January 16th, 2012
I often get asked what is Art Journaling. The answer to that is as varied as there are folks who art journal. For me I do a couple of different types of art journaling.
One type that I engage in is visual art journaling where I create visually appealing journal pages, sometimes theme based, sometimes not. I use different types of media, such as shiva oil sticks, pan pastels, acrylics, acrylic inks, different types of collage materials, and more. For me this type of journaling is more experimental, it gives me the opportunity to use and experiment with different media to create art. I utilize these journals to create pages that I may or may not use at a later date to inspire a new canvas piece.
I also create art pages for journaling. On these pages, I create backgrounds, using different techniques; then I journal over them or do paintings etc. on them. In nature art journaling, I concentrate on my surroundings, focusing on aspects in nature. It might be a texas sage plant, onions in the garden, a wren in my back yard, or something else that I am observing and painting. I do nature art journaling, visual art journaling and journaling on art pages on a regular bases. There are so many variations on art journaling, what is most important is to find something that works for you and helps you get to whatever place you want to be. It may be that you need a kick start in your creative process, a chance to experiment with new media or techniques, maybe you want to be more observant of your surroundings, maybe you need a creative outlet for stress relief. Art journaling allows you the freedom to create without worrying about doing something a right or wrong way; you just do it your way and have fun!
Tags: Art Journal, nature art journal, visual journal
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October 27th, 2011
If you haven’t been out to the Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve, you should really take a short trip out there. Set in the heart of Southlake it is a beautiful 76 acre example of the Cross Timbers ecosystem. There are hiking trails, birds, and wildlife to be discovered and explored. Ever couple of months we put up a new exhibit in the Nature Center building, right now it is all about hummingbirds, but soon will be replaced by creatures of the night. On Saturday, November 5th from 7pm until 10pm they will have have their major fund raiser “Naturally Sweet” this years theme is “Creatures of the Night. The event is $50.00 per person which gives you
Unlimited Dessert & Savory Samplings
Complimentary Wine
Sweet & Savory Tastings from North Tarrant County Chefs
Silent Auction and Themed Gift Baskets
Gallery Offerings from Local Artists
Not to mention you will be supporting the Bob Jones Nature Center and Preserve. I will be one of the Local Artists at the Event, buy a ticket and come on out!
Bob Jones Nature Center
Tags: Bob Jones Nature Center, conservation, Hummingbird, Naturally Sweet, Nature
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October 10th, 2011
I went on a wonderful Artist Retreat in Austin a couple of weeks ago. The “Image Gathering and Harvesting Women’s Retreat” was held at Turtle Crow studios, by Pamela Underwood and Jane LaFazio. We were thirteen women in the beautiful hill country of Austin, collecting and creating meaningful images through mixed media and expressive arts techniques including Intuitive Collage, carved block print, mono print with stitching, drawing, journaling and site specific land art.
Pamela and Jane
Below is a sample of some of my work, Collen’s, Donna’s, Jane’s and Tess’s work below that.
We spent one morning at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Jane gave us a lesson on sketching and watercolor on site.
Here are some of the pieces created from our outing
We hiked to some cairnes created on adjacent lands.
We also created a cache to hold all of our creations, there were some absolutely beautiful boxes created by all.
Pete’s cache
Stacey’s cache
We stayed and worked in Pamela’s beautiful Studio built specifically for retreats.
I meet twelve creative women on the first day, by the end of the retreat I had made twelve fast friends, who enriched my life with their hearts and their art.
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September 12th, 2011
I’ve finally finished my painting of those delicious summer strawberries, that I picked up at Central Market in Southlake. Poured out on the kitchen counter, I took 50 or so pictures from different angles. Then as I was painting the strawberries, I would buy a pint of ripe berries, use a few for reference and eat the rest. Now that’s the way to paint. I love creating the optical illusion of depth and sparkle that makes these strawberries take on that mouth watering look. I’m not sure this image does the strawberries justice, but they look as if you could pick them right off the canvas. This is a 36″ x 48″ gallery wrapped canvas, with the painting taken around the edges. It is created with professional grade acrylics and coated with an acrylic varnish to protect it for posterity and ready to hang on the wall. “Summerlicious Strawberries” has officially been moved out of my studio, and I am ready for my next piece. If you are interest in this piece or have a comment or critique, I would love to hear from you. Email me at sharen@sharenchatterton.com or leave a comment here.
Tags: Acrylic painting, Fort Worth Artist Sharen Chatterton, Gardening, Strawberries
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August 31st, 2011
The demo Monday night at the September Trinity Art Guild meeting was so inspiring. James Tennison, is not only an accomplished artist, he is such an inspiring person. I don’t do portraits, nor do I work in oils, but I was so captivated by his techniques, his words of wisdom, often quoted from his mentors/admired artists, and his passion for his art. He is a genuine person and such a humble man. Not only is he an accomplished portrait artist (he did the portrait of Prior Texas Governor Ann Richards), but he is doing a Year in Fort Worth, “Tennison’s Take on Cowtown”. He is documenting the people, places, events and culture of Cowtown. His exploration will culminate in an exhibition at Galerie Kornye West in 2012 and a book depicting his experience and resulting paintings. You can get updates and more information from Tennison’s blog www.ayearinfortworth.com.
On another small note, my painting “Industrial Butterfly One”, won second place in the painting of the month at the TAG meeting, thank you to Asel Art for the gift certificate.
Tags: A year in Fort Worth, Butterfly Art, James Tennison, Trinity Art Guild
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August 28th, 2011
I finally finished up the Giraffe that was commissioned as a gift for the new nursery, of a soon to arrive baby boy. I hope to have pictures of it hanging in the nursery once they get it all put together. When I delivered it, the “mom to be” was so surprised and really loved it. I can just see a nursery done in the giraffe print with other jungle animals. I am really loving carrying my art over the edges, and continued with that theme in this piece. It really looks great from the sides and will show well hanging on a wall; from any angle. If you are interested in have a commissioned piece done, contact me at sharen@sharenchatterton.com 
Tags: animal art, Art for babies room, commissioned art work, Giraffe, Nature
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July 12th, 2011
I stumbled across the Prayer Flag Project as I was reading Jane LaFazio’s blog site. I was inspired to create two artist prayer flags that are now hanging in my side yard. The one with the sunflowers on it is a prayer for my family, as all families have, we have issues from time to time and this is a prayer to Trust in God and he will guide us to work though those issues in his own time. The other one is a prayer to live a simpler life according to God’s plan, not my own; not always an easy thing to do. I love that I see my prayer flags every time I go in my side yard (with three dogs, that is many times a day, to take them out to potty). What a wonderful reminder to send up a little prayer each time I see them. I am not a fiber artist, by any stretch of the imagination, but I have enjoyed adding fabric to my mix of creative outlets.
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June 27th, 2011
We had a great time at our 2nd sketchbook Crawl on June 18th at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens. It was actually pretty nice when we arrived at 10 am, nice breeze and by about 12:00 pm when we were leaving, it was beginning to warm up a bit, so for a hot summer day, it wasn’t bad out among the shade trees at the Gardens. There were folks painting, sketching, visiting and having an all around creative time. Our next sketch crawl will be July 16. If you are interested in coming, email me at sharen@sharenchatterton.com for more info.
Tags: Grapevine Art Project, Grapevine Botanical Gardens, Sketchbook crawl
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June 20th, 2011
I am co-teaching a pilot project out at the Bob Jones Nature Center, in conjunction with the Fort Worth After School program. We have a group of about 25 students, middle school and high school, from Rosemont and Daggett middle schools and Eastern Hills High School, that are traveling over to the BJNC to experience Nature and Art. The Program called Ollie’s Greening Up, in honor of Darrin Oliver No. 28, pitcher for the Texas Rangers, a Southlake resident, outdoor/nature lover, who is helping to fund the project. We will be covering two citizen science projects, the Urban Bird Watch and Monarch Tagging; as well as conservation issues. Marshall Grain in Grapevine will be providing a tour of their facility, along with information about the green nursery business. The students will get to plant some milkweed seeds, that will be kept at the greenhouse at BJNC. These will eventually provide food and habitat for Monarchs. All of the information presented to the students will be incorporated into an art journal. Students will be creating their own art journals, depicting events and aspects of nature that they will be exposed to in this project. The students are really enjoying creating in their journals and we are all enjoying nature and art!
Tags: Bob Jones Nature Center, Citizen Science Project, Ollie's Greening Up
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June 14th, 2011
Last night I had the pleasure of doing a demonstration of my painting process at the Granbury Art Association. I was invited back in January or February by the Granbury Art Association, located in the Shanley House in Granbury, to do a demonstration of my art process for their June meeting. Everyone was absolutely wonderful and I think we all had a great time. Of coarse getting to that point was an experience in itself. I know I have been a bit nervous ever since Lilly Lovell contacted me about doing the demo. I think my first comment to Lilly when she asked me to come and show their membership my painting process, was “I’m not really sure I have a painting process, but sure I’ll do it, hopefully, I’ll think of something.” So needless to say since I accepted, I have been trying to figure out, how exactly do I paint. I never really thought about my process, I just paint. Once I began thinking about how I paint, it became pretty clear that I do in fact have a method to my madness and it was truly a pleasure sharing what I do, with this creative group of people. After reflecting on the photos and video, my husband took; you know, studying how I looked, talked etc., I now have a new mantra that I keep repeating to my self, “next time, stand up straighter, don’t talk so fast, and wear pants that aren’t so saggy in the rear”, ah, the things we take with us from our experiences. Thank you Granbury Art Association for inviting me, I had a great time!
Tags: Acrylics, Granbury Art Association, Painting Demonstration, Stawberries
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June 1st, 2011
I just finished up a watercolor of one of Karen’s miniature horses, Doc. It was really fun painting this guy, with his cockeyed halter and soft black eyes. I am hoping to do one of Spirit in the near future. They are both beautiful animals and I know Karen and Jim really enjoy them out on Blue Moon Farm. Check out more about Blue Moon Farm at
www.bluemoonfarmtexas.com/
Tags: Blue Moon Farm Texas, Karen Rester, miniature horses, watercolor
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May 16th, 2011
I have been working quit a bit in my visual journals. I have several of them going at one time, so I just switch off, depending on which one I feel like creating in. I have an experimental journal, that I am trying new techniques, new ways to use old techniques, etc. Just experimenting, being creative, giving myself permission to just make art. I also journal some favorite quotes, songs, verses, or whatever strikes my fancy, on some of those pages. Of coarse I am still adding to my gardening art journal, and have created several new pages in that journal. I love looking at the two. They are both evolving in such different directions. I feel like these journals have helped me to loosen up in my work, become more creative and just paint because it is what I love. If you are interested I am starting up a sketchbook crawl group, our first meeting is Saturday May 28th, 10 am until about 12pm, at Central Market in Southlake. Hope you can come out and join us.
Tags: Art Journaling, Grapevine Botanical Gardens, Sketchbook crawl, visual journal
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May 10th, 2011
Last weekend, I painted at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens with several other artists in honor of National Public Garden Day. The Gardens were beautiful and the weather was very nice, a little warm, but breezy. I enjoyed talking to all the folks that came out and I really enjoyed drawing and painting. I was inspired by a very interesting tree trunk, I sketched in a few more roots and made it a little more gnarled, then painted it with watercolor. Working in my experimental journal, I sketched the tree in lightly, getting things where I wanted them, then began to glaze with my watercolors. I had already created the background colors with some acrylic inks and then began to put the transparent glazes of the watercolor on top, building up the beautiful colors. I’m not sure the image does the colors justice, but the tree and background are done in a vibrant yellow oranges and very earthy browns. Once I got home, I added the interesting handmade paper on the right side of the tree and then journaled a favorite verse of mine from a song by Joni Mitchell.
“They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people a dollar and a half just to see’em
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
Tags: art, Grapevine Botanical Gardens, National Public Garden Day, Nature
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May 4th, 2011
Saturday was a beautiful day for the North Richland Hills Community Garden Ribbon Cutting, officially opening up the “Common Ground” Garden. There were so many people there, from Mayor Trevino to the kids from Holiday Heights, singing some great garden songs. The garden looked really fantastic, all the plots are planted and growing beautifully. The new rain barrel system on the North side will be up and running before long and the rain barrels were painted so creatively by Victoria Barth, they really add fun and color to the garden. The painting I did for the garden “Common Grounds” was unveiled in it’s new home. It was framed and mounted on the east side of the garden shed and I must say it looked spectacular. It was so much fun face painting and visiting with all the folks that came out for the celebration.
Read more about the ribbon cutting here:
Our Everyday Earth
Tags: butterfly, Common Ground, Community Garden, Flowers, Gardening, North Richland Hills Community Garden, Organic gardening
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April 14th, 2011
Monday evening I was so very proud to attend the North Richland Hills City Council meeting. As city council meetings go it was pretty much business as usual, however, what made it so nice, was one very special recognition on the agenda. The City Council took the time to recognize all the many folks that had a hand in getting the Common Grounds Garden off and growing. They gave each of us, individual recognition for our contribution, complete with a beautiful certificate “suitable for framing” and a nice set of garden tools with “Common Ground NRH founding Supporter” on the handles. Thanks so much to the City of North Richland Hills and to all the community member who have contributed so much of their time and energy to make Common Grounds Community Garden a reality. The Common Ground NRH Community Garden Ribbon cutting will be Saturday April 30, 2011 at 10:00 am at the garden, 5302 Davis Boulevard, NRH, Texas. They will also be unveiling the outdoor art piece I did, “Common Grounds”. Hope to see many of you there.
Check out the Common Grounds website
Tags: Community Gardens, Garden and Art, North Richland Hills Common Grounds Garden, Organic gardening
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March 29th, 2011
I finished my new piece with the Hydrangea in the glass bowl. I really love this piece and I am pretty proud of the finished product. Although it is a step away from my classic bright colors, it is still very organic and reveals the beauty of not only the hydrangea, done in white with cerulean blue shading, but the green and brown stems intermingled in the glass bowl. I’m calling it Flowers for Finley, after all the inspiration came from flowers that were sent in congratulations of the birth of my grandson, Finley. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed painting it. Just to let you all know, I will be doing some demo painting at the “Art Market” located at Central Market in Southlake, this Saturday, April 2 from 11:00am til 6:00pm, I would love to have each and everyone of you come by, introduce yourself and enjoy the demos. I will also be exhibiting “Flowers for Finley”, as well as other piece as one of the artist set up at the New Vintage Wine and Gallery Trail Art Exhibit and Sale, Saturday, April 9th at the Lancaster Theater and Weems Alley, on Main Street in Grapevine. Show hours are 10:00am til 5:00pm, come out and enjoy a great evening of wine and art!
Tags: Art Market, Central Market, Central Market Southlake, Lancaster Theater Grapevine Texas, New Vintage WIne and Gallery Trail
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March 22nd, 2011
The last two weekends I have meet with some wonderful ladies that are interested in doing a garden art journal at our Common Grounds Community Garden, here in North Richland Hills. We had so much fun on both days and we all learned a little about gardening, journaling and art. We will meet again next month on April 23, at 1:00 in the garden for some more garden and art journaling.
Tags: Art Journaling, Common Ground Community Garden NRH, Gardening
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