Another fun night!

Last Friday was our Friday Night Painting Party and it was a full house again! The more the merrier is so true. We have a lot of fun in these mini workshops.

Lots of concentration going on here. They were applying gold leaf to the sky. You should have seen the room when the workshop was over. It's amazing how that stuff flies around. I think I vacuumed for a solid hour on Saturday :) 

 From this angle you can see the shine of gold on some of the canvases.

A couple of our folks had to leave a little early so they escaped the group shot but here are the rest of our painters. I love it! Every piece is different and lovely. I can't wait to see what May's workshop pieces will look like. Soon I'll post the piece we're doing next time. We'll be working with tissue paper for texture on the next piece.

Peace and creativity,

Carlynne

I confess.....

I've been a total slacker about posting here. I've had photos to show you but instead I've been doing things like getting tax info ready for the CPA. What a drudge when that kind of stuff interferes with the real reasons for being - family, friends and art.

So to get you caught up I'll start with the last Friday Night Painting Party.

We had a completely full house that night. Here are a few of the gang working on their bearded iris painting with the gold background.

Kelli's making the rounds and probably looking for the burnt sienna paint again. Every time someone needed some more of that color the tube just disappeared.

And here we have our smiling students with their finished pieces - all the girls and Warren, brave soul that he is, daring to spend a Friday evening in what's known affectionately by some as the estrogen pit. I was thrilled with the results everyone had with their paintings! It's very exciting to see one image transform into so many different styles, to see the hand of each artist appear on the canvas.

Marshland

12x12

acrylic and gold leaf on canvas

Marshland is the next painting that we're doing in the Friday Night Painting Party coming up on April 27th. This one was hanging in the studio during the party and Warren asked if we could do it in a workshop. (I guess he's willing to dive into the pit again.) We're already getting registrations in so if you're interested in doing this one let us know ASAP - we're limited to 12 students in the party. The class cost is 50.00 and we provide all the materials for your painting. In this one we'll be doing gold leaf in the sky and water. It'll be messy and fun. Comment or send an email if you'd like more info - hershbergerhuff@hotmail.com 

Peace,

Carlynne

Last Night

Last night was our second Friday Night Painting Party - good times :)

 We did a gold leaf sky landscape painting. Here we're getting the studio ready. Yes, it's a little weird to have a life size horse in the middle of a workshop but no one seemed to mind. Anyway, we prepped the canvases by painting them magenta and drawing in the tree line. If we expected people to paint a landscape in 3 hours we figured we'd better give them at least a bit of a head start.

 Playing with gold.

 Looking so good.....

Everybody's smiling - our job is done.

What I love about doing this kind of class is seeing the same painting done so many different ways. Every painter puts their own hand into the subject. Now if I had remembered to take pictures of the finished pieces I could have shown you that but we were having such a good time I forgot to pick up the camera again. Maybe  at the next one I'll get a line up of finished paintings.

Hope you're having a good weekend,
Carlynne

Stuff......

......that's undone - story of my life I guess but I see that as a good thing. It means I started something. In this case it's many somethings. Many projects are underway. Little pieces with papers collaged and texture gels added are waiting patiently for paint. These are heading for the Etsy shop when finished.

This is a bigger one - 48x36 oil on canvas. It's part of the series on adoption.

The next one in the gold sky series is also underway.

I hadn't done one of these larger textured abstracts in a while so I was in need. I have it started and I have no idea what I'm doing with it next but that's the fun of doing it.

TA DA! Something done! This one is for a special project that I'll be announcing later. This is colored pencil with mineral spirits on cold press illustration board. So, I'll keep you posted on how all these projects end up.

Go and be creative!

Carlynne

A little detour

Golden Prairie

I took a little side trip from my work on the adoption series which you can see on my other blog, to work on the gold skies again. I'd been wanting to go back to these for a while. They just intrigue me when the light hits a certain way and the look of the painting changes. It's like the sky in the painting changes with the sky outside. These 3 pieces are 12x12, acrylic, oil and gold leaf on canvas.

The Avocado Grove

Morning at the Lake

Happy Thursday!
Peace,
Carlynne

Making Progress

Expectations

48x36

I got to spend some time in my studio this past weekend - my favorite thing to do - second only to spending time with Amazing Hubby and my kids! Last week I finished the first piece in the new series. You saw it in an earlier post, well now the web pattern is gold leafed and I brought some of the strands over the lily.

Here's the start of the second piece. I got 2 of the candles in, some detail stuff to do on them yet. You should be able to see where the 3rd one is drawn in. I'm still working out how I'm going to do the additions to the background. I'm going to add dates - many birthdates representing adoptees. If you're an adoptee or a birth/first mother and you'd like your birthdate included just send me a message or comment.

Hope you're having a great start to this new week,

Peace,

Carlynne

Wow, it's early

Good morning. I have no idea what I'm doing up. I've been awake since 3:30 so I just gave up the tossing and turning and came out here to the computer to mess around. So.....here's an acrylic landscape just for the heck of it. This was really fun to do. One of these days I'm going to do some more like this. I toned the canvas with red first and did the landscape with a palette knife. The sky and some highlights on the ground and tree trunk are gold leaf.

I have a question for any photographers out there. Are there any tricks to getting gold leaf to read a little better in a photo? I know it won't be the same no matter what but it would be nice to get some of the effect of the golden glow.

Back to bed, maybe I can fall asleep in time for the alarm to go off......
peace,
Carlynne

More layers

Mosaic 4

16x16

More layers, more layers, more layers. It was time to zero in on the colorful shapes and tone down the others. I woke up this morning and just didn't like what was going on on the right hand side of the painting so I did some drybrushing with a white that has a touch of green in it. You can still see some of the underneath color, it has more depth now. What I ended up with is acrylic, gold leaf and tissue paper on canvas. I think it's done. If you have a different opinion, share it, don't be shy. I can take it (as long as you're not too brutal).

While I'm painting I'm watching the speed skaters in Vancouver, what an inspiration. Maybe I should try speed painting - set a timer and do 30 minute expressions. That could be fun, and messy!

Short post today.... the kids are coming over for dinner tonight. Can't wait to see them! Have a lovely evening and if I'm not on here again tomorrow ~ a very happy Valentine's Day!

Peace, and go kiss someone,

Carlynne

Another Stage

It's another stage..... don't know if it's a good one or not. I'm happy with some things, not so happy with others. I added some more tissue, a little gold leaf and of course some more color and geometric shapes. Changes will be happening soon - maybe some drastic ones. Maybe I'd better sleep on it. hmmm....

Supper time,
have a good night,
Carlynne

Next Stage

Here's the next stage in this piece, building layers gradually and adding some tissue paper. I don't really have a plan right now, just going with intuition so we'll see where it ends up.

Lunch time,

Carlynne

More Starts

Good morning! It's studio day. Does this mean I have to focus now? This unfinished canvas you see above is I think number 12 (could be 13) in a nice big pile of started paintings. Last night was poker night - for Amazing Hubby, not me - and that usually means that I'm parked in front of the tv in the living room channel surfing. Well I now have tv in my studio so I can channel surf in there on poker night. Yay for multi-tasking! So, this old canvas was calling to me. I don't remember what the purpose was for the red paint and gold leaf but now it's been re-purposed. Time to decide which piece to work on today - one of the pile of canvases, the colored pencil piece or the hubcap. Later I'll show you what I decide.

Have a beautiful day,
Peace,
Carlynne

Artist Within Part 8

We're almost done!!!! Julie and I are really pleased with how the painting is coming along. This week we added some more flowers, reflections and did some adjusting in the greens. I think next week will be the final session - we'll look at it again and do the last of the tweaking and touch ups. This calls for a bottle of wine to celebrate! Now we need to come up with a title for the piece, any ideas out there? This is a scene from a photo I took of Paynes Prairie but I don't want to just call it that. If you have any thoughts please leave a comment. Julie, you have final say on the title.

This piece along with the other Artist Within pieces will be on display at Brick City Center for the Arts in December. When I have more info such as reception date I'll post it.

Til then, keep creating and be happy.

Carlynne

Artist Within Part 7

One of the panels in our project.

Both panels

A close up.

Well, we had a short but productive meeting today. Julie got over her fear of painting stems and I ate too many chocolate chip cookies. It's all her fault! She just insists on feeding me every time we get together. Of course I don't object too much so I guess I have to take some responsibility.

This project hasn't lasted that long, Julie and I haven't known each other very long, but art somehow has a way of bringing people together. When we stop and think about it we have been through some major life events just in the short time we've worked on this project. I'll give you a play by play as soon as we have this work finished. When this piece is done it will be on display at Brick City Center for the Arts in downtown Ocala. The show will be for the month of December - details to follow. After the first of the year it will be sold at auction! That will be exciting!

'til the next installment,

Carlynne

Artist Within Part 6

Hi everyone.

I've had a crazy busy time the last week. I went to Nashville and when I came back I had surgery. No, one didn't have anything to do with the other. Nashville was fabulous (that's another blog post one of these days) and surgery was minor thank goodness. Between the traveling and the recovery I haven't had much of a chance to work in the studio, very frustrating for an artist! Well today was a breath of fresh air. I was finally able to get back to the painting project with my friend Julie. It was so much fun I had a hard time stopping, hopefully I didn't make her late for her next appointment. We got some more layers done, worked on the reflections, added some flowers and even got Julie to paint a few stems on the flowers - she's been avoiding those so - good job! Not only is she doing a lot of work on this project she also did some painting on her own while we had this long break, very cool to see her progress! Thanks Julie for making this such a fun job and for everyone else, stay tuned for part 7.

Peace and love,
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

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.