The only constant is change

This is my rotating art wall outside my studio at home. This is where paintings rest while waiting to go to their galleries or waiting to be shipped to collectors. When a spot opens up I fill it with another new piece. The arrangements don't always look great but the wall is constantly changing and the paintings rotating. 

The wall is pretty full right now. These are a few of the pieces I had hanging downtown at Gallery B. I brought all my work home because this wall isn't the only thing changing. I've decided it's time to leave Gallery B. Sometimes, the vision you have for something takes a different turn and becomes a different space than what you anticipated. And that's OK. We know that the only constant is change so it's just time to try something new. That's how it works on canvas too right? 

It was a fabulous 2+ years there and I made some wonderful friends. To my friends at Gallery B, I wish the very best. I hope they have tons of fun and success. And since I live literally a half mile from the gallery, I'll certainly be popping in to say hi on occasion.

There's a new thing in the future for me and I'm ready! I can't share it yet and it's probably going to take some time to get going but there is something new on the horizon. Meanwhile, I'm here, working at home in my studio, adding to my Etsy shop, and painting of course. So, if you want to know what this new thing is gonna be, and what I'll be up to in the meantime, sign up for the newsletter when the little window pops up.

 Till next time...

 

I'm finally adding to it

Happy Friday! Just popping in to share some info. Lately I've been ignoring my Etsy shop. Sometimes we get pulled in a million different directions with all the hats we wear and my poor little shop got left by the wayside. This morning I thought I'd better get back to it so I've added a couple of new listings and changed the pricing on some others - in the direction you would appreciate too. :)

I have a number of mini paintings that I'll be adding to the shop on a regular basis. They range in size from 2x2 inches to 4x4 inches. These teeny tiny little paintings make great ornaments for the holidays or accents on the mantle or bookshelf. They can also be hung on the wall to enjoy year round. The little bird nest in the top photo also has a ribbon hanger but I folded it down behind the painting so it can sit on the easel without being seen. If you want to add something extra to a gift for someone special, you could tie a mini to the bow on gift wrap. It's a gift on top of a gift! These are great because they're so versatile. Use them any way you want.

So click the link in this post or hop over to the sidebar and check out all the little gift ideas. And then I hope you have a fabulous long weekend.

Peace

 

Something new and a coupon too

The last few weeks I've been focused on painting and shows so I decided to take a break and work on my Etsy shop. Sadly it's been neglected lately so it was time to get back to it and try something new. I just added a new section to the shop called Painting Project Singles. These are instant downloadable PDFs and they take you step by step through one painting.

To get the ball rolling I'm starting with projects from our book Creative Colored Pencil Workshop so if you have the book, you already have the first 2 projects. But for those who don't have the book, it's a great way to pick and choose which painting you want to do and you don't have to spend a lot to do it. I'll be doing some new projects in the future to add to the series so check in at the shop from time to time.

The first 2 projects focus on mixing colored pencil with other media. Above I'm combining them with oil pastel to paint a loose, impressionistic landscape. The project below is my froggy from Paynes Prairie. He's done with watercolor and colored pencil. I take you through each step with a full color photo and instructions. I also include a line drawing, the original source photo and materials list.

So check out the new listings and tell me what you think! Do you think it's a good idea? Do you have a particular subject you'd like to see in a step by step format like this? I'll be doing more landscapes for sure but I'm also thinking of doing some seasonal type things like pumpkins with gold leaf backgrounds for fall or maybe do one with a bird nest and eggs. You know how much I love painting those! I would love and appreciate your feedback so leave a comment if you're so inclined.

To introduce these 2 new projects I'm sharing a coupon for 50% off the Painting Project Singles that's good through May 31st.  Share with your friends and happy painting!

The gallery, the Etsy shop and a nest update

It's Monday morning and I'm sitting here with my coffee, listening to the birds and thinking about the week ahead. Today is art class. I'll probably just have 3 people in the studio today since a few folks are traveling. The rest of the week will be spent in my home studio working on several paintings. I usually have more than one going at a time- keeps my energy up that way.

Another thing that boosts the painting energy is visiting my gallery rep. Last week I delivered 10 new landscapes to the Signature Art Gallery in Tallahassee. They've been selling my work for a couple of years now and I'd never been there! Shame on me. So, since I had a couple of larger canvases for them this time I thought it would be good to deliver instead of shipping. I'm so glad I did. It was a beautiful day. Yellow flowers (friends from the area will know what kind they are) were blooming all along I75 with the occassional purple ones thrown in here and there- very pretty- you know those complimentary colors work so well together. 😄

Finding the gallery was very easy and what a nice place! I met Mary, the owner, and we had a lovely time visiting. Walking around, looking at the other art there, I realized I wanted just about everything in the place. Every piece in the gallery was beautiful! I truly felt honored to have my work hanging there with so many wonderful artist's work. I could've stayed all day just studying the brush work and techniques in all the other works. 

One of the larger pieces I delivered.

The 2 floating walls where my work is currently hanging. They've made room for a few of the new pieces.

So my gallery is updated and now my Etsy shop is too.

Once upon a time I was doing Friday Painting Parties. I did them for about 3 years but due to a change in the studio space I stopped doing them. I had a number of workshop demo pieces left from those parties and I got tired of tripping over the box of canvases so I added them to the shop at a special price. This week, through Mother's Day, you can get one of these paintings at a bigger discount with the coupon code MOMLOVE20 for 20% off. It really is a great deal so check it out if you're so inclined. There's a mix of subjects and techniques - take a look at the Etsy mini shop on the sidebar to see more examples.

This was one of my faves to do. It's from a photo I took on the gulf coast.

We did a gold leaf sky on this one. What a mess in a workshop! We then used palette knife to paint the rest.

This one came from a series I did called Woodland. They're all sold now, this is the last.

Nest update!

So remember the nest in my mailbox? The babies grew up and fledged but sadly, at least one of them was lost to a predator - the kitty. I happened to be home when the little ones took off and suddenly I saw the cat hunkered down over something small while momma bird was screeching and flying circles overhead. Sad. All I can do is hope the others survived. 

Once I was sure no one was coming back to the mailbox nest I cut a piece of cardboard to fit the width of the box so I could slide it underneath and then carefully pull the nest out. It took some work but I finally got it out without losing much of their construction. Once I got it out I found an egg inside that hadn't hatched. Unfortunately, I broke it when I took it out to show my granddaughter but I kept the largest pieces and put them back in. Now I have a new nest to add to my growing collection. See, this is why I have to move that box of canvases I was tripping over. Seriously..... go to the Etsy shop!

From the front

Side view- you can see how much taller it is in the back.

And of course, I've added to the collection of nest paintings. In memory of the little one lost to the kitty I painted 2 Babies this past weekend from a photo I took of them in the mailbox.

2 Babies

5x5

Well, that's the update for now...... I have lots of paintings floating around in my head so I'm anxious to get back to the studio and get busy. 

Wishing you peace and creativity.

The "catching up" post- painting, portraits, coloring books and censorship

Wow, almost a year to the day since the last post! That is way too long!
So what have I been up to- let's see.....

Painting, painting and more painting.
Did multiple portrait commissions.
Designed and published the Masterpeace Mandala coloring books- yes, my husband and I put our skills together and jumped on that bandwagon.
Had a solo exhibition at the 567 Center for Renewal in Macon GA.
Changed a few things around on the Etsy shop
Spent a week at the beach.
Spent a week in Ohio with daughter and grandkids.
Spent the holidays in Texas with my other daughter and grandson.
Spent 3 more weeks in Texas helping my daughter when she had baby #2.
In between those trips there was more painting and working on my website.
Teaching art classes on Mondays.

I think that's it. I don't think I left out anything major. And I think the traveling will slow down this year. Of course it would be a huge help if my daughters would just move to FL!

Ok, back to the work.....

The landscapes

Golden Edge

12x12

Gold Sky Woodland

12x6

Spring Pink

12x12

These are some of the newest paintings from my studio. I'm having fun with the gold leaf again- can you tell? :) Sales at the Signature Gallery in Tallahassee and the Macon Arts Alliance in GA have been picking up- yay! My next step will be to add another gallery to the list. I'm not sure which area I want to approach so if you have any ideas about where my work would fit in, feel free to share.

The solo exhibition

BFA

48x36

This is one of the pieces from the Silent Voices series. I have 16 paintings in this series so far, all the same size. This was the group of work for my solo exhibit in GA. It caused quite a commotion and 3 of the paintings were censored from the show!! Every weekend for the duration of the show the paintings had to come down and were rehung on Mondays- not kidding! If you want to see the pieces that were censored and why, check out the post I did on my other blog. To see the rest of the pieces in the show, go to the Symbolic page on my site. 

The portraits

I've done several portrait commissions but this one I did for myself. My granddaughter was hanging out at the house with us one night. She had wrapped a blanket around herself and was just being goofy and making faces. I grabbed the camera and took a lot of shots and decided to compile some of them into the 6 Faces of Maxine. It's colored pencil on red Canson MiTeintes and let me tell you.... skin tones on red paper is a challenge!

The coloring books

Coloring books?! Yep, we made coloring books. There are actually 3 coloring books and 3 coloring journals. We thought it would be fun to make mandala designs and patterns inspired by line drawings of the masters. So far we have Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Mucha. In the journals we have pages that are lined and some unlined and some that have coloring designs or edges. Since this kind of work is not something I normally do it was quite the learning curve for me. Getting to know the programs required to do the designs took some time but once I got it down it was a lot of fun.

I think this catches us up and hopefully I can get back to posting here on a regular basis now that life is getting a little more regular again. So in the meantime, check out the links, leave comments here or there.... let me know what you think. And Happy 4th of July! Hope it's a great weekend.

It's Free

Sometimes I branch out from the canvas and get crafty. Years ago I dyed my own reed and wove baskets, I did needle work, crocheted - still do some crocheting (all these grandbabies need blankets!), sewed pillows and other things for the home (that trend didn't last long- me and the sewing machine didn't exactly get along, it was a love/hate thing). Anyway..... the latest thing is pendants.

Yesterday I added a new item to my Etsy shop. It's an 8 page tutorial called Making Pendants. This is a fun and easy way to make your own SUPER lightweight accessories and if you're a painter, most of the materials are already in your studio. From Etsy it's an instant download and it's only 2.99.

Do you see the little box to the left that says Follow by Email? If you type your email in there and click submit I'll send you the tutorial for nothing. Free, nada, zip.

So if you're interested in learning how to make something fun and different you can see how with a bunch of full color photos to guide you.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'm heading for the studio.
Carlynne

I'm Back!

Yep, I know..... it's been way too long since posting here. This last year has found me a little scattered and trying to do too many different things - not only in the studio but online also. Too many social media sites can suck you in so I'm narrowing my focus to posting here, my Facebook page and my Etsy shop. Ok, so I can't leave Pinterest out. I'll be there too. The stack of hats I've been wearing has gotten pretty tall so it's time to clear out some clutter. Maybe if I wear fewer of them I can work more on quality rather than quantity. I think the problem with a lot of us creative types is we like to do a variety of things and that can lead to overwhelming ourselves with choices and projects. So now I'm turning my focus to the things I love most. After all, why would I want to focus more on something I don't really want to do? Makes sense right?

In painting there are 2 topics I'm most passionate about - nature and adoption. My abstracts and landscapes are both about nature. The Silent Voices series is about adoption from an original mother's viewpoint.
You can tell from the tabs above that I like to work in series. I just added 7 new pieces to the abstract section and the landscapes are ongoing. In fact I'm getting ready for a new show in February '14 in Macon GA at The 567 Center for Renewal art gallery. I love working back and forth between these two series. After a long stretch of painting landscapes it's fun to loosen up with some textures and layers in the mixed media work.

Of course the Silent Voices series is near and dear to my heart. It's a very personal series about my own story so between shows I'll be adding to that group of work also. I'm constantly thinking about it, sketching and writing down lists of words that could be included on another canvas or the narrative poetry that goes with it.

This is where I am on this beautiful December day in Florida. I'm enjoying the warm weather and looking forward to a new creative year. I hope you've been well and will come back to visit, maybe leave a comment or two.

It was so obvious......

So which one is a more dynamic image? I've been playing around with photos and backgrounds for the pendants that I have listed in the Etsy shop - check out the link on the left side of the page. Even though the bottom image is not as close up as the top image I feel like it has more impact because of the contrast in values. I was looking at the pendant photos I've been using and thinking that they're rather bland. There has to be a way to spice them up a bit. Then it hit me. Duh..... I'm a painter! I have all these wonderful textures and colors sitting right here at my fingertips. Why not use paintings for the backdrops of the hand painted, original pendants that I make! Sometimes solutions are so simple that we just miss them.