Mission Accomplished.

Finally, Opening a Christmas Gift

 

These fun ladies came to River Run Gallery 

as a Christmas Gift from one of the painters.

There's a mom, three daughters, two granddaughters 

and a significant other to a son.

 

They came to have fun.

Mission Accomplished.  

 

These zinnias are painted on a dark background made of

ultramarine blue, brown and a touch of dark teal.

When you watch the video you'll see these ladies came to have fun.

 

  Merry Christmas ladies!

Lunch and Learning Flowers

FREE

Lunch and Learn - Flowers

Today was a fun lunch and learn.

I did a demonstration on painting different types of flowers.

I painted on two different types of paper.

I painted on both of these types of paper.

The paper on the left is very smooth and the paper on the right is really canvas paper.
Both are good for acrylic painting and I taped both of them to a masonite board to paint.
The smooth paper sort of warps when it gets a lot of paint on it, but once it dries it lies flat.

The canvas paper really feels much more like canvas than paper and has a very heavy tooth.
It's rough and takes a lot of paint.
It takes some getting used to to paint on,  but it's very interesting to work with.
When your finished, is moves and feels like fabric, not paper. 

This is the smoother acylic paper.  

I showed two ladies how to paint these flowers.

Next I showed them how to paint some iris.

This is painted on the canvas paper.

It completely feels and acts like canvas.

These are the two ladies who came to lunch and learn today.  Nancy, on the right, went home with the small painting I used as reference for the one I showed them. and Darcel went home with one of my calendars from my 30 paintings in 30 days I did last September of "Scenes From My Front Door".

Lunch and Learn is every Friday at noon
and it's
FREE!

FREE art lessons every Friday.
Next week I'll be teaching you how to frame a painting. 

Hope to see you then! 

I'm Not The Only One Abstracted

Ladies "Playin" In The Paint

It just doesn't get any funner than "playin" in the paint.

These ladies came together last night to paint abstract paintings.

Click HERE to watch a short video taken during the class.  

We used lots of different colors than we usually use in my classes for several reasons.

1. We could!
2. We wanted to!
3. We didn't need much of anyone color.
4. We were going for a different look.
5. We were playin in the paint.

We used paint brushes, bottle tops and bottoms, bottle caps, brush handles, cup tops and bottoms, tooth brushes, and palette knives.

We used our imaginations, 

and boy did we have fun letting the creativity out of the box.

  We see you Sheryl hiding there on the left.

Sheryl was the most daring of us all.

She used every possible tool,

combination of paint colors,

and vision available.

Jerusha, in the middle, had a solar system looking design at first and then after several pieces of dark Hershey kisses, she got real creative, even putting initials of her and her husband in the painting.

Amanda on the right, as was everyone, was a little scared to put that first bit of paint on her canvas, but as you can see, she opened up and created a beautiful piece.

This was my effort for the night.

So you can see, abstract painting is neither right or wrong,

Only fun.

And yes!, I did get paint on my new smock.

Lots and lots of paint.

We had lots of that,

and I hope you'll join us next time.

What Is Encaustic Art?

Encaustic Art.

So What Is That?

There are two types of art here.

The encaustic journals are created using photography that has been digitally enhanced, it is then mounted on cover boards, and then encased in wax.

The pages are hand torn and hand sewn pages so the book opens flat.

You can have the journal open so you can see both the front and the back covers to see the full photograph. 

There are two photographs in this grouping, (center top and bottom)

and they are also encaustic and mounted on a block of wood and wired to hang.

Yvonne's encaustic journals and photography 

can be seen by clicking Here. 

Hopefully, by clicking this little video will give you a better understanding of Yvonne's art and how beautiful it is.

Thanks for stopping by today.

 

Just What Is Fiber Art?

FIBER ART

Just What Is That?

All these items are made from raw silk and wool fibers.

Then artist Sylvia takes the raw fibers and washes them together, squishes out the water and as they dry, the fibers bond together as a new material is formed in a process known as felting.

Next she hand dyes the new material,

and then she begins forming it into her beautiful fashion items.

Click HERE to see a short video about Sylvia's work.

Click Here to see all the beautiful fiber art in River Run Gallery

right now.  

Carrollton, KY is lucky to have Sylvia Brestels art as she is the only one creating such uniquely beautiful items such as these.  She is in other galleries in Louisville as well as museums. 

Art is not mass produced and is created with love and inspiration.

One of the great things about having original art, whatever the medium, 

is you always feel that love whenever you look at, feel or wear the art.

You always know you have a one of a kind item.

Thanks for stopping in to that little green gallery

in Carrollton, KY.

What's in An Art Gallery

What's In An Art Gallery?

Art, silly.

Lots of beautiful art that someone has dreamed up,

planned out,

worked on,

perfected,

screwed up,

got better at,

and finally,

a piece of art shows up.

Here in River Run Gallery Fun Art Studio

we have lots of beautiful art that followed the path above to get here.

I'm showing you just one type of art today.

We have a large selection of hand crafted timeless jewelry

and we hope you'll come in and see for yourself.

But, if you can't, click here to view the beautiful jewelry art

we have in a small Kentucky art gallery.

Go ahead, click that link.

Give these artists a few minutes of your time.

Thanks for coming in the little green gallery today.

I'm Abstracted

I Am Abstracted.

No I didn't mean distracted, although I am sometimes that.

But I'm abstracted.

I thought it would be fun to paint an abstract painting.

And to teach a class painting an abstract.

So I've been distracted while I've been abstracted.

I practice on a piece of cardboard covered with a linen like material.

It gives me the feel of canvas without the expense.

But during the class you will be painting on a stretched canvas.

I started several all at once.

I threw some paint on the support and then moved it around blending as I went until I got something I liked.

 This was one I put on every primary color, white and blended it and let it dry.

 This was all sorts of blues, greens, yellows and purples.

Then I put one blob, sort of in the middle.

Until I put that blue line in the middle I didn't really realize

 I had a sunset or sunrise.

So then I went for a sunrise and worked on that sun reflection in the water.

Then I added some palm trees.

I ended up with this.

 

You can see I worked the sunrise in the water.

Then I added the two trees.

This was lots of fun.

 

 The other painting I thought was a nocturnal river scene.

So I started adding trees.

Then I realized I had a city scape.

so I went to work adding buildings, lights, street lights,

and lots and lots of reflections.

This was fun.

But,

neither of these were really abstracts when I finished.

Then I had a third one and I didn't like where it was going, 

so I painted over my first attempt and began again.

I had lots of yellow and green background.

Mostly yellow, but various shades of light green streaks.

Then I went circular.

 

 I just started making circles and spring like circles.

I added some swirly things and and lots of color.

But it wasn't done.

I didn't really know where to go from there.

So I walked away for a day or two and then I came back to it.

  I said to myself,

"stay with the one what brung ya,"

so I went with more colors

and more circles.

I think it's finished and this is what we'll be painting on abstract night,

Thursday, January 22, 6-9 p.m.

Several people signed up already,

sight unseen.

They must want to play in the paint.

Cause painting abstracts is just that.

Playing in the paint.

If you'd like to join us, please call me 502-523-0663,

email me, slgraves6@gmail.com or

follow this link and scroll down to the painting 

where you can sign up and pay right there. 

This will be a fun night.

There is no right or wrong way on this one.

This is about playing in the paint.

Please join us.

If you would like to use your paint for your background to go with one of your walls, that's fine, but we'll run with it from there.

I think this will go just about anywhere.

Thanks for stopping by today.

 

 

   

Painting Iris on a Beautiful Saturday

Best Day of 2015

(so far)

After being so cold and gray,

we finally have a beautiful day.

And guess what we painted.

Purple Iris.

If that doesn't make you think spring,

almost nothing will.

I made a very short video for you to see them working on their paintings.

They got their background in by using various shades of blue, yellow and several shades of a blue green. 

Then they practiced on freezer paper how to paint iris.

They all got it and took a deep breath and put in the three iris and three buds.

Then after some yellow centers and a few more stems, 

they were ready for their close up.

You can tell it's sunny out in the picture.  

Didn't they do a great job?

Very proud of these ladies.  

Thanks for stopping by today.

Leave a comment to let them know how they did. 

Lunch and Learn, Painting Rocks

How to Paint Rocks

Why would anyone want to paint rocks?

Rocks are in the landscape, and if you're a landscape painter,

at some point you're going to have to paint rocks.

I divided a sheet of Urban artist paper into four sections so I could work on four sets of rocks at once.

 

Rocks start out as blobs.

Blobs of gray, brown, blue and purple paint.

When I start painting rocks, they just start showing up. 

You look at the blob and then decide where the light is coming from.

Those little arrows in the corners tell me where the light is coming from.

Then I take a very small amount of a lighter color of the basic rock color and with a very light touch

and a bristle brush I locate the rocks and where the light shines on them.

The paint keeps getting lighter and the brush strokes also get lighter.

I can locate as many rocks as I want.

I can make them any shape I want.

I just have to remember to have a light touch and remember where the light is.

 

  These are the finished rocks from todays lunch and learn.

I added the grass to seat them into sort of a scene.

Rocks just show up in the blobs of paint.  

Watching a Painting, Start to Finish

Watch a Painting Develop

I make short videos so you can see a painting from concept to completion.

This is always fun for me and I hope you enjoy it.

This winter scene video starts with a very loose sketch

and ends with a finished painting.

Thank you for watching this video.

Please subscribe to my youTube channel. 

 

Tools

Everyone needs tools to create what they want to create!

No matter the job, the endeavor,

the creative process,

You need good tools to complete a project.

I have been working on improving my drawing skills for over a year and I have seen some real progress.

I’m grateful for the progress

But,

I have had a devil of a time finding a pencil sharpener for my pencils.

It's really hard to draw with pencils that are as dull as mine were.

 

I had a little hand one,

I had a battery operated one,

I had an old schoolhouse type attached to the wall

that you cranked.

But I did not get good results from any of them on any of the pencils I was trying to sharpen.

Until Recently.

 I found this on Amazon for $5.99 and FREE shipping.

(it's even cheaper now).

Click Here for the link to it.   

It's not a big tool or big expenditure, but it has helped in my drawing.  My pencils are now sharp and I can keep them that way.

Glad I found it and if you need one this is a great one. 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.