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We started our Sunday afternoon watercolor classes, this past Sunday. I had eight beautiful and creative women trying their hand at painting with watercolors. We used contour drawing and watercolor techniques to create these pieces from my old bottle collection. Each piece was unique and a reflection of the person who created it. It is such a pleasure to share this journey with these ladies, they are each so much fun to work with. Our next class will be Sunday February 5th. If you would like to be a part of the class, email me at sharen@sharenchatterton.com

                                   

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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

I love spring! Well not the bad weather that we can get here in North Texas, but I do love the flowers and butterflies. Thought I would share a few of my favorite photos, all taken this spring. There are just so many flowers and butterflies to paint! I’m pretty sure you will see my vision of some of these on a canvas coming to you in the near future.

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

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!

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.

Spring is definitely in the air and of coarse gardening and flowers are forever on my mind. My newest piece is a watercolor, painted on Arches 140 lb Natural White watercolor paper. I love pansies, these do really well in late fall here in North Texas and will survive and bloom through much of the winter (except when we get snow and freezing temps for four days). Then in early spring they really come alive again, and will bloom up until we start getting those warm Texas temps.  Our pansies are just beautiful now. This piece has a few of those gardening necessities, along with some gorgeous pansies. I am still working on it, as usual. There is still plenty of work to be done on the soil and leaves, as I continue to layer the watercolors to get the intensity that I am looking for in them. Just a note, I will be demo painting at the Central Market in Southlake, Saturday April 2, 2011 and I will be showing and selling at the New Vintage Wine and Gallery Trail Exhibit and Sale, Lancaster Theater and Weems Alley, Grapevine, Texas, Saturday, April 9, 2011, hope you can come by and visit me, at either or both these events.

I am working away on my pages in my Common Ground Art Journal. These are not only fun to draw and paint, but I am leaning so much about organic gardening, bugs, worms, and butterflies OH MY!  The Red Wiggler Earthworms are great for using in a worm farm, they create the worm casting (worm poop to some of us) that is so fantastic on gardens, providing a much needed source of organic fertilizer for those growing veggies. I also took the small watercolors of the Painted Lady and the Gulf Fritillary butterflies I did a couple of weeks ago and put them each on a page. I then sketched and painted in watercolors, some of their caterpillar plant favorites.  To attract the Painted Lady butterfly, plant mallow and thistle in a container. To attract the Gulf Fritillary butterfly, plant a passion vine. These plants will attract the butterflies, who will in turn lay their eggs on them; then the caterpillars will have a much loved food source to munch on as they grow. I’m just “sayin” in gardening combined with art, the information is endless, the drawing and painting opportunities abound!

What beautiful February weather we are having! 76 to almost 80 degrees this weekend. Carter tilled and planted our plot at the Common Grounds Community Garden, I painted the veggie signs for him, so it will look pretty. We are going to have Romaine Lettuce, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, peas, spinach, cauliflower and other organic veggies, can hardly wait till harvest time.  I have also started a Common Grounds Garden Art Journal. I will be sketching the veggies, organic products, bugs, butterflies, whatever else happens to cross my sketch pad as I wonder the garden. Check back as I post my sketches. If you are a Common Grounds Community Garden Plot owner, see the info below, on a Garden Art Journal group being formed.

If you are a Common Grounds Plot owner, I will be forming a group for Garden Art Journaling, here’s the info:

Art in the Common Ground’s Garden- Creating a Garden Art Journal

Are there any Common Ground garden folks interested in starting up a group to learn and create for themselves, a Common Ground “Garden Art Journal”? The purpose of the group would be for each of us to create a garden art journal, filled with either/or a combination of sketch pages, watercolor pages, mixed media pages, and collage pages; on things of interest to you in our gardens. The garden art journal would allow those of us creating one, to learn not only about different aspects of gardening, but also about sketching, using watercolors, mixed media, collage, and other art techniques for journaling. We could meet out at the garden, say once a month, or whatever we agree upon. Sharen would go over some journaing technique, then we would all do some sketching/ art journaling at the garden; next we would gather info about our entry. Then we would journal the info on our created page. Each time we meet, Sharen would go over another journaling technique, then we would disperse into the garden to sketch/art journal. Even folks who don’t feel comfortable drawing, might enjoy mixed media journaling, collage journaling or find out that they actually can sketch! We would all be learning about gardening and creating art at the same time. The group would begin in March. Once we know who is interested, we will work out the details.

Preliminary Supple list each person would need to bring ( All can be found at Hobby Lobby):
Mixed Media Sketch Book (has thicker pages that can take watercolor, felt tip pens, etc. (size, somewhere around a 6″ x  9″, but not much larger than an 8″ x 10″)
HB and 3 HB graphite pencils
gum or kneaded eraser
small watercolor set such as the Sakura Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box or a box of watercolor pencils or water soluble color crayons
Koi Self Moistening Art Brush #2 or #6  or a small watercolor brush

If you are interested RSVP to:

sharen@sharenchatterton.com
Subject line: Garden Art Journal

February’s sketchbook Challenge theme is opposites. I did a couple of sketches, one is of butterflies, who would of guessed. I did a black swallowtail, a painted lady, a couple of made up, not true monarchs. The small butterflies are on 2.5″ x 3.5″ watercolor paper, about artist trading card size. All four are done in watercolor and black felt tip pen. I’m going with the fact that butterflies have wings on the opposite sides of their bodies. The second one I did is the red cardinal, the contrast of this bright red cardinal and the neutral winter landscape are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Also included an image of my February create a calender page. For February I did pansies, once again in graphite a 5B and a blending stump. As always, thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy what I’ve shared.

We had our first meeting for the NRH Common Ground Community Garden Saturday morning and it went fantastic. The house was packed with enthusiastic gardeners and there was so much good information shared by all. The Common Grounds Painting was unveiled and received enthusiastically by all. The painting will now be framed and then mounted on the outside of the East side of the new garden shed, under the pergola. I can hardly wait. Although it is winter, the garden looks really good. This warm weather has many catching the first indication of spring fever. March and April can’t come soon enough, with their abundant planting and beautiful colors. The coming months will bring many opportunities for our community to come together, in planting, in fun and in fellowship at our wonderful NRH Common Ground Community Garden.

Just wanted to share  a new painting I just finished. It is painted on 110 lb acid free natural white acrylic paper. I was inspired by a photo I had taken this past summer of a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly that had landed on a pink zinnia in our side yard. I actually used the butterfly and zinnia as part of my January Sketch for the Sketchbook Challenge and decided to expand on the image and create an entire painting. I videoed my painting process and so if you can sit through a little over 12 minutes of video, you can actually watch me journey through this piece. Enjoy.

I actually see the end in site on the Common Ground painting. I have been working on it some over the holidays and I have color on almost the whole canvas. Now the real detail work begins. I will go through each section, finishing all parts, completing all the details that make the painting look more realistic. I actually took a few videos of the process and put clips from those videos together, creating the following video. Wow, do I ever have a new appreciation for those folks that make films for a living. As you watch it, keep in mind this is only my third video, there are a few blurry clips and the music probably only appeals to me, but I hope you enjoy the journey, I’ve created. I’ve also included a few photos of the progress on this ever evolving creation. I’ve put in the sky back ground, I may darken it up a bit as the painting continues to evolve. Would love to hear comments, critiques, or what you think, about the painting, community gardens or whatever strikes your fancy.