Spring Break for Painting Classes

Last night was my last painting class of this series. There were only 2 students, but they came prepared to have fun and they did. One of them finished a work in progress — a beach scene — and the other one walked in with a 24×48-inch canvas! She knew exactly what she wanted to do, which was lay down a yellow-green overall background and paint some very loose, big overlapping circles in red, turquoise, and black. I gave her my long faux-finishing brush

to make the circles. Then when her circles were what she wanted, she dried the whole thing with a hair dryer, and put two coats of gloss varnish over that. Then she dried it again, and spread some textural heavy gloss gel over the whole thing. She had to leave it overnight so it can dry enough to take home, but I could tell she was very pleased with her painting. It’s a fun splash of color.

They said they’d like to start up again as soon as I’m ready. I need to take maybe a month to prepare. Now that they’ve played and had some fun, getting to know the materials, I think they’re ready for some structure.

 

New Paintings on Panels

It’s good to get back to painting on panels. And the great thing is that I have several more pristine ones in the box waiting for me to paint on them. In addition, I will be reworking several that have been around for a while and aren’t exciting to me any more.

These are the two newest ones.

New ACEOs

In addition, I’ve been painting on little ACEO/Art Cards to fill out my offerings in my Etsy shop. I will probably get them up on the site today. I love Sundays.

Taking a Fun Break

The studio has been very busy, shifting gears between a working art studio and a classroom. Most of the time when I need to work out there, I just use one of the class tables and clean up once a week when my students are due to arrive. That is the case this afternoon, as I get ready for tonight’s class. A couple of the students have warned me that I am not going to be able to stop classes after 8 weeks. It’s their clear intention to keep going.

Today I was in a silly mood, so I downloaded a nifty program that I saw on Cath Sheard’s blog, called ShapeCollage. It’s free and easy to download and use. You can add as many photos as you like to create a collage/montage, and then choose the shape you want it to be. Great fun — and the perfect diversion for someone who’s avoiding work at the moment, Cath!

Here’s my collage from some of my small works, and I chose a circle.

 

Still enjoying my new ACEOs/Art Cards. Today I sent out one that has already sold. You can see them all here.

What’s happening in your world? Are you taking some time out for fun?

New Small Works Completed

New Canvases

Here are some new paintings that I’ve wanted to do for a while now. Since I refurbished my Etsy shop for paintings, I’ve needed to add some smaller, more affordable works. You might have seen them on my studio table in a previous post. These are just five of them, and more are in progress. For more information about these offerings, you can click on each one and it will take you to my Etsy shop.

Desert Jewels, Acrylic on Canvas, 5×5″

Floating Leaves, Acrylic on Canvas, 4×4″

Moonlight, Acrylic on Canvas, 4×4″

Fairy Tale, Acrylic on Canvas, 4×4″

Technicolor Dream, Acrylic on Canvas, 5×5″

ACEOs /Art Cards

Call me crazy, but I’m back in the Artist Trading Card loop. I’ve always loved doing these tiny abstracts and collages, so I’m trying a few of those again. They are what I do when I can’t think of what I want to do next  I am procrastinating.

I have a few of them on ebay, and am giddy as a school girl that one of them has already received a bid.

Click the picture for a link to my ebay auctions:

Birds of Paradise, ACEO, Acrylic on 300# Arches Paper

International Collage Exchange and Exhibition

My thirteen collages are packed and ready for mailing out today to New Zealand for the International Collage Exchange and Exhibition. It’s nice to be participating in that show again. Best of all is receiving the beautiful artworks from many other artists from around the world. I’ve built a very impressive collection of collage art in the years I’ve been a participant.

 

Fun in the Studio

Weekly painting class in my studio was fantastic this Tuesday evening. The students were so excited about what they were doing! I’ve taken the individual approach, and am glad the class is small. There are tons of questions and I’m constantly moving from person to person. They are surprising themselves with their successes! I love when they go out the door laughing, talking, and excited.

Two of them are working realistically and the other two are more experimental. I’m just there to help them accomplish what they want to do, and help with ideas if they’re stuck. One student had a very, very frustrating night the week before, but once she got over the hump with her drawing problem, she sailed right through the painting this time. And the best part of all is that I hear they are talking about it everywhere. I many never have to advertise!

I would like to consider a second series of classes, a different one in which the parameters are more certain and the experience level is more advanced. That would be a lot of fun and stimulating for me.

Yesterday my little buddy Ethan was here for the afternoon. He always, always asks if he can paint. So since I had the studio set up as a classroom, I said OK. The table we use in class for rolling with the brayers is a little lower than the rest and it was perfect for him. He even got a chance to try the brayers. He loved that.