123 Days, Day 46 - Norman Rockwell Exhibit Opening

The Columbia Museum of Art has gotten some fine exhibits in the past few years. Tonight was the Opening of yet another great collection of work by one of America's best known Illustrators, Norman Rockwell. The Exhibit includes 50 photographs that Rockwell took as reference material for his paintings along with some of his very famous originals which were painted in oils and used for magazine publications, primarily the Saturday Evening Post. As part of the celebration, About Face, a group of painters who regularly paint from live models at the museum, painted a few people dressed in similar costumes of the time period in which Rockwell lived. I was so happy to be a model for this group of talented painters. Here are some highlights of the night:

      

123 Days, Day 43 - Kathy Clark at Trenholm Artists Guild

The Second Monday of every month except Summer months the Trenholm Artists Guild meets. We are a group of both Professional and Amatuer Artists who get together to see/hear a program by another artist. And, it is so nice to see friends with similar interests. Anyone can join, so let me know it you are interested, and I'll try to give you some info.

Tonight, Kathy Clark of Sullivan's Island gave a demo. Kathy works with a Palette Knife and Oil Paints. Here are some pictures of her Demo. She starts working thin with darks and gradually adds her accent colors and then lights. Kathy was working from a photo.

 Until Tomorrow,

Being Prolific,

Barbie

   

123 Days, Day 42 - "Life is a Game"

I read this today and thought it was worth sharing...

10 Rules for Being Human by Dr Cherie Carter-Scott, from “If Life is a Game, these are the Rules”

 1)    You will receive a body. You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

2)    You will be presented with lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called ‘life.’ Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

3)    There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.

4)    A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5)    Learning does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6)    ‘There’ is no better than ‘here’. When your ‘there’ has become a ‘here,’ you will simply obtain a ‘there’ that will look better to you than your present ‘here’.

7)    Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8)    What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

9)    Your answers lie inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10) You will forget all of this at birth. You can remember it if you want by unravelling the double helix of inner knowing.

.............I also went to the SC State Fair with a friend, Part of "The Game", to see the Art, other Exhibits, and to eat an Elephant Ear. :) 

 It was Delicious!

                                           Opening I, Watercolor, (c)BarbieMathis 2014 

Enjoy the Game!

Being Prolific,

Barbie

123 Days, Day 40 - Working on Paintings

Sometimes when it comes down to it, I just have to paint and finish paintings. Today, I put another layer of paint on the chair around to poodle, and it's not yet finished. And, I started the commission of this little boy by a Christmas tree.

More Tomorrow...

Being Prolific,

Barbie
www.BarbieMathis.com 

123 Days, Day 39 - Painting Mountains

This past weekend I went to NC for a little R & R with a friend. So, I had my Watercolor Class paint the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a perfect Value Study as well as a study in Perspective. We started out with very light, cool, background colors, and as we layered and moved to the foreground, things became warmer and more detailed. These paintings are not quite done, but you can get the idea of what we were trying to accomplish.

Wendel and Corinne with their Paintings

  

 I just love how they each have their own unique style!

Here are some of mine that I did previously and one today.  

A goal this year is to finish some of my demos! 

 I will miss Wendel and Corinne as this was their last day for awhile. 

Happy Painting to you all!

Being Prolific~

Barbie

123 Days, Day 38 - Make a Move

I was watching "My Morning Mentor" today by Mary Morrissey. She has been talking for the past few days about a book by Price Pritchett titled You Squared.  One of the steps in moving forward and making a Quantum Leap in some area of you life is "Make a Move Before You Are Ready". I really identified with this because I am the type that wants everything to be perfect before beginning. And, "Making a Move" seems counterintuitive to me when I'm not "feeling it". But, Price has such a great point. He says to make the leap and fine tune as you go along. You can frame out the details as you go. In fact, "Getting Ready is a Stalling Tactic". If you wait until it's perfect, you will never get it done. So, today, I did not sign up for Soda City--stilling feeling like I'm not sure, but I did order the book by Price Pritchett. And, I will work toward getting things ready for my Studio #28 at Tapp's Arts Center, and the Holiday Market for Trenholm Artists Guild. I've also been designing "Little Square Paintings" and working on Commissions. So, tomorrow, I will teach a watercolor class, and then start leaping...maybe even while in the class painting mountain scenes.

Enjoying the journey, making baby leaps and Being Prolific,

Barbie      

123 Days, Day 37 - Making Calligraphy Cards

Hello everyone! I've taken a break from writing for the past 5 days, and now I'm back. Today I taught 2 separate Calligraphy Classes --one a Tapp's Arts Center in my Studio #28, and the other at my house. Students always seem to enjoy getting creative with their writing by making cards of all kinds--Greeting Cards, Gift Cards and Placecards. We use a mixture of watercolor paper, parchment paper and colored cardstock for the supports. And, to write, we use flat paint brushes, watercolors, inks, and even masking fluid. Then, to embellish the cards even further, we use metallic inks and markers, gold leafing, collage papers and more. These cards are each unique works of art that look hard to do, but are really simple if you know how to use the supplies.

      Here are some samples:

   
A student named Jevettra had a great idea for a seating chart or place card with a magnolia leaf:

I learn something new everyday!

If you are interested in Calligraphy Classes, message me at BarbieMathisStudio@gmail.com.
Maybe we can work out something soon. Until then, I'll leave you with some quotes that I saw on the wall of a shop in Asheville, NC this past weekend...

Being Prolific,

Barbie

 

123 Days, Day 32 - Taking a Break

"Nature has been for me, for as long as I remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure, and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion."
Lorraine Anderson (1952 - ) - Quoted in The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women,  Gail McMeekin, Conari Press, 2000, p27.


I'm going to be going out of town for a couple of days, so I won't be writing my blog until Sunday night mainly because where I'm going doesn't have wifi. But, I'm really looking forward to the time in the mountains. It always sparks ideas whether I'm taking a walk in the woods, or I'm in town looking through shops. I should come back with some good photos and inspiration to share with you in a couple of days.  

Until then, Be Blessed! It's been a Glorious Day outside in Sunny SC. Not too hot, and a slight breeze. For that, I'm thankful. 

Being Prolific,

Barbie  



“A change is as good as a rest.” 
― Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis

123 Days, Day 31 - Finished a Painting

I have come to learn that one of my biggest challenges in life is finishing what I started. At times I seriously wonder if I have undiagnosed ADD at the age of, well, almost senior adulthood. But, today I finished a painting that I had set aside for months. It's a painting commissioned by my dear cousin, Donna, who is my late Aunt Ruby's daughter on my mother's side. She had seen another painting that I had done several years ago of Purple Orchids that I named Royalty since Purple is often known for being a Royal color. I did "flop" the image and add more to it since she wanted a larger image to match the size of another that she had purchased. So, this is "Royalty II":

I was playing around with a mat, and I like this section of the painting best:

However, I hope my cousin, Donna, enjoys the whole painting. Donna, I will mail it tomorrow!

Here are some quotes about finishing that are "speaking" to me...especially this first one by Dale E.
I could easily say, that finishing paintings is important, but just painting at all is important to me...however, it does help when you have a commission to finish it--to be reliable, and to get paid.
That's why I also like Joyce Meyer's quote, and the others...

 "Finishing races is important, but racing is more important."
Dale Earnhardt

Getting organized in the normal routines of life and finishing little projects you've started is an important first step toward realizing larger goals. If you can't get a handle on the small things, how will you ever get it together to focus on the big things?

Joyce Meyer

When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it - a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand - as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there's a clash between the two, it's bad art.

Marc Chagall

Do not plan for ventures before finishing what's at hand.

Euripides

Finishing games has been something I'm really proud of, seeing something through to the end.

Felicia Day

I've been working on my finishing for quite some time. It's just a question of paying attention to the minor details.

Cobi Jones

Feeling victorious for "Finishing"!!!

And, Being Prolific,

Barbie

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/cobijones479763.html#zdHhyTk3FjJgkPXd.99

123 Days, Day 30 - Calligraphy Classes

Tuesdays are Calligraphy days for me with a class in the morning and a class at night. One Class was working on how to do layouts for quotes, verses, decorative letters while the other class was working on how to to address envelopes. It was a fun day. Here are some of the samples that we worked on.

I start by telling the class that it is acceptable to go to your computer to aid in doing layouts. The computer is a nice fast way to decide if you want to center the words, enlarge letters, etc... Another quick way to do a layout is by doing thumbnail sketches. We always want to practice writing the longest lines so that we are sure how much space each line will take.  

                    "By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. 

                 The Non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired."  ~Nikos Kazantzakis 

In class, we explore various kinds of pens, ink, paint pens and more. Next week we will be using watercolors and gold leaf to make greeting cards, and more calligraphy quotes or verses.

If anyone is interested in learning more about Calligraphy, I will be teaching a class coming up at Midlands Tech. Sign up online at the link:

https://mymtc.midlandstech.edu/cesearch/cecatalogsearch     

Calligraphy I: The Art of Creative Calligraphy, 

Beltline Campus

10/21/2014-11/25/2014 (EVENING) Tuesday 06:30PM - 08:30PM, Library Building, Room 106

Here's to beautiful writing! 

Being Prolific,

Barbie

123 Days, Day 29 - Watercolor Class

I've had a very busy day, so this will be short and sweet. I love my Monday morning Watercolor Students, Wendel and Corinne. They are doing very well! They've both progressed so much in the past 2 weeks. 1 week left to go in our 5 week class.

 
Until tomorrow....

Being Prolific,

Barbie 

123 Days, Day 28 - US Premier of "In Dulcet Tones"

Today was a lovely day, going to the University of South Carolina's School of Music, and hearing "In Dulcet Tones" by Dr. Jesse Jones performed live by the very talented duo, Rebecca Hunter, violin, and Lynn Kompass, piano. While they were on stage, 9 Paintings were displayed, one of them being my painting, "Flowers In Dulcet Tones". It was an honor to be a part of this event. "In Dulcet Tones" Premiered first in Thailand earlier this year.

"Flowers In Dulcet Tones" by Barbie Mathis

Fluid Acrylics on Archival Paper and Framed in a Natural Studio Frame, $450

 My memorabilia... 

Paintings are for sale...

The Poster...

Today's Program...

So Grateful for this Opportunity!

Being Prolific,

Barbie  

123 Days, Day 27 - Hilarie Lambert Workshop, 2nd Day

I think that I can speak for almost everyone that has been in the Hilarie Lambert Oil Painting Workshop when I say it was Fantastic! Here are some photos from todays demo, and my painting.
Today was painting Color Temperature. Hilarie talked about Warm and Cool Colors and how to apply them. This one didn't have a value study underpainting. The values were built with color.

 Hilarie used 3 warm and 3 cool colors, and then had white on each side of the palette.

                                          This is the display that I worked from...

 These are paintings that everyone did. Lookin' good, right?  Mine is on the table to left.

 Here is my painting up close. It still needs the final touches. The days weren't long enough. Could have studied with Hilarie for 2 weeks instead of 2 days!

Feeling Blessed to have been able to learn a little more, and hope to apply it soon. I enjoyed being with everyone in the Workshop. Such Talented Artists in the Columbia, SC Area!

Tomorrow is the concert at USC premiering, "In Dulcet Tones", My work will be shown on the big screen with a few others while it premiers. More About that Sunday night.

Being Prolific,

Barbie