And the Winner Is........

And the winner of the copy of our book, Creative Colored Pencil Workshop is........ (drum roll here) Kelly Jackson of I Have a Notion (cymbals here). We drew her name on Monday the book went out this afternoon (see how efficient I am?). Congratulations to Kelly (what a nice name) and please visit her at

www.IHaveA-Notion.com or
http://IHaveANotion.blogspot.com

Being a sewer, I was very interested in her site and she has the most wonderful things for sewers and even some things for non-sewers.


And guess what???? We are winners, too!! We received an email from Lisa at Etania Gems & Jewelry that we have won her drawing for a pair of sodalite and fresh water pearl earrings. What a thrill, of course we both have two ears, so I am not sure how that will work. This may be the only thing that could ever end our friendship. However, we do not hold Lisa responsible, so please visit her site and look at her gorgeous jewelry, and I do mean gorgeous:

www.etaniagems.com or
http://etaniagems.wordpress.com


As if all that were not enough to make this a very successful weekend with the Fall Business Women's Online Expo, we also had a lot of new people visit our etsy shop and our blog. So many wonderful comments, our heads are spinning. What a nice community of women. We are both so glad we did this and are looking forward to the next one.

I wish all peace, creativity, free art books and wonderful jewelry,
Kelli

Fall Business Womens Online Expo Booth #21

Pumpkin #2

5X5

Carlynne Hershberger

Leaves #3

5X5

Kelli Money Huff

Welcome to all who are on our blog for the first time to help us celebrate the Fall Business Women's Online Expo! We are honored that you took the time to visit with us considering all the choices you have available to you. Thank you and we hope you will like what you see and will return. Please tell us what you think.

We are Carlynne Hershberger and Kelli Money Huff. We paint, we teach, we write (well, OK, we also eat, sleep and eat a little more, too). We are experimental artists who mix our media all the time. We are very busy and by working together we cut the chores in half for each of us, so we can spend more time painting.

The two pieces you see above are examples of our 5X5 mini's, each one an original painting on canvas board. These are from our new section titled, Autumn. We have greatly enjoyed this little jog from our more abstract work and are looking forward to painting new things for our other seasonal sections. Watch for Winter, Spring, and Summer sections to pop up at the appropriate times.

We are thrilled to be a part of the Fall Business Women's Online Expo and are looking forward to visiting as many sites as possible. As you work your way through, be sure to comment as often as you can, it helps all of us to give you what you want. When you comment on our blog, or make a purchase in our Etsy shop this weekend, you will be entered into a drawing for a signed copy of our book, Creative Colored Pencil Workshop. We are running other specials just for this weekend event. Our original mini paintings are selling very well and for this Saturday and Sunday, we are including a mini easel for free. And don't forget, no shipping on the painting or the easel.

These mini easels are unfinished wood and look great with the mini paintings just the way they are, but you can stain or paint them to match the artwork if you wish. Don't forget us for you Christmas and Hanukkah shopping; mark our blog and Etsy shop and come back for more specials in the future.


Something new in our Etsy shop is our book, Creative Colored Pencil Workshop (North Light Books, 2007). We are offering free shipping on all book purchases for this weekend. Save money and get a book signed by us. We can personalize if you email us with your name. And the best news is that every customer who makes a purchase from us on Etsy as well as every visitor that comments on our blog for Saturday and Sunday, will be entered into a drawing for a free book. Good luck to all.

In case you didn't know, we offer weekly classes on Monday and Wednesday at Red Swan Paint and Art Supply in Ocala Florida. See how hard our students work? There is a lot of laughing going on in our classes, but our students learn a lot, too.

OK, time for you to move along the Fall Business Womens Online Expo list, now. Thanks for dropping by and do come again.

Kelli and Carlynne

More Falling Leaves

Leaves #2

Acrylic 5X5

Kelli Money Huff

More falling leaves. Winter will be here soon. And I CANNOT wait. I have enjoyed this summer, but am really anxious for cooler weather. I really feel like walking outside. This is a new piece on Estyand we are really excited about our new section titled Autumn. Whever you are, I hope you are enjoying the fall, no matter what your climate is.

I wish you Peace, Love, and lots of Color!!
Kelli

Artist Within, part 5

Artist Within Project

The Artist Within project continues and Julie has more command of the brush! I'm stepping back more and she's painting more - I'm so proud! We had such a good time working on building color layers in the background, making some areas recede and some come forward. As we push on through some ugly stages (and we know most paintings go through them) we get more excited about how it's coming along. I must say Julie is a fabulous student, she not only takes direction well but she also keeps me supplied with chocolate! This week it was a chocolate muffin from our local baker, the Primary Oven.

One more thing to mention before I go..... my little pumpkin painting was included in a treasury on Etsy, I'm very excited. How cool to have my work chosen! Go take a look at all the other pumpkin colored gems that are included, http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=83228

hope you're having a super start to your week,

Carlynne

Spring Has Sprung, Fall Will Fall

Leaves 1

5X5

Kelli Money Huff

Hey All,

I am feeling good with the slight hint of crispness in the air here in Florida. Believe me, it is very slight. Today was predicted to be 94 degrees and I feel every degree. But I digress, this is all about art. I am missing the autumn leaves this time of year that I loved in Michigan where I grew up. I only miss snow on two days a year, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. However, I really miss the colors of fall throughout this entire season. I devour magazine photos of wilderness roads with their golds, oranges and wine colors. Recently an online photo of the Upper Peninsula nearly brought me to tears. And that is why I created some small pieces with brightly colored autumn leaves. Check out our new section on Etsy called Autumn.

I wish you Peace, Love and Color
Kelli

2 more

Pumpkin 4

5x5

Pumpkin 3
5x5

Okay, I couldn't help myself. I was just having too much fun painting these little guys. I'm up to 4 of them now, don't know how many I'll do. I'll look for some other image ideas for fall to continue the theme. If you have any ideas, throw them out there, comment and let me know if there's something you'd like to see. All 4 of these are on Etsy now in the Autumn section. Eventually there'll be a Winter section, etc.......

keep on keepin' on,

Carlynne

Pumpkin time

Pumpkins 1 and 2

each 5x5 on canvas panel

I took my supplies with me to work today in hopes that I would have time to do a little painting. The creativity gods were on my side and gave me a couple of uninterrupted hours to play with my paints and brushes. These little pumpkins are done on canvas panels and have gold leaf backgrounds, the rest is acrylic. For the other painters out there I used the Golden Open acrylic - love the stuff! It's a joy to work with. I did these in hopes that the weather gods would be paying attention, realize that autumn is upon us and take the temperature down just a smidge. Look for some new seasonal stuff to come in our Etsy shop.

Hope you're enjoying your week,

Peace and love,

Carlynne

Hi folks. This is the Artist Within project. I'm working with Julie Shealy on a painting project that's part of a program started by the Marion Cultural Alliance in Ocala. This is a great program that puts artists and business people together to produce a work of art that's to be auctioned off for charity. Thankfully Julie remembered her camera so she could record our progress. I asked her to email the photos to me so I could post them here. Julie has been so much fun to work with and so brave too. It's not often that we get to work with someone new to painting who wants to work large and bold! Kudos to you Julie! The first thing we did was tone the canvases with red paint, then added a lot of gold leaf - 3 packages worth!

At the end of the second session we had blocked in the greens. Hopefully you can tell by now that this is going to end up a landscape. The reference photo that Julie is working from is a pic I took at Paynes Prairie when the water lilies were blooming. Can you see the little bits of red peeking through? I love complimentary colors.

Today we worked on the background trees. We did some layering with cooler greens to set that area back in the picture plane. We also sealed the gold leaf so we don't get any tarnishing. Next weekend we'll get into more detail work on the background and maybe start putting some flowers in.

Hope ya'll have a good week,

Carlynne

It's Large

Desert Down Under

48x48

Mixed media

Ok, we've been slackers once again, but.... only where this blog is concerned! I've been staying very busy finishing this painting for one thing. For another, I've been painting the house - more on that later, maybe with pictures. This painting is the largest I've done to date and it was a blast. I love painting larger but my house doesn't appreciate it so much, storage is getting to be a real issue. And, maneuvering around this thing on the easel was quite the trick when I was trying to get to my drawing board to work on little 5x5's for Etsy. Then add the mixed media aspect. I wanted some texture on the surface so I added some glass bead gel, not a problem until I wanted to do a layer of watery paint on top and had to lay the painting down flat. That created a domino affect when every other surface in the studio had to be cleared off to make room. Back on the easel. Work a while. Time to add gold and copper leaf. Have to work flat again. And so it went - easel to table and back again. Then try to shoot a photo, ha! No way I could shoot it in the studio like I do the smaller stuff. I took it outside, set it up, got the camera and tripod set up and the yellow jackets took offense. Thankfully me and the gear made it back inside before the stingers found bare skin. Still no picture though. I ended up in the dining room with the painting at one end and me squeezing myself between the tripod and the windowsill. Got the shot but I probably won't be doing another 48x48 any time soon.