TNH PC 09Awith 958 square feet and 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms… Are you looking for a relatively small house plan with great features? Look no further! This sweet plan, designed by Moser Design Group is a classy plan that really has all you need! There is nothing like a porch. This plan has a front porch and a screened side porch (which could always be filled with windows and made into a sunroom/studio/spare room). I love our sunroom. There is nothing like it for reading…
This plan does not have one thing… a dining room. Thank you for that. For us that is wasted space. We use ours, but only because the room would otherwise get no use at all. Having counter space at the island or a small antique pine table would be perfect! The only thing that I’m not big on with this plan is no powder room for guests. There is a cut through area to the master bathroom, but I would see what I could do to maybe push that wall out a wee bit to fit a washer/dryer in that space and a powder room where the utility currently is (teeny powder room) or maybe under the stairs)?? This plan allows you to choose if you would like the master up or down. Very nice!
Shanna Kunz. Stunning. Grand. I see this painting with the beautiful sunlight hitting the trees, the gorgeous snow that crunches at your feet and I just want to take a nice walk through the woods (with a thermos of hot chocolate!)… when a painting evokes a feeling, it’s done its job! Shanna has gorgeous paintings, you must check them out!
Read a bit about Shanna from her website (click HERE to read in full!):
As a contemporary landscape painter, my work is a conscious play of mood, light and color, but as a naturalist raised and rooted in the diverse landscapes of western America, a painting means more than that to me. Each location is an encounter with the land, the trees, and the waters that have always given me a sense of connection and order. When a location intrigues and inspires me, I will paint the scene into a series using a range of keys or themes, experimenting and searching to learn more about the natural threads that tie the landscape together with complexity, subtlety and⎯more importantly⎯balance. I look for new ways to express spatial relationships and distance with layers of paint, brushwork, gradations, and diffusions of light. Hopefully, my study of the landscape will bring me somewhat closer to an honest translation⎯of both soul and land⎯as I push color and value into new compositions and continue a lifelong effort to communicate the emotional connection I feel with my environment.
Jo Malone is such classy cologne. Many can be used by men or women, which is really neat. They can also be blended together which is wildly interesting. I have used Jo Malone since my very first purchase. Once you use it, you tend to not want to use anything else. It’s not as strong as other’s tend to be and it’s just so nice! I snapped a photo, just look how nice their marketing material is. The classy brochure that shows the different combinations that can be layered, the gorgeous gift bag and the snazzy box with the black ribbon. Presentation means a lot!
Thrilling news! (And I JUST REALIZED THIS)… we now have Jo Malone available here in Charleston! Belk at Towne Center in Mount Pleasant, SC has a wonderful section. If you haven’t been… give it a try, try a few to see if you like them. Ask for a sample, it helps when you can use it at home without other scents flying around in the air. Try it, I think you’ll like it ;)
Libby Terrace by Jason Saunders – 16×16″ 1st Place Winner at Plein Air Richmond 2014
Jason Saunders. Incredibly talented guy as you can tell by the first place ribbon from Plein Air Richmond this year. No easy task! Great composition on this piece, interesting and utterly amazing! Check out Jason’s blog as well, it’s full of great info and lots of wonderful photos!
Mrs. Martin’s Garden Roses – 16×16″
Jason’s roses are amazing, as seen in this painting! I also love the square canvases that are all the rage right now. It seems like a modern twist to a classic.
Jason Allen Saunders began his formal studies at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. There he obtained a strong foundation of painting, under the watchful eye of his teacher, Dawn E. Whitelaw. During and shortly after college, Jason travelled to study with three of the countries most treasured artists: Everett Kinstler, Matt Smith, and Scott L. Christensen. The instruction given by these three men, was the bridge, Jason had been searching for.
Currently, Jason lives and paints primarily in the beautiful hills of middle Tennessee. Jason’s paintings are highly sought after by collectors throughout the world. His paintings are described as honest, peaceful, and emotional. Jason takes pride in the pureness of his craft, only painting from life and memory. “The process is as important to me as is the finished painting.”
Ahhh, Broad Street in Charleston, SC. It’s not the highly publicized shopping district on King Street, but what it does have are the kinds of shops that are unique. Less commercial. More small businesses. Many galleries are located on Broad Street, unique shops, some great eating places, not to mention Normandy Farms Bakery – great coffee, pastries, bread, sandwiches, etc.
It’s important to support the locals! They have a lot to offer!
Fred and I were on our way home from downtown and there was a sunset so bright I thought it was going to blind me! It was crazy bright! Not sure what was going on but the beautiful light that it cast on everything was spectacular!
This was taken from the parking lot at California Dreaming, were we stopped by to pick up a salad to go… I assure you, we don’t take for granted the beautiful area in which we live… WOW!
These are the tastiest Christmas cookies in all the land. THE ONES that put the biggest smile on Santa’s face! Perfect for those of you who are uber creative! Each cookie is a blank canvas and you can get as fancy as you like… or you can just squeeze on the colorful frosting, and that’s beautiful as well! The recipe has been in our family since I was teeny tiny and has become a yearly tradition! My parents found it in a magazine… wonder which one? Click here to read the last post about these wonderful cookies!
Plan 452-3 Cabin Plan via Houseplans.com Design of this signature plan is by David Wright
Cabin plan 452-3. This signature plan, designed by David Wright for Houseplans.com packs a powerful punch. It’s not a large cabin but it has presence! Who doesn’t love a wonderful porch like this plan has? This plan has 1,015 square feet with 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. Just. Right.
Cabin houseplan 452-3 Houseplans.com
When you click on the link that takes you to the plan it shows many photos, you’ll see notes on the plan that say “Metal Sliding Door Cover” oh yeah, that is too cool. You’ll see another that says “Sliding Metal Window Cover” – awesome! Perfect if you’re using this space as a cabin, OR great for storms, etc. There is a lot of living space to be had outside if your climate is right! It’s nice that there is even a pantry!
Houseplan 452-3 – Houseplans.com Upstairs
The upstairs has a loft bedroom with a bathroom and closet area. It’s open to the living area below. Are you looking for a cottage style plan? What do you think?
Brad Holt. Dazzling! Ahhh, can’t you feel the warmth from the sun… nice, very nice. Even the shady area has an intense warmth to it that is fabulous. Very nice!
Whaler’s Cove – Monterey by Brad Holt 9 x 12″
Nice movement in the water, along with the reflections… what stands out to me in this painting is the sun on the rocks, I love that. This painting makes your eye dance around, from the foreground to the cove, up to the funky cool tree, to the distance, the water, and then the sunlit rocks. At least that’s where my eyes travel! Nice touch with that bit of purple… love it!
J. Brad Holt grew up in Cedar City, Utah. He is a graduate of Cedar City High School and Southern Utah Universtiy. He spent childhood summers working on his grandfather’s ranch in Orderville, Utah, hauling hay and punching cows. At age seventeen he joined the Utah Army National Guard where he served for the next twenty years as a member of HHB 2/222 FABN. Brad is a musician specializing in Early Woodwinds. He spent several seasons as a musician/performer with the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah.
Brads desire to become an artist began with a childhood facination with the images of the surrealists, particularly those of Yves Tanguay. Eventually he was mentored by the renowned landscape painter Jimmie Jones, who was a friend of the family. Jimmie gave him a lot of old paint and brushes, taught him how to stretch a canvas, and showed him how to lay out his palette. Brad recalls: “Raw Umber and Ultramarine were the core of Jimmie’s palette, and they remain the core of mine to this day. They allow a subtle interplay of temperature in the underpainting.”
Brad Graduated from Southern Utah State College, (now SUU), as an Art Composite Major. He studied under Tom Leek, Arlene Braithewaite, Glen Anderson, Nina Marshall, and Spike Ress. After college he shifted gears and studied Early Music performance practice, and Lutherie. “I guess it’s just something I had to get out of my system. For years I strove for an ever more perfect illusion of reality, and the closer I came to that ideal, the more empty and tedius the exercise became. When I returned to painting I realized that I had to let paint be paint. Landscape painting is not about a perfect portrait of a physical place, it is about the eye, the hand, and the mind of a confident observer. The paintings that I admire are those in which the artist has enough confidence in his own vision to allow bold elegant brush artifacts remain. They serve as a visual testimony to the joy of the process. I do not want to leave my viewers exhausted with a labyrinth of detail. I want them to feel the joy that I feel when I stand before nature with a brush in my hands.”
Brad has taken First Place in the Everett Ruess Plein Air competion in Escalante, Utah in 2006. He twice recieved the Artist’s Choice Award and was Featured Artist in 2012. He has been an artist participant in the Zion Plein Air Invitational: In The Footsteps of Thomas Moran, since its inception. Brad has participated in numerous juried exhibitions and invitational shows including: The Springville Spring Salon, The Southern Utah Invitational, The Sears Dixie Invitational, Art for the Parks, and Land of Contrast: The Dixie National Forest Service Show. He has been published in Poulton and Swanson’s: “Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts, and ” The Gallery: Antiques and Arts Weekly.”
Tyler Florence’s Split Pea Soup with Sweet Potato and Bacon Garnish
I ran across the best recipe for Split Pea Soup with Sweet Potato & Bacon Garnish in People magazine! Tyler Florence‘s recipes are always fabulous and this is no exception. We had a bag of organic split peas from Whole Foods, yet hadn’t used them… actually, I have never used split peas. Neither of us are big on thick soups. So the one thing I changed? I didn’t blend part of the peas after cooking (which thickens the soup), it still thickened itself somewhat, it was just perfect! The garnish made it over the top good. Cutting up a few slices of good bacon and putting it on a baking sheet along with sweet potatoes cut up small… oooowie, magic happens I’m telling you! It is unbelievable to me how much taste is in split peas! As you see below, in the actual soup part of the recipe, there are split peas, salt, pepper, lemon juice, (I didn’t have thyme leaves, so I did not use, and I only used parmesan once, could barely tell a difference). Yet those pretty green peas are TASTY with a capital “T”!
There aren’t a lot of ingredients – this is simply too easy! There is no soaking of the peas before hand. Another step that makes it that much easier! ✨Just be sure to give the split peas a good rinse right before adding to the pot (rinses away any dirt)…
Richard Lindenberg. A truly talented painter. Country Road is a beautiful painting… I love the shadows in the road before it bends… he gives a nice sense of distance with this painting. Very nice!
Richard’s description of this painting: Created at the 2014 Sonoma Plein Air Festival. Out Western Ave. in Petaluma.
Afternoon Light by Richard Lindenberg
Just. Look. At. This. Light. Pretty fabulous isn’t it? I am always drawn to paintings with light… that fabulous light!
Richard’s description: Went out to China Camp State Park to paint the waters edge late in the day… and saw this beautiful backlit stand of trees on the shoreline.
Read a bit about Richard, from his website, to read in full, click HERE:
My truth lies somewhere between a life well lived thus far… and the dreams of what can still be.
The discovery and joy of painting came to me quite late in my life path, but not unexpectedly. Landscape photography was my chosen creative medium for thirty years after attending Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. Large, medium and small format cameras… using primarily black and white images and the magic of polaroid transfers on watercolor paper. Most of my adult career was spent as an entrepreneur importer and graphic designer. Then in 2006 I became more heavily involved in the art industry as the product manager for Savoir Faire, the exclusive importer of Sennelier fine art materials where the history from the French manufacturer opened my eyes to the impressionist era and to art materials in general. In 2010 he joined with Plein Air Magazine as their Marketing Manager.
In 2001, after taking a painting class in soft Pastels to enhance my Polaroid transfers…I was swept away by the possibility of actually being able to paint. After years of painting landscapes in pastel, my passion now is painting the landscape en plein air exclusively with oils.Painting is a friend that always brings me great joy and peace. I paint primarily because it constantly allows me to open my heart. The little moments looking out a car window at an extraordinary sight, or seeing the way a strip of late afternoon light streaks across the meadow. If my paintings can allow the viewer access into a world that is always present, but often taken for granted… then I have contributed something.
There are so many beautiful, ornate gates here in Charleston. Just look at the stunning shadows that are cast in the sunlight! If you get a chance, and the weather is nice, pop outside and snap some photos that you can look back on!
Broad Street in Charleston, SC is just so… historic! These buildings have stories. Can you imagine? Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what went on in each of them? The stories, the different businesses that have come and gone? It’s fascinating to say the least!
Next time you’re in Charleston, check out Broad Street. I think there is a great marketing job mentioning King Street. But the non-commercial places seem to be on Broad Street, so when you’re in the area, check them out! Matter of fact, if you’re downtown today, stop in The Gallery on Broad, check out the great art work on display!
Thomas Torak. STUNNING! I love this guys style! This painting reminds me of being a kid trying to capture lighting bugs… ahhhh the memories! Just look at how magical those stars are? Radiant and like jewels in the dark sky.
This is what Thomas had to say about his nocturne series that he did… beautiful words!
Starry Night was one of 21 Nocturnes I painted for a solo show at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA. The exhibit was a tribute to the music of Chopin who wrote 21 nocturnes for solo piano. Starry Night was the final piece in the series, a quiet moment to let the exhibit drift off into sleep.
Studio Interior with Nocturne by Thomas Torak
It’s pretty cool to get a glimpse into the artists’ studio… where a gorgeous nocturne is being painted. Very clever!
Read an excerpt about Thomas from his website: Click HERE to read in full; interesting reading, you’ll want to click! Then while you’re there check out the many beautiful paintings!
Thomas Torak is a modern master painter working in the classical tradition. His paintings are known for their breadth and luminosity, rich color and lively brushwork. In the fall of 2008 he was hired as an instructor of portraiture and figure painting at the Art Students League of New York. His paintings have been recognized with the American Artists Professional League Medal of Honor at their 66th Grand National Exhibition; the Audubon Artists Gold Medal of Honor at their 59th Annual Exhibition; the Allied Artists of America Silver Medal of Honor at their 93rd Annual Exhibition, the Academic Artists Gold Medal at their 61st National Exhibition of Contemporary Realism and the Honor Award for Oil at the Academic Artists Association’s 50th and 54th National Exhibitions, the Frank C. Wright Medal of Honor at the 2005 American Artists Professional League Summer Members Exhibition and Best of Show at the 8th Annual National Small Oil Painting Exhibition in Wichita, KA. He has received the top awards at the Salmagundi Club in New York at their Thumb-Box Exhibition and a special members exhibit of Flowers. His painting, The Artist, was purchased by the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, LA for their permanent collection.
Thomas began studying at the Art Students League of New York in 1974, studying the first year with Robert Beverly Hale and the next seven years with Frank Mason. Under Mason he learned not only the art of painting but also the craft. He prepares his own canvas, mediums and varnishes and uses only hand ground paint, often grinding the colors himself. A difficult and time consuming task, abandoned by most contemporary artists, but vital to the quality of his work. The methods and techniques he employs are those of the Old Masters but his paintings are decidedly contemporary. Many of his still lifes contain timeless subject matter such as fruit and flowers, but in others you will find more modern objects such as pizza, comic books or baseball mitts. Landscapes are often inspired by walks near his Vermont home or a stroll along the Maine coastline.
House Plan 140-149 by Houseplans.com is a wonderful contemporary plan with wonderful porch access from almost every single room! This plan is 2,693 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. A nice, unique plan for the way we live now. This plan is one of the 2013 Howie Award Plan of the Year Finalists! You’ll see why in just a sec…
Check out their website, there are LOTS of photos! Be careful with the window coverings… to me, in a house that’s contemporary, less is more!
(You may have to click on image to enlarge… or grab your reading glasses!) See how the master bedroom is located on the right hand side, along with the master bathroom and closet. Sweet, right? Out of the way, a private oasis all your own! Located off of the master bedroom is the office space and a powder room. I love having an office space, ours would be more like a reading room with a desk/computer… , then you walk through to the living, dining, kitchen which is oh so sweet! I think personally I wouldn’t have the kitchen counter on an angle. I would keep it straight, but I would cut it off, so it doesn’t enclose the kitchen space. Now as you walk out of the kitchen/dining/living space you enter a screened porch to get to the guest rooms. Part of me likes this and part of me doesn’t… I think maybe I would make this a sunroom? Well, depending where I live! I like the degree of separation it gives you though! Two bedrooms and a utility room, which is great if you have teens and are doing lots of clothes, but if it’s just the two of you, then maybe find a way to incorporate a utility room elsewhere in the house!
Cool plan, eh? Yep, JUST LOOK AT THE PORCH ACCESS all the way across the rear of the house. Can you imagine?
ARTFOODHOME.COM 