCTION
202512077
© copyright Mike Kraus Art Inc.
To purchase for your collection, please visit:

I’m Mike Kraus, a lifelong artist who believes color, movement, and curiosity can quietly change how a space and a day feel. [More about me]
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Friday, January 2, 2026

🍁 What are you ready to let go of as we welcome a new year? 🍁

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty


I step into the forest and feel my shoulders soften as the air turns cool and clean, the ground whispering with the crunch of leaves under my boots while a pale birch rises ahead of me like a quiet guardian, its branches holding a warm glow of gold and ember red that seems to breathe with the season. In that moment the noise I carried in fades, replaced by the steady rhythm of my steps and the gentle hush of wind moving through the trees, reminding me that nothing needs to be rushed and that it is safe to simply be here. I run my fingers along the smooth bark, notice the faint scent of damp earth and sunlight, and feel a small kind of magic where worries loosen their grip and my thoughts find space to settle. 

When was the last time you let a walk in nature slow your breath and remind you that you belong to something larger and kinder than whatever you are carrying right now?

🍁 Autumn Birch 🍁
acrylic paint on canvas board
5" x 7" (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)
202512078
© copyright Mike Kraus Art Inc.
To purchase for your home, please visit:

This piece would look best in a small space that is green, blue, purple, black, white, gray, or wood.

I’m Mike Kraus, a lifelong artist who believes color, movement, and curiosity can quietly change how a space and a day feel. [More about me]
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Thursday, January 1, 2026

🍾🥂 Let’s Make 2026 a Beautiful Year Together! 🥂🍾

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty


🍾🥂 Let's make 2026 a beautiful year! 🥂🍾

We are standing at the edge of something new, and I wanted to pause with you for a moment before we step forward together.

The world can feel loud, rushed, and heavy at times. It is easy to carry more than we should, to scroll past what matters, or to lose touch with what feels honest and nourishing. Most of us sense it when something feels off, even if we cannot name it right away. When we ignore that feeling, we drift further from ourselves and from one another.

What has helped me is slowing down and choosing intention over noise. Asking simple questions. What do I want to grow? What do I want to protect? What kind of beauty feels true right now? Small moments of reflection have a way of opening doors we did not realize were closed.

When we make space for that kind of attention, good things happen. We feel steadier. More curious. More connected. The future stops feeling abstract and starts feeling like something we are shaping together. That is where creativity lives and where community strengthens.

As we look ahead, I keep thinking about how much lighter things feel when we allow ourselves a little grace and a little curiosity about what comes next.

I am grateful you are here with me. Truly. Sharing this moment, this pause, and this hope makes what comes next feel lighter and more meaningful. There is a lot ahead of us, and I am glad we are moving toward it together.

Your Friend,
Mike Kraus
MikeKrausArt.etsy.com

My Story
Hi, I’m Mike the artist of Mike Kraus Art Inc.

I’ve been making art since I could hold a crayon. As a kid, I’d fill every notebook, homework margin, and scrap of paper with doodles. I sold my first artwork in junior high, sketching in class and handing off pieces between periods. That early love for making things never faded. I followed it all the way to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and eventually, I decided to stop treating art as a side hustle and make it my life’s work.

My paintings are full of energy, motion, and saturated color. I’m drawn to bold shapes and organic lines—forms that feel alive. I create with the hope that my work brings something beautiful and uplifting into someone’s day. Whether it’s a spark of joy, a moment of calm, or just a splash of color that makes you pause—I want my art to connect with something real.

Now, I’m lucky enough to paint full-time, with collectors across the U.S. and in dozens of countries around the world. But more than anything, I still feel like that kid with a crayon, excited to create. I’m grateful to share this journey with you—and I hope you find something in my work that makes your world a little brighter.

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