This is such a stunning Catholic church. The inside commands attention. It is full of history. The architecture is so beautiful. This is a photo from the BACK of the church. Just look at that golden light! Stunning.
The history is fascinating, for example, the church originally cost $103,00 to build… in the early 1850’s! Read more about this church’s history…
Catch you back here tomorrow!
It’s nice to have a bit of color in the winter. There is just nothing like fresh flowers. I will often pick up a small bunch of tulips, lily’s or sunflowers if they look happy and like they will last a while. Tulips usually last about a week, getting very dramatic towards the end.
Treat yourself… or even better, someone else!
Catch you back here tomorrow!
Cheryl St. John. Cheryl can paint the scenes that nature offers so fluently. Her paintings are just beautiful. Cheryl is an artist from Colorado who paints plein air (outdoors). She paints the larger paintings in the studio from small plein air studies, so she can capture the feel of her location and portray that onto a larger canvas.
The painting Reach for the Sky makes me happy just to look at. The combination of colors is so beautiful to me. Just fabulous!
I think it’s so fabulous when an artist can really capture the light, and I would say Cheryl did just that. The sky is wonderful, the bright sun is spellbinding!
Are you an artist interested in taking a workshop with Cheryl? Check out her 2016 Workshops!
Read a bit about Cheryl, from the Saks Galleries website:
Cheryl St. John is a fourth generation Colorado Native; it’s in her blood to appreciate the nature and environment. She says she is a preserver of both. Cheryl draws inspiration to paint from her vast travels from the wide-open spaces of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, the high deserts of New Mexico, the colorful hillsides of Tuscany, to the charm of San Miguel de Allende.
She is a member of the American Impressionist Society and member of the Plein Air Artists of Colorado. She says of plein air painting, …”it’s always a challenge, never-ever routine. The changing light and weather conditions create a sense of urgency that translates to a spontaneous and loose interpretation of the scene.” Transporting structured chaos into the studio for the much larger pieces proves an undertaking Cheryl is well equipped to handle.
She is deeply connected to her environment. Her paintings reflect harmony and tranquility. They reflect the soul and spirit of the land to the viewer
Cheryl is known for her “plein-air” landscapes as well her breathtaking large landscape paintings created from the plein air studies. “It’s a bit difficult to paint on a 36X48 canvas on location so working from small studies, created in the field is the perfect solution!” Now, she can enjoy being outdoors, which is where she wants to be most of the time, and enjoy the comfort of the studio when she wants to work large. The nice thing about creating a small study on location is it takes me right back to that “special place” so I can create a large work with the same feeling and emotion.
Cheryl’s inspiration comes from the wide open spaces of the rocky mountains of Colorado, the high desserts of New Mexico, the colorful hillsides of Tuscany and the many other landscapes she is yet to discover. Painting en plein-air is always a challenge, never-ever routine. The changing light and weather conditions create a sense of urgency that translates to a spontaneous and loose interpretation of the scene, which is something she retains in working much larger in the studio. “Besides, it’s a great excuse to be outdoors and what better way to take the viewer to all of the wonderful places I get to visit! My hope is that the viewer can actually feel the breeze, smell the fresh air and soak in the warmth of the sun in each and every one of my works of art. I want my paintings to let you escape to a very special place and enjoy.”
Cheryl studied fine art and design at The Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design and The Colorado Institute of Art, as well as with well known artists: Kim English, Melinda Morrison, Michael Workman, Robert Spooner and many others. Read more HERE…
All images via CherylStJohn.com, used with permission…
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Our Town Plans has the classiest of plans. Each one is as stunning as the next. They don’t skimp on details when it comes to a guest cottage either, just look at this sweet plan, this is 229 Greer Road. It is a 1 Bedroom, 1 Bathroom plan with 312 square feet. Perfect for a guest or… as a STUDIO! Many of us would like a little getaway, but be close enough to home, wouldn’t this just be perfect? A wonderful front porch leads to the front door. Beyond that is the Bedroom/Living space, a refrigerator and sink, a closet and bathroom with shower. Perfect!
I love their sketch with the fire pit and adirondack chairs. Just wait until you see real images of this guest cottage. You’ll see what I mean! CLASSY!
All images via OurTownPlans.com, used with permission…
Catch you back here tomorrow!
Don Weller. What he can do with watercolors is breathtaking. This gorgeous blue sky is mesmerizing! He captures movement with horses so well. Just beautiful!
You can tell that Don has spent a great deal of time around horses. He paints them so well. I love to see his landscape within the painting as well. He has a way that is unique and wonderful. His palette is gorgeous – his paintings are a treat for the eye!
Don has a few wonderful books available – just beautiful!
Read a bit about Don, from his website:
As a boy Don Weller drew horses and cowboys when he wasn’t exploring with his horse along the Palouse River or over the rolling hills that surrounded his childhood home near Pullman, Washington. He roped calves in high school and college rodeos and sold some cartoons to Western Horseman magazine. His passions were horses and art.
Graduating from Washington State University with a degree in Fine Art, he sold his horses and moved to Los Angeles where he spent decades doing graphic design and illustration. His work appeared on record covers, posters, in advertisements, and on hundreds of magazine pages. He did covers for Time Magazine, TV Guide, and illustrated stories in Sports Illustrated, Boys Life, Pro, Readers Digestand many others. He did posters for the Hollywood Bowl, The National Football League, The Rose Bowl, and the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He illustrated three children’s books and published a coffee table book about cutting horses, Pride in the Dust. He created five stamps for the United States Post Office.
Besides illustration and graphic design, he taught school part time, three years at UCLA, where he met his wife Cha Cha, and eleven years at the Art Center School in Pasadena.
Finally Don realized he had seen all the cement and palm trees he could stand. They moved to Utah, near the skiing at Park City. A book project for the NCHA introduced him to a neighbor who trained cutting horses. The west of his childhood came flooding back. It was still there, just as he’d left it. The cutting horse book project took him to Texas and Arizona, California, and Montana. He was in arenas and on ranches.
He began to wonder what it would be like to ride those cutting horses. He found out, and his adventures expanded to cutting contests, rodeos and ranch life.
Now Cha Cha and Don live in rural Oakley, Utah, with Buster the border collie, two cats, and five horses who are bred to cut. Don creates western paintings and rides the cutting horses. In the summers the menagerie grows to include cattle and sometimes buffalo. In winter they ski. Read more HERE…
All images via DonWeller.com, used with permission…
Images are not for reproduction, they are property of the artist.
Catch you back here tomorrow!
Charlie with his googles on (reminds me of Snoopy) ready for his first laser treatment (Companion Therapy Laser by LiteCure) at West Ashley Veterinary Clinic. (Thankful for this fine group of doctors)!
Charlie had surgery seven weeks ago today for a torn CCL (like an ACL in humans). He has progressed so much. After surgery, these laser treatments were recommended. They speed healing, help with inflammation and pain. I swear that he healed faster and with less pain than if he didn’t have them. It only took a few minutes (depending upon condition and dog, etc.). This was the only time he wore the Doggles, darn cute, glad I snapped a photo! The other visits (he had ten), Fred just held him with Charlie’s head facing the opposite direction of the laser (we had special goggles on as well).
Interested? Click HERE to find a practice near you that offers laser therapy. In Charleston, there are quite a few that do offer it.
To read more about all this laser can help, visit the Companion Therapy Laser website!
Catch you back here tomorrow!
Tony Karpinski. Wow! His paintings are enlightening. They tell a story about where he lives (UK) – these are paintings of London and they are stunning. Don’t you just love his brush strokes and colors? The way he portrays light is amazing. He gives you a glimpse at what London looks like, and let me tell you, it makes me want to be there right now!
Tony captured this scene so well. The statue is just stunning. The background is fabulous, and the light in this painting is crazy wonderful! I love how the woman is perched against the column reading her book, sun hitting her face. What a delight! This would be me! I would walk around, grab a bite to eat, and maybe a coffee or tea, and then take time to just be… either write, read, or sketch. How wonderful! The song “Leaving on a Jet Plane” comes to mind right now… on it’s way to London!
Check out more paintings by Tony, available via Haynes Fine Art of Broadway, located in Worcestershire (UK). Stunning paintings (& sculpture!), I encourage you to take a peek!
Read a bit about Tony, from his website:
My heart is rooted in London. I was born in London, I grew up in London and I spent most of my adult life in London. Yet it is quite remarkable that despite having also spent most of my adult life as a professional artist it is only now that I have started to paint my beloved City.
It could be seen as a long and necessary apprenticeship that has led me to this moment. A combination also of how I see London now and a new style of painting in which I think my subject should be interpreted. I would like to align myself with such stellar company in terms of vision if not talent as Blake, More, Dickens and Chaucer all of whom were obsessed with the light and darkness of a London. To paraphrase Ackroyd “In a city that is built in the shadows of money and power; all of them were entranced by the scenic and the spectacular, in a city that is continually filled with the energetic display of people and institutions. They understood the energy of London, they understood its variety, and they also understood its darkness.”
I live just outside of London now and going into town allows me to look at it with fresh eyes, seeing the smaller things that I could possibly overlooked if I saw it day in day out.
I’m filled with a great sense of excitement when I’m in the streets, I feel like a fly watching a fast moving City in slow motion. I love watching people, my focus is always on the people of London simply going about their daily business and moving around living their lives, I don’t look for action, just simple beauty.
Of course this new avenue I have entered has opened up exciting new worlds to me of all the great cities on this planet, a never ending stream of reference material and so much to see and paint. The truth is though I could spend my whole life in London, never get bored and constantly see something incredible and new.
All images via TonyKarpinski.com, used with permission…
Catch you back here tomorrow!
This is one beautiful home located in Charleston, SC. Gorgeous flower boxes. The color of this home is stunning! It’s so classy and well taken care of.
Beautiful, just beautiful!
Catch you back here tomorrow!
There is nothing better than walking around Charleston, SC taking photos. There are so many beautiful things to take photos of, it’s hard to stop. You can literally be walking for hours and not even realize it!
Catch you back here tomorrow!
Mary Erickson. What wonderful colors in the water! The reflections, the bird, grasses, trees all so nice and so serene. This painting captures the coastal areas so nicely.
Mary is well known for her beach scenes. She has a way of painting sand, it’s just beautiful. I love the footpath to the beach. Think of all the people who have made their journey through this area… Isn’t that hint of sun at the far end just stunning? You just know that when you step off of this path you are stepping into sunshine, which sounds fabulous during these cooler months!
Read a bit about Mary, from her website:
Mary Erickson grew up sketching the beaches of Long Island Sound and sold her first painting to Gulf+Western Industries in Stamford, Connecticut at 13.She studied at the University of Bridgeport and Sacred Heart University, and initially worked in small business management. Erickson’s passion for painting, and a move to Florida in 1986, stirred the desire to pursue art as a career. Finally, she realized a long held dream, and in 1993, Mary began painting professionally.
Preferring to work on location, in the tradition of painters since the French Impressionists, Mary travels extensively. She creates field studies (plein air) then returns to the studio to produce large paintings using the visual knowlege and critical information gathered in the field.Painting tours have taken her to Spain, Guatemala, Argentina, Ireland and throughout the United States. Whether solitary excursions (like scouring the coast of Maine for painting sites with her rescue dog, Maggie) or group efforts with other professionals or students, Mary believes these painting trips are essential to an artist’s career and growth. Future trips are planned to Italy, France, Costa Rica, Mexico and New Zealand.
Erickson currently maintains studios in Marshville, NC and Venice, FL. In the summer she rents a large house in Port Clyde, ME and shares the experience with other professional artists. Daily painting excursions and art talks into the night typify the weeks into early September. Read more HERE…
Be sure to check out Mary’s upcoming EVENTS for 2016.
Thank you Mary for submitting your website for a possible feature – what a treat!!
All images via MaryEricksonArt.com, used with permission…
Images are not for reproduction, they are property of the artist.
If you are an Artist (or Emerging Artist) I welcome you to submit your website for a possible ARTIST TO WATCH future feature.
Catch you back here tomorrow!
This home was built with so much thought. What happens when an architect and his wife plan a home that will serve them well into retirement (other than 2013 Retirement Home of the Year)? A stunning, beautiful, well thought out plan emerges, that’s what happens! There was a wonderful article in Fine Homebuilding magazine, be sure to read that article, you won’t want to miss it! In the article, Jon explains some of the details and why he designed it like he did. Fabulous!
I love this plan. It’s not a massive home, but it’s so well thought out that it could work out better for you than a large home in many cases. There is one bedroom in this house, but there is also an Office. So if it needed to be another Bedroom, it’s a quick and easy movement of furniture. In this plan the Kitchen, Dining, Living areas are open, and look out onto a Patio. If you notice there aren’t hallways that take up space. It makes each area more roomy, here, Jon was thinking about the future, easy access is important. I’ve always wondered about hallways. They can be beautiful but they take up so much space and all you do is walk through them.
You can see how the plan is situated on the site it’s built on in an article from Fine Homebuilding Magazine.
This is the Guest House – The Guest House is not connected to the house. It can be used for guests, for long or short term rental, and in the future possibly to house a caretaker that would allow them to live independently in their homes for as long as possible.
What a dream, right?
This is the back of the house which is the perfect extension of this home. (Image from Fine Homebuilding article) – What you see in the foreground is a lap pool, then the fire pit, and just look into this house. Just beautiful! What a dream!
You can contact Jon Nystrom via his website!
All images via JonNystromArchitect.com, used with permission…
IMAGES ARE NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION OR REPRODUCTION, THEY ARE PROPERTY OF THE ARCHITECTURAL FIRM.
John Wentz, a California artist with a twist. I like the idea of not seeing every little bit of a painting, leaving something to my imagination. I think these three women are incredible. John captured a moment – he captured it so well that I keep going back to those three woman wondering what are they are talking about?
Is the one on the right saying I told you so? Is the one in the middle smirking, or just wanting to get to her lunch destination? How about the one on the left? She looks like she could possibly be the one on the right’s sister? Behind her sunglasses, I believe her eyes are rolling back in her head.
See what a good thing it is to use your imagination? I can come up with an infinite number of scenarios, ha ha… Interesting, different and very cool, be sure to check out John’s paintings!
Read a bit about John, from his website:
John Wentz is a contemporary painter whose process resides in an area between rigid technicality and honest expression. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to it’s core fundamentals: composition, color, and paint application. Paint application and brush strokes are broad and simplified as a means to connect and convey these ideas to the viewer in a way that only painting can.
John was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interest in art began at the age of 6 when he first discovered Batman and Spiderman comic books. After years of copying comics panel by panel he worked in the commercial arts as a muralist, billboard creator and freelance illustrator. After learning to paint by doing airbrushed billboards, he decided to pursue Fine Art and work in oils. Since then, he has had 3 solo exhibitions in San Francisco and numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. His works have appeared in many publications and have won multiple awards. John now paints full time in his studio in Alameda, CA.
All images via WentzArt.net, used with permission…
Images are not for reproduction, they are property of the artist.
Catch you back here tomorrow!
This is something I received for Christmas that I absolutely adore! This little gadget (inside the salad bowl) is called a SNAPI “the single handed server”. It will make you want to prepare a nice big salad each and every night, just so that you can use it! You can hold your plate with one hand and use Snapi with the other. You only need one hand, it does the work. Then with the press of a button it locks closed for easy storage, then just squeeze together and it open. It picks up so much better than ANYTHING I’ve ever used. What fun!
You know how when you get to the bottom of the salad bowl that’s where all the “good stuff” is. Not with Snapi. It picks up from top to bottom, nothing is left at the bottom. Read more about it HERE. Snapi is available at many locations…
Catch you back here tomorrow!
Weigh In by Mary Michaela Murray 20×30″ Oil
First I would like to mention that I have changed the theme (layout-wise) of this blog to have images larger. However, that appears to sacrifice all the “widgets” on the right hand sidebar (search, categories, top posts, etc.) – I am working on it, if that cannot be resolved I will switch back to the previous layout. Just a little info for ya!
Continuing on the Artist to Watch Series (relatively new to this blog) is an emerging artist with great style and some really nice paintings. Her name is Mary Michaela Murray. This painting looks like it could be the original for a farmer’s market poster. You know the ones, they’re always so wonderful!. Great shadows and color!
Cut Up by Mary Michaela Murray 30×20″ Oil
I have to say, I love when you buy one and get two free! Buy one painting and get the two paintings within the painting! These paintings of paintings are fabulous – Great job. I love seeing paintings of art supplies, paintings, etc. A peek into the artist’s world!
Read a bit about Mary, from her website:
Color moves me, and at once, arrests me—a sunny lemon on a cool blue tabletop; a punch of pink against a neutral gray vase; a patch of grass jumping from the purple shadows. These things compel me to stop, take notice, and breathe. I paint to recapture these moments.
Humble objects and ordinary scenes from my daily life inspire me to linger. It might be an oddly shaped spaghetti squash, the cyan of ceramic bowl, or a simple can of tuna on a counter. From these mundane snapshots I engage the objects, arranging layered relationships between figure and ground, light and shadow, color and value. This is when the fun begins, when I get “out of the way of myself” to freely interpret what is before me, and by tilting planes, jacking colors, skewing perspective, add drama to images we see every day.
In the end, it is not about mirroring what I see but sharing the pleasure I have in looking and lingering.
All images via MaryMichaelaMurray.com, used with permission…
I would like to thank Mary for submitting to my website – what a treat, I hate to think I could have missed an artist!
If you are an Artist (or Emerging Artist) I welcome you to submit your website for a possible ARTIST TO WATCH future feature.
Catch you back here tomorrow!
Yes… A dog stroller.
Charlie (dog) is on the mend from a torn CCL (like an ACL in humans). No running, jumping, etc for quite a while. WE need to walk and so… The stroller, that way he can get out and get some fresh air too. I do wish I had one of those cameras to show you video of the looks 😳 we get. He will be back walking like normal at some point, just not yet.
What fun!
Catch you you back here tomorrow!
ARTFOODHOME.COM 