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Top Ten Ideas for a Dream Art Studio and Disney in Pictures

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When I asked for your ideas for a dream come true art studio last week, the suggestions came pouring in! Maybe you, too, are thinking/wishing/hoping to build your dream studio. Even if it’s not yet on your horizon, I couldn’t resist sharing the best ideas right here on the bloggy. Now, bear in mind, I’m still getting used to my new Web site, and the WordPress platform (if you know a WordPress expert, please send them my way!), so this won’t have cute bullet points or anything.

Growing Big Dreams in Flower Mound

 

A few of your ideas just absolutely blew me away. How on earth could I keep my six hanging shoebags of paint tubes handy without creating instant clutter? You had the answer! What about great lighting, for an artist who paints at night? You had the answer! Seriously, I just want to paint daisies, wake up one day, and have the whole studio finished, perfect, and waiting! (*insert reality check moment here*)  Tomorrow morning, it gets real. We meet with the architect and the plans will be drawn up. Permits will be submitted, materials will be ordered, and there’s no turning back, so I had better have my studio ducks in a row! eep! Here are the top 10 ideas for building a dream art studio:

Add a small greenhouse from the French doors leading out to the flower garden

Include spot lights that point up to the ceiling on top of the wood beams for bounced light

Custom build a narrow closet with poles that swing outward for my shoe bags full of paint

Include north facing windows, with adjustable shades and/or windowcovers

Use faux wood tile floors, less slippery than patterned concrete and tougher than hardwood

Build light colored high ceilings for good ventilation

Include soundproofing in windows, doors and all walls (we live under a flight path!)

Include lots of windows and two sets of French doors leading to my outdoor studio/garden

Install two of the awesome new ductless air conditioning units to combat the Texas heat

Include a writing corner away from the work area with a soft chair and comfy pug beds nearby

If all this brainstorming has given you some great ideas, please feel free to share those here. If one of your ideas gets incorporated into my dream studio, you’ll be entered to win a cool prize! Stay tuned for the step by step shots of construction to come.

In the meantime, here are some photos from my Disney-sponsored flower painting workshop in North Texas last week. If you’re just hearing the news, I was absolutely honored (and excited) to be asked by Disney to teach a painting workshop to promote the premiere of Beauty and the Beast. Attending the event were bloggers from around the region, photographers, PR folks and some super cute kids. We painted poppies in brilliant acrylics, ate lots of cookies and posed for pictures for the big premier. I’m still pinching myself, and had such a great time working with the coordinators for the event. Talk about a super positive, super professional group, it was Disney all the way!

Photos from the Disney Flower Painting Workshop

 

The Great French Escape – Romantic Kitty Series

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French Escape – Romantic Kitty Series
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Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas

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In 18 days, I’ll be in Southern France at Le Vieux Couvent to teach my first French workshop! I’m a bit excited. I keep finding myself floating through rooms and spaces, imagining aperitifs, midnight church bells out my blue shuttered, open bedroom windows, creme brûlée gelato, shopping in the ancient markets of Soulliac… The dream come true bucket list just goes on and on! I’m incredibly honored to be sharing this experience with students in two classes, back to back, and a fun little side trip to Paris right smack dab in the middle. I will share all my favorite photos with you here and on my Facebook fan page, so check in, mon cheri! My absolute fondest wish is that you will take this journey with me someday. My 2016 France dates are already set so check your dream come true wish list, this is the painting getaway you’ve always deserved.

Detail from French Escape

New Garden Flags and My Little French Chateau

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My Little French Chateau
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Oil on Deep Gallery Wrap Canvas

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Click Here for My Italy Video!

It’s been a big week in Flower Mound Studio, and I’m not just saying that because The Studio Director’s rabbit toy was rediscovered tucked deep inside a cushion  (*it should be noted, she was quite happy to see bunny again, and promptly gave him a spankin’ for disappearing…). (I suspect the toy had been hiding in terror.)

But enough about Her Majesty, the big news this week is something I’m just tickled pink about! Well not just pink, there is also some blue, and yellow, too – my designs are going to be appearing on a line of garden flags and the first one is in production! Okay, I need to calm down and eat some chocolate or something.

They will appear in national stores and chains, and the really cool thing is the manufacturer put my signature on it! It’s wonderful to have a good art agent! Here’s a peek. I hope I don’t get in trouble for “unveiling the flag!” but I just can’t resist! If you’d like to find out when it’s available to purchase, message me your email and I’ll be sure you get the announcement. I can’t wait to get one, too! woo-hoo!

My new garden flag!

Hidden Hydrangea Garden

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Hidden Hydrangea Garden
14X14
Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas
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Hidden Hydrangea Garden is dedicated to the memory of my great-grandmother’s house in Palestine, Texas, a house that has wonderful childhood memories for me. The shaded verandas, the haunted peacock bedroom upstairs, the large claw-foot bathtub, and the shed in the back yard with so many shadows and places to hide…all of these places still play a starring role in my dreams sometimes. 

Do you have places you return to again and again in your dreams?

Pink Azaleas & My Great-Grandmother’s Home

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Pink Azalea Cottage
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Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas
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Pink Azalea Cottage is a scene that might seem familiar to anyone who has grown up in East Texas and seen the azaleas in full bloom. The cottage is a memory of my great-grandmother’s home in Palestine, Texas, where she raised a family and had a garden and did all the cooking and housekeeping even though she was blind. Nanny used to be able to tell which plants were which by smell, touch and taste. My mother spent every summer of her childhood with her grandmother. Mom said she would take the train down from St. Louis to Palestine after school let out for the year, and the summers she spent in Palestine were the happiest times for her growing up.

If you walk down the path and open the back porch screen door, you’ll enter Nanny’s big kitchen, with the formica table. Beyond the kitchen, through a large arched doorway, you will find her formal living room, with a collection of plates from around the world along the walls, and her favorite rocker next to the radio just under the windows by the cuckoo clock. This is where Nanny spent every afternoon listening to her favorite gospel show. I imagine there were many, many days my mother was in her lap, being rocked to sleep, with the sound of birds outside the open screen windows, the clock chiming the hour and half hour, and the sound of the voice on the radio. What a dream come true it would be to be able to travel back in time and see this tableau, and my mother’s golden curls, as she lay sleeping in her grandmother’s arms.

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