Monday, September 30, 2013

Sketchbook Challenge & A winner

Kate is our lucky winner of my House painting, woo hoo!!!
And......I am the hostess of this month's Sketchbook Challenge. I would love it if you play along. Check it out HERE.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Sketchbook Challenge

Today you will find my post on Houses and Hideaways over at The Sketchbook Challenge. I share some photos from my studio and a few sketches, you can check it out HERE.
And.......if you would like a chance to win this mixed media painting that I did, please enter your name below. Leave some way for me to get in touch with you too, ok? I will draw a name on 9/30/13.

A House is not a Home without its People by Mary Beth Shaw

And don't forget to check out all the other terrific posts during The Sketchbook Challenge Blog Hop.  
Sept 9 - Gina Lee Kim 
Sept 10- Jacqueline Newbold 
Sept 11 - Sue Bleiweiss 
Sept 12 - Jackie Bowcutt 
Sept 13 - Kristin La Flamme 
Sept 14 - Jane Davies 
Sept 15Lyric Kinard
Sept 16 - Terry Grant 
Sept 17Carol Sloan 
Sept 19 - Lesley Riley  
Sept 20 - Traci Bunkers  
Sept 22 -  Desiree Habicht  
Sept 23 -  Jamie Fingal 
Sept 24 - Mary Beth Shaw 
Sept 29Jane LaFazio


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pam Carriker Stamps!

It is a lot of fun having friends who develop products, especially when they share. Naturally I was thrilled when Pam Carriker asked if I wanted to play with some of her new stamps. 
Well, duh!??!
I got to pick the stamps I wanted to use which was a pretty hard decision in and of itself because I like them all. Geez......
I decided to go with these two, which I picked because they fall into a category I call
"the great integrators" 
a phrase I use for stamps and stencils that add that little bit of 
sumpin' sumpin' to our pieces.
Thoughts of Courage stamp by Pam Carriker    (you can buy it HERE)




Sketched Background stamp by Pam Carriker    (you can buy it HERE)

 I like both of these stamps quite a bit and know I will be reaching for them again and again because they definitely add a little extra bit of interest to my art.
 So, here's what I made......first of all, I picked a substrate and I will admit to a wee bit of cheating on this part cause I have an enormous box of sample boards from classes and such. Things that are already started but need to be finished. I just grabbed one at random. 
In this case, it was a small Claybord that had been prepared with collage circles surrounded by carving. Plus Wood Icing texture created with a stencil and also with a palette knife.
I selected my materials - Porfolio Oil Pastels, Derwent Inktense Pencils, and two colors of paint, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. Plus White of course. I randomly worked a bit of color into the carved and textured areas. 
The composition looked a bit spare to me, so I decided to add some collage elements, basically more things in a circle motif, using Wholey paper I got when I was at Random Arts. This stuff is really cool. I glued it down with Regular Gel Medium, underneath and on top of the collage elements. 
And then I started painting, mixing the 2 paints together to create nice neutral colors, lots of white. I smeared the white into the Portfolio (that's the green part) and rubbed it with my finger. 
With the Inktense pencil, I dipped it straight into my water and 'painted' directly onto the circles at the top, er, that is now the bottom as I flipped the piece, those brown parts.
And finally I used the stamps to add accents with paint and a Staz-On ink pad. Along the bottom, I used Sketched Background with white paint. Then I used Thoughts of Courage around the circle area, wiping away in certain areas so it looked like it was both behind and on top of the composition. 
See what I mean? Great Integrators!!!
Well done, Pam.
You can check out all of Pam's stamps HERE. 
And, in case you haven't been following along, here are the Blog Hop participants/dates.

Thursday Sept 5th: Seth Apter
Thursday Sept 12th: Traci Bautista
Thursday Sept 19th: Mary Beth Shaw (you are here now)
Thursday Sept 26th:Dina Wakley
Thursday Oct 3rd: Jen Cushman
Thursday Oct 10th: Christen Olivarez

 

Sunday, September 08, 2013

The Sketchbook Challenge Blog Hop

The sketchbook challenge is hosting a very exciting 21 day blog hop event to celebrate this months Houses and Hideaways theme!  Each day, beginning on September 9, 2013you’ll find a new post on the sketchbook challenge blog related to this month's theme that will also include a link to the artist's own blog, where you’ll find tutorials, video’s, studio tours, exciting giveaways and more! 

Take a look at the line up of posts below and follow them all for continued inspiration!

Sept 9 - Gina Lee Kim 
Sept 10- Jacqueline Newbold 
Sept 11 - Sue Bleiweiss 
Sept 12 - Jackie Bowcutt 
Sept 13 - Kristin La Flamme 
Sept 14 - Jane Davies 
Sept 15Lyric Kinard
Sept 16 - Terry Grant 
Sept 17Carol Sloan 
Sept 19 - Lesley Riley  
Sept 20 - Traci Bunkers  
Sept 22 -  Desiree Habicht  
Sept 23 -  Jamie Fingal 
Sept 24 - Mary Beth Shaw 
Sept 29Jane LaFazio 


Saturday, September 07, 2013

Paint - Shadow and Highlights

This has got to be one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. The opportunity to crawl into the head of an artist fascinates me, I am so grateful she shared her process. The result is stunning.