Art Is You

Gail and I just returned from 4 fun art filled days in Nashville at Art Is You. This was the first year for this location for AIY and seemed to be a success.  Just a few photos to give you a taste of our adventure. We made lots of new artful friends and had a terrific time learning and experimenting with new techniques.

Art Bar 2 Art Bar 2Gail and Liz

Creating dolls

Creating dolls

Sunny's dolls. Our awesome teacher.

Sunny’s dolls. Our awesome teacher.

My doll, Maureen ready to travel.

My doll, Maureen ready to travel.

Sunny's necklaces. I had to have one with a cat.

Sunny’s necklaces. I had to have one with a cat.

Painting Baba Yaga birdhouses.

Painting Baba Yaga birdhouses.

My table partner, Winn's terrific birdhouse.

My table partner, Winn’s terrific birdhouse.

My creation.

My creation.

2013-04-07_16-05-20_43

Our birdhouses.

Our birdhouses.

 

We’re looking forward to next year!

 

 

 

 

Artful Endeavors Update

Bunny in basket

Bunny in basket

Welcome to spring! I think, maybe, but we can’t tell from the cold weather. Although it’s still good weather to be inside where it’s warm and to paint. And the warm days have been delightful.

It’s been a busy winter at Artful Endeavors and spring is looking to be just as busy. We’re in the midst of projects and plans for our upcoming seminars.
Ros Stallcup seminar update: The first of April single day registration is available. Ros usually sends our new projects in April so that we can get excited about them. I understand that she has been working on them. She paints completely new designs for us and we are the very first to paint them.  As soon as they arrive we’ll take photos and post them for you to see.
• I’m working on our upcoming projects and have paintings and paints all over my table. Raleigh morning’s next painting is Copper and Oranges, a very dramatic Donna Bryant Waterson design that we’ll paint mostly in Traditions paints. It’s lots of fun working with all these rich browns and oranges. This class starts April 10th, 10-3p, for 2 wks.
• Lots of news about our Cary classes. Chambers Arts is changing hands. JJ Jiang is taking over the studio April 1 and will be offering classes. We’ll look forward to see what he does with the studio, newly named Village Arts Circle. JJ is pleased to have us painting at his studio and our Cary classes will continue as scheduled on Tue evenings. Yeah! Our next project is another Dorothy Dent design called Out to Pasture, a wonderful old yellow truck abandoned in front of a barn. My Raleigh students who have seen the beginning progress on this painting have been interested in it too. We might have to paint it in Raleigh too.

• I’m emailing with Kathie George and plan to have our Nov seminar information for you by May. Batiks and mixed media!

• We have new Sunday workshops coming up throughout spring so be sure to check the schedule. I had requests for Night Vision, the stormy sea and light house; another paint your pet; colored pencil; Sunning Turtles; and a batik. They are all on the schedule so just go the classes drop down on the web site and look for workshops.

  • We’ve scheduled new Wed evening classes, Trudy Beard’s Santa in White, this time in smaller size for one evening painting, and a batik.  Here’s your chance to either try batik for the first time or choose your own design and have some help from me.

• I’m planning more 3 hr workshops and working them into the schedule so watch for them.
• Our painters have been turning out some exciting new paintings. I’ve posted some of them on the web site so be sure to look for them.
• I saw some of you for our parent and child workshop where we painted the cute black and white bunny in a basket. It was a lively class and we had lots of FUN!  The kids painted wonderfully and the adults did also.

This Wed afternoon I’ll leave to pick up Gail for Art Is You, an art retreat in Nashville, TNN. We’ll be learning some things totally different for both of us and planning to have a lot of fun. It’s been awhile since we’ve taken a trip together and are looking forward to our adventure. There will be no afternoon or evening class on April 3 since I’ll leave after the morning class.

Hope to see you painting with us soon!

Liz

Paint Your Own Landscape Workshop

We’ve had such exciting classes and workshops recently and I’ve gotten behind in posting all the fun photos. So here I am trying to catch up, but I wanted to be sure to share some of the awesome painting our students have created.

Our still life class finished up this past Wed. Students brought in photos of scenes and created composites of the photos to construct their own landscapes. Our aim wasn’t to turn out copies of the photos but to take the idea of the scene, and using our artistic knowledge, produce a pleasing landscape. Student’s are bringing their completed paintings in to reveal their inspired handiwork.

Here are a few completed paintings. Wonderful!

Lois A barn

Lois A barn

Jean S landscape

Jean S landscape

Janet F landscape

Janet F landscape

Dianne W Landscape

Dianne W Landscape

Spring ArtFling Fun

Colorful Backgrounds

Colorful Backgrounds

We had a terrifically creative time at our Spring ArtFling.  Gail brought out our inspired imaginations as we painted, stamped, stenciled, and all of that all over again.  Students turned our some wonderfully colored backgrounds which we used to fashion booklets.

And we already have plans for our next Summer ArtFling in August!  Gail’s latest art thrill is Gelli printing and when she described the process and showed the students some of her prints, they wanted to  have the opportunity to Gelli print too.  You can see some of Gail’s Gelli creations on her blog.

Gail inspiring Donna

Gail inspiring Donna

ArtFling Booklets

ArtFling Booklets

On Sunday students painted Spring Greens with me. What a wonderful variety while all painting the same subject.  Students created with texture and acrylic washes.  Each painting turned out unique and beautiful.  What a terrific group of students and a delightful day of painting.

web spring Greens group

Spring Greens painters

We’ll have more information on our Summer ArtFling a little later in the year but you can go ahead and mark your calendar for Aug 17 & 18, 2013. Plan to join us as we celebrate the end of summer with a creative filled weekend.

Still Life Class

Still Life class

Still Life class

The first of this year we held a Paint Your Own Still Life Class at the studio.  Students brought in items that they might like to use in a still life. We sat up a photo booth and each student created  a different combination from these props into  a still life vignettes.  I photographed them using a single light source.  The students then began to create a painting from their photo.  The paintings still needed finishing touches and students are now bringing the paintings back into the studio to show us their completed work. And the paintings are beautiful.  So are the smiles on the painter’s faces.

Dianne W Still Life

Dianne W Still Life

web Janet F still life

Janet F Still Life

Welcome to our new Artful Endeavors Web Site!

Frog pendantI’ve been working to bring you a new, greatly improved web site. I hope you like it. Please look around and proof it for me. Let me know if you can easily find information and like the new features.

The online payment option should be a lot easier and still offers credit card payments through PayPal.

I have the updated schedules posted with the exciting new projects that our students have chosen. Mark your calendars and plan to join us soon.

We still have a few seats available in our Good Friday, Parent/Child, Bunny Class. You can register on line. I will limit enrollment so register soon.

I’ll continue to modify and update our new site but here it is! Enjoy.

I’m going to go paint now. See you at the studio.

Liz

March Studio Update

Artful Endeavors Update

Happy Friday! Lots going on at Artful Endeavors so this is a “news briefs” update.

• Today is the day we asked everyone to be registered for our ArtFling coming up very soon. If you are wanting to join us please let me know at least by Sunday. We need to get our supplies together. Gail and I are both excited and looking forward to our creative time with you.
• Registration is open for Ros. Register now. Rates go up in April.
• We’re working on the schedule right now and have chosen some terrific new projects to work on. I’ll have a schedule put together soon. Just mark off Tues or Weds and plan to be here with us.
• We have some new faces you’ll see in classes and we’re glad to have them join us! I know you’ll make them feel welcome.

• I’m working on a new web site! “Old Blogger” has bit the dust though some functions still work, like most class registrations. After an intensive search and a frustrating!!! beginning, I like what I’m creating. There’s a lot to transfer over and it will take some time, so be sure to read the newsletter, like this one, to keep up with schedules, ect.

• Next week we start our Paint Your Own Landscape on Wed am. There’s still time to join us but be sure to contact me on Mon or Tue to discuss your photo and prep.

Donna B.  Kentucky RR bridge.

Donna B. Kentucky RR bridge.

Mar 6, 13, & 20. 10am-2p. Paint Your Own Landscape. $120.

• Our Good Friday Bunny, Parent and Child (or friend, or just yourself) class is coming up, that’s Mar 29 when the kids are all out of school. We will limit the attendance at this class so be sure to contact me soon. It’s $28 for single registration fee, but only $44 for parent/child. Plan to join us. We are filling. I’ll have some good ideas and will paint this fellow very soon so that you can see him.

• Sorry I missed last Tue. I would rather have been with you than home sick, but I’m back! I’ll look forward to seeing all of you on Tue am.

• Tue evening class will continue with the second week of our Mill. See you there!

Well, that the news, briefly, without any flowers in my writing, so just imagine that I was writing creatively and have you all excited about painting classes.
Remember that you’ll never have time for painting if you don’t make time.

Liz