We're celebrating, so you get a discount!

To celebrate the opening of our new studio and gallery we're having a sale in the Etsy Shop tomorrow, June 15th. Everything in the shop will be 20% OFF from 9AM until 9PM. It's a one day event so don't miss out! When you go shopping use the coupon code: studioopeningsale 

Hope to see you at the opening Thursday.
Peace,
Carlynne

Word Out Wednesday - Kelli Money Huff

"Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light."

 ~ Jennie Jerome Churchill

This week I thought I'd give some attention to someone who is my BFF, my painting partner, my teaching partner and my co-author on our book and blog. You see.... today is her birthday and she deserves to be honored. She is someone who spends much of her time taking care of others and when she does so much for family and friends I think she needs a bit of a shout out.

Kelli and I have worked together for years. We push each other, help each other, critique each other and listen to each other. We share studio space, expenses, chores, art supplies, laughs and sometimes tears. We hardly ever argue (unless someone brings up "blending stumps"). I truly believe I've gotten as far as I have because of her. She makes my life richer and infinitely more fun.

Enjoy her work.

                                                    

 These 2 pieces are from Kelli's Beach series. I love the texture and drips!

 Here she's using copper and texture.

Fabulous florals.

This gorgeous sunset is in our book on the Acknowledgements page.

And this piece.... well, this one she did for me. It's called 4 Women and it's about 4 generations in my family. She had been through an incredible journey with me and felt compelled to put it on canvas in this mixed media form. It's an amazing thing to have a friend who cares so much.

To my dearest friend - Happy Birthday. Thanks for who you are and everything you do. Thank you for being such an inspiration to me and others.
Love and peace,
Carlynne

Enhancing Your Environment

Enhance your environment is what Laura Howard does at Decorative Designs in Ocala, FL. You see her in the photo above (left) with one of our students, Lea. Carlynne and I and several of our students recently took advantage of the opportunity to see what Laura and her crew do at an event held at her studio on SR 200 in Ocala. It was a fantastic Artists Date for us (for an explanation of Artists Date see Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way). Laura has many creative experts working for and with her and she herself has a huge amount of specialized training in faux finishes and other artistic mediums. She has trained in many places in the US as well as Italy and has over two decades of experience. Her showroom is a decorator and artists delight, a playground devoted to creative endeavors.

Here you see some of Laura's helpers at the desk with samples of faux finishes behind them. According to their website, "the possibilities are limited only by your imagination." And indeed I was amazed at what they can do with materials very similar to the ones we use on canvas. This photo shows a demonstration of applying Venetian Plaster. It was absolutly inspiring to see the textures and finishes achieved and all the exciting materials available at their location. They have all the supplies you need to enhance your environment, from faux finishes to murals, trompe l'oeil, marbeling, to texture appliactions or they can do it for you, custom designed to your wishes.

Decorative Desings is an incredbily creative place. Here you can see Diane and Carlynne examining some of the results. I was astounded at the faux marble and the textures created with a product called Wood Icing. We are now playing with a glazing cream we purchased from Laura. I strongly recommend that you join their email list and find out about classes and free demos. Here is a link to their site Visit them and enjoy. And watch here for more info on some of our favorite and most inspiring creative people. As we work on getting the word out about our work and studio, we'd like to feature the work of other artists also. We want to do this every Wednesday and call it Word Out Wednesday. If there is an artist you would like to see on our blog please let us know.

I wish you peace and creativity, Kelli

Happy to be busy!

It's been a busy time in Etsy land lately! Both of these pieces above sold along with two other original paintings, a giclee and a copy of our book. I love making those trips to the post office.

Believe

5x5

Mixed Media

Remember in a previous post I had a bunch of canvas panels that I had started on? There were two with nothing but purple handmade paper glued on. Here they are finished. I just added them to the Etsy shop this week. I'm falling in love with violet and blue together. There's some more of that color combo in my future. I also want to do some more with words. Anyone have any suggestions for words they'd like to see added to a little abstract?

Purple Passion

5x5

Mixed Media

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

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

Having fun on Monday

We've had some students traveling so we had a small group for class yesterday. Nancy got plenty of attention, maybe even more than she wanted. She's begun working in oil and is having a great time. I think she's doing a great job too.

Kelli let me take her photo :)

If you're in Ocala, stop in and say hello. We're in class on Monday's 12:30-3:30 and Wednesday's 10:00-1:00 at Red Swan Paint & Art.

Hope you're having a lovely Tuesday.

Peace,

Carlynne

A Walk in The Forest

I have been staring at canvases and dabbing paint on them and then not being happy, painting over whatever I did. I am just not feeling the paint right now. Sometimes that makes me a little panicked, but always disappointed and unhappy. However, there are many ways to be creative and when the well is dry, it's time to fill it with an artists date. So, my husband Greg and I went for a drive into the National Forest and took photos.

We really liked the color in the thistle flowers. (Yes, I know it's a weed, but Nature makes no distinction, all plants and animals welcome.) The bright purples are the ones in full bloom and then they lose color and become paler as the bloom fades and dies. I like both. I will share more of these photos when I have a chance to look at all of them. Perhaps this will inspire me or you to do something creative.

Peace and Creativity,

Kelli

I love seeing what other people do

The fact that I love texture is not exactly breaking news so of course when I find an artist that loves it like I do I get excited about it. When I got my newsletter from Artsy Shark this morning I just had to share. Bobbi Mastrangelo does some of the most intriguing work with handmade paper and metal. I just want to run my hands over all of these pieces. Poke around on her site and look at what she's doing.

Happy Sunday to you and Happy Birthday to my daughter Liz!
Peace,
Carlynne

Sand and Water

Sand and Water #1

Acrylic on Canvas

12"X12"

Hi All,

Here is a new piece in the beach series. I am using a new name for the next phase of the series, it will now be Sand and Water. I like the color and values on this one but do not know what else I will do with it yet. As always, your comments are welcome.

This coming Friday is our next First Friday Art Walk in Ocala, FL if you are anywhere near the area.

Peace and Love to you all,

Kelli

New Work

This is going to be a new beach piece, eventually, trust me, it will be. I know it doesn't look much like the other beach pieces yet, but this one is a little different than the previous ones in this series. And you will get to see the process as it goes through transformation several times.







Here is a close up of the textures. The color is a little warmer than this photo, it's actually more of a soft burnt sienna. (Wow, what's with me and burnt sienna? I even drive a Toyota sienna.) It already has about 6 layers on it, including raw sienna, iridescent medium and burnt sienna.

I'll keep you posted.
Peace and love and creativity.
Kelli

Remember This?

Remember this piece of slate with it's lovely textures and shape? I took photos of it before I did anything at all to it and now I have added a little more texture and some burnt sienna. (I really had no choice, it just cried out for burnt sienna.)

This is a close up of what it looks like now, I loooooooooooooooove the textures and color. HOWEVER, where do I go from here???? Heeeeeeeeeeelp meeeeeeee, pleeeeeeeeese.

Oh, and don't' forget, we will be at Bakers and Cooks this evening from 6-8 for the monthly First Friday Art Walk in downtown Ocala, FL. Be there, just off the square!

Peace and love,

Kelli

Hubcap name game part 2

Name this......

and win this
Passage 70
5x5
Mixed Media

Just so you remember, the top photo is the flip side of the hubcap. If your name suggestion wins you get this original acrylic abstract painting. 2 sides, 2 winners, 2 prizes. If one person wins the name for both sides, that person gets both prizes!
The deadline is this Friday, March 5th at 5pm. There's some great entries so far. I should have you guys name all my paintings, Keep 'em coming, keep entering! Wow, such creativity! I love it.

Peace,
Carlynne

Name Game

Name this.......

and win this
Passage 63
5x5
Mixed Media

Come up with the winning name for the hubcap and get this little original abstract.
The media used on this piece are acrylic, handmade paper, garnets, copper leaf, tissue paper and crackle paste.

Deadline for name suggestions is 5 pm Eastern time on Friday, March 5.

Have a great day everyone!
Carlynne

Say Something

Say Something

16x16

Mixed Media

I'm posting one more from this series and then I'll get back to showing you the hubcap (which is almost done). Here you see a portion of a face and a plastic clothes hanger - you may not notice at first but look at the lower right corner. I'm going to leave it at that and let you take from it what you will. The media included in this one are acrylic, handmade paper and a plastic hanger.

So...... say something.

Peace,

Carlynne

Myth of Perfection

Myth of Perfection

16x16

Mixed media on canvas

Good morning! It's another chilly start in the south. I've got a few minutes before heading off to work today so I thought I'd share another piece in the Body of Work series. This one is called Myth of Perfection. I'll go back to the altered book later and show you some more pages from that but I thought bringing out the canvases would be nice.

I think the words on the canvas pretty much say it all. Isn't perfection what we're supposed to be striving for? I know women understand this pressure to look perfect. Just look at the women's fashion magazines and the airbrushed models. Who in the world could possibly live up to those standards? I truly think these magazines are a bad influence on young women. They send a damaging message - you're not okay. As we get older we add more things to the list of things to be perfect at - raising kids, careers, housekeeping and caring for elderly parents. We put so much pressure on ourselves - yes, there's the outside influences but we allow those influences to push us to the point of extremes. There's nothing wrong with having high standards but there has to be some sanity thrown in there too, some feeling of it's okay if everything is not exactly perfect. It's okay to let the less important things sit for a while so we can sit for a while and be at peace.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Peace,

Carlynne

What a weekend!

Wow, it's early. What am I doing here? My "amazing hubby" - that's his name from now on - had to go on a trip this morning so I got up to see him off. I couldn't go back to sleep so here I am. My brain is trippin' from all the projects I'm working on at once. That's not a bad thing, not at all. It's exciting to me. My problem is I want to work on them all at once, so yesterday, I did my darndest to do just that. Up top you see the start of a new acrylic piece in the earth series (coming to a gallery near you - if you live in Ocala or possibly Jacksonville).

This is a little 5x7 oil pastel with colored pencil. I'm starting a series of these mini landscapes for Etsy so look for those soon.

Some of you remember this one - Prairie Light - from the book. It was project 6. It's now listed on Etsy.

Yesterday was one of those days - I was having such a good time in the studio, the energy stayed up all day and I got a lot done, not only painting but computer work and even a little organizing. Amazing Hubby will be gone all day so guess where I'm headed? What a weekend!

hope you're having fun,

Carlynne

Textures R Us

You may be wondering what these photos are and why I am wasting time and valuable Internet space with them. Well, by way of introduction, let me say that I discovered something about myself last weekend. While at the Artist Within event on Saturday evening (refer to previous posts for more info), I found myself looking down at the floor in the lovely bathroom/locker room of the golf clubhouse. (We did not have Italian tile floors and carved wood lockers when I was in high school.) Knowing that I look down a lot at tile, the textures, the colors, the veins, the value nuances, I realized that if I were not an artist, I could sell tile. It would probably be more lucrative, too.

Anyway, I am finally admitting that, as an artist, I not only cannot get away from texture, but I am drawn to texture of all types in many different places. I have decided that I am just going to hand it over to my higher power and give in to the need for texture in most everything I do.

So about these photos. One of our students brought back some slate roof tiles from Canada all the way to Florida in her car. Did we not teach this woman well, what is important in life and car space???? Anyway, thanks to Lea, I have a lovely piece of slate to play with. I have no idea what I will do with it but I am looking forward to finding out, and I will definitely enjoy the process. I wanted you to see what it looks like before I start. I will update you as it proceeds, and suggestions are always welcome.

Oh yes, I know what you are thinking, roof tile!! What's next, painting on saws? Can Elvis on black velvet be far behind? Don't worry, not going to happen. Although velvet has a wonderful texture and I love the colors of rust on metal, hmmmmm.........

Peace and love,

Kelli

Then and now

When I was a little girl my soft spoken but feisty Puerto Rican grandmother taught me the fine arts of needlework. She was a seamstress in a factory of the garment district of New York and she knew all of them. She taught me to crochet, knit, embroider, sew and even though it didn't stick with me - she knew tatting, lace making, and anything else you could do with a needle, thread, yarn and pieces of fabric. She even made cashmere coats with silk linings and fur collars for my Barbie dolls from scraps in the factory! How in the world she managed to make a set-in sleeve that small for my dolls is beyond me. As I was growing up I continued to sew - making my own clothes - but what really tugged at me was crocheting. I kept at it, I crocheted all sorts of things including outfits for my Barbies.

Fast forward to today..... I'm a painter. But, crochet, even after all these years, still calls to me. I miss it and I miss her. So the other day I'm sitting in my studio trying to think of a way to incorporate crochet into my work as a painter. I love texture. I've been using fiber in some of my collage and mixed media work for a while now so I thought why not add some free form crochet to my very organic feeling work. I started with some nubby yarn in a free form style, added some twine and then I'm looking at an acrylic on wood panel that just wasn't working the way it was so I played with it. Now what I have is what you see above. It's not done yet but I'm happy to be playing with the texture and incorporating pieces of my childhood through the crochet. It may not be what grandma had in mind but that's ok. I'm bringing a piece of my life with her into the life I live now.

Keep playing and never forget where you came from,
Carlynne

Pretty Tree

Hi All,

Just had to share this with everyone. This is a photo of the poinsettia tree at St Paul's United Methodist Church in Ocala, FL. It is something I look forward to and is one of the highlights of every Christmas season for me.

I am trying very hard to not get stressed this year about what I need to get done and instead, I am focusing on the things I really enjoy about this time of year. The food, the music, the people, the fun times. I hope all of you have a very joyous and relaxing holiday.

Peace and love,

Kelli

Just Checking In

Lonely Palm

12X12

Kelli Money Huff

Hi All,

Just a note to say hi and stay in touch. Can you believe it's November already. It's still warm here in Florida and I am so ready for cold weather.

This piece is one that I finished a few weeks ago. I was experimenting with realism over top of textures. You know I just cannot get away from those textures. I used almost every type of acrylic on this piece; heavy body regular, Interactive slow drying, and Galleria flow formula. I think it's great to be able to mix them. You know I can't get away from mixed media, even when it's all acrylic!!

Peace and love,
Kelli