Barn Landscape Painting, Small Oil Painting, Daily Painting, Textured Painting, 9x12" Oil Painting

Barn Landscape Painting.

When my Pieces of 8 art buddies were visiting me, in my mountain condo, we left our paints at home.  We still had plenty to do!

Each day we would venture out, with our cameras in hand.  One day we drove through the countryside, looking for rustic barns.

Purchase here

 We found plenty to choose from.

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On this painting, I used a combination of brushwork and knifework.  I concentrated on color relationships and texture.

I so enjoy fall in the mountains and wanted to share some of the sights of the season.

Thanks for viewing my blog today!

Carol Schiff

www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Fall In The Mountains

I have been in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina since early September.  Some of my painting buddies were with me earlier last month.

 We took a short trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Here we are a 7,000 feet.

The weather was beautiful and so was the view!

We visited several waterfalls and had a delicious picnic.

The trees had just a touch of color, at the time.

We made some new artist friends, who had this pear tree outside their studio.  Thank you for your hospitality Joe and Mari.

We visited the apple orchard and bought fresh cider.  I'm going back for those apple fritters!

Nothing beats the fresh fruits and vegetables, right out of the fields!

Denette made a new friend in Hendersonville.  We also had a fabulous lunch and shopping trip!!

We didn't have time to paint, but took photos everywhere.  Maybe you will recognize some of the paintings I will be posting in the future.

One day we drove around looking for interesting barns for future artworks.

There are so many beautiful scenes in our country.  We loved the farmlands as much as the mountains.

The perfect finish to our day, a glass of wine and good music, overlooking trees and a creek.

Thanks for viewing my blog today.

Carol Schiff
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Friends

I sometimes think back to when I was raising a family, working in an office everyday, just rushing from one project to the next, trying to get everything done that needed to be done.
.trying to fit everything into the day, but instead of doing everything that needed to be done, I am doing everything I WANT to get done.

A large part of my life today is about art, and a large part of my art is about my friends, "Pieces of Eight".  We are eight women of a certain age, who found each other through our art.  We paint together every week at Ralph's Art Supply.

Our group blog

We do exhibitions together, we travel together, we paint together, and we never fail to support each other in good times and bad.

After a few hours painting and catching up with each other's week, we have lunch together.

We put the names of all the local eatery's in a bag and each week we draw a name and that is where we have lunch.  Why?  Have you ever tried to get 8 women to agree on anything?  Trust me, everyone has an opinion!

This was our luncheon view yesterday.....just in case we forget why we live in Florida!

These women are definitely a blessing in my life, and I just wanted to share it with you today.

Thanks for reading my blog.

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Healing Ceilings, a story of love by Carol Schiff

I recently came in contact with a wonderful woman in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Amy Jo was a fan of my facebook page and sent me a link to her wonderful page called Healing Ceilings.  Amy Jo's husband just came through his second brush with cancer.  She and her husband were spending lots of time in the Cancer Care Center of North Carolina, he, getting treatment and she, waiting and observing. Observing the same people day after day, as they came in for their chemo or radiation treatments.  She decided to do something to brighten their lives and encourage them in their fight.

BlueBird of Happiness by Kathy Garvey

Amy Jo believes in the healing power of art.  She decided to brighten the days of these patients by giving them something inspiring to look at while they receive their treatments.  Out came those old, white, boring ceiling tiles to be replaced with individual tiles turned into creative art.  How she did this, I do not know, but she has single handedly installed hundreds of tiles in cancer care centers in the Raleigh area.

Peaceful Beach by Denette Schweikert

She contacted artists through Facebook and asked them to donate their work on ceiling tiles that she somehow supplies.  Nothing stops her.  When I saw her posts and decided to donate, she arranged for me to go to my local Lowes (in Florida) where I picked up a box of the proper tiles at no cost to me.  Naturally, I involved my painting group, Pieces of 8 and gathered additional volunteers from them. One of the group, Cindy Michaud, who summers out of town, was following the journey on Facebook. Being a person who does not let grass grow under her feet, she contacted Amy Jo and so far, has painted 6 tiles for the project.

Road to Sunshine by Cindy Michaud (2 tiles)

Garden of Inspiration by Cindy Michaud (4 tiles)

Everyone wanted to do peaceful scenes filled with inspiration.

Sailing the Bay by Mary Warnick

Ocean Sunrise by Carmen Beecher

I decided to do 3 typical scenes of North Carolina:

Abstracted Sea by Carol Schiff

Carolina Marsh by Carol Schiff

Mountain Mist by Carol Schiff

Did I tell you each tile is 24x24"?

Now that the tiles are complete, Amy Jo has done a "shout out" on Facebook to bring them home to Raleigh.  In her words, "The Love Train is leaving the station".  She will find volunteers who will transfer the tiles from place to place until eventually, they will be delivered to her hands for installation.

A story of love and compassion and determination.  The next time you think "What difference can I make"?

Think of Amy Jo.

Killer Christmas Sale Saturday

I can hardly believe that it is time for our group Christmas sale...but it is.  In fact it is only two days away!

If you live in or around Melbourne, Florida, you don't want to miss  PIECES OF EIGHT ANNUAL HOLIDAY SALE AND ALL AROUND GOOD TIME!   The last time we had a sale, it was so much fun.....even Google Earth showed up!!

Yes, that's us out there in the drive way having a great time.  We are 9 talented ladies with a lot to offer including, poetry,scarfs, pillows, earrings,  original paintings, cards, pottery, and much more.  Each year we do a group project to fund our annual trip to the mountains.  Last time we published a cook book featuring recipes we tested on our trip and artwork from each of us.  It was such a hit we had to re-order several times and still get requests for copies.  

We put our heads together to come up with the perfect product to offer this year.  Eventually we settled on hand crafted earrings.  We have been working together the entire year on this project and did we have fun!

Just to make it even more unusal....WE PACKAGED THEM INDIVIDUALLY allowing you to 
MIX or MATCH designs.

Don't forget to REGISTER for the FREE GIFT BASKET and enjoy yourself with refreshments.

I want to show you just a few of the paintings I will have at my table.....at a very special, one day only SALE PRICE.

Thistle Love
8x10"

Hunkered Down
6x8"

Cindy Grows Tomatoes
6x8"

Did I mention the date???  
Saturday, December 8th

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PIECES OF 8

Carmen Beecher
Carol Schiff
Cindy Michaud
Denette Schweikert
Donna Vines
Fay Picard
Kathy Garvey
Phillis Holland
Mary Warnick
(YES THERE ARE 9 OF US.....IT'S A LONG STORY!)

ARTISTS AND FRIENDS

Every week, the highlight of my week is the day I paint with my group, Pieces of Eight.  We have been together for over five years now, and our art and friendships have grown stronger as time goes on.  Although we have our own group blog, here, I would like to introduce them to you on my blog, one by one.  And sooooo, here is Cindy Michaud, TAA DAA!

Need a Name!?

(Help!  This 18 x 18 mixed media painting of a philodendron (in my backyard) needs an appropriate title!

I am plumb out of anything creative or descriptive....hate to leave it with "Philodendendron I"...so send in your ideas...please.)

Meanwhile, this piece was great fun to execute: it is "push and pull" when I tackle mixed media.  I start with a panel tediously primed with many coats of gesso (sanding in between) and when it is as glassy as I want it I begin to apply layers of watercolor.  Next comes the sketch or general layout.  All this needs stabilizing before anymore progress because my hands will wipe off the pencil sketch while the acrylic can smear up the watercolor.  Then I begin the fun of pushing some areas back and pulling others forward...done with graphite and thin layers of acrylic.  Yes, it is time consuming but, like baking bread, each stage must be executed carefully in order to enjoy the final result.  Don't try this at home if you are in a hurry! 

For additional photographs of this nameless piece click here; that's the same click if you wish to purchase it.

The board is "cradled" which means it has a 3/4" depth (painted solid) around it and does not need any additional framing or glass.  It's also very lightweight.

Now...send me your suggested titles, either to my email or go to the blog site:http://www.cindymichaudart.blogspot.com/  by clicking on the word Comment...(it's very tiny) under the text, by entering here you can also see what anyone else has sent in.  Thanks a heap!



7 DEVILS AND GOOD CARMEN

Our painting group, Pieces of Eight, just returned from a fantastic week-long retreat in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.  We had a great time staying at Cindy Michaud's condo (thank you Cindy) and traveled out daily to photograph and paint.  Lucky for us, it was peak leaf season and every morning we ohhhhed and ahhhhed over the increasingly colorful landscape.

The night before we arrived, Cindy had a dream in which problems abounded.  Her mother, trying to comfort her, told her not to worry as she had "good Carmen".  Hence the photo above, featuring 7 devils and our own good Carmen.  In case you are wondering, starting at the left is Cindy, me, good Carmen Beecher, Donna Vines, Phillis Holland, Kathy Garvey (our photo shop expert), Denette Schweikert and Mary Warnick.

We had the most wonderful time, painting, cooking (we will soon have a little cookbook for sale), drinking lots of wine and enjoying each other. My next post will include some of the fruits of my labor.  In the mean time, here is a recipe that I featured on our trip and is also included in our cookbook.  Contact me if you our interested in purchasing the book which features our artwork and kitchen skills.

Roasted Cashews and Rosemary

1 1/4 pounds cashew nuts
2 TBSP chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp kosher salt
1 TBSP melted butter

Roast nuts in ungreased pan at 375 for about 10 minutes.  Combine all other ingred. in bowl, add nuts and toss until nuts are coated.  Enjoy!

WATERROCK KNOB, BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY, 5X7, OIL, SOLD

Waterrock Knob, Blue Ridge Mountains, elevation 5820 feet. WOW! It was a hot August day when I drove here with my buddies, Pieces of 8 for a day of painting. When we opened the car door, the wind swept in. It must have been in the low 50's and there I was in my sandels and capri pants. My little Florida toes curled up and turned blue! I was not exactly dressed properly. We had a great picnic lunch and painted for hours. All the heat coming off the brush saved me from freezing. Check out Pieces of 8 for photos of our week long retreat.

THE GARDEN, 18X24 PASTEL

Today I am posting another of my pastels from a few years back. I wanted something with a rather peaceful feel for this post because of what I am about to discuss.

Almost anyone who paints has had first hand experience with the healing powers of art...either received from a favorite piece or gleaned during the process itself. We tend to forget that not everyone who needs this visual medication has access to it and when this fact was discussed at lunch with my paint buddies recently (Pieces of Eight),who all had close friends battling cancer, we decided to do something about it.

Our idea is to paint several small masterpieces, pouring out all the love and goodwill we would want to share with someone dealing with cancer, and send it on for a months stay with them for whatever inspiration it may provide during their recovery. Then we thought if each person who enjoyed the work could share what it had meant to them and maybe send a photo or two, we could post those on a blog, developed specifically for this purpose, to further inspire others in using art as a remedy for healing. I am reporting it all here as I will need your help in proposing some special friends you know who might like to be on the list to receive the first painting we send off on its mission of mercy.

Recipient names need to come with an additional CONTACT name, including both e-mail addresses and the CONTACT's mailing address. The 8x10 painting will arrive by mail to spend a month in the custody of the recipient, During that time, we'd ask the CONTACT to share some comments, or a photo. When the month is over, the CONTACT will follow the very simple instructions for sending the piece to the next person. The post office will supply a Priority class box at the flat rate of under $15.00. I'm sorry to say that until we can work out details of mailing through customs, we must confine our journey to the US and Canada.

Yep, we have lots of residual ideas on this adventure, ranging from local press releases to ways to raise money for the cancer institutes, but, really we just want to share art and good will. So, SEND ME A NAME, if you are willing to be the contact for a friend who would benefit. Just leave a comment under this posting or e-mail me at jmschiff@bellsouth.net. I will keep you posted here and let you know when the new blog is up and running so you may all join us as we trace the journey. We expect to ship the first painting out some time in late spring. I know you will enjoy being part of the healing prescription for art!

inc. ship. in US

18x24 pastel $645.00 Option 2 $645.00 Option 3 $645.00