Autumn

Leaves 3

5x5 acrylic

Kelli

Pumpkin 2

5x5 acrylic

Carlynne

I was imbued with such a feeling of autumn today (yeah, I do remember that I live in Florida and it's in the 90's) that I had to share a couple of our Etsy pieces from the section called Seasons. Besides my friends and family, the main thing I miss about not living in Michigan any more is the beautiful fall colors. (And maybe the brisk autumnal air that seems to fill me with so much energy, but I am able to experience that with the Florida winter).

If you want to see fall inspired gifts or a trinket for yourself, visit our shop at
http://www.etsy.com/shop/hershbergerhuff

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You also might want to check out the latest Etsy Treasury that my Leaves 4 piece was included in with this link: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c8b9f90ed9e6d9119209506/autumn-9-hour-bnr-0-saleso

A Treasure is a group of Etsy pieces from many different sellers/artists that all have a harmonizing theme; it might be a color, a name, a season, etc. The treasuries are beautiful assemblages of lovely, unique hand made things. Carlynne and I have been fortunate to be included in many, but I enjoy looking at all of them. I have yet to see one that was not a pleasure to the eye and an inspiration to my creative bone.

Happy Fall and Peace to all,

Kelli

No, this is not a new piece, but I had such a feeling of fall that I had to share it with you. This is a small 5X5 0n canvas panel

Texture still floats my boat

Mosaic 22

16x16

Mosaic 23

16x16

I'm having fun with some more abstracts and textures. Dripping, glazing, sanding, gluing and glazing some more. It's so much fun building up layers of acrylic paint and tissue paper and sanding between the layers. Organic shapes and geometric shapes come together to create contrast.

Hope you're doing something creative and fun this weekend.

What floats your boat?

Rocks are inspiring, intriguing and mysterious. They sit around in the studio, I pick them up and listen to the sound of them hitting each other as I juggle a few in the palm of my hand. My fingers rub the smooth surface and wonder how I can make them part of the next painting.

I love the look of buttons in a jar. Some are big and flat, some are little and thick. 4 holes or 2 did they live on a shirt or a jacket? Did the little shiny white one live alone on the back of a little girl's dress?

The line up of spools waiting for their contents to be unwound and reshaped into who knows what.....

My brushes with evidence of washes past call to me. Some of the ferrels are getting rusty but it constrasts so nicely with the blue that doesn't want to let go.

The soft flowing paint that I pushed around with a knife now sits raised and stiff revealing itself after the grit of sandpaper brings back the ridges of color.




*Well, I tried to get creative with the layout and it didn't work, hence the weird spacing.

What's 24X24 And Purple?

What IS 24X24 and purple all over? A 24 by 24 gallery wrapped canvas with purple acrylic on it, of course! Actually it's really even more purple than the photo shows. It has mostly purple with some blue and this shows more blue.

What is it going to be? I'm not telling. You're going to have to watch this blog to find out.

Peace and Love to all,

Kelli

A Diamond Day

I thought I'd continue on the theme of nature photos just for the heck of it. Amazing Hubby and I went out one day with our cameras. We rode out to the west coast and just wandered around, shooting whatever.....

I spotted this heron sitting way up high in a tree and since I had my long lens on the camera I thought I'd try to capture him. I was tickled with what I got. I'm a painter, not a photographer so to be able to catch him taking off like this was great fun - gotta love technology.

That wing span is amazing! There were more shots in this sequence but I didn't want the post to drag on forever. I just picked a few of my favorites. This last shot is dark on the underside but for the others I loved being able to see the details of his feathers. Like my friend Jolene says - some days are diamonds. That's how I felt about that day.

Hope you're having fun and staying cool,

Peace,

Carlynne

Lovely Fish

These koi live in a pond in the Sherman Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA. The absolutely gorgeous photos were taken by Jim Webster, my sister Shelley's significant other. When my mother visits them in California as she did recently, they take her to all kinds of wonderful places, museums, gardens, national parks, as they do me, when I am there. I greatly appreciate both of them and I am the very happy beneficiary of the photos that Jim is so skilled at taking.

Several of my previous paintings have come from his photos. In fact the painting on the dedication page of our book, Creative Colored Pencil Workshop is from one of Jim's photos (and he is the owner of the original painting). He is the one who first introduced me to digital photography and gave me my very first digital camera. It is impossible to go back to film now.

Jim has an artist's sensibility for composing photos. He is just as likely to take a picture of moss and lichen as he is a flower. He is able to see the abstract designs that nature makes even though he is not a painter. When most people are on vacation, they take photos of the relatives in front of the Grand Canyon. Jim and I tell the relatives to get out of the way, so we can get a good shot.

Koi have been a popular subject for artists for years, possibly hundreds of years, and so have become very prosaic, but it's easy to see why they are a favorite. In these photos, the fish, which are fabulous by themselves, compete with abstract patterns of reflections on the water for attention. These photos will turn up in my paintings and maybe very soon. Thanks Jim.

Peace and creativity to all,

Kelli

No point to this post

There's really no point to this post except the lusciousness of paint! Some people think that's weird but I don't really care. I'm having fun today working in the studio and when I squeezed paint out onto the canvas it was just so beautiful I had to take a photo or two. Saturday afternoon painting and listening John Lee Hooker and Bonnie Raitt..... it's a good day. :)

hope you're having a good weekend,

Peace,

Carlynne