Solo Show at Beans N Cream

I am excited to announce that I am currently in a solo show at Beans N Cream in Cedarville for the month of November. I have tons of new paintings up in the show that I am really excited about. I plan to add another 4 this week as well. I am so excited to be painting again and can't wait for everyone to see my new pieces! I plan to post pictures of the show very soon.

Click on the link below to get to the Beans N Cream website for all of the important info - address, hours, and of course a menu of all the yummy coffee and treats they have to offer while you are there:

http://www.beans-n-cream.com/

Dare 2 Be Square show

After a looooong hiatus, I am back to painting and have 2 pieces in a show currently and an upcoming solo show scheduled for next month!

This month, I have 2 pieces in the Dare 2 Be Square show at Village Artisans in Yellow Springs. This show is up for the whole month of October. Check out the pictures of my pieces below (they are the coral, teal and yellow ones - 4th ones to the right in the second and third rows).

There is an artist's reception this Friday, October 21 from 6-9pm. Check it out!

I'm painting again!

I feel terrible that I haven't updated this blog in months. I literally have not created one new piece of work - until now! I seen on Facebook that Village Artisans is having their Dare 2 B Square show again for the month of October. I seen this at the last minute and just HAD to get into it.

So I feverishly began painting the next day. I actually couldn't sleep because ideas kept running through my head. I ended up turning out 2 new pieces yesterday. I had seen something on Pinterest (which if you don't know what that is, you MUST Google it) and was inspired by it. It was this folk-art style design which I thought was really pretty. So I ran with it.

Here they are - hopefully you can come see them in person. I will have a flyer up for the show when I get one.

 "Rockin Rio", acrylic on canvas, 12x12", 2011

"Splash" acrylic on canvas, 12x12", 2011

New Pieces

So it has been quite a while since I have posted here. A little thing called Zumba has taken over all of my free time since I have become a licensed instructor. If I want to get any painting done it is usually due to a swift kick in the tail from a friend that needs a painting done.

With that being said, my friend Brandy has been one to keep me painting with projects for her house. She has a new baby on the way and asked me to do a few paintings for the baby's room to go with her bedding that happened to be very similar to the style that I like to paint in! So here are the latest pieces that I did over the weekend. I hope she and the baby both end up loving them!

"Angles and Curves", 2011, acrylic on canvas, 3 8x10" panels

"Layers", 2011, acrylic on canvas, 2 16x20 panels

Art CLEARANCE!

My house is busting at the seams currently with art. I have been trying to slang it to anyone who visits my home and I must say it has been working. I am willing to let pieces to at bargain basement prices - $35 for large pieces and $15 for smaller ones. If you see something on here that you like, let me know. You can reach me at melissa.faulkner-vanzant@hotmail.com or simply leave a comment here.

Beans N Cream Holiday Show

So I was kindly invited to go back to Beans N Cream in Cedarville to put some art in for their annual holiday show. I immediately got to work experimenting with new things and continuing to explore this whole new, weird obsession with birds I've developed. Each of the 7-8 pieces I put in the show are all bird-related. I found this picture of a few of my pieces on the Beans N Cream Facebook page. My work is mostly on the right of Jennifer Float's work (that I really really love). Hopefully you can stop in and see it while grabbing a warm drink or something quick to eat. They also have lots of nice gifts to finish off your shopping. Check em out!

Mixed media finished pieces

So I finally finished the mixed media pieces. It was definitely an experiment. I bought some stencils, spray paint, and some song books to use to create the pieces. After accidentally huffing spray paint and spraying myself in the face once, I was on my way!

There are a number of layers on each painting. The first was a solid color of acrylic paint. Then I experimented with adding the spray paint (thank goodness I was in my back yard or people passing by surely would have thought I was nuts! Then I added stencils, cut song book pieces and modge podged it all (that stuff is awesome). finally I added some little acrylic paint designs and VOILA!

Right now they are currently in a holiday show at Beans N Cream in Cedarville. I plan to put up a separate posting about that in a minute. . . .

The good news is I have already sold them as well! Yay! Their new home will be in a baby's room who will arrive in May. So excited!

Pictures of the process: Acrylic paint on the bottom with spray paint on top

Stencil added on top of spray paint

Finished pieces:

"Perched", 2010, mixed media, 8x10", SOLD

"Fat Little Bird", 2010, mixed media, 8x10", SOLD

Mixed media adventure

So after being in the "Dare to be Square" show in Yellow Springs recently, I found myself incredibly inspired by the work of Jennifer Float. Her colorful mixed media pieces were so whimsical and fun. After walking out, I told myself that I have to give it a try. So this week I started buying supplies to start my first pieces. I hope to use my next day off work to try some things out. I will try to post pictures as I work. This will definitely be an interesting adventure - hopefully I end up with something cool.

In the meantime, take a look at Jennifer's work if you're interested by clicking on her painting below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Work by Jennifer Float (image taken from her blog)

Dare to be Square Artist Reception - TONIGHT!

Hope you can make it - I plan to stop in at some point to visit.

Click on the logo below for all the details.

Dare to Be Square Pictures

I got to peek in at the Dare to Be Square show this weekend during the Street Fair. All of the paintings are really beautiful and I am so glad to be a part of something so cool! One of these pictures came directly from the Village Artisans blog that I previously posted the link for and the other I took while I was visiting of just my painting. Hopefully all can see the show in person.

Shot of part of the installation (courtesy of Village Artisans)
My piece is at the bottom right on the left wall

"Harvest Time", 2010, oil on canvas, $75

Dare to be Square!

I am excited to have a painting in the Village Artisans "Dare to be Square" show this month in Yellow Springs. All pieces in the show had the same requirement of being a 12x12" piece. I decided to bust out my oil paints (which I haven't touched in ages) and see what happened. The result is an abstract sort of color field painting that was done in fall colors. The show is hung right now and there will be an artist reception on October 15 during the Art Stroll event from 6-9 pm. All paintings are being sold at $100 and are done in an assortment of mediums.

For more information on the show, visit:

http://villageartisans.blogspot.com/2010/10/dare-2b-square.html

Ladyfest Installation

Ladyfest has come and gone and hopefully people got to enjoy the show and see some great art. I was unfortunately out of town during the event and didn't return until after it was already over. I am sad that I couldn't be more of a part of such a great event. However, even though I was unable to be there in person, my art was there. This is a picture of my installation that someone was kind enough to post on Facebook and tag me in. So thank you to whoever took the time to do that! Take a look if you weren't able to in person.

Dayton Ladyfest 2010 poster

Something old, but new again

Since its summer and the season for weddings, it seems somehow I have been around photography a lot more lately than what I ever realized before. I seem to be much more aware of it now for some odd reason and it has caused this new interest in it.

With that being said, I have decided to enroll in a photography class in the fall. Granted, I took a few to get my BFA degree, but I was totally uninterested at the time. This time around, I am hoping to jump head first and really grab it by the horns and get it right. So we'll see how this goes. I am really excited about this second go-around. I'll be sure to post pictures of my experimenting as I go. Wish me luck!

Now that the summer is in full swing, I barely have time to do anything new. I have had a record breaking number of weddings I have had to attend this summer so that has been keeping me quite busy.

I knew that Ladyfest Dayton was quickly approaching and went to their facebook page for more up to date information and seen that the date has changed. Ladyfest Dayton will now be held September 3-5, 2010. I was actually very happy to see this as it buys me some time to kick out some new pieces. Click on the graphic below to get to their facebook page which has a lot more information than the last link I posted: