Coffee and a Kind bar at our favorite gelato place, Uncle Carlo's. 

Then I'm going to the studio to finish a new 30"x30" acrylic abstract. 

Stay tuned!!

 

New Art Studio!

After a month long renovation, my new studio at Orange Ave Studios, downtown Fort Pierce, is finally complete.  I moved all my painting gear from home and got it all organized and started work on a new painting last Saturday.  It was so great to have it finished and all my finished paintings hung!!!  I still need to paint the door as you can see, but that will be a quick process.  That cute chair in the corner will also get a coat of paint at some point.

There is even space to teach a small class at the long table!  Tonight for Art Walk, I will be teaching people how to paint a 3"x5" pear in acrylic paint on paper that they can paint in just a few minutes and take home with them.  A "Make and Take".  Perhaps it will inspire people to come back for a class.  ;-)

An Evening of Art Events

Our first stop tonight was at the Vero Beach Art Museum for the Art by the Sea show that is for all members of the Vero Beach Art Club.  The club is actually responsible for the museum's existence.  Lots of folk work hard to put this event together and it was wonderful, crowded as heck, but wonderful!

This is me with my acrylic abstract painting, "Fire Dance."  It was in a GREAT spot!  You could stand back from it a good ways and really get the impact of this large 36" x 36" painting in vibrant reds.  Like all the art in the show, it is for sale and mine is priced at $1200.  We saw a number of sales in the $300-400 range, so that seems to be the sweet spot for pricing to sell.  Something to remember for next year!

After a quick dinner at Panera Bread, hubby and I headed up to Aviation Blvd for the grand opening of Skip and Saskia Fuller's new studio.  I'm in total studio envy!  They will be able to produce HUGE paintings in this giant space!!!  And they're both incredibly talented artists.  They formerly had a studio at Art Mundo, but recently moved to Vero and this location is better suited for them now.  Skip does paintings on wood and Saskia is an amazing painter and jewelry designer.

I got a few candid shots of visitors, mainly Art Mundo folks, so we saw lots of people we know at the event.  They've done a fantastic job with everything, including the lighting.  It was a wonderful studio opening event!

I'm off to plein air paint at Adam's Ranch early tomorrow morning.  Sure hope we get better weather than the rain being predicted.  I'd love to get a couple of oil paintings done this year.  Last year, I only did one little watercolor.  I spent lots of time exploring and taking photos.  I know this year where I want to settle, so I should be able to get set up and started pretty quickly.  I'll share any decent results in my next post. ;-)

Have you been to any art events recently?  If not, it's a nice way to get out on the town and see something new and different.  There are normally snacks and wine available and art events tend to have a fun and upbeat atmosphere.  I encourage you to check out the next art event in your town.  A bonus is you may find a great piece of art for your home or office - something made in America - always a good thing!

Never miss a post:  you can follow me on Bloglovin.  You can download the app to your phone or tablet (it's free).  Go to the search menu and type in Marcy Brennan Art and click "follow."  This is how I follow my favorite blogs - great to settle in with at the end of the day!

New Studio at Art Mundo!

I spent the last few days bringing my paintings into my new studio at Art Mundo and getting it all hung.  I have half of the room and an artist friend has the other half.  We spent this afternoon getting her art hung and creating our door sign.  Photos of her work and our unique door sign to come.  Art Walk is this coming Wednesday evening from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, so come out for art, wine and food.  My studio is located in the loft (3rd floor), #318.  Art Mundo is located at 111 Orange Ave in beautiful, historic downtown Fort Pierce.

Back in the Studio

It's been awhile since I've had time to get into my home art studio and paint. Here's one of my two work tables and my palette scraped clean. It looks like a nice, colorful abstract in this photo.  I like to scape all the leftover colors off the palette and mix them together at the end of a painting session. It gives me some great grays for next time. I just put in a container and pop it in the freezer. 

Tonight I salvaged three 8"x8" canvas panels that I did a long time ago and just didn't like. I couldn't tell if I'd done acrylic or oil on them originally so the rework had to be in oils. I used a color palette of greens, yellows and purple and used the palette knife and impasto Liquin. I like to tape smaller canvases to a large piece of foam core so I can work either on the easel or hold the foam core in my hand to work more up close with the painting without having to hold the canvas and get paint everywhere.  Here are the three re-worked pieces - they're all abstracted nature scenes from my imagination.

While I've not painted a lot in my studio the past couple of months, I've been faithfully painting outdoors with my two plein air groups every week.  I tweaked a couple of plein air paintings tonight as well since I had lots of lovely greens and yellows left over from the re-worked paintings above.  I have more tweaking to do on a number of them.  So I laid all 12 of them out on my other table to study them and see which ones need more work.  I didn't realize how many I'd already done so far!

My studio looks really messy, but it's controlled chaos. I could have a studio twice this size and I'd somehow fill it up and still be wishing for more room.  ;-p

I've been reading several books and tons of blogs the past month to put together a business plan for my art biz which is why I haven't been in the studio.  I'm planning to make 2014 the year I turn a profit in my art biz.  This year, all my goals will be in writing with a complete plan to get there and all mapped out on a calendar. I'll be learning to use oils and cold wax medium next month for a whole new twist in abstract painting and will be working up 20 small canvases for a show at the Ft. Pierce library in June. I also plan to enter lots of shows this coming year and get my work "out there."  Do you have any ideas for where I can put my art locally this year for greater exposure and hopefully, sales? I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions!