M.Theresa Brown-Artist

Creating the dog portrait

2012-02-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

Penny, Mixed Breed Dog Portrait in Pastel

Dog Portraits are popular with my collectors and none so much as my pastel paintings!

This 11" x 14" portrait is a good example of using a pastel medium called PanPastels and it is wielded much like a palette knife.

I love the loose effect that can be achieved!

Notice how I begin? I want those eyes looking at me while I work!

A Painting a Day "how to" DVD!

2012-02-20T10:48:00.004-05:00

Steve Filarsky is my artist/husband and this DVD with World of Art has been a year or so in the making! Now it's ready for shipping! ORDER yours today and find out how to get your Painting a Day going!

NEW DVD! Now some super news:

Steve Filarsky's NEW DVD! "A Painting a Day" Small Paintings for Big Results! Pre-Order yours now!

Steve has a huge following among is collectors for his small oil paintings and in this brand new DVD from the World of Art, he shows you how he accomplishes this in his paintings. Join him and paint 3 paintings in less than 2 hours!

Whether you want to paint for fun with the Painting a Day phenomena or are seriously interested in selling your work in a new venue, this DVD tells all!

Just $24.95 plus 2.95 shipping-Ready to ship now!

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PRE-ORDER HERE:

http://www.artcareerexperts.com/Small-Paintings-Big-Results.html

More on the Bridal portrait

2012-02-19T23:31:00.002-05:00

Still working on the Bridal oil in between the other commissions.
I've spent many years working from life and photos and the one thing I know for sure is that photographs are often inaccurate.
New artists think that if they paint verbatim from a photo, the client will be happy. Nothing can be further from the truth!

They are both tall but the illusion was that they were the same height from the photo-nope- so we decided to raise her husband (so I am re-doing his face, lol)
I also added length to both subjects. Beautiful full length gowns have a way of shortening the height actually so in this 24 x 36" portrait, I added almost a full inch of "leg" length to my bride and groom...and it works!

Lots of tweaking to do yet but the gist of it all is here and the next photo of this will be a completed one!

I need to get a move on now as my daughter will be having her baby on Feb 27....amazing how babies are scheduled now a days! So balancing art and real life is part of the job description!

Bridal portrait in progress

2012-02-05T16:42:00.000-05:00

Creating a bridal portrait in oil is nothing new for me. Creating portraits from very old photos (even tintypes) is not new for me. But to create a bridal from 50 year old photographs is!

In this 24 x 36 oil portrait, the client asked me to use her husband's face from another photos...which I have roughed in. There were numerous small changes to make from the original photos and all very do-able.

At this stage the client has seen it and loves it and I must confess to being relieved as showing a partially completed portrait is always an "iffy" prospect!

Keep an eye out for updates!

Working on portraits at the Horse Show

2012-01-26T21:39:00.000-05:00

Clients and their horses are a big part of what we do! So January and February are those "getting back in the saddle" shows after the holidays. When it comes to some of our clients, this is the start of the Florida shows down in Ocala and Wellington. I have traveled to them all! This image shows our art booth at the current show going on in Raleigh, NC. It's a great way to get work done all the while enjoying the show, greeting our clients and friends and in general, doing our job!

Come by and watch me work Jan 26-29!

Ringing in the New Year by cleaning the studio!

2011-12-31T14:14:00.000-05:00

Wow 2012 is less than 24 hours away and what am I doing? Well I had to go to a nearby farm this morning and load hay bales into the trailer for the ponies. Returned to discover a client is coming by tomorrow. Oh no! ......an art studio, is , at best, the place for sublime creating and soft music, introspective thoughts and .......yeah, right! In the working world of art, it is a frenzy of activity in the weeks leading up to the holiday deadlines...shipping, wrapping, packing, touching up paintings, emails, phone calls, deliveries, last minute orders, art supplies scattered everywhere....and I love every minute of it.
Point is, we run on adrenaline I think, so the week AFTER Christmas, when the big day has passed, the relatives are still in and out.... it is obvious that the studio is in serious need of a re-organization. Or at least a clean up! So I stopped long enough to update this blog and now heading back to the studio, coffee in hand, to continue the clean up.

Front of art studio

Inside our studio

Unusually mild weather is making this a pleasure. Warm sunshine, dogs lounging on the porch. But in a few days we will pay for this mild month of December with highs of, get this, 37 degrees rather than the almost 67 degrees of today!

Hmmm, just why AM I inside cleaning up?

Ah well-Happy New Year!

December rush!

2011-12-10T20:44:00.001-05:00

Oh my, December is in full swing and I have to be so careful not to post painting and portraits that may be gifts! The large 30 x 40 oil from the last post is completed and on the gallery slideshow.

I have just completed another dog portrait-this time of a red Border Collie using PanPastels. The image is also on my Facebook page :-)
Off to the studio...still trying to get a tree up!

The beginning of a large pastel portrait!

2011-11-14T16:05:00.001-05:00

A work in progress: 30 x 40 Pastel Portrait

Here is a sanded 30 x 40 pastel that I have begun of a whole family-the two daughters, along with their horses or first to be seen......mom and dad, along with the two Golden retrievers and a former horse, are still way-y-y-y in the background waiting to emerge from their anonymity :-).

Keep an eye out for the completed version!

"I met a man Bo Jangles and he'd dance for you...."

2011-10-21T07:48:00.002-04:00

When my client brought me an old, out of focus photo for this little pastel commission, all I could think of was that line from the "Mr Bo Jangles" song that said something like "his dog up and died....after twenty years he still grieves..."

It simply goes to prove that there is no time limit on the loss of a beloved pet.

I am honored to have been the artist to bring this little guy back into focus for his owner!

LOL but now I cannot get that song out of my head!

The timeless appeal of babies

2011-09-28T07:23:00.000-04:00

Molly giving hugs. Pastel: 10 x 12

In the long world of art there has never been a subject more appealing than babies unless it was mother and baby images (think Bible)
So when the opportunity comes to create a pastel portrait from an adorable photo, what artist can resist?

1 year old Baby Molly had just given her mother the "Barney hug" when her mom snapped this charming image with her cell phone (who would have thought) and I created a 10 x 12 pastel portrait of the image to capture that moment in a timeless manner!

Now who wouldn't love Barney as well?

Putting Art to use on a Quilt Trail

2011-09-21T20:18:00.000-04:00

Steve and Theresa with the first Quilt Block east of the NC mountains

Art takes on many forms and our most recent project is celebrating the art and history of quilting. What better way to combine art for the masses than by establishing a Quilt Trail. Popular in over 30 states and several Canadian Provinces they offer numerous entrepreneurial opportunities for artists and businesses! And in a country that has become way too dependent on government handouts, we're all about promoting self sufficiency. :-)
It's a huge amount of work but as we're proponents of the "roll up your shirtsleeves and start" school of thinking, we simply.....started. :-) So here is the first Quilt block-a 4'x 4' block constructed of MDO sign board and framed in 2 x 4's by a volunteer and hand painted by Steve. A substantial of our research comes from the best (and we don't see a need to re-invent the wheel!) Barbara Webster-founder and director of the western NC Quilt Trail.

This pattern is called "Card Trick" and the building it is now attached to (the Franklin Country Arts Council building) was originally home to a group of bridge players! Plans are to have approximately 200 throughout the county.
A fun change from structured painting!

The beauty of GREY

2011-09-13T09:36:00.005-04:00

Waiting for the Class

I love to create portraits for my clients and this gorgeous Grey is no exception!

I photographed him, per her request, at one of the shows and later created this 18 x 24 pastel based on a selection from the group.

You simply have to know horses to know what photos are the best to work from and which are not :-)

The tiny roan flecks are difficult to see in the image but are more obvious in the actual piece!

Grabbing inspiration from the mountains!

2011-08-19T12:08:00.000-04:00

Watauga River near Boone NC

For landlubbers there is nothing more inspirational than mountains!

Coming from the northern reaches of the Appalachian, Berkshire and Catskill mountain ranges, I find a little of them all along the Blue Ridge mountains in NC.

We explored the trails along the parkway, rode horses on top of a mountain with views to the heavens and tubed down the rocky river of the Watauga!

Standing on one of the many boulders strewn around the river!

The incredible views from the mountain top riding ring!

Life is good!

Now I am refreshed and ready to paint!

Saxapahaw Art Gallery

2011-06-29T08:16:00.000-04:00

We drove the 60 miles to a very cute little mill village on the banks of the Haw River in NC last night to deliver some of Steve's paintings to the young co-op gallery expanding in the old former mill offices.
You cannot miss the ambiance and the unusual name of the town, Saxapahaw.

Steve's seascapes will be part of the "American Summer" art show.

Adding a mini-gallery in Wake Forest, NC

2011-06-24T09:25:00.000-04:00

Wow, hard to believe that I was the first artist to set up a studio in downtown Wake Forest back in 1991! I was a single mom with 4 children, working as an artist but only able to afford a small rental to live in so I needed the studio space to work!

Later, after my artist husband, Steve Filarsky and I married, we built a huge studio next to our house, about 12 miles away. Since then we have had studios in the charming little town off and on but our travels kept us from being there as often as we liked.
Add to that the obvious fact that we already HAD a great working studio where we could walk out the door in bathrobes and coffee in hand to go to work has some envious perks (our friends like to point out!)

But it made sense to have gallery space as we partner with the Wake Forest Art and Frame for art classes! So now we have our art back in town on their walls as a sampling of what we create!. Go visit, enjoy the art, the amazing framing and gallery they have and stop in one of the little area shops for lunch!

Paint Horses Art PArty!

2011-06-12T08:16:00.000-04:00

It's every little girl's dream! (Well big girls too) to ride, own or somehow dream horses!

The next best thing is to paint your own!

So we did for two and a half hours one evening recently at MacNair's Barn in Raleigh, NC.

We had a "Paint Horses Art Party" for a group of 29 4Her's. Yes I said 29! And they spent a little over two hours totally involved in painting a 9 x 12 acrylic painting of a horse they owned, rode or just loved.

No computers, no texting, no cell phone talking. Just pure involvement in the Art Zone! The results speak for themselves as this grouping of photos shows.

We did this as a fund raiser for the 4H group so at the end of the evening the group had raised almost $300.00 from the event!

We did not get everyone's photo but the ones we did manage to snap before the evening ended...well their expressions say it all!

Visit our Art Student Academy website to read what the girls had to say!

Portrait of Chloe in the Flowers

2011-05-13T12:41:00.000-04:00

How weird to have Blogger go down and this post disappear!
So here it is again-a completed 30 x 24 pastel on Art Spectrum paper created with NuPastels and PanPastels.
Chloe was originally in her home sitting on the steps-the beauty of being an artist is that all of that mundane stuff can be changed!
So I added the flowers that seem to epitomize little girls in the Spring (a good thing!) and now we have a charming memory of being 5!

Pastel of Little Girl

2011-05-11T19:56:00.000-04:00

Portrait of Chloe

I originally photographed this little girl in her house sitting on the steps. The fun (and challenge) of being an artist is the ability to create scenes or change details at will! So in this case I added the spring flowers and bench to anchor the feeling that such a setting invokes with many little girl portraits :-)

The final portrait is a 24 x 30 Pastel, created with a combination of panpastels and nupastels on Art spectrum paper..

Enjoying a piece of the Artist's Life. Come paint with us!

2011-05-05T08:34:00.000-04:00

Spring! It is that time when our old roses burst into a stunning array of colors and as an artist I just drink it up! This year we decided to share the experience!. So, the day before Mother's Day, as most of the roses are coming into their colorful glory then, we will host our own Art Party at our studio!
Yes, the day promises to be sunny, in the 70's (heaven), and we'll have mimosas and wine for both classes to enhance that experience! All in all, you'll experience a day of "painting like Monet" by using our oils and easels to paint "plein air" (or outside at that moment!) any of our little hideaway areas of gorgeous roses! Complete information is on our SITE.

A view vignettes are below! And yes, even I, as a portrait painter, will step outside my element and comfort zone and just enjoy creating and living in the moment! Come join us Saturday, May 7 and Saturday May 14 (same place and scenes but in watercolor!)

Art Party!

2011-04-24T09:15:00.000-04:00

Wonderful results from participants in 2 START classes we held in Stantonburg,NC April 23

Here I am playing around with a collage of photos taken April 23 at a wonderfully fun art party we held with a group of artists at one of the members lake cottage! Hmmm-it's a little small but spending a day painting can be a tremendously enjoyable event!

I took the outdoor photos before the sun came out and took the fog away but you can still enjoy the view that we had!

Taking the Horse portrait beyond the photo.

2011-04-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

How can you not love the beauty of a horse? It's been the subject of artists for centuries.....dating back to the cavemen days (think Neanderthal caves in France!)

I created this 20 x 28 saddlebred on sanded paper using NuPastels and PanPastels while at a show in Raleigh, NC.

When creating portraits of animals, expression is what sets your art apart from that of another artist. In creating expression, the eyes are everything!

Body language is important as well. Notice the proud, upright stance of this lovely horse? The head carriage is typical of a Saddlebred.

This closeup of the head of the same image shows the details of the eye and it's individual expression.

The tack (or lack of) always plays a part in the final portrait, so it's important to depict the accuracy for the breed and discipline.

Artists need to know and study the horse, the different disciplines, the different breeds! They are not generic and knowing the traits of the one you are creating allows you to develop a painting far beyond just a photographic likeness!

Getting off the cell phones and painting!

2011-04-09T10:13:00.000-04:00

Had a great time at Wake Forest Art and Frame last night during the second Friday bash held each month in beautiful downtown Wake Forest!

I have added a photo here but a link to the rest of the first ones with more to come from a few other cameras! The fun part is that the teens put down their cell phones and picked up the paint brushes and.....didn't even text :-)

New classes at Art Student Academy!

Painting dark skin tones

2011-03-18T16:42:00.000-04:00

First draft of 18 x 24 oil

When painting people, you have to take into account the surroundings...will they be neutral? A scene of some sort? A room? Going back to the "less is more" concept, the other thing is will the background or clothes detract from the subject?

So here, in an 18" x 34" oil are the challenges, not the first being that I had 3 days to paint this! And just a few photographs! The woman sat at a desk in a different set of clothes. The clothes they wanted were in another photo of her standing....white with some decoration. And the hair was from still another photograph (the second image is the "correct" hairstyle:-).

After roughing in the portrait clothes and sending it to the clients, I realized how the white overwhelmed her dark skin tones. So I completely changed all the colors surrounding her so that the opposite happens....SHE pops:-) Take a look.

I have not changed anything in her face except I darkened her teeth just a shade.

Second draft and changes to 18 x 24 oil

Now the focus is on her and not the white outfit!

When less is more

2011-03-15T14:27:00.000-04:00

There are times when less is more and often that is the case in paintings! Here are two examples. The 18 x 24 horse pastel is an unfinished display painting that I decided to leave that way after people were surprised while I was working on it to discover that it was not done :-). I like the vagueness and "wispiness" of the image.

Wind at her back

Summer at the Beach

The 24 x 20 oil is a client portrait that will be completed as the client desires. My artist husband, Steve is painting this one. But I love it at this stage...warm, inviting tones of sunlight...makes you feel you are right there and feeling the sun on your shoulders!

Adding a new slide show

2011-03-09T08:47:00.000-05:00

I love it when I play with technology and something finally clicks! LOL

So I have had fun putting together this slide show. Enjoy!