Damn she's good!

Diane

Since I somehow managed to leave Diane's picture out of the last post she gets her own little spot on the blog. When we hear "damn I'm good" we know Diane's having a good time at the drawing board. If you saw the cowboy she's drawing you'd know why she's having a good time. Happy New Year to you Diane and thanks for hanging around with us for all these years.

Thanks and here comes '10

Nancy and Kelli

The first thing I want to say is thank you. Thank you to Kelli - my co-author, teaching partner and most importantly my friend. This little chunk of time called 2009 would've been a lot harder without her. It was a tough year for a lot of people including me and my family. We've been through numerous serious illnesses, loss of a beloved pet and some difficult relationship changes that are still causing some challenges. Through all this we've found reason to be grateful and some of that gratitude goes toward our students. Not only are they fun people to be with, we're grateful they're still paying us for our pearls of wisdom. These really aren't art classes, they're actually therapy sessions and these wonderful people are the highlight of our work week. And, it's especially fun watching Nancy get paint absolutely everywhere.

Lea

We all love when Lea comes to town, we're fortunate to have her with us for the winter - it's Canada's loss. She can wield a colored pencil like a pro when she's painting these adorable animals.

Johnnie

Mama Johnnie keeps us all in line. She reminds me to make the coffee before the rest of the crew starts to snarl. I think I'll call her that from now on..... Mama Johnnie, I wonder if she'll mind.

Jean

A brave soul who tackles new media no matter how scary it can be. One week it's pastel, the next it's watercolor with colored pencil and then it might be acrylic.

So this is what happens to our students when they work up the energy to come to class between Christmas and New Year's. They get their pictures taken and plastered on the internet. I wonder how many will show up next year. I don't want the rest to feel left out - we love you too... Bob, Chuck, Jo, Mary Kay, Glenda and Betty. Kelli - did I forget anyone?

Well, here's to 2010. May it bring joy, good health and prosperity to all!

Happy New Year!

Carlynne

Near and Far

Well, I went from extremely close up in the last post to extremely far away - in a way. Above is a close up of a piece I'm currently working on - an abstract based on a satellite image of earth.

Here you see the whole thing as it stands right now. There's still a lot of work to do and now that Christmas is over I can very soon get back in the studio. There's a nice long weekend coming up so guess where I'm gonna be.

Did either one of us mention yet that we'll be having an exhibition at Brick City Center for the Arts in Ocala? We're doing a show with earth as our theme. You've seen some work from this series already but I've been working on lots of new pieces. I'll be showing these new ones for the month of Sept in 2010. I'll share more particulars later and more sneak peeks at the work too. In the meantime I need to buy more canvas, play with the new camera and go see Avatar!

Hope you're having fun,
Carlynne

How many pictures will fit in this tiny little card?

So, how was your Christmas? Did you enjoy your family, share lots of hugs, good food and good times? Get any cool presents? Talk to me.... it's all over now and it's too quiet in the house.

This is what happens when you get a new tiny little digital camera for Christmas..... nothing and no one is safe from the prying eye of the lens. When I aggravated everyone to death with the thing I turned my attention to stuff on the table - bows and ornaments became fascinating subjects - probably only fascinating to me though. I get a kick out of the reflections bouncing back and forth on each other.

Maybe someday these will end up the subject of a painting.... you never know. For right now I have this nifty little camera and I'll continue to pester everyone with it. Just wait til my students get to class tomorrow.

See you soon,
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

I'm Home!

Rivulets

24x24

Acrylic

It feels so good to be back in the studio! This is my first regular Thursday and first painting finished in what seems like ages. It's so restorative for mind, body and soul. I wish you could really see the texture on this up close. I'm having fun with this technique. I'm starting the canvas with a palette knife application of a red acrylic, nice and thick and leaving ridges. When that's dry I start putting down the cool colors and sanding between layers. In some places I drybrush to enhance the texture and in some I leave the red ridges showing through.

Ok, off I go to start on the next one.....

have a great day,

Carlynne

Music & Art

I've been meaning to get back to blogging for a while now. So, 2 months and 2 surgeries later, here I am. I'm fine now and as my energy level picks up I'm getting back into the swing. After being out of commission for a while all I really want to do is swing a paintbrush around in the studio. I'm working on some new stuff for our exhibit coming up in Sept '10 (I'll give you more details on that later) and until I have those photos ready to share I'll show you a little of my Nashville trip. Back in early October I flew up to Nashville to visit a friend of mine that I haven't seen in 32 years - I know - amazing! What's even more amazing is that we recognized each other at the airport. Once we got done giggling like a couple of high school kids Sue took me on a tour of the town. This was my first time there and I have to say - I love Nashville!

Ok..... this is what happens when you take photos with a little digital camera that has no viewfinder, you can't see anything on the screen in the daylight so you have no clue if you're actually getting your subject in the frame - just a little FYI.

There were a couple of others statues of Elvis around town but I didn't get shots of those, just about a million of this one - don't ask why.

Can't go to a new town and not souvenir shop, that shirt was for my daughter by the way.

some very cool boots!

A festival of scarecrows, what wonderful, wacky stuff!

The AT&T building AKA "Batman"

I think this is one of the things I loved about Nashville the most. You see some fun stuff riding around the side streets where the music studios are. We also did the art walk held on the first Sat. night of the month. I wish I had pics to show you of the crowds. I was amazed at the turn out for the art galleries. I'd never seen anything like it! Nashville's not only about music, the art world there is wonderful too. We saw many galleries, too many to mention but my favorites were the Tinney Contemporary and Gallery One. Check them out if you're in the area.

There was so much to see. Some day I'll go back for another visit - hopefully it won't be another 32 years before I see my friend again.

Back to painting,

Carlynne