Stolen Butter

Bring home some hauntingly beautiful moments from our Love, California collection just in time for Halloween! Shop our spellbinding black and white prints to add that special touch of eerie elegance to your favorite spaces. AND don’t miss our popup lounge inside the decadently decorated Luxelab Salon this week to seize our limited edition t-shirts and magnets 🕷️🕸

🌟 The party isn't over! 🎉 Come by our Love, California pop-up shop and lounge at Luxelab Salon to take in — and take home — the beauty of this place we call home.
Shop the collection’s California-made framed and unframed prints as well as limited edition shirts and magnets before the end of October.

Our hearts are still buzzing with the electric vibes from the Love, California collection kickoff. 💖✨

Missed the Montana Avenue - Santa Monica, CA ? No worries! Head over to Luxelab Salon and surround yourself in all the love of our Southern California-inspired gallery & lounge for a limited time only. Trust us, you don't want to miss this.

We're so excited to debut "Love, California" 🌴– a photographic journey through the endless and improbable beauty of our beloved Golden State.

Stolen Butter has partnered with Luxelab Salon in Santa Monica to bring you a vibrant fusion of art and style with a one-of-a-kind pop-up gallery and lounge featuring new work and exclusive merchandise by Southern California artists Denny Fanning, Alex Lombardi, and Rachael Thompson Photography . Come shop the collection live and in-person at the Montana Avenue Art Walk this Saturday, Sept. 30th. We can't wait to see you there! 🗓️✨

We're all about spreading the love of art, one stick of butter at a time 💛.

#

Buying art should be fun, and not stressful. Let us help you find the perfect piece that not only brings joy to your space, but also supports ethical and sustainable art practices ✨

Artist:
Artwork: Dad’s Smoke Shop
Collection: The Land

From eco-friendly printing to sustainable packaging, we're committed to reducing our environmental impact. So, join us in celebrating Earth Day by making a positive impact on the planet through art. 🌿🌻

Artist:
Artwork: Poppy Fields At Dusk 02
Collection: Portraits At Dusk

This print and customized frames are available for purchase today at stolenbutter.com!

At Stolen Butter, our artist-owned studio empowers creatives to share their unique stories through artwork. By purchasing art from our online gallery, you're not just investing in beautiful pieces; you're also supporting our artists in a meaningful way, helping them fund their work and achieve their dreams.

Oh, what a night! THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support our very first pop-up this weekend! We are so grateful to share our work with this beautiful community of artists and friends. We’ve emerged from this experience even more energized and excited for what we’re bringing you this year — new pop-ups in new locations with new artist merch! (And our debut tee, currently available only in our pop-up shop, will soon be available online!) Thank you to and .finejewelry for making this event happen. And thank you to our amazing Stolen Butter community for your enduring love and support (special shout-out to .co_310 ). You make this dream possible. We ❤️ you.🧈

Hi friends! Happy New Year! We’ve got big things in store for you in 2023. Please join us Jan. 28, 5-9 pm, for Stolen Butter’s first pop-up at (LA’s oldest French restaurant) in Echo Park! The restaurant and bar will be open for a special evening of French cuisine and ART featuring .finejewelry and more. We’ll have giveaways, raffles, AND you’ll get to meet local artists and . You won’t want to miss it! 🎨📷🥖❤️🇫🇷🥂

We love the arts. We love ballet. And we love this block print “Dancer” by Gonzalo Adrian Battaglia. "I first became interested in block printing through the influence of a fellow artist and teacher,” says Battaglia. “But when I set my eyes on a reproduction of Albrecht Durer’s ‘Horsemen of the Apocalypse,’ I really became intrigued with the block printing process. First, I draw the image on the printing surface (the plate) of either linoleum or wood. Then I carve around the lines using a variety of either traditional or rotary-powered tools. The most gratifying part of the process comes after the printing, when the finished image emerges as I peel the paper off the printing plate. If the carved plate does not look like the intended image, you know immediately if you succeeded or failed." 🧈

About this print: “Dancer” by Gonzalo Adrian Battaglia; linoleum block print on hand-torn museum rag paper, 2018.
https://stolenbutter.com/products/dancer

Don’t forget to use code HOLIDAY10 for 10% off your order!

❤️

Happy holidays, friends!👋 As fall gives way to winter, with shorter days, cooler temperatures and holiday gatherings with loved ones, we can’t stop thinking about time — how quickly it passes and how we wish we had more of it. Time is the most valuable gift one can give — time to share a laugh, a meal, an adventure, or just a quiet conversation — and it’s the one thing that creates all other opportunities. We wish we could stop time, but we can hold onto it. Art preserves those moments and the stories imbued within them by the artist, the viewer, and the moment itself. It makes us feel something, and it gives us an opportunity to be present, to observe deeply, and to reflect on our relationship to what we’re experiencing. So, in honor of your time, here’s a gift you can use all season long. Use code HOLIDAY10 to get 10% off your order at stolenbutter.com through 12/31/22. Link in bio. 🧈



One rarely travels as far as Rachael Thompson Photography did to find oneself, but what she experienced there made a lifelong impact on her soul.

Eyes on: Aotearoa You’ll rarely, if ever, travel as far to reach a place as one does when one travels to New Zealand. If you fly to Auckland opposite the Earth’s rotation as one might from, say, Los Angeles, you would miss an entire day of the week. “There’s an entire Tuesday that I’ll never live through,.....

Every single day, millions of workers perform incredible high-wire and juggling acts to provide for their families and strive for their goals. On this Labor Day, we’re thinking about what work means to us now as we continue to navigate the greatest upheaval in the way we work in generations.

The pandemic forced millions of us all around the world to “live” with our work, literally and figuratively, all at once, for months and years on end, often while also caring for children and aging parents. We had no choice but to re-evaluate our lives and draw firm boundaries around what we are and are not willing to sacrifice for a paycheck, and what we truly want for ourselves and our families. (Stolen Butter was born from this very idea.) And yet, even knowing what those boundaries should be doesn’t mean we can always draw them, as millions more have no choice but to continue showing up to work at the expense of their physical and mental health, and our most precious resource, time.

For the last 2 ½ years, we collectively have been writing a new labor story, born from our shared struggle, that values our dignity, collective action and the idea of solidarity. We are now witnessing a realignment of labor unlike any since the Great Depression as unions make a remarkable comeback.

In fact, American support for labor unions is at a 50-year high following worker victories at large retailers and restaurant chains earlier this year. And unemployment is at historic lows as employers struggle to fill open positions.

So, keep it up. It’s working. Except for today. On this day, we wish you the rest, reflection and inspiration that you deserve. ✨

About this image: “Skyscrapers” (from the series Movida Porteña) by Rachael Thompson ; Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2007. Available at https://stolenbutter.com/products/skyscrapers

New on the Blog! Read photographer Chris Kridler in her own words and watch her incredible footage of the epic storm chase that led to two of the images in her 15-print series The Spinning Sky. 🌪

Taking the Shot: An Extraordinary Tornado Chase and Expectation Expectation for any storm chaser might represent the culmination of an extraordinary day. On May 24, 2016, this tornado was just the beginning.I’ve been chasing storms since 1997, heading out to Tornado Alley each spring to pursue extreme weather. Some years don’t produce much, and of course, ju...

How do you capture a camera's soul? In his series Hats on Cameras, photographer Alex Lombardi animates the unsung workhorses that bring your favorite stories to life. Read all about it on our blog!

Eyes on: Hats on Cameras Alexander Lombardi has worn many hats in his life — literally. “I think this probably started with watching The Godfather in college or something, but instead of being a tragic phase, it just stuck,” he recalled. “When it comes to photography, hats can work better than a lens hood when you.....

Hello friends! Thank you for all the love you’ve given us through our launch. We are truly grateful for this community, and we’ve been working hard to create new opportunities for you get to know our artists and their work.

Please check out our Stolen Butter Blog, where we’ll take you behind the scenes with our artists to learn about their processes and how they created the different pieces you see in our gallery. https://stolenbutter.com/blogs/stories

And make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for special offers, new art releases, artist features, and pop-ups in your city. You’ll save 10% on your first order! https://stolenbutter.com/pages/subscribe

We’re just getting started, and we don’t want you to miss out on all the goodness to come. If you like what you see, please help us spread the word. ❤️

In Community,
Rachael

About this image: “Diver’s Cove” by Rachael Thompson; Palos Verdes, California, 2014. https://stolenbutter.com/collections/pacific-solo/products/divers-cove

✨ Eyes On: Xanadu ✨ Light surrounds us constantly. It nurtures every living thing, reveals the beauty of the universe, connects us across thousands of miles of underwater cable and powers thousands of electrical grids around the world.

For visual artists, light serves as both a brushstroke and a canvas, and influences everything they make. The ever-changing nature of this ubiquitous resource, however, can also upend an artist’s best laid plans with minuscule shifts in the angle of the sun, or slight changes of humidity — completely altering the mood and meaning of any moment.

So what happens when the artist tries to wield light itself in service to a deeper goal? Portland-based photographer Fernanda Rocha spoke to us about the innovative way she went about seizing the untouchable for her series, Xanadu.

“I wanted to create the effect you see in [this series] without any digital manipulation,” she said. “I tried different tools and ideas that didn’t always work.”

Rocha decided early on that the painstaking process of making the image would be part of the artwork itself.

“It was a bit challenging to capture the effect you see in the photograph without anyone’s help,” she said. “The spectrums lasted only momentarily, as light intensity is temporary. It took me months to perfect the technique.”

The end result — ephemeral, dynamic and surreal portraits of moments spun out of pure light — speak for themselves.

“Ultimately, I wanted the process to reflect the concept I had for this series — of a sentimental yearning for a time of simplicity, before technology became such a big part of our lives.”

Images: “Xanadu 005," “Xanadu 003,” “Xanadu 002" by Fernanda Rocha; Miami, Florida, 2013. https://stolenbutter.com/collections/xanadu-series

✨It’s Virgo Season!✨ Busy, detail-oriented and inexhaustible, the Virgos in our lives make every moment feel urgent and vibrant.

Today marks the beginning of their zodiac season, and Gonzalo Adrian Battaglia ‘s block print Virgo celebrates their nature in its simplest form.

As the sixth in his 12-print Figural Zodiac Series, Battaglia represents the sign that heralds harvests throughout the northern hemisphere as a feminine figure, in honor of the goddess of agriculture. He draws on Sandro Botticelli’s 15th century masterpiece Birth of Venus, who modestly shields herself from the forces of nature that brought her forth from the sea.

To create it, he first drew the whole image on a linoleum plate, and then used a combination of traditional and rotary tools to painstakingly carve around the lines. “The carved plate does not look like the intended image,” he said. “So the most gratifying part of the process comes after the printing, when I peel off the paper from the printing plate and a finished image emerges.”

The end result is a comical, dramatic and iconic interpretation of one of our favorite Earth signs. As for the Virgo in your life, Astrology.com says that the next four weeks offer the best opportunity to assert themselves, and to pour energy into the plans and projects that are meaningful to them.

Available at stolenbutter.com. Image: “Virgo” by Gonzalo Adrian Battaglia; Miami, Florida, 2016. https://stolenbutter.com/products/virgo

Tag all the Virgos in your life! ♍️✨

Taking the Shot: Surfer 02 📷
It took luck — and uncanny timing — for Santa Monica-based photographer Denny Fanning to capture what would become one of the most iconic pieces in his series 72 and Sunny. 

Fanning describes how his preparation helped him seize a moment that almost didn’t occur. 

“A few years ago, I uncharacteristically woke up before dawn and drove north to Malibu on an empty PCH,” he said. “I sat on the beach excited for the sunrise and the images I might capture. I took a few perfectly nice photos of surfers, fishermen and shorebirds, but nothing that I was excited about.” 

Fanning faced a challenge common to Southern California artists who inhabit one of the most photographed places in the world: how do you reveal something interesting and new from a place that millions of people have “seen” for decades?

“I started walking back to my car when I spotted the man with the red bodyboard rinsing off. I wanted to photograph the scene head-on, but I was about 20 feet away from the position.”

Fanning started running “slowly and awkwardly” to get in position. 

“I was afraid I was going to miss the shot, but I made it to my spot and snapped the photo that you see in this gallery. A second later, he moved on and I would have missed the shot.”

The result, Surfer 02, encapsulates the vibrance and solitude of West Coast living amidst the stark geometry of Malibu’s beachside. Together with the other pieces in 72 and Sunny, Fanning renders a meditation on what it’s like to live on LA’s westside. Available at stolenbutter.com.

Image: “Surfer 02” by Denny Fanning; Malibu, California, 2018.

❤️ THANK YOU!!! ❤️ We are overwhelmed with gratitude for all of your calls and messages of support. It takes a community to nurture a dream, and you all are the best. We can’t wait to see how far we can grow together!

Thank you for exploring our collections. Thank you for your feedback on our print shop. And thank you for liking, following, commenting and sharing our posts: Each new follow gets us closer to unlocking features that will make it easier to shop prints from Instagram and Facebook, so please continue sharing our pages and links to our online print shop.

But, most of all, THANK YOU FOR BELIEVING IN US! To celebrate, we're giving you 10% OFF any purchases made by Aug. 31, 2022. Use code: FAM10. Please feel free to share with all of the art lovers in your life! ❤️

Image: “Street Psalms” from the series Tierra Querida by Rachael Thompson; Bogotá, Colombia, 2009.

We are so excited to introduce you to Stolen Butter founding artist and storm chaser Chris Kridler!

Her series will blow you away. (Pun definitely intended.) Shop her incredible prints here: https://stolenbutter.com/collections/the-spinning-sky

To learn more about her adventures chasing insane weather, follow her at Funnel Vision! ✨

🌪ANNOUNCEMENT!🌪 TL;DR: I'm thrilled to be among the debut artists in a brand-new online gallery, Stolen Butter, a labor of love created by my talented friend and photographer Rachael Thompson and her husband, Victor, in California. Need exclusive art for your walls? Get 10% off any purchases made by Aug. 31, 2022. Use code: FAM10 at https://stolenbutter.com.

The long story: I've always sought new ways to share my photography. I used to do occasional weekend art shows. These days, digital dominates, but a quick look on Facebook doesn't compare to the experience of seeing a gorgeous print on the wall. Business-wise, the assumption increasingly is that photographers should give away their work; while stock is a respectable venue, I found that losing all control of my images and being paid pennies for them (even when they appeared in major outlets like The New York Times) wasn't for me. What we do as storm chasers is extremely specialized, technical, expensive, and hazardous. It's also art. So I was thrilled when Rachael contacted me about joining the gallery. I hope you'll take a look (and subscribe to get notices of additions to the gallery, artist spotlights and more). Thanks for your support!

About this image: "A Bridge Too Far," tornado at Canadian, Texas, May 27, 2015.

✨Meet Our Founder✨

The first time Rachael Thompson picked up a camera, she immediately knew how powerful it was. That purple LeClic she received for her 9th birthday revealed a world where light and shadow intermingled to transform a hundredth of a second into an indelible story rich with meaning.

Storytelling has been at the heart of everything she’s done for as long as she can remember. The story of this moment right now is more than two years in the making and emerged as a bright spot from pandemic life.

“When the walls felt like they were closing in, the photographs hanging on them transported us all over the world,” says Thompson. “They reminded us of the myriad places and cultures that enriched our lives, the vastness of our planet, and the beauty of our diverse landscapes and human experiences. They gave us perspective.”

“That time also helped us focus on what we love and care about most — making art, sharing it, and empowering others to do the same.”

In 2021, she founded Stolen Butter to amplify the voices of her fellow artists and build a strong community of art lovers and makers around the world.

A former print journalist, Thompson’s art blossoms from the overlapping narratives of her life, where she crafts iconic images from fleeting moments that reveal our humanity, who we are, and how we live. Her foundations in journalism — and her wanderlust — are evident in her work. She immerses herself in each place she visits, capturing the essence of its people, its culture and its terrain as she explores the unknown, feeling everything along each journey.

“Street photography is my favorite way to experience a place,” she says. “It’s the most honest view of a society and its people, what they value, and what or who they cast aside. People aren’t pretending in that environment.”

Thompson’s photographs have been published in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, People, Hollywood Reporter, and on book covers, album covers, billboards, and posters. She lives in Santa Monica, California, with her husband Victor (pictured) and daughter.

View ‘s collections at link in bio.

Photo by ✨

We love art. We love design. And we really have a thing for gallery walls. Follow us and subscribe to our newsletter for new art releases, special offers, events, and tips for designing your own home gallery. stolenbutter.com

Made with love in California. Our prints are created on archival photographic and rag papers, with solid wood frames handcrafted in California. ❤️

Every work of art in our gallery is original and exclusive to Stolen Butter, so you won’t find it anywhere else. Each Stolen Butter print comes with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist who created it.

Welcome to Stolen Butter! The launch countdown is on! 🙌🏽 Who are we? We’re an artist-owned gallery offering exclusive prints of original pieces created by our global community of artists, framed and ready to hang. We empower our artists to tell their own stories. So when you buy art from Stolen Butter, you’re helping an artist fund their work in a tangible way.