Waiting patiently...

Seems like winter wants to hold on forever this year. Twenty five degrees last night sure doesn't sound much like spring now does it. But the trees are budding and those little leaves are ready to come on out, just need some warm days and not so cold nights.
At the Craft Guild Shop are are so ready for spring, we can't wait for those warm days were we can open up the doors and let the fresh air in. We had our Spring Open House a few weeks ago and people came out to shop. They are buying new art work to add to their collections and pretty home decor items.
This Friday is Leonardtown First Friday, our Artist of the Month is George McWilliams. If you live in the area it will be worth the trip to come out to meet George. George is bringing prints as well as original pieces of work. George paints landscapes and I'd say he's best known for his maritime scenes. These scenes will take you back in time to the hay day of the water men who made their living on their boats working the water every day. Back in the day when the water was clean and the fish , crab and oysters were plentiful and at their best.


Growing up here in Southern Maryland in the 60's and 70's I remember when you could go out on the water and the boats of the men who made a living on the water were everywhere. And the other way these locals made a living was farming tobacco. The Tobacco farms were every where, now you have to look to find one
Now the agricultural farms are growing grapes, vineyards are popping up all over Southern Maryland as well as wineries. Well that's enough of me reminiscing, I hope you will take some time to check out a fine artist  http://www.georgemcwilliams.com/  and if you have some time Friday evening then stop by and meet him at the shop. http://www.craftguildshop.com/ . His work will be on display and for sale in our shop through the month of April.

Look  for us on Facebook and Like our page.

Dreary Winter Days

Here we are almost half way through the month of January. I find myself trying to remember when was the last sunny day. I'm one of those that needs to see the sun. So since there's no sun today I turn on every light in the room I'm in, I don't pay attention to what it looks like outside I try to make my own sunshine here inside. I get out the paints and try to make a point of using colors that I don't usually use every day. You know if your a painter we get stuck on using the same colors every time we paint, well there are a lot of colors that sometimes get neglected. Color makes life interesting and can change a mood of the piece your working on. So dust off some of those colors that you don't normally use and make your day a little brighter. I just finished this cardinal, it's a Shirley Koenig design,
this is a easy design and it's sure to brighten up any dreary winter afternoon.

On another note the Craft Guild Shop had a great Christmas season, it seems more and more people are finding out about us and they are coming by to see what we have to offer. We like to have people come by to check out our little shop, I think it's been one of the best kept secrets in Southern Maryland. Once they come in they can't help but find some unique treasure that will work perfectly in their home decor or something that's just perfect for a baby shower gift or a house warming present. We gained a new member this month, Beverly Weaver she makes American doll clothes and baby clothes done with smocking.
At the end of March Ardith our stained glass artist will be offering a glass class to make a stained glass wind chime, that sounds interesting. In the shop we have done some rearranging and we have a complete section of baby items. You'll find quilts, baby blankets, embroidered onsies with the cutest designs and a lot more.
I'm working on painting some new items for the shop and I'm going to include some cute things for baby's room. To see some of the things we offer you can find us on Facebook and by all means if you do look for us there "Like Us".
Lets hope the rest of the winter will be kind to us, we still have a long way to go till spring, I'm counting it down :) . Until next time happy painting.     

Fall Blessings

The daylight hours are getting fewer with each passing day. With that will soon come colder days, and as much as I love spring and summer and hate it see them go I do look forward to the holidays.
At the Craft Guild Shop we are bringing out the fall items for sale.

And we are gearing up for the classes that some of our members will be teaching, I'm starting a beginners painting class Saturday. In November knitting and stained glass classes will begin. After the first of the year sewing and soap making classes will be added to the list. 

Things are going well at the shop and we are grateful for all our customers.
We are always looking for someone with a different or unique craft that they would like to sell in our shop, you must live local her in Southern Maryland and be able to participate in the shop and the events we take part in. We are a co-op and having local members who can take part in our events but also be available to work in the shop is important.

For those that paint there had been some really cool patterns designed by the wonderful artists that we have all come to love over the years. If you are looking for something new or different to paint pick up one of the painting magazines and treat yourself.
If your looking for something fun to do why not get some of your friends together one evening a week and paint, you can share ideas and help each other with projects and encourage each other. If once a week is too much  maybe a Sunday brunch and a few hours to paint together once a month might work for you. Or find a class where you can join in the fun and meet new people with the same interest.  
Just pick up a brush and spend some time enjoying the process.
Painting is good for the soul.  

Spring & Summer Festivals

 This past weekend the Craft Guild Shop had a Porch Party to celebrate 35 years in business. That might not sound like much to some but for a craft co-op that is a big milestone. The artists and crafters of the Guild have been through bad economic times , moved from one location to another more then once, lost members to cancer and other health issues and have had to deal with flood waters on more then one occasion. With each trial they have regrouped, worked hard and managed to get bigger and better. 

So back to the porch party, we asked other crafters to join us to celebrate. We had people with beautiful jewelry, floral designs, photography and my friend Michelle Sholund from By The Bay Bontanicals brought her candles down from Reisterstown MD.  You can find out more about her palm wax candles @ her web site http://www.bythebaybotanicals.com  

                                                                                                                                                              Also my friend Hans brought out a couple of wood lathes and people made pens. It was interesting to see what two blank pieces of wood turned into,  literally...LOL. Here's one that I made... Hans is a good teacher cause I could have never done this on my own. 

Ardith Young http://ardyscreations.com did a stained glass class and her students did some cute sail boat sun catchers. I think everyone had a good time Saturday. Sunday we had a reception and cake cutting to mark the 35th anniversary. And some of the long time members and some that have contributed extra to the Guild received plaques that were handcrafted by Hans. I received one for my work on the web site http://www.craftguildshop.com and Facebook page. 

 Chuck and Betty Harless who started all of this 35 years ago were on hand to cut the cake, it was nice to see them again after so many years. 

Now with all this said it's time to work hard and get ready for the St. Mary's Crab Festival coming up June 9th. 

I have a Strawberry Festival coming up next http://www.christepiscopalchaptico.org/strawberry.html

I'm looking forward to some good fresh strawberries.

If you have some time on the weekends check out the craft shows and festivals in your area. You'll find some interesting things to do and meet some awesome people. 

Well it's back to the paint and brushes to get more things painted for these shows.

Enjoy your day and Happy Painting.   

               

Time to paint for Spring...

Spring is in the air. Now that we are back to daylight savings time and our evenings are light longer it's time to get excited about spring. Trees are budding all over the place and flowers are in bloom, things are coming back to life, Yipeeee.

If you are thinking about painting something for the spring season how about painting something for the yard or your porch to welcome friends and family when they show up. I'm painting a new house number sign for my yard. Here it is in the works, it's a leaf design that will go from spring , summer, fall and winter. You can find this design in a series of last years Paint Works magazines.
I'll post this again when it's finished. 

 Everyone should have their house numbers displayed it's important to have them  displayed clearly visible from the street. Numbers placed where they are easily spotted by fire, police and ambulance personnel may save lives.

My advise if your painting anything to put outside is to make sure you seal the wood with a few good coats of sealer before you start painting your design. Then once you have finished the design the most important part is sealing the piece again with several coats of a good weather proof varnish. When buying varnish look for one that doesn't yellow, that's very important, the last thing you want is to have all your work turn yellow with time. It's not that easy to find in the stores, at least not in my area. I use J.W.etc. Right Step water base Clear Varnish.

Here are some picture of an orders I've done done for customers...

This one I have painted the monogram and I used vinyl for The Marshall Family.  

If you would like to have a sign for your yard you can contact me here or through my web site www.joycespaintnplace.weebly.com   just leave a message in the comment box there.
Until next time happy painting.

Something Different

As I have mentioned before I'm a member of the Craft Guild Shop of St. Mary's.
There are several artists in the guild that paint using one medium or another. But one thing I found unique is something called Intarsia. It's putting together a design with the use of different types and colors of wood. My friend Hans makes these detailed pieces with small pieces of different types of wood that all come together to make something so beautiful and different. Who says you have to use paint to paint a picture.

He also cuts these designs and puts together these wooden plaques that I really like. He does one for every branch of the military.

We have lots of talent in the Craft Guild Shop, go to our web site and check out what the others are using their talents to make. www.craftguildshop.com
We are working on opening and online store hopefully that will be up and running
in the next month or so.

A Fresh Start

Here we are at the start of a new year.
The Christmas season went by way to fast but that's how it is when paint right up to the last minute. My ornaments sold very well, it's so nice to know that people like your work and want to display it in their homes. But with Christmas behind me now is the time to clean my studio and get ready to paint for the spring and summer season. I've emptied out the closet and all the drawers in here and gone through everything to organize it. It's amazing the things you'll find when you do that, surfaces you forgot you bought last winter and all the odds and ends I use for different projects. I go through all my bottles of paint to make sure I have a full stock of what I'll need when I get back to painting. There are those few go to colors that I seem to use on almost every project I paint, sometimes I get into a rut have to make myself step out of my comfort zone and dust off a few colors and incorporate them into a design.
I have a color mix chart now and that comes in very handy because it never fails you'll start to work on a design and sure enough you'll be out of a color of maybe not have it at all, that color mixing chart has saved me from making a run to the store more then once and where I live there is no craft store down on the corner.

One thing I'm working on is making my own color chart. I have some old business cards that I'm not using anymore so I'm painting the colors on the cards, I use the color straight from the bottle then I mix the color just as I would use it to highlight and paint that on one end of the the card the other end I use what I would normally shade that color with. Once the paint is dry I write the color name and highlight and shade color on the back of the card. You can store these cards in the clear baseball card protectors and keep them in a folder or you can use a hole punch and put them on a ring to keep on your work table and another thing if you have to mix a certain color for something, paint that on a card and write what you used on the back so you can refer back to it at a later date. This sounds like a lot of work but it goes pretty quick and comes in very handy if you are painting with a friend and they want to know what you mixed to get the color.
I'm finding it get harder to remember what I've mixed after a few months. You can even make a note of the project you used the color for. It's kinda like painting post-it- notes...LOL and believe me I need all the help I can get when it's time to remember something. During these dreary winter days get out some colors and brighten things up for a while, color is good for the soul.

I'm also working on the web site for the Craft Guild Shop it's starting to come together, only a few more things to do and we'll have a online store.
Check us out on Facebook don't forget to "Like" us. Or you can go to our site to meet the members and see what they make, www.craftguildshop.com .

 Happy painting.