Chicago Birches, 2013

Can't help but wonder about my attraction to "say yes to the dress" playing in the background while I'm working. I guess it's the fantasy of getting to play princess for the day. Or maybe I just love ALL pretty dresses and it wouldn't matter if people were putting on wedding dresses or just beautiful clothes in general. I mean, who doesn't love "what not to wear" and secretly wish that Clinton and Stacey would show up at their office with a credit card for $5000 and fabulous style advice? Alas, it's their final season and all of the episodes are in the can waiting to air and I'm stuck with the clothes I own. Hrumph.

Meanwhile, I'm finally getting to the last student works from Chicago. I'm busy working on new class samples and proposals so that I can branch out and I keep putting the blog on the back burner. But I promised my students I'd share their work and more than anything I try to be a person of my word. And besides, their work is really good and you all need to see how other people interpret my methods so that you, too, will want to try them and make them your own. Forget whether or not you ever take a class from me. I'm just hoping that you will be inspired by all of the different variations on a theme and feel the confidence to try something new at home.

the artist who did this pair of paintings took a more natural approach to color. she had a great sense of humor and her description of her own work had me cracking up!

Love the leaves on this one!

another pair, this time top and bottom. very pretty

peace!

ok. this student taught me something new. if i ever teach this class again we are definitely adding the stencil element.

pretty colors on this beauty

a different spin on tree colors. soft and sweet.

i like the proportions on the tree limbs here and the colors

Ok. So here is the gal working on the stencil background. The participants at the retreat got these cool circle stencils in the SWAG bags. I turned around and was like "holy crap! that's the coolest thing I've ever seen! why didn't I think of that?" And the grasshopper teaches the master.

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That's it from me. Tomorrow I'll write about some of the new things happening along the red road. I've really got to collect my thoughts and figure out where I'm going. Life has gotten in the way and it's effecting my creative decision making. Time to step back and evaluate. 

Hugs.

staci

Still more Chicago 2013

I still amaze at the quality of the work I get from people when I teach the house portraits class. Chicago was no exception. I just love the surreal quality of the paintings. Everybody balks when I tell them they have to outline everything, EVERYTHING, in black pen, but as soon as they start to see the results the dissension stops and the smiles take over. The consistent black line moving across the entire surface and picking out details not readily apparent unifies the entire painting and gives it that illustrated quality, blurring the line between photograph and painting, made up and reality. It's like magic.

Here are a few stand outs from August's class. Enjoy.

love the chicken and the clock. this artist's trees are among the best I've seen. 

this gal painted about 80% of these flowers by hand. no kidding! awesomeness!!

all of these flowers except the purple on the far right and the orange on the far left are painted. freaking fabulous!

nice use of perspective here

a very whimsical interpretation of her townhouse. She repeated several prints of it to add depth and interest. 

the texture in the yard on this was very nice. and pretty trees and flowers

we had a small group this day but they kept me on my toes and did such a great job.

Time to go clean some more for the weekend. I'm looking forward to showing off all of the work we've done on the house over the last 6 months, but I'll be happy to return to my normal level of 'disarray'. cleaning for company!

Staci

More Chicago 2013

Waldo is going to bootcamp. He is a 90# giant obnoxious teenager of a dog. I love him but he is getting a little (a LOT) unruly for this artist to handle. I know it's our fault. We just haven't spent enough time training him and now it's time to pay the Piper. Unfortunately they don't have room for him until October. If I disappear for a few days it's because he's buried me in the back yard. Doggy Don't!

Meanwhile, I'm working on the red road and things are really coming together. But I'm trying to remain focused and keep this post about the students from Chicago last month. I actually remembered to take photos of the finished and almost finished pieces this trip. I know, right? And I don't even drink regular coffee.

And since you asked for it...Creative Spirit Photodump!!

this artist used a sewing marking wheel to make the white dotted lines on her painting. the resolution on my photo doesn't show it too well but it was VERY effective. totally stealing this idea in the future!

a whole lot of whimsy in this sea inspired painting. 

i love the way this artist left the underpainting and concentrated on using collage.

look closely at the repetitive floral element in the dress and background. nice

really awesome piece by fellow instructor Sherrie Drummond. just WOW.

do you not just love the expression on this guy? this comes from allowing the painting to speak and following what's there.

Well. That's it for today. Time to get building in the studio. I'm loving the way these new class samples are coming together. Did I say new class samples? Yep. Writing a few new projects. Stay tuned...

staci

Create Chicago 2013~spirit guide sculptures

We spent the entire 3 day weekend working on getting ready for our house warming next saturday. I haven't even started cleaning inside yet. The good news is that the wicker is all repainted. The bad news is that the paint sprayer back fired and I wasn't wearing safety goggles. High gloss exterior grade paint, color "granite", directly into the eyeballs. After rinsing with the hose directly into the eyes and another round in the bathroom sink, I finally got out all of the paint. Did anyone see the episode on The Office where they are making the safety video and Andy has to use the eye washer? Yep. It was like that. Left eye still irritated. But hey! The furniture looks great!

(Note to self: you are not invincible, as young as you once were, nor a stellar house keeper. I really need to lower my expectations.)

So. Here's a few favorite pieces from Chicago's sculpture class. I didn't know what to expect since it was my first time teaching at this particular location. I have to say that I had a wonderful time. And I got to connect with several people with whom I've developed friendships over the past couple of years. My life is blessed and I am thank-full.

don't you just love the legs and feet on this guy?

here he is from the other side. cutey

this mouse isn't quite finished. love his butterfly covering.

i adore the colors on this bear. he'd look great with my new painted wicker:~)

this gal made a small earth to attach to her bear's back. and she discovered we could write on our sculptures with gel pens. j'adore

don't you love all of the striping on this giraffe by my bud Terri Commander?

That's all for today. I will post the rest of the pix throughout the week. Next week I'll start showing you work from the red road. Hope your idea list is keeping you busy in a good way. Mine is stressing me out right now.

~staci

Fantasy House Portraits, Irvine edition

Seriously, I need to get a grip on my distractions! I'm like some 15 year old trying to do homework with the television on and the remote on the coffee table...And a stack of unread magazines...And a cup of Yerba tea...And the painting commission someone still hasn't completed that keeps whispering in the middle of the night...And the pretty birds that just flew across the lake...

Oh wait. That really is me, give or take a couple of 30+ years. 

Needless to say, moving and unpacking and renovating, and an 80# lab puppy, all are conspiring against me to keep me from writing! Lawd, now I'm distracted again. What was I writing about? I do this a lot. 

Must   

Focus

one of my original samples. 

Houses. Fantasy House Portraits class. On Thursday in Irvine, a couple of weeks ago now, I taught the house portrait painting class. This was the first time I taught this class to this many people all at the same time. I think it went well, although, to be honest, some people could have used more time and I think moving forward I am going to provide smaller boards for people to use.  I've been using 16x20 and 14x18 but I'm dropping that down to 12x16 for the future. And next year I'm tweaking the class a bit further by making it all about cottages and using 12x12 boards. I think that by narrowing the scope a bit it will help people focus beforehand and will allow everyone to finish up in plenty of time. 



Here are a couple of student pieces. I think you'll agree that they did a bang up job. Several people emailed me after class to tell me how much their husbands enjoyed the finished paintings but weren't looking forward to the new "honey do" lists inspired by the artwork.

such a cute piece that really deserves a much better photo than the one I took!

one of my favorites from the class. She combined a stone cottage with her own ranch house.

cute beach house

I really need to take better photos of the student work!

That's all for now. Back to unpacking boxes and fixing up this lake house for real instead of on canvas.

Color me focused

Staci

Carved Birches

Wednesday evening I taught a 3 hour workshop titled "Carved Birches. No knives required." This was a short simple workshop that turned out to be quite a bit of fun.

this gal's husband bought her this set of Sennelier pastels. I actually drooled on the box!

a work in progress

We started with 12x12 canvases for this class. It was a nice manageable size and easily packed to return home at the end of the conference. Here are a few pix of the finished pieces. I love how the trees turned out so colorful!

check out how 3d that heart looks! awesomeness

great texture on this tree

what's not to love here?

a softer pastel tree here. sweet

Time for me to paint my piece for the Dead Musician's Project.

color me happy!

staci

Floral Teacup Bouquets

The first workshop I taught at Create Irvine was a new offering, floral teacup bouquets." This project was one I'd designed a few years ago for a tiny little show at a local Augusta hangout. The pieces are made on 9x9 museum wrapped canvases from Blick. Originally I used old wall paper in the backgrounds of my pieces and then collaged fabric and papers to create the bouquets.

here's the piece I used for an example during class.

For this class I made an 11th hour change to the process and gave everyone a half sheet of Arches 140# cold press rag paper and let them create their own wall paper to collage onto the backgrounds. I really liked the results everyone achieved thru stamping and painting and I think it was a good exercise to loosen everybody up so early in the conference.

a student laying down the background

A big Thank You to the folks who donated the cool stamps as part of our gift bags. (Once I find mine iI'l post the manufacturer:-) 

Once everyone created their papers I had them donate half to the class kitty and several people took advantage of combining different designs.

another student work in progress. she later added mica chips to the silver basket!

My only regret is that the Pens I ordered for the class were garbage. Half of them simply wouldn't write and the ones that did wouldn't work on damp surfaces. Back to find that pentel oh so fabulous writer I used ages ago. If you've got suggestions, Please!! Let me know. A white pen would be great also. 

some of the gals from class. Job well done, Ladies!!

Color me floral
Staci

Great Week!

Now that the dust has settled and I'm unpacked...(Ok. Maybe 1/2 unpacked:~)...

I had such a great time in Irvine. I don't even know where to begin. I guess today I'll just start with an overview of the Create Retreat. This was my second time as an instructor and I'm looking forward to Create Somerset in July and Create Chicago in August. The hotel was very nice and I had the most comfy bed. Which was a good thing because I was so off due to jet lag I went to bed at 5 on friday evening and slept until 5 the next morning!

The folks at Interweave have been doing these retreats for a few years now and if you ever have the chance to attend, please treat yourself and DO! I met so many wonderfully creative women. I had everyone from gals who are instructors in their own right to women enjoying empty nesting and looking for a new creative hobby as well as every level of expertise in between. 

I took far too many pictures to put up in just one post so I think what I will do is write a separate post for each workshop I taught. There were 5 in all and I came away with something new from each group. 

I promised my students I'd get better about posting regularly so I promise I'll be back tomorrow with the first of the class reviews. Meanwhile, this is where you can find me, relaxing by the lake. It's glorious outside today.

Create Orange County

Day 1

The adventure began today. After getting up at the crack of dawn, 3:15!, I made it to the airport on time and even managed to park in a decent area close to the terminal. But when you're hauling a mother load of art supplies in your back like some colorful Atlas, even a short walk feels like a mile. Insert stylishly sensible shoes ad for www.Anthropologie.com here! 

I had a quiet flight to Dallas and with narry a minute to spare then hopped my flight to Irvine. Oh my goodness! The weather! 

Fabulous!!

Enough, Staci. No one wants to hear how you've landed in paradise and are staying at a lovely Hyatt and are currently sitting in a nice bar lounge enjoying an overpriced glass of Sauvignon blanc and grilled shrimp so succulent it would make you weep ;-)

Where was I. Oh yeah. Rock star moment. So I get into the shuttle at the airport to head to my hotel and it happened..."who was it?!!" You ask. "Who did you see? Brad and Anjie? Lyle Lovett? Who!!"

Get this. It was me. A lady on the shuttle recognized me from online and said she is taking all of my classes. I was speechless. I know, right? When am I ever at a loss for words? I was so flattered. It always amazes me when people will spend their hard earned pennies to hear something I have to say or teach. Or to purchase a piece of my soul to hang in their home. I'm just the girl who walks around in pajamas until noon or talks with spinach in her teeth. 

So the trip's off to a good start. Stay tuned. 

The universe is kind. 

Smile at your neighbor. 

Color me Humbled. 

<3 staci