Stratalicious!! It's not just about rocks ya know

I am crazy about rocks, most of my friends know this odd fact about me. I pick them up everywhere and have several displays in my studio. I thought I would talk about the history of this journey.
I have to say my obsession started when I was a kid and spent so much time piddling around in the creek. That was back in the days when we didn't have air conditioning; we only had one car; we certainly didn't have computers or electronic toys, so the summers were long and they were hot. I swear my Mom used to throw us out of the house and we couldn't come back till mealtime. I exaggerate, but it was nearly that bad.
It is definitely true that we played in the creek a lot. With rocks and crawdads mainly. Me with rocks, my brothers with crawdads.
So I have alwaysalwaysalways loved the way that rocks look, especially when they are in water. It is so amazing because their color intensifies and there is so much variation of hue.
Several years ago, I went up to St. Joseph, MI for an art fair and found the most amazing rocks there; finding them brought back childhood memories like crazy. I ended up carrying a ton of them home and even did a series prompted by these rocks, "The Community Series."

St. Joseph, MI - the east side of Lake Michigan

8x8 on claybord, part of my Community series

Then, I visited an Open Mine in New Hampshire and ohmygoodness, that was all she wrote. I could.not.get.enough. The idea of depicting cut away views of rocks kept nagging at me and I knew I had to play around with this idea. That is when I started my Stratalicious series.  Here are a few paintings I have done:

Then, some friends asked me to teach them. Which I did, here in St. Louis.
I was stunned at the work they made. Beautiful, amazing interpretations, all very diverse. Look at just a few student's work. One person had never painted before.......ahem.....sweet, huh?

But ya know, it's not really all about the rocks. It's more about layers and how to build effective color and texture and especially trying to create numerous variations of texture. In fact, the pieces end up being practically texture samplers that are lots of fun to make.

I'll be teaching this class at Art Unraveled and also at Squam (where we will include an Encaustic layer too!) Still room in both classes......would love to see you there!

Final Blog Book Tour, week #15 - and we have a winner!!

Congratulations to Connie, who is the lucky winner of the 'Whole Shabang' for the final stop on the Book Tour. Yipppee!!!

The Book (of course you know I'm talking about my book, more pimping) visits Misty Mawn today. Yep, Misty is one of my guest artists, - she created a lovely monochromatic white on white piece for the book. I lovelovelove the piece and it now hangs in my foyer, because she is so sweet she gave it to me. 

I was lucky enough to be in her very first ever class, which she taught at Artfest, I can't remember how many years ago. She was crazy nervous about it for no reason whatsoever, I might add. Because she was brilliant, such a generous teacher that I thoroughly enjoyed the class - she turned me on to the Stabilo Marks all pencil that has since become one of my 'must have' pencils. 

And then we became friends. Girls who hang spoons from their noses need to stick together, ha, ha.
And now we both have books out, yippeee, who would have thunk it? I got Misty's book in the mail last week and can attest to how fabulous it is - so fabulous that I have read it cover to cover and I seldom do that. So, go now and buy my book and Misty's book. You know you deserve it, tee, hee.
All right, pimping over.
Since it is our last week of the Blog Book Tour, I have a great give away in store for you.....

Stencils + Book + Wood Icing = the Whole Shebang!!! 

Enter early, enter often. Tweet & Facebook, let's make this one a biggie and end with a splash. I so appreciate the enthusiasm you have all displayed for these contests. It has been a lot of fun! I will pick a winner at the end of the day on Monday, May 30th.

What do you get

When you combine rice, pearl couscous, wild rice and macaroni?



I guess you are going to have to wait and see. I'm being a tease today, wink, wink. I will say it is most probably not what you think.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Congratulations!

Jennifer Higgens!!!!! won Beth's lovely photo.

Valley Ridge Recap

Here is a little slide show/movie of the student work from Valley Ridge. I took these with my iPhone, so some are a tad fuzzy and I'm sure some are upside down. But they are all gorgeous and the paintings work from any direction which means they are good abstracts!!

 
My next teaching gig is Art Unraveled, Click HERE to see my classes.

And don't forget to enter this week's contests HERE and HERE.

Not Yo' Mama or Yo' Papa ever painted like this

(for week #14 Blog Tour Give Away, click here.)

Yep, Katherine and I are at it again. While I was at Valley Ridge last weekend, we managed to conjure up an idea for a Painted Papers Party. Actually, I think Katherine already had the idea and I (being the brazen paint and paper girl that I am) somehow weaseled my way in. Ahem. 

So here's the deal:

2-1/2 days

Paste Painted Paper a la Mary Beth

Batik Paper a la Katherine

Music - yes, I will dance while I work

Paint

+

Paper

Really, need I say more?

Registration has only been open for a couple hours and the class is half filled.

So CLICK HERE for details. 

You know you want to join us.....

And......in other news, click here for details on this week's Blog Book Tour Give Away. It's a good one!!