How to re-energize your muse in 60 seconds!

As blessed as I feel to be able to commute downstairs in my pajamas with a cup of joe in hand and go to work, some days, I walk into my studio and I feel stuck.  I am overwhelmed with "things to do" and my muse has gone in to hibernation.

Yesterday was such a day.  I have been scrambling with a busier than usual personal life as my husband mends from heart surgery, while juggling show season, ornament making and some commission work. I think my muse went to take a nap somewhere because I stared at several empty canvases knowing I NEEDED to finish some work but completely paralyzed to do so!

YIKES!

Well I decided to give myself a break.  Yup.  (And a time limit.)

I gave myself exactly 60 seconds to put "something on canvas" ~ no time to think or perfect, just paint loose and free.  No agonizing over color mixing or perfect drawings or "what am I feeling?"...nope!  Just 60 seconds and some paint on a palette. 

I didn't have time for it. And I let myself be okay with the fact that what I would put down would probably be garbage.  I decided to step in to a judgement-free minute and go for it!

And you know what?  I actually had fun!  

And I kind of like what I painted.  It looks nothing like my regular style, but it pushed me and it woke my muse.  The rest of the day I attacked my work load with a new vigor and at the end of the day I was happily covered in paint with some work ready for my show this weekend.

Here is a photo documentation of my little experiment.  

The first one is after 60 seconds.  After that I continued to give myself timelines that were short.

I think I might call this piece "Awakening".

I challenge you to give yourself a break, some permission to be free and play! You might just wake your muse!

I added this post to a link party over at A Colorful Journey.  Check this out to find other inspirational posts by artists!

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Pre-Order Your Custom Art Angels for Holidays!

Next week Fireflies, Spring Hill's premier gift boutique will be hosting their Holiday Open House.  This year each vendor is offering custom-made gifts and items "ready-to-go" for your shopping ease!

I will be taking orders for my popular 4x6" angel canvases.  If you come that day, you will have an opportunity to order your own angel ~ customized.  Whatever hair color, hair style, skin tone, or canvas color scheme.  You can even pick a bible verse, if you want, for me to add at the bottom of her dress.

Here are some photos of how my angels look.

Original angel artwork canvases are perfect gifts for friends, mothers, daughters, sisters, grandparents, caregivers, teachers, mentors and co-workers.  Each piece will be signed and come wrapped with a note saying it was custom-made especially for them.  What a one-of-a-kind gift! And for only $38 plus tax (and shipping if not local).

Can't make it to Fireflies?  Contact me directly via email (kirstenreed@yahoo.com) and I will send you a custom order form to fill out.

All orders must be placed by December 12, 2015 in order to be ready for local pick up by December 23.

Everything is Groovin' with StencilGirl Bloghop

I am one of those people that links a song to everything.  So when I got to play with this amazing Groove Tool (by Momenta) I of course cued up "Groovin'...on a Sunday afternoon" in my head as I painted.  

I absolutely loved working with this little gem!  And although it has many functions - sanding, inking, distressing and painting - I only used it for painting with some stencils for this post. 

But oh-- I just know I will be using it again and again!

So on to the project...

I began by using a little 5"x7" canvas I had created with packing tape from my ®GelliPlate when I was cleaning it.  Since the canvas had lots of gold and a bit of teal, I stuck with that color palette.

Nothing but tape so far.

I grabbed the Lila stencil by Lizzy Mayne and laid it on the canvas and used some teal paint with the Groove Tool. woohoo! It was fun, easy and so quick and neat!

I repeated the process with brown paint and the Warped Holes stencil, also by Lizzy Mayne.

I purposely went only around the edges because I wanted space to draw.  Using my stabilo MarksAll Pencil I sketched in a bee on the left side of the canvas.

I then added in Maria McGuire's Tiny Medallion stencil in the bottom right corner; first with brown and then with gold. 

And then, I had to had the phrase "Don't worry Bee Happy" which I did with the help of Carolyn Dube's Vintage Typewriter stencil in lowercase.

And that was it ~ that's how I went groovin with the Groove Tool !  Cue the music! #grooveon

What? You want a groovy little tool too? You can purchase directly through Momenta here, or Joann's, Michael's and Hobby Lobby.  Go get your groove on!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @kirstenkreed or follow me on Facebook at Kirsten Reed ART. 

I love hearing from you!

Here are the tools I used in today's project:

The Groove Tool

GIVEAWAY

The Groove Tool and a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate to one lucky winner!

All comments left on the hop list participants’ posts will be entered. 

One comment per blog. 

Comments close on September 26^th @ 11:59PM Central.

Blog Hop Order:

September 21

StencilGirl Talk

Mary C. Nasser

Mary Beth Shaw

September 22

StencilGirl Talk

Carolyn Dube

Kirsten Reed - you are here

September 23 

StencilGirl Talk

Gwen Lafleur

Janet Joehlin

Layering Texture in your Journal with USArtQuest & StencilGirl

It has been a weird for weeks for me as my oldest one has flown the nest...off to college.  So many thoughts have been swirling while I have been painting.  Although my strong suit is painting canvases, when I grow introspective I tend to pull out the journal and 'art' my feelings on to the pages.

Today, I used the beautiful paints from USArtQuest and StencilGirl to help me do just that.

First, I put a layer of the blue and green pigment paint on my page with a palette knife. I love the colors in these paints...they have a little bit of shimmer. Gorgeous colors.

I first used the Heart Flower stencil by Teri Stegmiller on a piece of black paper but I quickly changed my mind and decided to use the beautiful cream paper.  These papers are beautiful and offer instant texture (which if you know me, I love me some texture!!)

Here is the heart in cream/rose flower paper.  I kept the shape very organic and not precise.

Next, I used some old music sheet paper and Kimberly Baxter Packwood's Perched Bird stencil to trace out a bird.

I gave each of the paper elements some paint for color and glued them onto my page.

So at this point, I had the basic bones of my page.  After I had the elements glued down and they were dry, I kept adding paint with palette knife to give the page some pop and I added a quote.  The final results was this:

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @kirstenkreed or follow me on Facebook at Kirsten Reed ART. 

I love hearing from you!

Supplies I used:

GIVEAWAY

USArtQuest Decorative Papers and Perfect Pigment Acrylics
and a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate to one lucky winner!

All comments left on the hop list participants’ posts will be entered. 

One comment per blog. 

Comments close on September 19^th @ 11:59PM Central.

Blog Hop Order:

September 15

StencilGirl Talk

Carolyn Dube

Janet Joehlin

Mary C. Nasser

September 16 

StencilGirl Talk

Gwen Lafleur

Joe Rotella

Kirsten Reed

Art Show at Montgomery Bell Academy

If you are in the market for a new piece of art, you won't want to miss Montgomery Bell Academy's art show Sept 13-26.  There are more than 40 very talented artists in a variety of different mediums showcasing their pieces. I am so blessed to be included among them.

Here are a few pictures of me setting up ~ everything is still temporary at this stage  (signage, etc.)

The show will kick off Sunday, September 13 from 5-7pm in the Davis Building. I will post more pictures from the reception.  I hope to see you there!

Pop on Over to StencilGirl

Join me today on the StencilGirl Talk blog where I show you how to subtly use your stencils to make your art pop!

Hope to see you there!

Antiqued Angels with VerDay Paints & StencilGirl

I really enjoy the look of old things. I collect antiques and love it when my new paintings can get an old feeling to them ~ worn, loved, with a story. That is one of the reasons I was excited to use the VerDay paint & patina kit.

I can not tell you how much I LOVED working with these Verday paints! There are so many possibilities.  I started off by making myself a little "cheat sheet" to see how the different layering of paints and patina gave different effects.  I suggest you do the same.

Once I decided on my palette, I began by brushing on bronze and brass paints on to my canvas.

I quickly decided to add some texture into my paint by rubbing some of it off with Carolyn Dube's crossword stencil from StencilGirl Products.

After that dried, I added some copper paint with Maria McGuire's Stitch A Greek Medallion stencil from StencilGirl Products.

I immediately sprayed the wet copper paint with the patina to activate the metal paint.

Once it dried, I got this beautiful background. LOVE.

I turned the canvas horizontal and sketched out some old world angel figures.

I finished up the canvas by adding in acrylic paints with a palette knife to give the canvas more texture and bring the angels to life with a little brush work.

Here are some close ups:

I hope you enjoyed and find some new things to make old with this great set! Be sure to follow me on Instagram @kirstenkreed or follow me on Facebook at Kirsten Reed Designs. I love hearing from you!

GIVEAWAY

4-piece VerDay Kit of Reactive Metal Paint & Patina
and a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate to one lucky winner!

All comments left on the hop list participants’ posts will be entered. 

One comment per blog. 

Comments close on August 21st @ 11:59PM Central.

Make sure you keep hopping today with these featured artists:

August 17

StencilGirl Talk

Cheryl Darrow

Mary Beth Shaw

August 18: 

StencilGirl Talk

Carolyn Dube

Janet Joehlin

Kirsten Reed - you are here now 

August 19

StencilGirl Talk

Gwen Lafleur

Mary C. Nasser

My Funky Skyline

This canvas of mine has been in the studio for quite some time...evolving with layers.  Nothing had really jumped out at me.  I worked on the layers for months, adding cool colors adding warm colors, making marks.

Until this week..and it became my Nashville skyline, a view you see as you enter the city from the south.  It is a little funky, sitting in an envelope of clouds where dreams are wished.  

Bright lights. Big dreams. Amazing Tennessee sunsets and warm Southern hospitality all wrapped around our "small big city".  Music City.

I will be bringing my new piece to the Tomato Arts Festival in the east end of Nashville this weekend.  It should be fun ~ if you are in town, come see me in booth #527!