A Brand New Year

A Brand New Year!

• A new reason to be excited about what you are doing and how you are doing it.
• A new reason to do something that you've always wanted to do, but were too chicken to try. 
• A new reason to love yourself more and take better care of your mind, body and soul. 
• A new reason to thank the people in your life who love and support you.
• A new reason to forgive yourself for whatever you messed up last year.
• A new reason to forgive people who treated you badly last year. 

I love a new year. And for me, the new year brings a new age. My birthday is January 6th so I get all sorts of new starts and beginnings. January is one of my most favorite times of the year. 

2012 was AWESOME. For those of you who know me, the holiday crush is usually when I turn into a zombie and spend most of December in a total mad sleepless panic to get holiday orders out the door. This year was different. There were only a few stress tears and hardly any sleep-deprived mistakes. Well, maybe just a few. I'm only human! I'm finally figuring out the business side of what it means to run an art-business. The art thing I've got covered. It's the business side that needs work. And thanks to Ashleigh, Lindi and Olga, my 3 very helpful talented workers, the Christmas season no longer terrifies me. I even have a few pieces of inventory left over. I'm in my 5th year of Mary Elizabeth Arts and things keep growing bigger and better than I ever could have imagined. Below are a few studio shots I took during December. The shelf with painted glassware is where I prep my outgoing orders for cleaning and packaging. 

This picture is one of my many paint palettes I use for painting on glassware. I thought it would be nice to show some behind the scene pictures of how I create my work.

I owe a lot of thanks to the SCORE mentoring program. I've been working with 2 business volunteers who, between the two of them have more knowledge then could ever hope to fit into my brain. For anyone who is trying to grow or start their own business, do yourself a favor and contact them. Did I mention SCORE services are free?

2012 was AWESOME. I have a little baby niece who's turning 1 this January. (Yet another reason why I love January). Her name is Corinne and we call her our little Wren. When she gets excited she flaps her arms like a little bird. It's pretty much the cutest thing you've ever seen. 

 

For Christmas I painted my mom a Carolina Wren platter. You know you've done a good job when your present brings tears. 

I paired this platter with a hand-made little birdhouse from Willow's Keep Pottery. I'm always so impressed with potters. They literally create art from mud. I've taken several clay building and wheel throwing classes--all amazingly cathartic for the mind. If you are wanting a new project for 2013, try a pottery class. At the very least you'll have fun getting your hands dirty. 

2012 was AWESOME. But 2013 is going to be the best year yet. I'm heading in a new direction. I'll be creating less everyday pieces and more unique, one-of-a kind treasures. I'm also expanding my Canvas Giclee Prints and have about 20 news paintings to list this month, including my much demanded Koh Samui Sunrise and Sunset paintings. 

My brand spankin' new website maryelizabetharts.com  is live and running and will be ever evolving as I add new galleries and listings during the year. I welcome feedback on any typos or glitches you may notice. Catch a big mistake and you may just earn yourself some free pieces. This year I'm switching over all my packaging to eco-friendly recycled paper and my packaging swag and presentation is getting a much needed upgrade. 

I have several new listings yet to photograph and post. Below are a few of my most recent designs now available. If you see one you like, just click on the image and you can read more about the piece. 

A happy New Year to you all. Thanks for your support of my work. 

It means the world to me.

xoxo 

Affordable Canvas Prints

I'm pleased to announce that affordable gallery wrapped canvas prints are now available. For years customers have been asking for high quality canvas prints of my original paintings, and they are finally available for $95 each. There are currently 10 different paintings available. More will be available in the near future. If you have a request for a particular painting just let me know and I'll get to it first.

-My original paintings are professionally printed on gallery wrapped canvas
-The canvas are 16x20 inches
-The sides are gallery wrapped and are 1.5" inches thick 
-The sides are painted so no framing is necessary
-The canvas are ready to hang "as-is" 

Posted below is a gallery of the canvas prints currently available. 
Click on the image to see more pictures: 

Stormy Mountain

Me and Dad

Ivy Lady

Barcelona Balcony

Monet's Water Lilies

Cherry Tree 

Gold Cherry Blossoms

Birch Trees in the Fall

Birch Trees in the Snow

Forest at Dawn 

Tomato Juice

The tomato garden is exploding red, orange and yellow. We've been picking gorgeous tomatoes in every shade from eight or more different varietals. Thanks to these record NC temperatures, they are actually hot to the touch and taste already broiled fresh off the vine. We've been making salsas, eating them sliced for every meal, sauces and juicing. The tomato juice is my favorite, so I wanted to share some images of what my dad and I juiced today. 

The basket above is what I picked today. 

The yellow and little green ones you see are ripe, even though they aren't red. Just a different kind of varietal. 

Start by cleaning, cutting and boiling down the tomatos to soften the skin. 

When the skins start to fall off, you're ready to juice. 

Transfer the slightly cook tomatos to a stainer and mush down the tomatoes to get all their yummy juices. You don't use the pulp for the juice. I save the pulp to make tomato stock for cooking rice or lentils, a few tablespoons added to fresh chopped tomatoes also helps to make fabulous salas. 

Simmer down the juice and add a few pinches of salt, a splash of Worcestershire sauce and some lemon juice. Think of all the ingredients you'd find in a bottle of V8. This homemade juice tastes a thousand times better and has hardly any ingredients. 

You don't have to simmer the juice for long, just a few minutes on low temps. Then using a funnel pour the hot juice into large jars and refrigerate. 

Drink when chilled. Great for breakfasts or add a shot of Absolute Pepper vodka and serve in a martini glass with the rim dusted with Old Bay and impress your Bloody Mary drinking friends with a Tomato Juice Martini. You can call it a Bloody Mary Elizabeth :-)

Haiti: A Photo Update

Back in March I had the pleasure of traveling to Haiti for an art-teaching trip. You can read details about the trip in this older post here.

I've just received images of the students work on display in the gift shop in Haiti and had to share. I think the artists are doing a wonderful job. Keep up the fabulous painting guys!

Sneak Peak: Secret Garden

When I was young, the Secret Garden was one of my favorite books. It must have been one of my mother's favorites as well, because she decided to create one. 

It started with a lot of bare land. My parents and my husband have been very busy turning acres of weeds and hard clay ground into a garden that will soon be worthy of showcasing in Southern Living. 

These photos are only of the back yard. The front yard is where I was married 2 years ago. The back yard is were the Secret Garden is. You can see part of the green, round structure behind the little pond in the picture below. There are winding pathways all throughout the property lined with lush flower beds and thoughtful details. 

 

In this photo below you can see the opening of the Secret Garden. There will soon be a special custom-built gate installed under the archway.

I'm a real wuss in the heat, what with all the bugs and sweat so I tend to stay indoors painting until early evenings, but I have enjoyed the fruits of everyone's labor. We have been eating out of the farm, and eating quite well. We have lots of different types of basil for pesto, which I'll soon be selling locally. The recipe has already been perfected, we just have to stop eating it so fast so other people can have some too. I've taken to smothering all my raw veggies with the stuff. It's so addictive--and thankfully healthy as our favorite version is actually a vegan pesto. It's so fresh that you don't miss the cheese. 

There is a baby orchard with 25 different types of Apple trees, Peach trees, Pears, Cherries and 3 different types of Fig trees. We already have a few apples and lots of pears. Later, we will be making Apple Butter, Cider, Fig preserves and of course lots and lots of pies. There is also a pumpkin patch along with watermelons, cantaloupes and sunflowers. There's my handsome husband hard at work with the weed-eater around one of the baby Apple trees. 

The farm part of the garden has all sorts of veggies. Snap Peas, English peas, Garlic, Onions, Squash, Zucchini, all sorts of different Peppers, Okra, Corn and of course, tomatoes. My brother has taken on the tomato project and we have close to a hundred different tomato plants. During the summer we all pretty much live off tomatoes--it doesn't get much better than a tomato, avocado and pesto sandwich.

You can see in the background, the back, outside wall of the Secret Garden. I'm only showing a teaser of the garden because it will have it's full debut with a special party. But right now it has a fountain, a built-in fire-pit and outdoor oven for some incredible twilight cooked meals. The walled garden has lights, speakers for music, outdoor dining tables, and some fabulous outdoor furniture finds. And of course all sorts of stunning flowers.

 In addition to the main farm, we have lots of little herb, flower and veggies plots. Some of the yummies growing are broccoli, about 6 different types of lettuces, and every herb you could imagine. Nick and I love to cook so having fresh herbs on hand are a requirement. They are so expensive fresh at the grocery store, if it weren't for the garden we'd go broke seasoning our dishes. 

It's so nice to be able to step outback and collect lettuce and a pinch of fresh dill for your turkey sandwich. Maybe pick a few snap peas for some fresh crunch. Say hello to a ladybug and a butterfly and then pick a pretty flower on your way back inside. Thanks family for creating such an awesome space. 

Faux Stained Glass

I found an old thrift store glass frame in the garage and tried my hand at creating faux stained glass. I used some glass stains and copper puff paint I had around the house. I then hot-glued the glass into the frame. It was really easy to do, and only took about 2 hours for this piece. I think I'll start making some more of these with more attention to the design. These irises were freehand and inspired from my mom's garden.

I used a sponge-like application with the paint to create the texture in the large clearer sections of glass. It's not clear, but rather a combination of yellows, pinks and oranges, but the paint is very translucent.

The "leading" is simply puff paint. I used copper because that's all I had on hand.
 I'll try this again using black so it looks more authentic. I didn't spend a dime on creating piece so I'm pretty pleased with the results. Now I just need to find more cheap picture frames. 

I like how even though this is a faux piece, the reflection of the colors against the window sill looks like authentic stained glass. The pictures sadly don't show the beautiful luminosity of the painted glass. In person, the sunlight looks so beautiful shinning through the colored layers.