Artful Endeavors Painting in 2011

It's almost here and I'm getting classes, schedules, paintings, and party ready for 2011! Our New Year of Painting holiday party is coming up this Sunday.

We have a drop in open house on Sunday, Jan 2, from 2p-4p scheduled and hope you can join us.

I'll have class samples and photos of upcoming projects as well as prep for our projects starting next week. Come by to visit and pick up your prep. Bring a snack to share and a painting to show.

Bring your gift certificates and holiday money to shop. We have a new supply of the wonderful Scharff brushes, Traditions paints, and Americana paints. Pick up a surface for your next project and you'll be ready to paint.

Hope you like our new web site. Be sure to check the schedule for new class additions and photos.

Notice that the am class will start Ros' wonderful Tuscan Window. After that we have a Flowered Stairway to paint as a companion to the window.
In the afternoon we'll begin another of Linda Lock's textured Paris street scenes, Chat Noir (Black Cat). If you liked the Paris Cafe or Grocery, you'll want to paint this one to add to your collection.
The evening class is painting a pet! I have some of Lydia Steeves terrific books that you can choose a pet from unless you have good photos of your own pets that you'd like to paint.
All exciting classes.

I have lots to do today to get ready for Sunday so I'll see you then.

You're Invited!

You're invited to our New Year of Painting Party!
At Artful Endeavors
Jan 2, 2011, 2-4p drop in.

We'll have class samples and painting by some of our students.
Pick up your class prep, bring friends or family to see the studio, and enjoy our snacks.

Join us as we welcome the new year and our painting friends back from the holidays.
See you then.

Troutman Beauty Affaire will is having an open house that day with us.
They'll be doing make up demos.
Be sure to visit and pick up the latest make up tips.

Five Days till Christmas

Can you believe it! Only 5 days. Of course Christmas at our house is whatever day we can get together with family and that's not Christmas day this year, but we'll spread the family time out over a week. I've been busy creating presents for everyone and still have some creating to do. Here I am at the last minute finishing up painting for presents. But it's fun.

I've been at the studio today working with a young friend on painted presents for her family. She's saving money for a car this year and getting creative with her presents. And she has been creative and learned about painting. I think her family and best friend will love the presents she has painted for them. I love helping a young person express themselves creatively. And she was pleased. That's the greatest gift I could have received.

Tomorrow I'm working on my paintings. I resolve to stay away from the computer and give myself a day of painting. Now that's a treat.

Hope you are treating yourself this season.
Liz

Scharff Brushes for Christmas

Just what every painter wants for Christmas, new brushes.

We have an order of the wonderful Scharff brushes on it's way, in time for you to use your gift certificate or a treat for yourself.

Your paintings are only as good as your brushes, and you know that out of shape brushes make painting so much more difficult. Sometimes the problem with your painting in not your skill, but the condition of your brush.

We stock the wonderful Scharff brushes here at Artful Endeavors. I've been very pleased with the quality of these brushes and how long they last if you take care of them.

Here are some tips from Scharff on caring for your brushes. The notes in red are from me.


Brush Tips from Scharff

• Always clean your brushes immediately after every use.
• Never let the paint dry on your brush.
• Never use the cleaning tubs with a rippled bottom. This is not the proper way to clean your brushes. It is a very good way to ruin your brushes.(Our brush basins do have the grate in the bottom, but remember that I've told you not to use it except as a last resort.)
  
• Do not let a brush stand in water or cleaning solvents for any length of time. This will cause the liquid to leach into the handle and swelling will occur in the wood. This will lead to the paint chipping off and the ferrule becoming loose. ( And will bend the bristles out of shape.)
  
• Always clean your brushes with the appropriate solutions. Acrylics can be cleaned with a mild household liquid detergent. Many oil and lacquer materials will have a recommended cleaning solution for their particular products. (A brush soap help keep your brushes in good condition)
  
• After thoroughly cleaning your brushes, store them lying flat or with the ferrules up. Never store your brushes on the hair.(I recommend drying the brushes flat so that any small amount of soap won't collect in your ferrule and cause your bristles to start separating.)
  
• A light coating of hair spray can be applied to the bristles to help hold the brush in shape for extended periods of storage.
• Take care of your brush and it will perform well for many uses.
• We (Scharff) have an instructional video that shows how to clean and use the various brushes. This can be found in our store.

Keep any wet brushes laying flat so that dirty paint water, or soap water, won't collect in the ferrule and cause your brush to separate.

Besides bending your bristles, leaving your brushes in your brush basin allows the dirty paint water to wick up into the ferrule where it can dry and cause your brush to separate.

Pulling your brush over the grate causes the bristles to curl like curling ribbon.

Clean your liner and small brushes by flicking them against the sides of the brush basin. Never pull them on the grate.

If you would like more information on using your brushes and stroke work, please see my video, Mastering the Decorative Painting Basics, part one, on Creative Workshops.

You get 10 percent off till the end of 2010.

And ,you have 24/7 access to the video, can repeat as much as you would like, and can watch it as many times as you would like.

Final 2010 Paintings

We've finished our last regular classes for 2010. I can't believe the year has passes so quickly.

If you want more painting classes this year, my on line classes at Creative Workshops are $10 off till the end of the year. My holiday present to you.


I've been away from the studio today, staying in the house and out of the cold, messy weather outside. It's been nice to have a day off without having to feel sick. I'm much better now and ready to paint, or work on necklaces, or something else fun.

Meanwhile back at the studio, we have our classes for Jan and Feb 2011 planned. Please check out the schedule page for updates. We have some wonderful new paintings to create.

Remember our New Year of Painting party on Jan 2, that's Sunday from 2-4. Just drop in and visit, see the new paintings, nibble, and see some of our student's paintings. Pass the word and bring you friends and family. We'll look forward to seeing you.

More later. Drive carefully on the morning's icy roads.

Paint, Paint, Paint

It's our last week of classes before our year end break. And, we still have our paintings to finish! I have painted gifts to finish too. I know that all of your family and friends will be delighted by your original art work gifts.



Meanwhile, I've started working on our Jan painting projects. Be sure to check the class page for photos. As soon as I finish a painting I'll post a photo for you.

"Colour and I are one. I am a painter."
Paul Klee, 1914.

Welcome 2011

”Even at best talent remains a constant, and those who rely upon that gift alone, without developing further, peak quickly and soon fade to obscurity.” -- David Bayles and Ted Orland

And so we continue to learn.Liz

Cough, cough, sneeze, breathe, sniff, breathe, cough. That's been my week, curled up on the couch with my portable space heaters (cats) and a box of tissues. I'm starting to feel good enough to venture away from the couch for short periods of time and even made it to the studio for a short while.

That said, I have the beginnings of our Jan-Feb, 2011 schedule on our class page. Just scroll past the last of this year's schedule, which you should be here to help me finish out the year, and you'll find 2011. I still have to check for typos and add photos of projects that i have yet to paint, but here is you exciting new previews for the new year.

Remember that Jan 2 is our open house, Or New Year of Painting Party, our holiday party. Be sure to mark your calendar and get ready to join us. Being a goodie and come see upcoming projects, pick up prep, and socialize. Bring friends.

More on my next journey away from the couch. Sniff, sniff. Liz

”I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them.” -- Picasso.

And that's why we take art classes. -- Liz

Why Women Should Paint

Seven reasons why every woman should express herself through art.

From Judi Morales Gibson of Artista Creative Safaris

Why Women Should Paint: Reason 1
Women are aesthetic by nature. A woman will notice the subtle colors of an Anjou pear, and use it as inspiration to redecorate a room. She will buy a bolt of fabric just because the color moves her, and worry about how to use it later. A woman will tear a picture of a garden from a magazine, just to post it on her refrigerator.

Why Women Should Paint: Reason 2
Women instinctively recognize and capture beauty, and when given the chance, will express her own intuitive energy. Women recognize and embrace the emotion that beauty ignites, and are drawn to colors based on their emotional needs. It's why they buy yellow flowers to cheer themselves up, or add a bright scarf to an outfit.

Why Women Should Paint: Reason 3
Women can communicate and express themselves without words. A mother expresses love with bedtime lullaby, a grandmother expresses her confidence by wearing a feathered purple hat, and a toddler expresses her fearlessness by coloring on the living-room wall. Even though no words are spoken, her message is clear.

Why Women Should Paint: Reason 4
Women naturally have a great sense of color and light, which is why they get to choose the new house color. Not only that, they are fearless about personal expression. Just give them some time, mental space and tools to create, then stand back. Women are more willing to break the rules set by the standard of the day. They have a natural instinct for doing things differently, which is why they can make a Halloween costume out of a pillow case or turn a farmhouse door into a coffee table.

Why Women Should Paint: Reason 5
Women understand the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, the ability to see beauty in things that are imperfect. They stop to admire an intricate rusty gate, the complexity of a darkened pre-storm sky or old chair with paint chipped away, exposing it's history of previous colors. Beauty is everywhere, and women notice it.

Why Women Should Paint: Reason 6
As they get older, women become less afraid to act on impulse. A 65-year-old women explains: "At my age, I can be as crazy as I want to be". Amazingly, we are born with that freedom and openly express it in early childhood. Eventually things like peer pressure and the "status quo" stifle it in adolescence. If only we could maintain that freedom throughout our adulthood, just imagine our potential over a lifetime. Women should not have to wait until their sixties to rediscover themselves. It's time to let their creativity run free.

Why Women Should Paint: Reason 7
In the end, women use creative expression to make the world more beautiful. Even simple things like a bowl of green apples on a table or flower pot with sprouting daffodils emotes beauty, which in turn makes the world a happier place. That's perhaps the best reason for women to paint.

What Stops Women from Painting?
So with all this natural instinct, what keeps women from painting? Typically, it's intimidation, fear of failure, and the lack of trust in her own aesthetic. Rigid art styles like figure drawing or still-life painting, force students reproduce an image, which can be difficult and limiting. Thankfully, there are abstract painting styles, which allow artists to freely express themselves, discover their own natural style and essentially 'color outside the lines'.

Early Christmas Gift

I'm giving myself an early Christmas gift. I'm taking back my Friday's off! Trying real hard for a 40+ hr week. Yeah!

My regular studio hrs are:
Mon 10a-5p
Tue 10a-4p, then I'm off to Cary for class
Wed 10a-8p
Thurs 10a-5p
Also watch for other class times.

Remember to tell your family and friends that they can give you a gift certificate from Artful Endeavors for your gift. I'm sure you're needing new brushes.

We're working on our 2011 schedule and finding lots of exciting projects to paint. I'll start posting our Jan schedule soon.

Meanwhile, we're furiously squeezing in lots of Dec, pre holiday painting. Our poinsettia ornaments turned out beautiful. The students said that it was lots of fun to learn the new technique.

We still have the baby deer, START class coming up on Dec 16. Be sure to register by Dec 9. Such a delightful baby deer designed by Peggy Harris. Bring a friend.

And on Dec 29 we have a special between holidays class where we'll do a watercolor batik. I'm working on this original bird design and will have a photo for you soon. Be sure to register by Dec 22. This is another one of our START classes.

Our New Year of Painting Party is scheduled for Jan 2, 2011! This is our holiday party, welcoming everyone back after the holidays and celebrating the new year of painting. We'll have class samples, paintings by our students, goodies, and you can register and pick up prep for upcoming classes. Mark your calendar and plan to join us. Bring friends and family.

Drawing Faces

We're learning how to draw faces using proportional guidelines this Thurs at 10am for our next START class at Artful Endeavors. It's so much fun to draw faces and knowing proportions is a valuable tool for proofing patterns with faces.

Or, you can take the expanded version of this class on Creative Workshops on line and even take advantage of our year end special with $10 off all my classes. You'll get your discount when you check out. And you have 24/7 access to the class. You can view it in as short a segment as you would like and go back to it when you like.

Check out my other classes on Creative Workshops including my side loading video and get the $10 off too. This offer lasts till the end of the year.

Hope you are painting with me soon, on line or in the studio.

New Web Site Look for Artful Endeavors

You've found our new looking web site. I've been working hard to update and refresh everything on the site for us. You can reach all the Artful Endeavors info from this one page. Be sure to check out the tabs at the top of the page to see our classes, seminar info, gallery, student's work, and more.

I'll have more seminar info for you very soon.

Have a great Thanksgiving.
Liz

Holiday Painting at Artful Endeavors

Every year we start planning our holiday painting during the summer and this year was no exception. We started our Santas and elves in Sept, however, when these paintings were complete we found more holiday projects that we just had to paint before the end of the year.

And just in time for these paintings we discovered DecoArt's new Glamour Dust Paints. Exciting! And we've been using these with thrilling results and looking for more opportunities to use them.

We've added more fun classes to our Dec. schedule and plan to have more painting done for the holidays. Be sure to check out the schedule updates on the class schedule tab above.

Color Harmony

The second weekend in Oct I went to the mountains searching for fall colors and found a hint of change. This week the fall colors found me right here at home. This week the trees around the studio and at our yard at home are putting on quite a show and promise more glory next week. With my trusty camera I wandered around the studio, collecting a few glimpses of the wonderful colors.

Fall is painting our trees a wonderful analogous color harmony with touches of green complement.

Palmetto Painters

I have just returned from a fun weekend of teaching for the Palmetto Painters in West Columbia SC. We had lots of painting to complete since we painted my sailboat in the window but the ladies were terrific. We got through all the techniques and most have completed the painting. A wonderful group of women.

Liz, thank you for the wonderful 2 day seminar you put on for our chapter, Palmetto Painters, in Columbia, SC. You showed us a lot about some new products out there and also some good techniques to improve our paintings. We will be sure to invite you back soon. Carol

It was sooooo much fun working with the stucco and the crackle and the other textures. Thanks for a great workshop. I hope to get to Raleigh to paint with you sometime. Pam