Labels for my art work

I ordered labels/stickers From VistaPrint to put on the back of my paintings to identify them.  The photo below is what they'll look like.  I like it, but I only ordered 100 (the smallest amount to order) because I want to see them in person and be sure they'll work the way I want them to work before I order more.  I like the design - artsy without being pretentious or cute.  And it is definitely "Mary Carol Art" - NOT "Mary Carol FINE Art"!  LOL!

Later note:  The labels work just fine.  And they definitely STICK.  After I'd put one on the back of a panel, it wouldn't come off without tearing off part of the backing.  So I left it.  Lesson learned:  Make sure the label has EXACTLY what I want on it before I put on the back of a painting. 

Leiper’s Fork Church

I have wanted to paint our little church in Leiper's Fork for a long time.  I started this months ago, and then felt overwhelmed at the idea of finishing it.  So I set it aside.  For months.

Now, I’m done.  The painting is really prettier in real life - as opposed to a photo of it.  I may keep this one - frame it and put it on the wall.  I’m not sure about the left part of the church.  I need to do more work on that part. However I’ve scraped and repainted and scraped and repainted that part so many times, it is just slick mud right now. The angle on that part isn't right - it makes it looks like it's facing forward rather than to the side.  I've looked and looked at the reference photo, and I still can't quite figure it out - other than starting over since the entire angle is wrong.  I like the clouds that I did.  For some reason they were easy this time.  Next time they might be difficult again, but I did the sky in just a few minutes.

I'd like to paint this on a different canvas or panel and make it more impressionistic.  I DO get bogged down with details.

So this one will stay as it is now.  I will paint it again someday, though.  I want a painting of our church that I'm proud of.

"Hillsboro United Methodist Church" (Leiper's Fork, TN)
Oil on 11x14 Canvas Panel

One online course finished! Once Upon a Time in Provence

I finished the last painting for the Dreama Tolle Perry online course "Once Upon a Time in Provence."  I think this is my favorite of all the paintings I did for this course.   Here's a link to the other paintings I did for this course. 

Now I've got two other online courses to finish - the Nancy Medina course and the other Dreama Tolle Perry course.

Now that I found so many good local artists to work with, I probably won't sign up for another online course.  However, I DO intend to finish each of the lessons in the other two courses.  I want to get my money's worth.  Then I believe I will stick to classes at On-Track Studios, Warehouse 521, and Owl's Hill.  And I likely will find some other local resources for workshops and lessons. 

Paint Out - Paint Not

This morning I went to the Chestnut Group's Saturday morning "Paint Out" at Warner Park in Nashville.  There were 5 or 6 people there.  I walked around looking for something I wanted to paint.  The only thing vaguely interesting was a little cemetery behind one of the houses near the Nature Center.  One of the houses serves as a museum, I think, and the other has some administrative offices in it.  They're old houses - apparently where possibly the "Warners" lived many years ago.  Who knows.  Guess I could read up on the history of the Warner Parks - there are two of them - Percy Warner Park and Edwin Warner Park.  I wonder if they were brothers?  Father and son?   OK, that's beside the point.




Back to painting.  I set up and started painting the little cemetery - only two grave stones in it, and they were so discolored with age and mold that I couldn't read what was inscribed on them.  There was a old rock wall around it, and a couple large trees outside of it.  Actually fairly picturesque - but dark.  So I blocked in all the main shapes.  But then, I looked at it - and my heart just wasn't in it.  It was blah and uninteresting - and I didn't want to paint it.  So I packed up all my stuff and left.  I'd spent almost 2 hours there - and that was enough.

There are so many things I WANT to paint, I couldn't see spending any longer trying to paint something I didn't care about. 

Painting Like Crazy - Part 2: Back to oil painting

Last spring I joined The Chestnut Group, which is a group of en plein air painters in the Nashville area.  In September and early October, they have a series of one-day workshops called Paint Your Heart Out (PYHO).  The Chestnut members volunteer their time to teach classes, people pay to take the classes (because the artists are generally amazing!), and The Chestnut Group gets the money.  It's a great fundraiser.  I signed up for a bunch of classes.  Quite a few benefits.  The main one is that it got me painting on panels and canvases again.  Finally.  And I'm painting like crazy.

One class was a beginners plein air class.  Another was on doing one small painting a day.  Others were on still life - and simplifying the composition of a painting - and painting birds and horses.  It was all so very helpful.

So here are some of my recent paintings.  Like I said, I've gone crazy painting.  I'm averaging almost a painting each day.

This is "Carl Road Pasture" - oil on 9 x 12 canvas panel.  Done 10/13/2017.  I'm not crazy about it, but it's okay.   I want to work on leaves and trees more.  I'm making my brush strokes too small, and so the leaves look choppy and unnatural. 


"Leiper's Creek Baptism: - oil on 9 x 12 linen panel, 10/2017.  One of my favorites of all I've done.


This was one of the 6x6 one small painting a day.  I did about 8-10 of them.  My granddaughters loved them.  They came over for dinner one night, and they saw the small paintings and Evey, Bradley and Sophie each wanted to take one home.  So I gave one to each of them.  I can't think of anyone I'd rather have one of my paintings!



"Granddaddy Pierce's Bell" oil on panel
This is Ron's granddaddy's old bell.  I remember it out by their house in Waverly Hall, GA back in the late 1960s - and Ron said it was there the whole time he was growing up.  Grandmother Pierce (Mildred) would ring it to let Granddaddy Pierce (Felix) know when dinner was ready since he was usually out working around the farm. Lots of good memories tied to that bell.

On one of the Chestnut Group's PYHO classes, we went to a local farm, and I took a lot of photos.  This is my attempt to paint one of the horses in the barn.  Painting horses isn't my thing, and I probably won't try to paint one ever again.  It sure was a beautiful horse, though.  However, when Sophie Grace saw this painting, she immediately wanted it.  So I framed it and gave it to her.

The painting below is my favorite of the small daily paintings I've done.  There's still so much to learn - but the hydrangea looks semi-good.  LOL!


I did the painting below en plein air in my driveway.  It was a very sunny day, and the painting reflects that because once I got it inside, it is VERY dark.  It didn't look dark in the bright sunlight.  Lesson learned.


Another painting done en plein air in my driveway - another very dark painting.


A fourth (fifth?) try at the Alaska photo of Lily and Sophie outside of Anchorage.  I finally got the snow-capped mountains to look good (they look better in person than in the photograph). However, I have the girls facing forward - and I can't do faces.  So I don't know what I will end up doing with this.  I will probably start over and have them facing away from the front.

This is one of my quick daily paintings.  Mediocre at best.  I love that vase, though - dark blue and curved.  

Painting Like Crazy, Part 1: Rocks

I took a sabbatical from painting on panels and canvases for most of the summer.  Instead, I painted rocks - hundreds of rocks!  It was fun, it was easy, and it was quick.  It helped me get over my ego-crushing experience in painting earlier in the summer.  It was good because I can genuinely laugh about the entire "naive" thing now.

So rock painting!  It was fun.  Several times I would get tired of it, put all the rock painting supplies away.  Then a day or two later, I'd get them out again.

The whole rock painting craze is fascinating.  Here are the basics:  You paint a design on one side of a rock.  On the other side you write some variation of the following: "Post a photo on Facebook #615 Rocks! or #WorldRocks.  Keep or Re-Hide."  You join the Facebook page for 615Rocks! or WorldRocks.  Then you "drop" the rock in some public place for someone else to find.  The hope is twofold: (1) Whoever finds the rocks will post a photo of it on the appropriate Facebook page; and (2) that whatever you painted on the rock will be meaningful in some way for whoever finds it. And that happened to me several times.  Out of the several hundred rocks I painted, maybe ten or so were found and posted on Facebook. 

My favorite story was of a little girl who found one of my ladybug rocks.  She loved it so much she named it "Daisy" and made a cardboard home for it.  Her mom took a picture of her with Daisy and Daisy's little home.  Very cute!

Here are some of the rocks I've painted:

The Barn on Bear Creek Road

We own about 25+ acres on Bear Creek Road which is just a mile or so from where we live.  On the property is an old tobacco barn.  It's falling down but is very scenic because of the weathered boards and way it stands alone in the field.  Driving towards the property, there's a place in the road where this is the view of the barn.  I took photos of it, and then painted this from that photo reference.

Bear Creek Road Barn

Beyond the weathered fence

The aging barn stands yet.

What crops and animals has it held?

Those secrets are its own.

This might be my favorite painting so far.  Right now,  I really like it.