We Have a Winner!

Actually, we have two winners! Today I am happy to share that Mary Nasser has shared the winner of her amazing map stencils on the Stencil Girl Blog Hop. Congratulations to Vicki Wright! Remember, if you didn't win, you can always buy Mary Nasser's beautiful stencils here! I am also happy to share that Anne O is the lucky winner of my little painting I made for the blog hop. I will be contacting you privately to get your address Anne O!

Getting ready to pack them up!

Ready to send to Anne!

Mary Nasser's Map Stencil Blog Hop!

Today's blogpost is dedicated to Mary Nasser's Blog Hop! Mary Nasser designed some new Map Stencils for Stencil Girl Products aka (Mary Beth Shaw) and she asked me join her blog hop with some other pretty amazing creatives. This blog hop is kind of a group creative party through these here internets where we are celebrating the birth of Mary's awesome Map Stencils that SHE designed. How awesome is that?! The best part is that if you make a comment, you get a chance to win a set of her stencils and one of the paintings I made with her stencil.

For this blog hop, I decided to make a simple abstracted landscape painting using Mary's map stencil, Wood Icing texture paste and Golden Acrylics on 3/4" medium density fiberboard.

Prepping the boards with gesso.

Applying first thing layer of Wood Icing texture paste.

Applying second layer of Wood Icing using Mary's Map Stencil. Isn't her stencil just lovely?

Pulling stencil away.

I added a little thread of texture with the Wood Icing and a small pallet knife. I also added two layers with Mary's Stencil, just to see what would happen.

I added a thread of Wood Icing with a small pallet knife and I added some extra free form texture in the top half of the painting.

Time for color!

And we are finished!

I made two so I could give one to one lucky commenter and so I could give one to Mary. 

Yep, that's what I said. If you make a comment here on my blog, I'll have my own drawing by Mary's same deadline and the lucky winner gets one of these 6"x6" paintings. The other painting is for you dear sweet Mary Nasser. Thank you for asking me to participate in this super awesome blog hop!

Mary Nasser will be giving away a set of her four new map stencils to one lucky winner! ALL of the readers who comment on each blog hop participants' posts will be eligible for the drawing. The only thing you have to do is leave a comment by 11:59PM Central Time on October 4th. The more blogs you comment on in the blog hop, the more chances you have of winning!

Here is the complete list and links of all of the participants. 

Happy clicking for inspiration and prizes!

StencilGirl Talk

Mary C. Nasser
Mary Beth Shaw

Jessica Sporn

Janet Joehlin
Heather Haymart -you are here

Judy Shea

Pam Carriker

Nancy Wethington

Corrine Gilman

Rose Wilde

Nancy Curry

Kristen Powers

Carolyn Dube

Maria McGuire

Juggling Projects and Thoughts

My theme for studio time today seems to be juggling. Juggling projects and juggling thoughts. I brought the 24"x48" cityscape from earlier this week up to my living room to live with if for a while. This is my most useful way to truly see my paintings when I am unsure about them. Next, I started a project for my friend Mary Nasser's blog hop she is hosting next week. Sorry, no pics 'til next week! I made progress on two more works in progress. Normally I would have loved the pace, but today my mind was also juggling things unrelated. Such is life, right? Thankfully my work ended on a really great note. I found a place of concentration long enough to really enjoy working on my "grown up confetti" painting I started earlier this week. I was even lucky enough to get a goose bump moment. That's a moment when the colors come together just right in a way that my heart actually jumps and I just KNOW that my choice was correct. It makes me squeal a little.

48"x12" WIP Added more color today.

Filled my pallet with super pretty colors. 

Close up of the 48"x12" WIP (grown up confetti) I added more fun colors  today.

The fruits of my labor from today on the easel. Still more work to do, but I like them so far.

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Okay, I can't help it, here is a little sneak peek from the work I did for Mary's blog hop next week...I can't help myself. It was so much fun and I haven't even started painting yet!

Prepping my boards for my project using Mary Nasser's map stencil she designed.  Tune back in on October 2nd for the Blog Hop. There will be give aways!

Lucky Art Party at Wood Icing

I wear many hats in this artistic life. It keeps me very busy and sometimes I feel frustrated about that fact and then I give myself a good smack and remind myself that everything I am doing is related to what I love. Art. This is a dream I get to live and my "busy" is self imposed by my passion.



Mary Nasser giving her arty gift to my good friend Tricia and that's me talking with my good friend Beth behind them.

The latest thing that kept me busy was our art reception at Wood Icing. I manage the gallery and the artists, so this was my baby. My mom (my partner) did a lot, even though she would be silly and say she didn't do anything, but I spearheaded it. We have been working hard to create a place that is different than other studio/galleries. We like that our studio is visible, mess and all, we want to bring decorative and fine arts together, and we try really hard to make our place feel beautiful and inviting.


Rose Wilde (my mom) giving her Wood Icing demo.

The best part of our little shop is that we have the help of really amazing artists. They help us cover the hours, use the time to work on their art and in turn we give them lots of exhibit space. Having these talented and creative people in our space all of the time makes Wood Icing a fun place to visit because you never know what you will get to see them creating.

Kristen Powers (kae pea) giving her eraser carving demo.

The Lucky Art Party was a great success. We used two Crayon boxes to match the arty gift with the lucky winner. We went through all 64 crayons and then some so I know at least 70 people came not including artists. We also had free art demos from seven of the artists who exhibit their work in our gallery. This was a really fun night for everyone involved. I wish I could have been a guest instead of a host!

Susie Tenzer giving her arty gift to a lucky winner.



Vesna Delevska painting during the reception as our guests watch her painting transform.

Janice Scherer giving her art demo.

If you would like to see more fun photos from this night, you can visit our

Wood Icing Facebook Fan Page by clicking HERE.

We also have links to all of our artists in the gallery HERE.