Art Studio Tour

Studio Tour

If you've followed me long,

you know I love the internet.

And this is one more reason.

A group of artists are inviting you into their studios for a look.
At the end of this post is a list of other artists links you can go to and see their studios and sign up for some great discounts and other freebies.

My studio is used for lots of my artistic endeavors.

I like the creative process in its many forms.

I like to sew, make jewelry, calligraphy, quilt, scrapbook, 

and on and on it goes.

Please enjoy a tour of my studio and many others

 by following the links included. 

 This is where I paint.  
I just realized I didn't take a photo of my easel, but it's standing 
to the right of this table because I'm left handed.
I paint in acrylic mainly so I use a stay wet palette.
I have several lights on the desk and overhead lights as well.
I bought this drafting type desk at a school auction.

It's good and solid and I love it.
The paper is just protection.  And I have written notes and things on it, so it's almost a journal of my art journey.

On my left I have these drawers.  You can't see it but they are marked with contents.  
I have my packing supplies, small supplies I take with me for a show, drawing pads and pencils are in a drawer and sitting on top are two bins that hold my panels waiting to be painted.  

 Then I have a cabinet with 9 drawers in it on the bottom and shelving on the top.

The little stack drawers have tapes, glue gun,  glue sticks and other supplies, some for painting some for other crafts.

  These shelves have my art books and magazines, small paintings
 framed and unframed.  I can load for a show from here in about 10 minutes.

The drawers on the bottom you can't really see are full of fabric.
You know what they say, She who dies with the most fabric wins.
I might be in the running.

 Turn the corner
I have a print rack with other finished but unframed art work in them.
I don't light those candles back there.  They got brought down from upstairs and I set them there because I love the candlesticks.  Maybe they will end up in a painting soon.

The two plastic storage systems back there have jewelry making supplies
 and more sewing supplies.    I told you I like to sew didn't I?
I've been sewing since I was 8.

This is my framing area.
I have learned how to do my own framing and I enjoy doing it.
What I don't understand is my fascination with hammers.
When I go to flea markets or antique stores I am always drawn to old tools.
I have several hammers there that are hand made and they just feel so good in my hand.

Up above what you are seeing here are two shelves.  I have a lot of florist supplies in baskets and totes and of course, fabric.

 

Ya gotta have something to drink when ya work, 

so here's my mini fridge.  

here's my sewing area to the left of my mini fridge.
Need thread?

I have a lot of scraps there on the right.
I make doll clothes for my granddaughters and I work out of there a lot.

I have a small table in the middle of my studio, where I teach my young art students,
I frame here, I'm on the computer here, blogging and adding things to my website.

I recently decided I would open this gift I gave myself this past Christmas.
It's a Chinese brush painting kit and it's been pretty fun.
The paper you can almost see on the table is from my first effort in this endeavor and it's
of an orchid in black and white.

So now you've seen it!
My creative room.
I stand at my easel and paint and am surrounded by all my creative stuff.

I love it and spend a lot of time there.

Here are the links for other artists studios.
There are freebies all over the place so check them out.

Marla Laubisch	Carol Schiff	Kaethe Bealer	Jo MacKenzie
Michael Chamberlain	Charleen Martin	Sally Binard	Jacklyn Karabaich
Sharon Graves	Sea Dean	Johnna Schelling	Taryn Day
Julie Ford Oliver	Sarah Sedwick	Kim Rempel	Cindy Michaud
Joanne Grant	Carmen Beecher	Cindy Williams	http://www.cathyengberg.blogspot.com

--

Since you made it all the way to the end,

leave a comment and you'll be entered in a drawing for 3 of my most popular note cards.

If you purchase a painting, contact me at slgraves6@gmail.com and I'll arrange free shipping for one week.

Click here to go to my website to view all my paintings. 

More on My Blue Period

More Blue

 This is another in my effort to learn values by painting with a 

monochromatic palette.

It's part of a learning exercise by a group of artists on the

Wet Canvas website.

We are all basically using the same palette.

We use black, white and ultramarine blue.

Mine has a little bit of a warm tone to it because I tone my panels and canvases with a mixture of burnt sienna and white.

This is an Eastern Phoebe.

The painting is an 8 x 10 panel.

It's practice, so it's not for sale,

 but there might be a more correct looking one 

showing up sometime in the near future.  

Thanks for stopping by.

 

New Artist Star Rising

First Day As An Artist

Introducing Katelyn Gardner

Today was the first day of my youth art classes and Alex was not able to come,

but Katelyn Gardner came from Northern KY and we had a great time.

This is the first lesson of 4 and she learned about color and form.

We began the 2 hour class by making her own color wheel

 

We started with the three primary colors and then mixed up the secondary colors.

We made a circle and divided it into 6 pie shape sections and then put 4 layers of circles in it until we got to the middle.

 Then we kept lightening each color on the wheel so she could see the values of each color.

We only added white.

We could have done the same thing with black,

but we went in this direction.

How about those values?

Didn't she do a great job.

Next we took a little break and went outside to look at how the sun made lights and shadows

on flowers, leaves, barns and the house.

Then we went back inside to work on form.

We each had a piece of paper and we drew a circle on it.

Then we put in where the edge of the table would be,

and a little line where the ball sat on the table and approximately where the shadow would be.

After deciding which direction the light was coming from,

we took our pencils and began shading in the ball to give it form.

Finally, we painted a ball sitting on a table with its lights and shadows.

I think you'll agree Katelyn did a super job.

Here you can see Katelyn's ball drawing and her ball painting and her color wheel.

Not too shabby for a two hour class.

Give it up for Katelyn!!

Monochromatic Study

Is That Kentucky Blue?

I have some very interesting painting buddies,

you've met some of them on here.

Meredith is a great painting friend who is always pushing me (in a really good way)

  and others to do and to learn more.

Currently I'm part of a challenge to paint a monochromatic painting with her and others, 

using only one color and white and black.

I'm using a picture I took of a church in Indiana several years ago that I have wanted to paint.

In starting the exercise I laid out my palette with white, ultramarine blue and my own black.

I mix my own black using several dark colors.

 

Then I scooped off some of the black and added the blue, (dark pile on bottom left),

then I scooped some of the blue and added white (middle bottom pile),

and then I took half of that and added more white, (bottom right).

 Next I taped my 8 x 10 panel onto my dabble board.

I toned the panel with a mixture of burnt sienna and white and put it on using diagonal strokes.

I taped the picture to the top of my easel I'm working from.

I started by drawing the building and adding the windows and doors.

 I know you're supposed to start with the darkest part first, but I don't always do it.

Here I added the sky, cause I knew it would give me fits if I left it to the end.

OK, so now I'm adding the shadows from a tree and the building. 

 Starting to add the block building in.  The left side of the church naturally is darker, so it's starting to take shape.

 Added the framing around the windows and some of the shadows in the eaves.

Starting to paint the roof and bell tower.

 

Starting the grasses and finishing out the shadows from the non-existent tree.

It's actually existent in the photo, it's just not in the painting.

I only have about an hour, cause I'm taking care of one of my 4yr. old grandsons this week.

 

Here's the finished painting still on the easel.

It Arrived

It Arrived!

Several weeks ago I entered an online contest for artist Karen Johnston

from New Zealand.

We have since become friends and she wrote a post on my blog as a guest poster.

The painting I won arrived yesterday and boy is it a beauty!

It's a 6" x 6" and it came beautifully wrapped with it's own little easel.

It's sitting on my coffee table with one of my own little paintings.

I have my own mini gallery.

    Thistles

Is it a knock out or what.

I love it.  

You can check out Karen Johnston at

http://karenjohnstonart.blogspot.co.nz/

go on, give her a look!

Painting Silver

One More Thing I've Never Done

Doing things I've never done is usually not high on my list

except in art.

I do that almost every day.

I've only been doing this for a few years, so there's lots of new things to be done.

Lots of ways to re-invent the wheel.

As I've said before, we grow lots of flowers.  

My husband loves to bring in bunches of flowers for me to arrange,

and sometimes he does the arranging.

Right now we have some echinaceas, daisies and yarrow so that was my set up.

I have this pretty cool silver looking ceramic vase and I thought

well, that will be a new experience.

I've never painted silver or any kind of metal.

I admire my many art friends who regularly use it in their paintings,

but me, well I've read about it.

Does that count.

      

Here's what I was looking at when I paintedtoday.

The cloth looks blue in the photo, but it's really a sage green.

Don't you love the loose look of the flowers.

That's why I wanted to paint it.

I'm kinda tight when it comes to painting and I thought this might help me to loosen up.

I'd start out with the loosening up idea in my head and by the time I got it done,

they'd all be packed in there like sardines.

I got out an 8: x 10" panel and let her rip!

It's not quite as loose as I would have liked, but I ran out of racin room.

I had lots of fun with the silver.

Obviously, it's not really silver, but I had fun trying to pick up the reflections I saw in it.

Anyway, I'm not happy with it and I'm showing it to you,

so that says something.

Thanks for stopping by today.

The Colorful and Charming Art of Susan E. Jones

The Colorful and Charming Art

of

Susan E. Jones

I Won!  I Won!

I won some note cards from fellow artist and follower of Leslie Saeta

and I just have to share them, how they were packaged and the art of Susan E. Jones,

and it is colorful and charming.

 

The five note cards are packaged in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon,

and she enclosed a bookmark and a postcard about her art and a bio.  

She is an oil painter from middle Tennessee.

She says she paints simple subjects with uncluttered backgrounds,

and they are colorful and they are charming.

You'll want to check her out on facebook at

facebook.com/susanejonesfineart

or

You can visit her website at

www.susanejones.com

You can almost hear a southern drawl in her art.

  

Progress

In The Beginning

I wanted to paint.

I wanted to paint a lot.

Only one problem.

I didn't know how to paint.

 But I never let a little thing like not knowing how to do something stop me from doing something.

I taught myself how to sew.

I taught my self how to crochet.

I taught myself how to cook.

I taught myself calligraphy.

I didn't know a lick about photography. 

I didn't know how to be a reporter.

I taught myself how to make soap.

In fact, I've taught myself all sorts of things, from books.

But painting?

Well I really wanted it so I jumped in.

This painting is one of my first painting I ever painted.

Before a lesson, a you tube video was watched, before almost everything.

I can't believe I'm showing you this.

Looks like a tornado forming.

I show you this because I got the painting back from my daughter with the intention of re-painting it.

And today I did re-paint it.

No tornado!

In fact, this may be one of my favorite skies.

I love all the color in it.  

The grasses look much better and the water in the background looks much better.

OK, so I guess it was worth showing you the bitter to get to the better.

Check back in a year or two, I'll probably paint it again.

    

    

Creating a Private Gallery

Red Rock Heaven

I had the great opportunity to help someone forever remember a 

wonderful trip out west through art.

There's a reason many artists live in the west.

The scenes can be breathtaking

and looking at her many photographs of this trip

she was not disappointed.

I selected four of my favorite photographs from her stash

and started painting.

 

Red Rock Bowl

was my favorite photo and I selected and painted it first.

I didn't like my first finished painting, so started making many adjustments 

that could only be classified as starting over.

The second try was a little more successful

and finally

this is what I finished with after three tries.

Looking Up

was painted from a photo looking straight up the trunk of a majestic tree.

Always love painting that perspective.

 

My View

is another of the 6" x 12" size which I have never painted before.

It was of a singular dead pine tree.  

I used my artistic license to add the bird in the branch.

 

Red Rock Valley

is another fun painting with lots of color.

I struggled with the foreground, but finally was happy with the final result.

I think the owner was pretty happy with these paintings.  

I know I had a great time working on them and as usual,

Learned a lot.   

New Zealand Artist, Really, I know someone in New Zealand!

What Time Is It In New Zealand?

 I do not know Sam I Am,

but my guest poster for today definitely knows.

Let me introduce you to Karen Johnston of New Zealand!

I met Karen during Leslie Saeta's 30 marketing ideas in 30 days.

In fact one of the challenges was to give away some type of art, 

a print, note cards, calendars, or a painting.

I signed up for Karen's beautiful painting "Thistles"
and I won it!

 I can't wait for it to get here.

But it's coming from New Zealand, so it could take a while.

Any whooo - Karen has been painting for a while and I love her work.

 So let me introduce you to her and then you'll know an artist in New Zealand too.

Ya gotta love the internet,

Isn't she cute!

My name is Karen Johnston, I am a painter living in New Zealand. I started painting over 20 years ago and have had many  teachers along the way! 

Oil is my favourite medium then pastel and graphite. I am learning all the time and loving every minute of it! The subjects I paint vary, I love flowers, landscapes, still life and animals. My work is the product of inspiration, so whatever I’m painting the emotional connection is essential. If I can pass on my feeling and people feel inspired after viewing my work, I’m happy!

I joined Daily Paintworks in 2011 and paint a small painting most days, I also joined Leslie Saeta’s 30 Day painting challenge earlier this year. I have met so many wonderful inspiring artists I would never have known otherwise.

 

 

Standing in the Morning Sun

is a 6" x 6" oil and isn't he posing for us?

He's available on her website.

Click here to visit Karen's website. 

She has a stunning dunes painting on her homepage you just have to see.

Click here to visit Karen's blog

Check out her blog, you can almost hear her accent in the writing.

And she shows you some interesting stuff about painting,

and she has paintings of animals we seldom see.

So many reasons to start following Karen.