Who Inspires You?

"The Nanny McFee Tree" Sold

Here in the south it was extra warm this week! When it gets to be 100 degrees in the shade and 70% humidity my thoughts turn to snowfields! I tend to paint snow scenes when it's the hottest outside and warm ocean views when it's the coldest outside. It seems to help me cope with the extremes in temperatures! Yes, I know I am silly but if I wasn't, there wouldn't be any Nanny McFee trees around!  I loved the Nanny Mcfee movie and it inspired me to paint the above painting. It was quite large as well. It was 24x48 and I'm thinking it is time for another very large snow tree! Hmmm, I will have to start working on one. Now my fingers are just itching to start!

I've been thinking about people who inspire me. There are so many! Artisans of all kinds, writers, poets, photographers, jewelry makers, artists of all genres. Since I started showing my art in the public eye on the internet I have found that the artisan community is very supportive of each other. It has been a very enjoyable experience and I've decided to change my Stacys Art Studio blog just a bit. Every week along with writing about what I may be working on at the time, I would also like to include someone who I find to be inspiring. If they have a store or a web-site or are on a social network, I'll tell you how to find them. Maybe they can inspire you too!

The biggest challenge is that I have such a long list and had to decide who would be my first victim, umm, err I meant artisan that I wanted to feature and decided on C.Corey Fisk who inspires me every day.   I met her on google+, she liked my paintings and I followed her posts. She is always upbeat and compassionate toward others even tho she struggles with serious health issues. Then she started to make beautiful jewelry! A few months ago we traded some of our work, she tried to give me too much of her stuff for my stuff so I sent extra stuff to her which she immediately gave to someone she loved who was going thru some difficult things. Then she sent me even more stuff after that! She has a truly generous heart.  She makes these beautiful pieces with the assistance of some furry friends who are always at her side and a few very loving people as well. Here is their store on etsy.

   https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeadingAndBeing?ref=seller_info


https://www.etsy.com/listing/152023177/intricate-glass-necklace-set-in-white?ref=shop_home_active

I just had to add a picture of one of the pieces I got from her. It's a necklace but I loved it so much and since I don't wear a necklace constantly I turned it into an ankle bracelet so that it never leaves my leg!

This is what I've been working on this week. Or I should say one of the pieces! 

"Enduring Love" 11x14 available

https://www.etsy.com/listing/154809355/moon-over-the-ocean-original-painting?ref=pr_shop

Have a great week everyone! Get inspired!

Wild at Heart

How was your week? I hope you had a good one! I finally finished it! I finally finished this piece and I am feeling really good about it. It feels like I've finally found my particular style of painting horses and I'm just so delighted! Here it is all finished. I decided on "Wild at Heart" for it's name.

"Wild at Heart"

This is the first time I can say that, what I had planned out in my head is what ended up on the canvas. I had so much fun with this horse. I stepped out of the box and jumped into my silly fantasy world. She turned into what I really loved. She's wild at heart with purple hair and blue feathers in her mane and tail. It reminds me of happy times. I hope that she brings joy to whoever ends up with her!

Next I worked on a smaller piece so that I could focus only on the mountains and the moonlight. It was a real joy to paint this one.

"Moon Rising"
www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com

I decided to name it "Moon Rising". Mountains are one of my favorite things to paint and my favorite time in the mountains is at night with a bright moon glistening the snowy fields. I can close my eyes and still see and feel the mountains that I used to live underneath of. When I paint them on the canvas I have a certain place in my mind. They are not exact copies tho. I kind of mix up the different mountains because what I really put on canvas are my memories. This one is a blend of the mountains near my house and mountains many miles away from there high above Breckenridge on Hoosier pass. It gives me a peaceful feeling and I hope it will do the same for whoever ends up with it.

Have a beautiful week everyone! I will be painting!

    

Detours and Delays!

Detours and delays happen to all of us! We ran into one this week. We live near the coast and we were in the direct path of a tropical storm bringing along with it tornadoes and flash floods. Now, I love my art I truly do but what I love above all else is my family. We chose to be safe and took ourselves out of the path of the storm. Which meant a detour from painting! Oh well. You can be annoyed by a detour or be grateful it's available when it is needed. I choose to be grateful! We are now safely back where we began and I will be at my easel this coming week, back on track! Before we left town I was working on two paintings that have been a bit of a struggle so they have been going slowly. Here is the first one...

unfinished no name yet

You've seen this one before! Yes, I shared this one at the beginning of the process a little bit ago. I sometimes get stuck with aspen trees. I enjoy doing them but they begin to get tedious so I need a break and move to another piece to do something, anything else! I have several more aspens to put into this piece and maybe something else but I haven't made up my mind yet. I've decided to do another piece similar to this with far less aspen trees so that the focus is on the mountains and moon.

The other piece is this one...

unfinished no name yet

This one is coming along pretty well. I have a plan for it but am not sure how it will work so you'll just have to stay tuned to see what happens!

This is the only piece I actually finished this past week! It's my sign for my booth at the Rosewood Arts Festival. So far, I've gathered jewelry, one piece of clothing to wear, and now this sign for the show. I have a little more to gather in order to be ready but I still have a couple of months....:)

 Have a really happy day everyone!

Procrastination or Creative Process?

"Idlewild" sold

Sometimes, ok, so it's actually many times I find myself procrastinating over a painting. In fact, there are two that I am procrastinating over right now as I type this. I begin a project all excited, because I love the idea I have in my head but to get it onto canvas, well, that's another story. I happily paint the background and block in everything and then... slow down. I stop working on it and find other things to do. 

"Does Anyone Have the Time?" sold 

I've always done this, but felt that it wasn't a good thing until I realized that while I am procrastinating I am thinking about the painting and how I want it to look. I find myself thinking about the placement of something or how I'm going to paint a bunny while I'm doing things such as ironing, gardening or running errands. It seems that I do this with many different things like decorating and writing. So.. I've decided that it's just my personal creative process. There are some paintings that I can just sit down and paint the whole piece in one sitting, Like this one.

"Lace" available at www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com

Everyones' creative process is different. I think that it helps to identify the process so that you don't get in your own way by trying to change that process just because you think you are procrastinating.  So.... I say don't be quick to judge yourself. It doesn't matter what the process is if it works for you. Happy creating everyone!

On a different note. Once again this week Oklahoma has been hit by truly terrible storms. People there have been thru tragic things and will have to continue to endure them since the recovery process is a long one. We have a small understanding of what they are going thru as we went thru Hurricane Andrew so very long ago.  I feel that tornadoes however, are so much worse since you can't figure out which way they are going to go and they pop up out of nowhere it seems. There is very little warning when tornadoes are involved. It is so sad that three scientists who dedicated their lives to help figure this out lost their lives to one of the tornadoes this week. There are many avenues to help out the people who have been hit by this group of storms and I know that everyone will pitch in. My thoughts, prayers and support are with everyone who are dealing with all of these issues.

   

Rosewood Arts Festival

It's official! I am terribly excited to say that I have been officially accepted to be a part of the Rosewood Arts Festival in Columbia SC. It will be held on September 28,2013. I am so happy about this since this will be the first art show for me and  I had made it a goal to show my art in person this year. As you know I have not been very brave at showing my artwork in person and that is why Etsy, Facebook and Google+  was such a good place for me to start out. Now, I have had about a year and a half of experience behind me. I've been able to meet so many wonderful artists thru the aforementioned venues and have learned from how they manage the business end of the artist world.

"Misty Moonrise Way"

The above piece has been chosen by the art festival to have on their brochure along with several other artists pieces. I feel very humbled to be on the same page with such talented people!

"Love Weathers Everything"

I am looking forward to the experience of being in a festival, watching the other artists, seeing their work up close and seeing how people respond to my art as well. Whether I sell things or not is not what is most important to me in this festival. (Although it would be nice) I am hoping to learn and grow as an artist through this experience.

"Jungle Adventure"

In the meantime I have so many ideas that I want to get onto canvas! I have also decided to paint my own sign instead of purchasing one! We will see how that project goes. I will share pictures of it as I progress.If you are near Columbia SC perhaps I will see you at the Rosewood Arts Festival on September 28! You can stop by and we will have a visit into my whimsical little world!

   

Oklahoma

I wanted to take a minute today to say how much my heart is with those who are enduring thru the terrible aftermath of such a large storm in Oklahoma. I have relatives in Oklahoma and I drive thru the state often. It inspires many of my art pieces. I am always so impressed by peoples resiliency and how we continue on, inspite of great hardships. I know that these strong people will recover and come back even stronger but right now they are hurting. I am so sorry for their pain.

      Last year when I drove thru Oklahoma I was inspired to paint the piece below.

There are so many wonderful rescue workers helping, there are supplies headed out, and money being donated.  I hope for everyone involved in this to be successful and those who have been affected by the storm, that their trauma can be reduced.

Creativity

"For Allen"

It's been a super busy week around the art studio this week! Most of it, has not been in the studio itself. Oh well, sometimes you just have to stop and have a little fun!

I managed to get the above piece painted in between everything else this week. It's headed all the way to the U.K.! I find it very exciting when I get to ship one of my paintings overseas. 

This week I got to spend a few days with my precious nephews. They keep growing up behind my back so any time I get to spend with them is awesome. We watched The Avengers and played alot. Then it was back to the easel and I started this next piece. It has a long way to go. I have something in my head for it but I never like to giveaway what I'm thinking in case it doesn't end up that way.

no name yet

I always start a project with a general idea in my head but it never ends up exactly the way I had planned it. I used to get frustrated with that until I realized it's more fun to just go with the flow. Sometimes even tho the piece ended up completely different than I planned I like it better! Then I can try what was in my head over again and get a completely different piece. That's what is so fun about creativity, the more you let it go the more fun it is and the better your work gets.  

   

We went to the new star trek movie in 3d on Sunday and it was so much fun. It's a great example of creativity. These are movies that have been done before and I am a true fan of the originals but what I find so refreshing about this new series is that it is sort of the same story but with some really cool twists. That's what I feel is really good creativity.

I did this piece as a nod to the Jimmy Buffet lifestyle. I lived in Key West for a few years in the late 80's and always found the colors to be amazing. Mangrove trees are so very interesting. They basically create an island themselves. I always thought they were fascinating. I hope everyone has a flip flop worthy week!

"It's Five O'Clock Somewhere"
available at www.stacysartstudio.etsy.com