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Paint Your Cat Party for Purr Partners

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Date: Fri, Feb 22, 6-9p        at   Artful Endeavors   with Liz Miller

Barbara-webClass cost $45/participant

All supplies and surface will be provided.

No experience needed.

Bring your own wine and snack to share

Come join us for an evening of fun where you will paint the face of your own cat on an 8×10” canvas. Don’t have a cat? Purr Partners has many kitties you can paint.  No experience is needed, just the desire to enjoy the experience with friends.

Bring a photo of your cat face for coloring. We’ll use a pattern for the face so no drawing is required.  All supplies and surface are provided.

And we’ll party, so bring a bottle of wine and a snack to share.

Proceeds from our workshop go to Purr Partners Feline Rescue for the benefit of our cats.

Register Now!  $45 

Or mail your check to Liz Miller,

Artful Endeavors 200 Sawmill Rd, Suite 201, Raleigh, NC 27615

Angie

 

Summer Workshops

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I’ve added our summer workshops to our schedule. We’ve enjoyed various media and have decided to have periodic workshops to explore them. Join us for some batik, pastels, and colored pencil time.

Workshop schedule

Gypsy a Kay Witt design painted by Liz Miller pastel

Gypsy a Kay Witt design
painted by Liz Miller
pastel

Choose your designs, order, and let Liz know if you need help ordering supplies.

The colored pencil is a design by Tina Sue Norris and we’ll order packets from her. Register by June 6 so we have time to order packets.  Photo.

Kathie George batik painted with Kathie last year.

Kathie George batik painted with Kathie last year.

Let’s be creative!

There’s No Place Like Home

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I didn’t have any ruby slippers to click but a dark purple Chevy did the trick and brought Maggie and I back home after an inspiring week at the SDP Conference. We had a great time taking classes, seeing old friends and meeting new ones, shopping, and generally picking up ideas and inspirations.

I was pleased with all of my classes and thrilled with the teachers I learned from. I focused on color pencils but just had to take an acrylic class with Mark Menendez painting waves.

Waves Mark MenendezColored pencils covered a red tailed hawk with Tina Sue Norris, a crab with Janelle Johnson, and a frog again with Mark Menendez. I learned a lot of color pencil tip and techniques to bring back and incorporate in my own designs. I can’t wait to get started. Frog Mark Menendez Crab Janelle Johnson Red Tail Tina Sue NorrisI’m on the education committee this next year for SDP and would like to hear from you about what you would like offered in the way of education from SDP, e-packets? videos? Classes to entice new painters?

The next conference will be held in Wichita KS and they have big plans for special events.

Come by the studio and I’ll tell you more and show you the paintings I completed.

Painting the Light: part 3

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Almost complete

Almost complete

The buildings and trees were the easiest part of this painting. It was clear that the light was coming from the left and shadows were on the right. I decided that I had the sunset too far behind the buildings. You can see in the following photos that I brought the sunset colors in the sky further to the left so that the light was glowing on the left sides of the buildings and rocks.

Rocks, and sky, and water. Bringing them all together along with the light on the buildings. What do you see in my painting that needs adjusting to create the late day, sunset time?

stage 3

And then what do you see that I have changed?

Bass Harbor light finished

I’ve toned down the distracting rock in the foreground. And added final lights to the rocks at the bottom of the light house. Notice the white in the sunset and the lights added to the water as reflection. Then the shadows behind the rocks in the water.

If was such a learning experience to work on this painting and exciting to think and paint through the story of the Bass Harbor Light at sunset. I hope this series has been helpful in seeing my process and progress through painting the light.

DecoArt Traditions paints were used.

Painting The Light: part 2

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Beginning the sky

Beginning the sky

Stage 1

Sky step 2

What next? Right away I knew that the sky wasn’t working. Did I start all over again? or make it work?

So I began to “unpaint”. Now my students are wondering how I unpaint. I’ve never been fond of starting all over again so I’ve taught myself how to use what I already had done. After all it wasn’t a disaster, just needed correcting.

Continuing with the development of the Bass Harbor Light I realized that I was pulling the attention to the left of the painting with all the detailed clouds in that area. I began by neutralizing the left sky by slip slapping in dark values, bringing the darks across the sky toward the right, and lowering the blues toward the horizon. In this way I directed attention toward the sky near the light house.

I had already added the water, lighter toward the horizon and darker toward the bottom of the design.

I based the light house with white for placement and continued to develop the sky, adding light clouds near the light house. I also added darker cloud details in the sunset and adjusted the intensity of the oranges and yellows. Then darkened the lower water area.

Now the more detailed clouds and sunset helped pull attention to my center of interest.

The sky was really key to developing my center of attention and creating the drama of this design.

Bass Harbor Light: Step 3

Bass Harbor Light: Step 3

I’ll be back to show you about the buildings and greenery. Watch out rocks! Here we come.

My local classes are in the midst of painting this design but I have scheduled a Saturday class for those who can’t come during the week on April 7, 9a-5p. Register now to join us.

 

It Happens Only Once a Year

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That’s right. But some how it seems to happen every year just about this same time.

My birthday is coming up!

So help me celebrate. I  have a special at Creative Workshops on my video classes.

Why 29%? The first person to tell me why it’s 29% gets a video class at 50% off.  Email me at artfulendeavors@raleigh.twcbc.com telling me why you think it’s 29%. First person to get it right gets a class at 50% off.

Snowfall

Snowfall

Painting the Light

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Painting light after all is what we are doing in our artwork. Light creates volume, sets the mood, creates interest, and gives your painting life. In our classes we’ve been concentrating on different lighting situations recently in our landscapes and our upcoming seascape. I thought I would share my thoughts and preparation for painting the Bass Harbor Light.

Bass Harbor Light

Bass Harbor Light

I was asked by one of my students to paint the Bass Harbor Lighthouse in Maine so I began to research the structure and different lighting options. I decided that I wanted to make the light house stand out through my use of light and detail. I wanted the lighthouse to have the most detail and gradually use less and less detail as I moved away from the center of interest. Of course, that’s the way to create a center of interest.

Sunset , one of my photo inspirations

Sunset , one of my photo inspirations

Being a sky enthusiast, I love watching clouds and the colors in the sky at different times of day, I’ve taken lots and lots of sky and cloud photos. This was a good opportunity to go back through my photos as inspiration for the sky in this painting. I found the color ideas and cloud formations to create drama and decided where in my painting I needed to have the most vivid colors and active clouds to call attention to the center of interest.

Sunset clouds inspiration

Sunset clouds inspiration

Next I decided on the size canvas I would use, actually I went to my stock of canvases and discovered the 12 x 24″ which I though would add even more drama to the painting.

I created my drawing of the lighthouse, sized it, and positioned it roughly on my canvas since I would be covering it up when I added the sky. I used DecoArt Traditions paints because I like the vividness of the colors and quality of the paints, just right for a dramatic sky.

Half of the work of creating a painting goes in the research and preparation before I ever pick up a paint brush. I sketched a thumb nail of my design and when I was satisfied with placement and possible colors I was ready to choose my paints and begin the sky.

I had decided on an evening sky with strong sunset colors just before the sun goes beyond the horizon so I chose oranges, yellows peaking through a dark blue sky. Then I applied my first layers of paint for the sky and water.

Beginning the sky

Beginning the sky

I’ll continue my process in my blog so check back to see how I progressed and what needed adjusting as I painted. As you see there will be a lot of changes made.

Or even better, you can join one of my classes at Artful Endeavors and paint along with me. Check the schedules for the Raleigh day class and the Cary evening class. I’ve been asked to hold a Saturday class and I’m looking for a day that works. Let me know if you would like to come paint with us any of these times.

Artful Endeavors 2018

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I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. I am hearing that some of you gifted those people that you really, really like with your art work and I’m sure they were appropriately impressed.
I’m ready to see all of you again and get back to some colorful creativity.

Our Back to Painting Party/Open House is this Sunday. Bring your friends that would like to see our studio. They might even decide to come paint with us.

I’ll be here with the sample and prep for our first project, Winter Light pictured above. Hope you like it.

Sunday, Jan 7, 2018

1:00PM – 04:00 PM

Artful Endeavors

Drop in

Check the web site for class details.
Classes start Jan 9 in Cary and Jan 10 in Raleigh.

Can’t join us on Sunday…. You can register for class on line and I’ll be glad to send you prep instructions.

Winter Light

Winter Light

Hope to see you there,

Liz

How Did We Get Here So Fast?

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Wow, It’s the end of another year. The time seems to go so fast these days and here I am posting the last classes for 2017. We still have some fun paintings in the works before we take our holiday break so be sure to check the schedule.

Check out the poinsettia and the Santa in Cary and we have a bit of whimsey planned for Raleigh day class.

A JoSonja design

A JoSonja design

Our Raleigh evening class on Wed is starting the Mountain Church this week. Still time to join us.

Mountain-church

Our seminar with Kathie George was terrific as usual and we always learn so much.

23473139_10155171928672898_5941224235698674149_nThis year we painted a batik, back by popular demand, one we had admired for awhile. Love the donkeys and the vibrant colors.

23622440_10155171928777898_5150193408564126012_n 23473144_10155171928897898_4233289478762885704_nAnd then we learned about using a Gelli plate, what fun!

23517617_10155174055377898_4263141783327209828_n

23519268_10155174055317898_457947305802409468_nAnd the swamp was luscious. (Still have to finish mine).

23517818_10155176778847898_1241780001570245953_n

And now we’re looking forward to having Kathie back for next year. We even have some projects planned.23518846_10155176778407898_1820965236595304833_nWatch for our exciting plans for 2018!