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

Beach Series #48

5X5

Hi All,

When I was a child, I thought my Mom was weird. When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said, "All I want is a little peace and quiet." Well that was a really odd thing to want for Christmas from a kid's point of view. Of course as an adult, I understand what she was saying. As a very young widow with 6 small children, her life was working anywhere from 1 to 3 jobs to put food on the table and then trying to meet her children's other needs. She had little time for things like napping or reading the paper. When she went in the bathroom, one of us was usually standing at the door waiting for her to come out or pounding on it to get immediate attention. Of course she wanted peace and quiet, wouldn't you?

The first time my daughter was old enough to ask me what I wanted for Christmas, I immediately thought of my mothers reply and knew that was what I wanted too. But my desire for peace extends beyond my own life. Yes, sometimes I want to be alone, and I often want silence, and I feel like I never have enough of either one. But more than that, I want peace for the whole earth. I want to wake up one morning and hear that peace, instead of fighting has broken out all over the world, and for at least one day not have to worry about bombs, and refugees and children maimed and dying, and soldiers not coming home. Not have to think about graves and families torn apart. Not worry where the next terrorist attack will strike and change the world forever. Not have to wonder who will make the next nuclear bomb. What a wonderful world that would be and what a wonderful Christmas gift for us all.

In case you are wondering what this has to do with the artwork at the top of the page, I realized this morning that what I like about the beach is the peace. I like the quiet and the smell of the sand, the sound of the waves and the birds, the feel of the wind. The lack of obligations, phones ringing and stress. The beach is all natural and not man made. Before man there was peace. Total peace.

Love and peace to all,

Kelli

Just Checking In

Hi All,

If you were looking at what I am looking at, I am sure you would wish you were here. This is a shot of the Shenandoah Valley as seen from Skyline Drive at about 3,000 feet up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is beautiful. I have more and better photos I will share later. As you can see the leaves are partially turned. We are leaving soon and will not be here for full color, but I am grateful for what we did see. It is also apple season and I am in heaven.

With gratitude, and wishing you peace and beauty,

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

Our Fantastic Students!

One of our "new kids," Levi working on
a colored pencil piece while Samantha
learns to mix colors in acrylic.




Jean working on an acrylic landscape.

Diane who has been with us for many years,

working on a colored pencil piece with Jane

in the background, also working in colored

pencil.

Bob and Chuck (our token males) and

Diane in the background, with Jane in the

foreground, all working in colored pencil.

Hi All,

Thought you'd like to see what some of our students look like. This is the Wednesday class. All of our classes now are Open Studio, people can work in any media on their own projects at their own pace, with our guidance.

Carlynne and I are both, mixed media artists and between the two of us we have worked with or are still working with almost all media. We like having our students work on many different projects. It's fun for us and inspirational for them. They see something that someone else is doing and they want to try it themselves. Our students work in graphite, watercolor, acrylic, colored pencil, sometimes oil and pastels, and even gourds!! Yes, we have one student using acrylic texture mediums on gourds, look for more photos in upcoming posts.

We are thinking about starting some online lessons and critiques to reach more students. During my childhood and young adult years, I lived in a remote part of Michigan and the internet, had it been available then, would have been my lifeline to the art world. Instead I had to depend on what few books were available to me and draw and paint on my own, making the same mistakes over and over. It wasn't until I got to college that I had instructors to help me over my bad habits and mistakes.

Let us know what you think!

Peace, love and creativity to all,

Kelli

Esty Again!

Hi All,

When I waxed enthusiastically about Etsy yesterday, I didn't mean to imply that my first two sales on Etsy was the first time I had ever sold artwork. On the contrary, my first sale was a portrait commission for the Kellogg Foundation in 1984, over 20 years ago. I remember it well as it was a difficult assignment for various reasons, not the least of which was that the person who's portrait I was doing was deceased and I had no good reference photos. Most of my artist colleagues can identify with this. That started my love/hate relationship with commissions which has now turned to just hate.

What thrilled me about Etsy was several things:

1. It was easy!!! (Especially for me, due to the fact that Carlynne is our geek.)

2. We have only been on Etsy for about 2 weeks and have had 6 sales!

3. My stuff had only been up for a little more than 2 days and I sold 2 pieces!

4. Everything I read on the Etsy help info says that you must be patient waiting for your first sale, it takes time.

5. I had never sold anything online before!

So, why were we so special? Was it just good luck or really good work or something else? Well, of course I like to think that it was just really good work. And maybe it was. I also think that the prices were right for the economy. We have two price points right now in our Etsy store, $25 and $200. In good economic times, $200 is a great price for original art on canvas. In this current economy, it is the $25 pieces that are selling.

Our plan is to post good quality, original artwork at affordable prices. We want our work to be obtainable by people of modest means. Does that mean we will not sell larger, more expensive pieces? Are you out of your mind? But I believe that we will always have smaller more affordable ones even after the economy improves. And we do enjoy making the smaller pieces.

Above I have shown one of our 5X5 pieces on canvas board which sells for $25. It is displayed on a miniature easel (not included in price.)

So, visit our shop at hershbergerhuff.etsy.com when you can and be sure to let us know what you think.

Have a peaceful, loving and creative day.

Kelli

Validation

Hey all,

Last Saturday morning I awoke to the news that two of my 5 pieces on Etsy had sold after being listed only 2 1/2 days!! I was over the moon.

As artists we hear compliments all the time, "Oh that's beautiful," or "I just love that." And even sometimes a few of these, " Well you can decorate my house anytime," and "I would be happy to store that for you." (I have said some of these things myself.) But there is something really special about the feeling you get when you sell something. Sure it helps pay the bills and for an artist that is really important. But I am talking about how it feels.

OK, here's my confession: the two pieces were only $25 each, but it felt like a thousand each. I call it validation when someone plunks down their hard earned money to buy your artwork. It is the highest of all compliments and I will never be jaded enough to not be thrilled each and every time it happens. So, my thanks to Elisabeth, you made my day.

One of pieces that sold is pictured above. It is a 5X5 inch piece from the Beach series with acrylic texture sand medium, super heavy gesso and mica flakes.

Wishing you peace, love and creativity.

Kelli

Mixed Media Workshop

One Missing

by Carlynne Hershberger

To all you mixed media artists and all you wannabee mixed media artists, we are teaching a workshop in Cloudcroft NM that you will want to attend!!

The piece shown above (One Missing) is a mixed media piece that Carlynne will be demonstrating during the workshop. Over the course of 5 days (that's five whole days with us!!!) you will work on three different projects combining colored pencils and several other media. This piece uses colored pencil, solvent and gold leafing and combines several techniques. (And although it's very pretty, the color, as seen here is not quite accurate. Don't know why it published this way!) For another project you will use colored pencil, watercolor and acrylic paint. It's a great chance to take your colored pencil work to the next level and/or learn how to combine several media.

The workshop takes place in the picuresque little town of Cloudcroft in the beatiful mountains of New Mexico July 27-31, 2009. For more information, go to the Cloudcroft site http://www.cloudcroftart.com/. And keep watching this blog for more info and another piece of artwork to be demonstrated at the event.

Peace and creativity,

Kelli

Been a long time....

Wow, it's been a very long time since we've posted on here. Shame on us for taking this long. There's been a lot going on. We've been busy getting ready for workshops, art shows and teaching our weekly classes. There's Kelli in the above photo doing a demo at the workshop in Rising Sun, IN. We had such a wonderful time with the students there. What a great group! They took the projects and just ran with them. I absolutely love seeing the creative way people interpret a project, everyone is doing the same image in the same colors yet the results are amazingly varied. We did 2 projects in 2 days, the first one combined watercolor and colored pencil and the second one combined colored pencil with silver leaf. The workshop was fun, the people were great, the weather was perfect.....what more can you ask.

The next workshop coming up is in Seattle at the end of the month. I'm one of the instructors at the Colored Pencil Society of America's annual convention and exhibition. This is going to be exciting. I've never been to Seattle and I've heard all good things so I'm really looking forward to seeing a new city. My hubby's going along so he'll get to explore a little more than I will. The exhibitions are always excellent too. It's nice to see the artwork in person. AND.... this year my work was accepted to the show so I'll get to see it hanging there with all the other wonderful paintings. I'll bring some pics back and share.

Peace,

Carlynne