Hi All,

I know I haven't blogged for awhile. I had a nice summer, I think I took a vacation from a lot of things. I hope yours was good too.

I am including a picture of a dog figurine with a painting of Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" painted on it. You might be wondering why I would paint such a thing. This piece is for a project by the Marion Cultural Alliance in Ocala, FL. There are figurines of dogs and cats and wonderful little dog houses which will be on display for awhile and auctioned off to benefit the Humane Society of Marion County.

I enjoy doing these community projects. Carlynne and I each painted a horse for Horse Fever in Motion last year, and butterflies for Kaleidoscope, Butterflies in Flight for Lakeland, FL. Sometimes the artist is paid and sometimes not, but there are other benefits. We meet interesting people and make good contacts with people who are interested in buying art. We get publicity in newspapers, magazines and sometimes even television. And always, we get the good feeling that comes from helping a good cause. Carlynne and I like to do things for our favorite charities, and even though, as artists, we are quite not starving, we don't have much discretionary income. It's nice to be able to use your talent to give to others.

Look here next week for information on upcoming events from the Hershberger Huff Studios.

Peace, soon.

Kelli

What's going on?

No new photo to post tonight, just some rambling. I just got home from an Out of Hand Artists meeting - yes, we're the OoHA's. We are a group of professional artists that have gotten together to support each other through the maze of marketing fine art. As a group we're relatively new but we got our feet wet with our first show at a bank in downtown Ocala. I must say we made a very nice showing of work. Damn we're good! (Yes, I stole your line Diane) We're currently looking for new venues for a group show and have some strong possibilities. It is nice to have a good group of folks to bounce ideas off of, cheer for, be honest with and get silly with. Sometimes as a group with the right chemistry you can go farther than you can alone. Hopefully we have a chemistry that will explode - in a good way!

On a different note.....have you ever felt compelled to paint something to the point where you didn't emerge from the studio until it was finished? I did that last night. I started about 4 pm and finished at 11:00. It was an intensely personal self-portrait that I did in colored pencil. I haven't worked in 100% colored pencil in some time since I've been mainly a mixed media painter. Anyway, I'll be teaching a workshop at the CPSA International Exhibition and Convention in Seattle WA in 08 and it's about self-portraits. I started this piece with that convention in mind since I needed to have an image for the promotional materials (the intensely personal portrait will end up all over the place, including this blog at some point - and that's okay). What started as a deadline became a painting that swallowed me whole. It'll show up here eventually. Hopefully it'll show up at the exhibition too - we'll see what happens.

One more thing.......Do a lot of artists have blogs, websites AND myspace pages? I just got started with a page so I could see some photos that my kids have posted but I'm having so much fun with myspace. It's amazing how many artists are out there, there's some amazing work to be seen. Wander around and notice it.

Peace ya'll,
Carlynne

Here's another one

Passage 28

8x8

Acrylic, mixed media

Hi folks,

Here's another in the series. This is where I discovered the joy of covering a crummy area with a layer of decorative paper. Sometimes pieces just don't want to come together, they become a struggle. I set it aside while I work on other canvases, keep looking at it and ask it what it wants. Sometimes I get the silent treatment and sometimes it actually tells me - "see that paper over there? tear it up and start gluing" I'm always happier when it talks to me and tells me what to do. The end result is much better. The lesson is having the patience to listen and learning how to get out of my own way. In other words.......relax and have fun with it!

choose happiness,

Carlynne

Passage 27

8x8

This is another Passage piece I had fun with. It's got all sorts of things included in the media. There's plain copy paper, texture gels, garnets, wire, oriental paper, colored pencil and acrylic paint. Did you know that some Prismacolor pencils change color when layered with matte gel medium? I didn't until I did it on this one. Always do a test swatch when layering pencils with other media. The dark purple turned into hot pink when I covered it with the gel. That was a shocker! I went back over it with color but it still altered the color of the lines that I had put down. Over all I'm still happy with the piece but it's something to be aware of when working in mixed media - how the layers work together.

Happiness is a choice.

Til next time,

Carlynne

Passage 22

8x8

Acrylic with mixed media

Hi all,

Once again it's been a very long time since the last post. It's amazing how much time and effort it takes to put on a wedding, and my daughter did most of the work. She was a beautiful bride!

Now that the dust has settled it's time to get back to work. I've been continuing with the Passage series. Right now I'm working on numbers 37 through 42. I have to have several going at once because of drying time and my lack of patience. Something I do on one piece can also inspire a new idea on the next one so this working method keeps me going. This particular one - #22, has two different acrylic texture gels, metallic thread and collaged watercolor papers. There just seems to be something new to say on each and every one of these. When will I stop? Who knows.

Remember to choose happiness,

Carlynne

Passage 19

8x8

Passage 15

8x8

Hi all,

As promised here are a couple of the latest pieces from the studio. Passage 15 has watercolor and charcoal pieces collaged with sand texture gel, crackle paste, acrylic and even a stone is glued on there. In the piece at the top, Passage 19, I collaged pieces of a watercolor painting with super heavy gesso, white opaque flake texture gel, acrylic and polished stones. This is the kind of thing we did in the texture workshop that Kelli and I taught. We created more texture obsessed people! How fun!

Choose Happiness,

Carlynne

How long has it been?

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since the last post! Kelli and I have been crazy busy. We've been doing some show entries - I had a piece accepted to Gainesville's Thomas Center for the Arts Regional Exhibition coming up in July. This is the first show entry for one of my Cavern pieces and I'm very happy to have it accepted. We also got a new book proposal submitted and there'll be more info on that topic coming soon. We had a very successfull workshop on using acrylic texture gels. I'm absolutely addicted to playing with these mediums. They are so much fun. I've been painting instead of posting. As soon as I get a couple of these converted to jpg's I'll post them so you can see what I've been up to. Kelli and I are also members of Out of Hand Artists and we're having our first group show at the Bank of America in downtown Ocala. We'll post more details soon. Almost forgot.........today is the launch day for our new website. It's an online portfolio. Visit us at http://www.hershbergerhuff.com/

Choose Happiness,
Carlynne