Holiday Shows

I hope you will join me for my two holiday shows this year.  My first one is Made South at the Factory in Franklin and will feature Southern vendors with a variety of hand crafted goods.

Then on December 2-4 I will join a select group of fine artists from the Southeast for the Art Show at Brentwood Academy.

I look forward to meeting you there!

You say tomato...I say FUN!

Every August brings heat, a new school year and yes, Nashville's Tomato Arts Fest.

I love this festival.  It takes place in the funky, kind of artsy area of East Nashville.  The people are fun.  The whole community seems to participate ~ although they kind of have to since all the vendor tents are in front of their homes! There is a run, a parade, a doggie fashion show, live bands, every kind of tomato you can think to eat and yes, ART!  Even fun tomato art.

Here are some photo highlights of my Tomato Arts day last week:

A couple pieces of tomato art to celebrate the day!

Parade festivities beginning...everyone in red and many in costume! Pets and children welcome. 

My booth set up.  It was a new configuration for me, and I think it worked well.

This lady bought my piece, "Becoming Free", because she was so moved by it.  She works in Africa and was just visiting home, but it will become part of her permanent home.

A birthday gift to herself for her new home and a celebration of five-years being cancer free, this customer was a joy to talk to!  I love meeting my customers.

If you live local, and have not been, you must come out next year.  I promise two things, you will sweat and you will have fun!

Thank you for all who came out and met me for the first time ~ I enjoyed meeting you and sharing my art with you for a moment.

What's New In the Studio

Happy Summer! I am so excited to share with you what is new this summer in the studio!

Want to know what's new?  First of all ~ new logo?  What do you think?

Palette Bangles~ a line of bracelets made from my old painting palettes.  100% of profits go straight to Palette with A Purpose program.  This quarter I am giving all money to kids here in the middle Tennessee area aging out of foster care.  What kinds of things do they need, you ask?  Everything! Think: gas cards, food cars, backpacks (and other college supplies), laptops, clothes, etc.  I can't wait to see how many kids I am able to help out.  Let me know if you want to help too!  I will be sharing more about these on my social media platforms and doing some Flash sales ~ so stay tuned!

Block Art ~ I am taking some of my popular art prints and mounting them on to wooden blocks.  These pieces are versatile as they require no "wall space" and can sit on desks, shelves and tables.  Perfectly priced at $25 and under so they make a nice gift too!  These are available at Fireflies, C'est Moi and at my studio.  Just message me through my Kirsten Reed Art Facebook page.

I am also working on several commission projects for clients.  These are always my most challenging and most rewarding pieces!  I am not going to lie, I get full of doubt every single time.  "What if they don't like it?" kind of thoughts try to keep me from bringing my best to the canvas, but I always conquer those fears!  I will be taking orders for commissions for Christmas up through October 1.  Let me know if you have a special gift in mind for someone so we can work together!  Here are a few recent commissions I did:

I am also preparing for my whirlwind of fall shows kicking off in August with the Nashville Tomato Arts Festival (a true favorite of mine)!  I am looking to add an event in September or early October, so this schedule is tentative.

I hope to see you at one or all of these events!

2016 Art Show Schedule

August 

13 Tomato Arts Festival

November

2-6 Birmingham Christmas Village *

18-19 Made South Holiday Market

December

2-4 Brentwood Academy Fine Arts Show *

9-10  Studio Be Artist's Market (Nashville)

*indicates I am waiting for confirmation at time of writing.

Falling

This new piece coming out of my studio this week is my abstract interpretation of flowers falling.  The art mixes cool blues and hues of green and is complimented with hints of yellow and browns.  This piece would be a lovely statement piece providing a pop of color.  If you are interested in purchasing this piece, please contact me.

"Falling"

36"x36" acrylic on canvas.

Available. $518.00

Do you want to stay informed of all the studio happenings and upcoming shows? Then be sure to click here or on the link at the TOP of my page that says "Join My Mailing List".  You will also get special invitations and incentives for being an email subscriber! 

I love hearing from you through social media too!  Be sure to follow me on Instagram @kirstenkreed or follow me on Facebook at Kirsten Reed ART. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

New Pieces at C'est Moi

So the winter doldrums have kicked in and you need a piece of art to brighten up your place?  I just delivered these beauties to C'est Moi in Brentwood.  Visit or call them and they'll be happy to ship to!

Be Happy When I Grow Up

8"x8" mixed media/ acrylic on canvas

$52

Butterfly Love in Blue & Gold

36"x36" acrylic on canvas

$518

Close up of Butterfly Love

Do you want to stay informed of all the studio happenings and upcoming shows? Then be sure to click here or on the link at the TOP of my page that says "Join My Mailing List".  You will also get special invitations and incentives for being an email subscriber! 

I love hearing from you through social media too!  Be sure to follow me on Instagram @kirstenkreed or follow me on Facebook at Kirsten Reed ART. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

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!

​_

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!

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