What June holds ...

New project for the new book!

Peony Power! back yard beauties

This weekend was filled with a little work (projects, design proposals,clients) a little play (garden, home sprucing, friends) and a little sadness (memorial service, remembering a dear friend). So we are ready for June now - and all the new projects, students and sunshine it can bring. Buh-bye May!

Prom {the}

Chloe worked very hard designing and constructing this dress for her Prom!  It is beautifully made and she had a wonderful time at the prom. We can't wait to see what she does next ...

Happiness comes in threes!

working with some littles

our mother's day brunch

A busy month already - May is turning out to be spectacular! A couple of new projects in the works (more on these later) a delightful brunch in the garden with the ones I love for Mother's day and tonight is Chloe's prom. She has been working for three months designing her dress, making her dress and sweating each detail. I am very excited for her and bursting with pride that she was able to see her vision through. Will share photos just as soon as she "allows". Have a delightful weekend!

Ashley Goldberg + Alena Hennessy - In Our Nature

our May Exhibit! It opens on Saturday....

Workshops, New York and dragons, oh my!

From our Big Art Night Playful Printmaking workshop!

Outside the Strand Bookstore on the streets of NYC

Building a dragon with Rochester Middle Schoolers for the Mythology project

So much busy art adventures going on at the moment that it almost makes my head spin! It's all good stuff though!  Don't forget to stop by the pages at FB for more Art Lab for Kids and artstreamstudios gallery! More later in the week as we are hanging a new show tonight which I am *so excited* about! Stay tuned for a post on the beauty which is going to blow your mind!

Just  one of the many happy faces at the NH Children's Museum's workshop last Saturday

James O'Brien

Deep in the Void by James O'Brien

I asked one of our current exhibitors, James O'Brien to speak to me about his process of his work in landscape painting. He currently has 8 paintings at artstream and they are all causing quite a stir. Here are his words on process:

I want the painting and the viewer to have an experience together. My goal is to convey to the viewer a philosophy embedded in the art—for the viewer to see how natural light can reveal new truths within the objects it affects, bringing into focus an unexamined life. Our surroundings hold a hidden key to our emotions and by documenting the relationships of light values and focusing on the space, I can convey an emotion to the viewer in a carefully calculated composition. 

When painting landscapes, I begin with hundreds of thumbnails, each sketch conveying a different point-of-view or idea. I attack the canvas with aggressive and energetic brushstrokes. I don’t worry about color or the placement of anything, but attempt to capture the level of intensity or tranquility surging in the moment. When painting a mountain, my goal is to get the mountain on the canvas, capturing it the way it is; strong, tall, mighty—accessing it’s mountainness. In studying both traditional and contemporary landscapes, I observe the way light reveals and disguises the world around us. 

After grounding the canvas with a primitive feeling, I begin to construct the skeletal structure of the image, allowing the brushstroke to flow with the composition—building mark upon mark—until finally achieving a satisfactory image. 

For me it’s the visual relationships between objects that are most interesting and not, necessarily, the objects themselves. Visual cavities allow light to be perceived as if it is a divine energy full of life, communicating the secrets of sight—it can be a source of obscurity too, instilling darkness, confusion, and fear. Values of light imbue the viewer with emotion and reveal a world beyond time. By studying light’s soft and harsh qualities I create fantastic locations for the viewer to explore and bear witness to a wholly new perspective of life. 

-James Michael O’Brien 

Making art in the studio

mask making!

starting very young ...

large scale ink drawings

Some scenes from the studio these past few days - it's been productive and fun -- we have been working on some lessons from Art Lab for Kids and some new ones which we will have to snap some shots of to show! Getting ready for summer with our new classes/camps/workshops ready to be unveiled tomorrow! Stay in the loop and get our newsletter right here...

Molly Grant Bags

Molly Grant Bags, a photo by artstreamstudios on Flickr.

Yes! She's back! The wonderful unsinkable Molly Grant and her delish leather bags of all sorts. They start at the tiny wristlet and Chicklet style and move up to her calfskin braided drop bag. Come in and "feel the goods" with these beauties!

Monster making at RiverRun Bookstore!

A few shots from Saturday's book signing and workshop over in Portsmouth at RiverRun Bookstore. We had a full house making a taking home monsters from Lab 31 in Art Lab for Kids.  Tom was a wonderful host and the entire stock of books was gobbled up! Don't worry though - Tom assured me that more were on the way. What a fun morning at my favorite independent bookstore! 

Workshops with Megan Bogonovich + lots more!

super stylin'with clay and Megan Bogonovich!

There are so many workshops planned for the next few months here at artstream it's going to be a nonstop art party folks! Check them out all here at our site! Megan will be teaching her winning ways with Handbuilding with Porcelain, Jess Greene will have two workshops offering Encaustic: Embedded Memories, and Mosaics to go! and Intro to Mosaics with Lizz VanSaun, and Playful Printmaking with me!  Stop over to the site and if you are around tomorrow we have two seats left for Psyanky Eggs!

WishStudio + Art Lab for Kids = fun morning!

Just a couple action shots from our fun times during my book signing/workshop at WishStudio in Newburyport MA on Saturday! A big thanks to Mindy for a fun time and bringing some exciting little artists to the table!

New work

I have been working along over the past few months with a mixed media piece or two. This one features a transfer of my mother at age 14. She has this eyebrow thing going on. It's 12x12 inches on baltic birch panel and going into my shop today. It features a saying which came to me via Chronicle Books in the mail last week in the form of a book: See the Beauty Here. Funny, "Be who you want to be" was something my mother always said. The book is a set of stencils of phrases which you may or may not relate to. It's a fun way to add text to your artwork or your walls and pretty handy to have them bound together in one place. I think that it's a handy book to have around the studio!  Oh, and if you are near your computer today I am being interviewed by the Creative Mojo man himself: Mark Lipinski! 

Inspired by: Lisa Congdon + Amy Ruppel

Lisa and Amy have some beautiful work in the current exhibit "Inspired by" here at artstream. It's really incredible to see all the work side by side with the student exhibit. The blind etched black wax painting by Amy Ruppel inspired some handmade scratch board scenes from the kids and from Lisa Congdon's gouache Nautical Menagerie painting sprung a Maine lobster.  We still have some work left so hop over here for more info!

Bridal showers + Art Parties

Today a lovely blog called Cake events wrote about and posted photos of an event which was held in our gallery last year. Click over to see the pretty photos! Tonight we are holding the first of our soon to be monthy Big Art Night Parties! Come and get your art on here - no cookie cutter events, nothing but your pure personal style to be celebrated with good friends (you bring 'em) meeting new friends, delicious food and drinks (you BYOB and we have the soft drinks covered!)  not to mention that we will have all supplies on hand for this event... $40 a person covers it all. It's going to be fun times with mixed media on birch panel tonight, so come on over, we still have room for six more! Starts at 6:30 and goes till 9:30. Bring a photo for mixed media tonight, but check our site for upcoming projects!

Art birthday parties!

A jewelry making birthday party at artstream!

We offer birthday parties at artstream from time to time and this busy weekend brought us on with a group of darling 12 year old girls. I had the help of two older girls: Bella and Chloe, my art interns who - without their help - would not have had enough hands for these activities! Thanks to them it was a very happy birthday party!

Delightful weekends

the book!

artwork by Daisy Adams and student

artwork by Flossy-P and student

Good morning! The sun is shining here in a spring-like way which of course makes a wonderful backdrop for my almost-open forsythia stems we brought in last week. It is so rewarding this morning to sit with a cup of tea and think back on the past few day's events. Saturday was the real launch of my book with the pages "exploded" all over the gallery walls in the form of the original art.

All of the student artwork and contributing artist's work were paired up throughout the gallery and studios. Many of the artists and students came to the opening as well (thank you all so much!) as enjoyed signing each other's books. And this is just the beginning... I have  many events planned this month and next and beyond that I set up a page at the book's website. Feel free to pop over and take a peek!

Inspired by - an exhibition from Art Lab for Kids

This Saturday, March 3rd from 5-8 p.m. at artstream, we will open our next exhibition: "Inspired By"

This exhibit will feature the contributing artists from my new book Art Lab for Kids - and the work they inspired by student artists. It's a milestone in my life to have created this book, filled with lessons that I have taught over the past 18 years. 

It's exciting and fulfilling to see the pages of my students photographed by my husband Rainer. His talents know no bounds! I hope that you will be able to stop by on Saturday for a view of the exhibit. I will promise to have a few photographers on hand too for some special "photo ops" of the opening, to post some of the festivities in full swing, for those of you far away ... 

I thought I would leave you with two examples straight from the pages:

a photograph of student work from my book Art Lab for Kids

My husband Rainer created beautiful photographs for my book.

artwork by Flossy-P inspired the above student work

For those of you who already own the book, thank you for your support! Thank you too, for the great feedback! Wishing you all a wonderfully creative day...

Student work and workshops!

Some fantastic work from our students in the Monday and Tuesday class... these clay tiles are so much fun to make - especially in their likeness!

Looking forward to a lot of fun this weekend - Friday night is RAW night at artstream with an open ended bring your own project and get down with us night from 6-9. Psyanky egg workshop on Saturday from 130-430 - still some room, so bring the whole family! Sunday I  have one spot left in the encaustic tiny adventures workshop and you are welcomed to join it - call or email us 603-330-0333.

New books in the mail to review - stay tuned later in the week for "Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design" by Laurie Wisbrun. First impression: AMAZING!

Views from the gallery

 scenes from the Opening on 2/4 Art Stroll 

 Penelope Dullaghan's work on the corner walls 

 The Queen by Amber Lavalley  in the window

 Guests around the table at the show

 A visit from the amazing Katy Brown Solsky and Chico!

One of the beautiful Jutta Spinner works on exhibition right now! See more at the exhibition online in our shop!

Batik!

batik 3, a photo by artstreamstudios on Flickr.

Just another fantastic piece of art from Owen. This lesson is part of my Art Lab for Kids book. It's fun and it's really something all ages can enjoy!

Lapin,lapin,lapin

Jutta Spinner  "rabbit"

Feb. 1 good luck to all!

and it's here at last! and so fast ...
Reminders for this month:
New classes and workshops begin the 6th at artstream. Art stroll is this weekend - don't forget! Saturday from 5:30 onwards and you can come by and get a copy of my book and I will sign it for you too!

a stack of my books!

a stack of my books!, a photo by artstreamstudios on Flickr.

On the shelf, ready to go! Stop in for a copy - I will be happy to sign it for you too!

Color makes Happy!

Oh yes it does... and it's winging it's way here soon... both from Jutta in Germany and Pam in NH. So much color and so much happiness! Join us this Saturday February 4th at 5:30 p.m. for some fun ...Join us

Dawn, Route 11

Dawn, Route 11, a photo by artstreamstudios on Flickr.

Sharing a new gelatin - mixed media print I finished last night.
Pretty happy with where this series is going. What are you working on?

Color makes Happy! Jutta Spinner

New exhibit coming here at artstream ... join us for Art stroll on Saturday February 4th from 5-7 p.m.

Jutta Spinner

Offenburg, Germany

Farbe macht glücklich

(color makes happy)

thoughts for January

We left the above scenery behind us and so our winter break has come to a close. We are back in full swing at the gallery today. Celebrating MLK day and the beginning of the New Year officially by opening up a little earlier today and preparing for our classes tonight! Make sure you stop by and see Jane Kaufmann and Jennifer Stevens exhibit this week too. 

We have some new classes we are going to announce later today - so make sure you are signed up for our Newsletter right here to get them in  your inbox!