Saxapahaw Art Gallery

We drove the 60 miles to a very cute little mill village on the banks of the Haw River in NC last night to deliver some of Steve's paintings to the young co-op gallery expanding in the old former mill offices.
You cannot miss the ambiance and the unusual name of the town, Saxapahaw.

Steve's seascapes will be part of the "American Summer" art show.

Adding a mini-gallery in Wake Forest, NC

Wow, hard to believe that I was the first artist to set up a studio in downtown Wake Forest back in 1991! I was a single mom with 4 children, working as an artist but only able to afford a small rental to live in so I needed the studio space to work!

Later, after my artist husband, Steve Filarsky and I married, we built a huge studio next to our house, about 12 miles away. Since then we have had studios in the charming little town off and on but our travels kept us from being there as often as we liked. 
Add to that the obvious fact that we already HAD a great working studio where we could walk out the door in bathrobes and coffee in hand to go to work has some envious perks (our friends like to point out!) 

But it made sense to have gallery space as we partner with the Wake Forest Art and Frame for art classes! So now we have our art back in town on their walls as a sampling of what we create!. Go visit, enjoy the art, the amazing framing and gallery they have and stop in one of the little area shops for lunch!

Paint Horses Art Party!

 It's every little girl's dream!  (Well big girls too) to ride, own or somehow dream horses!

The next best thing is to paint your own!

So we did for two and a half hours one evening recently at MacNair's Barn in Raleigh, NC.

We had a "Paint Horses Art Party" for a group of 29 4Her's.  Yes I said 29! And they spent a little over two hours totally involved in painting a 9 x 12 acrylic painting of a horse they owned, rode or just loved.

 No computers, no texting, no cell phone talking. Just pure involvement in the Art Zone! The results speak for themselves as this grouping of photos shows.

We did this as a fund raiser for the 4H group so at the end of the evening the group had raised almost $300.00 from the event!

We did not get everyone's photo but the ones we did manage to snap before the evening ended...well their expressions say it all! 

Visit our Art Student Academy website to read what the girls had to say!

29 girls-2.5 hours and every one painted their own horse or one that they ride at the barn at MacNairs Country Acres in Raleigh NC!

Portrait of Chloe in the Flowers

How weird to have Blogger go down and this post disappear!
So here it is again-a completed 30 x 24 pastel on Art Spectrum paper created with NuPastels and PanPastels.
Chloe was originally in her home sitting on the steps-the beauty of being an artist is that all of that mundane stuff can be changed!
So I added the flowers that seem to epitomize little girls in the Spring (a good thing!) and now we have a charming memory of being 5! 

Pastel of Little Girl

Portrait of Chloe

I originally photographed this little girl in her house sitting on the steps. The fun (and challenge) of being an artist is the ability to create scenes or change details at will! So in this case I added the spring flowers and bench to anchor the feeling that such a setting invokes with many little girl portraits :-)


The final portrait is a 24 x 30 Pastel, created with a combination of panpastels and nupastels on Art spectrum paper..

Enjoying a piece of the Artist's Life. Come paint with us!

Spring! It is that time when our old roses burst into a stunning array of colors and as an artist I just drink it up! This year we decided to share the experience!. So, the day before Mother's Day, as most of the roses are coming into their colorful glory then, we will host our own Art Party at our studio!
Yes, the day promises to be sunny, in the 70's (heaven), and we'll have mimosas and wine for both classes to enhance that experience! All in all, you'll experience a day of "painting like Monet" by using our oils and easels to paint "plein air" (or outside at that moment!) any of our little hideaway areas of gorgeous roses! Complete information is on our SITE.  

A view vignettes are below! And yes, even I, as a portrait painter, will step outside my element and comfort zone and just enjoy creating and living in the moment! Come join us Saturday, May 7 and Saturday May 14 (same place and scenes but in watercolor!)

Art Party!

Wonderful results from participants in 2 START classes we  held in Stantonburg,NC April 23

Here I am playing around with a collage of photos taken April 23 at a wonderfully fun art party we held with a group of artists at one of the members lake cottage! Hmmm-it's a little small but spending a day painting can be a tremendously enjoyable event!

I took the outdoor photos before the sun came out and took the fog away but you can still enjoy the view that we had!