Meet "The Creep"

So, remember in my previous post how I mentioned that I nearly died over the piece Aaron was painting while I was working on my "Girls with Cake" painting the other day? Well, here's the painting he was working on!

 If you know me at all, you know that I am absolutely crazy for vintage stuffed bunny rabbits. I have been collecting them for years, and even though I have a lot…I'd say I don't have nearly enough. Some are still bright and candy colored, but most have faded with age and their pastel tones are perfection. The well loved and worn ones are my favorite. If you look around our home and studio you'll soon gather that they're sort of a mascot or trademark of ours. We've incorporated them into our artwork quite a bit, but I think this is the first time we dedicated an entire painting to a bunny. That's why we chose our fave bunny of all to model for this piece. He's our big and tall pink guy, affectionately named Creep. He earned the name Creep because we'd always set him up in a vignette with other bunnies or dolls, and because of his height we'd always prop him up in the back. Well, standing back there behind all of the smaller bunnies and dolls, with his staring red eye, I thought he looked like some big creep who was pretty much trying to photobomb the vignette. But I say it in a nice way. I love Creep.

Like I said…vintage bunnies are a big deal around here. This rolling cart holds one gathering of them in our living room.

And we make bunny artwork whenever we can! Our "bunny baby" die cut has been a collector favorite…and probably my all time fave die cut of ours. 

The die cut painting is based on one of my most prized possessions. This is the actual Bunny Baby.

And here's another Creep appearance. This here is a pin I made (and some rings) from our scrapbooking papers! The bunny was colored in with some washes of acrylic paint, mounted to chipboard, cut out, sealed, and then I added a pin to the back. And if you scroll way way down to the bottom of this blog where it says "Thank You so very much for visiting…" you will see him there as well! 

And yes…he even shows up on the cover of our book!

But I had been saying that we really needed to do more real deal paintings of our bunnies. So, while I was working on painting my girls the other day, Aaron started playing with some papers, and sketching out "The Creep" on this tall and skinny canvas.

He wanted to keep it on the loose side…and sorta give the painting the same time worn feel as Creep himself. Right here is the beginning stages with just the darks blocked in.

At this point my heart already started to beat faster! Sooo cute! 

I really just needed to see the eye and some color, and I knew how the painting would turn out. I snapped this pic and went back to work on my girls.

And in a little while he was all done! Here it is standing next to the real Creep. 

It's a deeper canvas, so the sides absolutely needed some color. You can't see a ton of it here, but he used a fun pink and cream polka dot patterned paper on the edges…and it is perfect!

We already got lots of emails and messages and comments asking if he is for sale. 

Well, he is in the shop now! We made prints and they look fantastic. It's mounted on a 1/2" thick wooden plaque and measures approximately 12" x 4". 

 I think this painting came out perfect, and Aaron is going to show me step by step how he did it, so that I can paint a bunch of my own as well. We've got bunnies in every shade of the vintage rainbow…aqua with pink ears…pale yellow with aqua ears…light pink with dark pink accents…

The painting possibilities are endless! 

And this got me thinking...how fun would it be to teach a vintage bunny mixed media painting class?! Maybe at a future Art Is You?! Or at a few small shops? I think it could be SO fun!

I had to share! I am just in love with it!

Anyone else collect these? 

Thanks for popping in! 

xo Jenny…and Aaron says hi!

Girls with Cake

Ahh being back home from our Art Is You trip has us filled with mixed emotions. We're missing our friends, missing the artsy energy and environment…just so many creative folks under one roof…you can take a walk to get some coffee and you'll pass rooms that are humming with art…anything from soldering, sewing, painting, sculpting…all in a 5 minute walk. We're missing getting and giving hugs all throughout the day, and seeing friends we have known for years online. 

But even though the event is over, the great energy is still with us. We're home, all of our stuff is unpacked, we're thrilled to be eating home cooked food, and work-wise we're back in the swing of things...and feeling more inspired than ever. Being at Art Is You reminds us to make more time for making personal artwork. We make art daily, but 95% of it is our WORK. Which, don't get me wrong, we love our work. But we need to make more of the art that speaks directly to our souls. Way more Art Journaling has to happen, and we have to take more time for fun and exploring new mediums and techniques. : )

Today while a bunch of orders dried, we did just that. I had started this canvas a long time ago and put it away. I had been meaning to pull it out and rework it, and finish it...and today that happened! 

Maybe my favorite detail is the simplest part…it has this fantastic crackle textured background. And of course it was loads of fun working on these sweet gals. 

And painting cakes is certainly on my list of favorite things. I love the texture on this one…it's my signature frosting technique...molding paste mixed with paint. 

I also love re-painting vintage wallpaper bits and cutting and pasting them into paintings. 

I shared some of the fantastic old photos I had purchased at Art Is You in my recap post. Well I had also picked up some vintage newspaper, which is perfect to use in our mixed media projects and art journals. We hadn't opened up the paper pack until today, and ohhh boy! This particular publication cracked us up. It's a 1975 edition of The Daily Express from the UK. And oh my gosh the headlines are insanity! All Doom and Gloom! 

And I heard from a UK friend that The Daily Express isn't any different today in 2014! ha!

Aaron got a big kick out of this article on the sports page. Apparently there was some controversy over some soccer players who were sore losers and kicked a hole in the door in the opposing team's locker room.

Well the gist of the story is that the team blamed a mouse for the hole in the door…saying that either the mouse chewed the hole, or possibly a player was scared of the mouse and tried to kick it but partially missed and ended up kicking a hole in the door. They said to be on the lookout for a limping Coventry mouse with broken feet or teeth. ha! 

We used some of the more subtle pages of the paper on the edges of our canvases. I love how old newspapers are so perfectly yellowed! 

And check out that corner of the canvas. This is what I call a "sweet spot". I love the distressed floral cluster, and the way the wash settles into the crackle…and I die for that faint aqua glow.

Here is my finished canvas. Don't these girls look sooo psyched about their cakes?! ha! Maybe they are in a sugar coma? I honestly love turn of the century portraits of children...they are rarely smiling. I find that so interesting.  

I really love how this piece turned out. I'm so glad that these girls are no longer on a shelf in the closet!  I'm really looking forward to painting lots more in this series. 

Wait until you see the piece Aaron worked on today!! It is sooo good! I nearly died! Ok not really… but almost. 

Hope your week is off to a great start! Thanks bunches for popping in! 

xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi!

When the mood strikes...paint!

Hey Happy Tuesday! We intended to pop in and say hi yesterday but we really lost track of time. We were completely immersed in several projects and we simply couldn't get ourselves to stop. As usual we were jumping from task to task, balancing work stuff, house stuff, studio stuff, life stuff. Some cleaning happened, some organizing happened, some more trim was painted, walls were patched and sanded, furniture got rearranged...yeah one of those days. And on top of that we were going over ideas and lesson plans for our upcoming classes that we are teaching at Art Is You in May! We are so excited  about them! We blogged about them here, and we'd love for you to take the time to check out all the details...and by all means...sign up and join us if you can! 

I'm not a gal who self promotes a whole lot, but when it comes to these classes, I have no problem shouting it from as many mountain tops as I can. Because I KNOW that you guys will absolutely love your experience. I KNOW that you'll learn a lot and laugh a lot. I KNOW that you'll whole heartedly impress yourself and unearth talents you didn't know you had. Come on down to Dixie to get your hands messy, expand your creative repertoire, and make some fabulous artwork in the process!

Artwork that's similar to what you're seeing in this post. You'll explore the many facets of mixed media...you'll learn all about layers and shading...experience first hand how to render cute girls' faces...create fun and fabulous backgrounds. It's an in-depth course...and "in-depth" doesn't mean that it will be hard. Nope, just the opposite. "In-depth" means that you'll get to take the time to really figure out what works for you. We won't ever quickly skim past the details. We'll stop, slow down, and offer you every bit of our 20 years of professional experience.   

Ok, end of sermon...lets get back to yesterday's fun project! 

We love combining our cute girls with textured and layered backgrounds. When it comes to creating backgrounds and layers, you'll notice that most artists have their go-to colors and textures. We're no different...we work within our own little comfort zone, we've got our special "tool box", our specific color palette that works for us. Very often we'll collage our backgrounds because we just love the extra bit of texture that patterned papers will bring to a piece. But yesterday's piece was all about paint. 

I honestly didn't have anything planned. I just let it all happen. Maybe the only thing I knew for sure was that there was going to be some black. Just like in our decor and my wardrobe. Black is necessary. Black balances our candy colors and sweet pastels.  

So...this piece was a lot of fun to work on. I rendered the girl all on her own...as you can see in the first pic at the top of this post. And as you can see, this girl has come a long way from that first photo. She started out as just a pencil sketch on water color paper and initially her coloring was very subtle. I had painted the canvas with a vague idea of how much space she'd occupy and approximately where she'd be positioned. I brought the background and the girl to a certain level of completion, and when the time was right I brought them together so that they could be completed as one cohesive piece of artwork. Doing it this way is a lot of fun. It's kinda exciting when you combine the two elements and see that you've got this whole new piece of artwork. After I adhered the gal to the canvas it was like starting all over...which really was fun. I added more texture, layered on some mediums, splashes of paint, sketchy pencil work...lots of stuff. 

Here she is hanging up. I like how it looks almost as if that is a window behind her...a glimpse of night sky. 

After painting this piece yesterday we got so excited about our upcoming classes. One of our classes focuses on abstract painting. And the other will feature portraits like this. We'll spend an entire day teaching all the techniques, tips, and tricks, so that in the end each student will have at the very least a go-to set of skills...a head start for future paintings. 

And once you've got your go-to "artist tool box" the sky is the limit! Whenever in the mood, you can paint a pretty girl, create a vibe, conjure up a dream world, and make fabulous artwork. 

Here is another painting that I worked on recently. A perfect example of what will be covered in our Abstractions class. I can't describe the joy I experience, starting with a blank canvas and building layers, creating movement, expressing a specific mood. I'm telling you...it's addictive, 

I really like how soft this piece turned out. Aaron says its his new favorite painting of mine. But seriously, he says that about each new one I do. He likes to point out his favorite areas of my paintings. What we refer to as "the sweet spot".

And now that the house is coming together we are able to hang art. It has been so long and we are really excited about it. Here are some of our personal favorites. Some are mine and some are Aaron's. Can you tell them a part? The two of us stay within our shared color palette which matches our home decor. But if you look closely you may be able to tell the difference between our respective paintings. We work in completely different styles, and in our classes we will both be teaching our personal methods..our favorite techniques and styles. It's fun to see how students drift toward either Aaron or myself based on the commonalities they sense in their own style. With abstracts it's all about two things...method & color. You wouldn't believe what a world of difference color makes. Imagine the above abstracts rendered in jewel tones, or earth tones even...with each student there are endless brand new possibilities. And this excites us so much!

It's not too late to sign up! Come for both classes or just one! Stay over night or just make a day trip of it if you are local enough! We can't say enough good things about Art Is You Art Retreats. Any fears you may have...seriously, throw them out the window! These are full day classes...One on One instructions! Plenty of time to learn, practice, create, and chat. You will leave confident, armed with new skills, and ready to create.

And we are offering a special discount! If you use a limited time promo code you can get $60.00 off your Art is Dixie purchase price!  When you register for either of our classes enter HOLIDAY (all caps) into the Event Code box on page 2 beside the package of days selection, and you will get $60 off your total registration.

Hope your week is off to a great start! Thanks so much for popping in! 

Love from NJ!

xo Jenny...and Aaron says hi!

Around here...

Ok, me and Aaron are grown adults. We are highly evolved human beings of average intelligence and moderate talent. On some days we may actually appear to have our stuff together. 

So...with that said, why on Earth were our lives so completely thrown off course by the simple act of setting our clocks ahead by one hour??! Seriously, all day Sunday was screwy...among a ton of other bits of odd behavior, we somehow ended up eating dinner at like 9pm. (which is way out of character for us) ...and today is still totally out of whack. We also have been burning the midnight oil this past week, trying keep up with orders and get home improvement projects done simultaneously...so I'm sure that that didn't help matters. But, on the upside...we've been checking lots of stuff off of the to-do list. Things are coming along in the kitchen and I'm very psyched about that! My current fave little spot is our chalkboard wall, which is where we've got our new stainless shelves and small kitchen implements hanging...they give it a classic culinary feel...but I've sweetened it up a tiny bit with pink & aqua napkins, towels, and some other things that are softer around the edges. I snapped the pic above because I loved the rare splash of afternoon sunlight our wall was graced with. 

Some of you have been following this blog for years and already know a bit about the different twists and turns that me and Aaron have taken on our art career path. I'm betting that lots of newer readers aren't aware that many many years ago we were painting murals and doing all sorts of decorative faux finishes, plasters, etc... We worked in homes, shops, restaurants, country clubs... And so, in doing some walls in our kitchen with techniques like this it was really a lot of fun. It was one of those 'revisiting our roots' moments. And even though we hadn't done that kind of work in over a decade, the skills are all still right there on the tips of tongues (or paint brushes)...you don't really forget techniques once they have become second nature to you. 

So, we wanted the kitchen to have a warm & cozy feel. Neutral, aged, and distressed walls as a backdrop to our candy colored vintage collectibles. You can see a glimpse of it in-progress above. There are a lot of layers and varying textures, but in the end it will be our collections and other decor items that will stand out. The goal for the walls is for them to fade into the background, very much like the paper that a great book is printed on...in the end you'll only see the words on the page...not the paper.

And speaking of our fabulous collections...This is one of our newer amazing vintage finds! We've been collecting these vintage cake decorating sets for years, but never came across one in such a fantastic box. I love that it props open to become a little display. It's from the 40s, and the imagery from this period is always so very inspiring.

We definitely have crossed that redecorating threshold where even though things are turned upside down...we are now able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

When redecorating there's this little magic that occurs every once in a while. Over the years, anytime we've painted rooms and things are moved to the side, sometimes accidental pairings happen that offer you a new way of seeing your old things. This is one of 'em...I loved this grouping!

We had been searching for some inexpensive clear glass jars for our pantry staples...the dry goods...stuff like rice, oats, quinoa, etc. And we were so happy to find these on the World Market site. They worked out perfectly and we'll be ordering more soon! (side note: in shipping, one of the jars arrived broken, which was a surprise since World Market packs Amazing. But anyway, Aaron called up about the broken jar and the girl cuts him off, says "no problem, a new one is on the way." seriously, he didn't even have time to explain and World Market had already remedied the situation. The new jar arrived within 2 days!...one more reason to love that place!)

So we are hoping by tomorrow we will feel a bit more on track. We are looking forward to having more daylight in our days...more daylight means more photos!

We have lots to do this week. We have a recipe review to share, a little "show and tell", and a peek at some Art Journal pages. Hope you'll check back in!

Love from the Jersey Shore!

xo Jenny...and Aaron says hi!