Jennifer

BYOB: Wine & Art Workshop

February 7, 2012 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Over the past year I have added a fun group of classes called the BYOB: Wine & Art Workshops. This has been a fun way to introduce the Art of Stenciling and the Art of Faux Finishing during a 90 minute class. The atmosphere is relaxed, students are encouraged to bring something to drink and/or eat………come by yourself or bring a friend along. I provide everything else – cups, cork screws, paints, brushes, canvas, glazes, stencils – etc!!!

The BYOB: Series of Classes are posted on my web site @ www.artisticpaintingstudio.com and are updated regularly………come join the fun and release the inner artist within you!

Just a few possibilities combining the Arts of Stenciling and Faux Finishing – the options are endless. Learn these wonderful art forms while enjoying yourself with some friends and relaxing in a creative environment.

Peacock Feathers

August 16, 2011 By Jennifer 1 Comment

I have to say a BIG Thank You to my client – if it wasn’t for her idea, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to paint this incredible project. Recently, Ruth Masters was referred to me for a project that she had been wanting to do for many years – she just hadn’t figured out exactly what she wanted in this space. One day, surfing on the web – she ran across a project that was featured with a painting of Peacock feathers on the ceiling. Ruth knew at that moment it was exactly what she wanted – now to find the artist to execute the idea.

I met with Ruth and she provided me with several pictures from the web site – we talked about colors for the feathers and then it was up to me to see if it was a possible project. The area she wanted them painted in was a very high octagon sky light – approximately 22′ to the top!

I called a fellow artist friend of mine, Penny Ray to assist with this project – she meet me at the clients house to see if we could get a scaffold rig into her kitchen, over the island and up high enough to accomplish the work…….with very careful measuring – we decided we could do it!

Even though we did all that careful measuring – the day we installed the scaffold rig – we discovered we were off just a little……..but, we made it work! Our first day was installing the rig and then using an overhead projector to project the images that had been drawn onto the walls………..now this was an area that started at 10′ and went up another 12′ or so……..it took the entire day to transfer all the drawings. We carefully placed each peacock feather to create a wonderful composition in the octagon area.

Day two and three was a lot of painting and moving the levels of the scaffold rig to accomplish the many heights we had to work at. Day four – we needed to completely remove one of the levels of the scaffold rig and try to finish all the painting. Penny and I are a pretty good team – only one cut finger, a few bruises and sore muscles – we accomplished our deadline. The entire project took four days including installing and tear-down of the scaffold rig……..we painted a lot of hours each day! Most of the painting was accomplished with Americana Acrylic paints – regular and metallics – I also used Faux Effects newest metallics – SuperHide Copper (love this product).

Many thanks again to Ruth – thanks for providing me with such a fun project!!! Looking forward to the next one…….I think I will be painting Parrots and Palm Trees!!!

More Painted Furniture

August 11, 2011 By Jennifer 3 Comments

I would like to continue on the subject of painted furniture. Morey indicated that she was inspired by Martha Stewart. My personal inspiration was Mary Engelbreit and McKenzie Childs. I’m one that loves the sophistication along with a touch or two of Whimsey, well maybe a whole lot of whimsey with a touch of sophistication. I discovered the art of stenciling on 1988 and started playing around with painted furniture in the early 90’s and my favorite thing to paint was our chairs! I feel that you can give any item personality or work with the natural charm of the piece of furniture.

Once I started painting chairs it was totally addictive! I couldn’t stop painting or stop buying them. At one point I had 35 chairs waiting in my warehouse (it was a hell of a yard sale). Most of the time when I start a project, I hadn’t exactly figured out the entire design layout ahead of time. It usually took on a personality of its own and the ideas just keep coming.

As you can see in my work I love to layer patterns, designs and incorporate a lot of colors and create something fun. I believe the layering of pattern, colors and design adds a lot of depth to your painting. It also allows you to mix and match different styles of a pattern. Mixing fun, whimsey patterns with sophisticated design elements.

Painting furniture is one of my “true” loves. I recently started looking through the warehouse to see what there was left around to still paint, feeling the need to be creative with a piece of furniture. Hope that my “funky” style inspires you to create something for your home!

Change is Good!

April 19, 2011 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

I started this blog site at least 4 years ago and wasn’t really sure what I was doing at the time (still not sure I know what I’m doing)! LOL But, after all these years – I decided to customize my page to look more like my business…….Artistic Painting Studio. So, with the help of my wonderful Web Master (Julie) – my new look has been up since April 1st…….but life has been so busy these past couple of months, this is the first time I have had a chance to tell anyone about it.

With this new look – new page……I’m adding my BFF Morey Dunbar as a regular contributor on this blog site. So not only will you be hearing from me once again on a regular basis, but also Morey will be contributing on a regular basis too……..Now, that could be trouble – if you know Morey and I, we tend to have a little too much fun together (really, we just know how to enjoy life)!

So please get ready to enjoy some great information – a preview of the class Morey and I have been developing – a wonderful article by Morey on Painted Furniture and much much more.

Jenn

A very creative suitcase….

March 8, 2011 By Jennifer 1 Comment

Ever since the digital cameras have been around, I tend to not print pictures anymore. We just enjoy them on the computer and sharing them with others in the same form. Well at the first of the year, I spoiled myself with a new computer and in moving everything over to the new computer I had a lot of fun going through the photo albums that I was transferring. WOW!! I think I had actually forgotten about some of these projects that I had painted over the years……The Whimsey Suitcase!

Over the years I think I have just about painted everything I could find, including a suitcase. This was a fun project that I had created for the studio and eventually one of my customers had to have it! No surface is safe around me, I have painted buckets, flower pots, toasters (yes, toasters) and have had so much fun just being creative.

This project takes me back to my “dumpster diving” days! I loved stopping at every (yes – every) antique store, flea market and anyplace off the side of the road that just looked like it would be fun to dig through! I have a stash of stuff that is still waiting for its turn to be transformed into a wonderful painted item. I even started to dig through my warehouse the other day to see what was left and ready to paint.