Put a Pod on it

Have you all seen Portlandia? It's a funny show, the one where the phrase, "put a bird on it" originated. I think we, that being we here in the Mixed Media world, should start a new phrase, "put a pod on it."
And we need to use Chris Cozen's new line of stencils from Artistcellar.
What??? The StencilGirl is pimping stencils from another company!?!?

Uh, yeah....

Chris Cozen is my friend.

And Lisa Cousinea (of Artistcellar) is my friend. 

She runs a good operation. I am only a little mad cause she signed Chris before I did, ha, ha.

Anyhoo, Chris' new line of stencils is a set of 4-6x6 stencils all different shapes of pods. They are really cool. I like them a lot. In retrospect, I should probably have take my photograph before I got them too dirty, but what can I say?

Hand Painted Pod Paper

One of the first things I did was just play around with all four stencils at one time to see how they looked layered up. Making hand painted paper is one of my very favorite things, and this is what transpired, see above. I think there might be more of this in my future.

Pod Painting, 6" x 6" on Wood Panel, by Mary Beth Shaw

I had a prepped wood panel on my table, actually I had a ton of them hanging out, with backgrounds, but nothing else done. I grabbed one and stenciled my favorite of the four stencils onto the center. Uh, sweet!!! So easy and such a great result.
Guess what?
Artistcellar is giving away a set of Chris' stencils. Right here on this blog. And I will also give away Jane LaFazio's Pod Stencil that we make at StencilGirl Products. Cause I think the more Pods, the merrier! Don't you? And guess what? North Light (Chris' publisher) is giving away stuff too, not sure exactly what, but I think her DVD and book. Anyhoo, LOTS of prizes. I will select 2 winners. One person will win a ginormous package of Chris Cozen goodies. The other person will win a nature and Pod related stencil package from us here at StencilGirl.
Just leave me a snappy comment and I will draw names on May 20th.

Here is the entire Blog Hop schedule, so if you don't win here, you get another chance.
Sunday May 12 Artistcellar (http://artistcellar.com/blog))
Monday May 13 Seth Apter (http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/)

Tuesday May 14 MaryBeth Shaw  (http://mbshaw.blogspot.com/)

Wednesday May 15 Maryjo McGraw  (http://maryjomcgraw.blogspot.com/)

Thursday May 16 Jane LaFazio  (http://janeville.blogspot.com/)

Friday May 17 Pam Carriker  (http://pamcarriker.com/blog/)

Saturday May 18 Jeanette House  (http://www.jeanettehouse.co.uk/blog/)

Sunday May 19 Chris Cozen  (http://chriscozenartist.typepad.com/my-blog/

My Bowl of Blessings

Check out the Sketchbook Challenge today to read my post.

Mixed Media May

Today I am the featured artist over on Mixed Media May. You can find it HERE.
And you will also want to follow along all month as the interviews are interesting to read. Plus there are prizes, woo hoo!
So tell me, do you like the new set up here? Seems a lot more clean, eh? I hope it is also easier to read and navigate as my Workshops are under one simple Tab now.

When I'm Painting I'm like a Pig in...........

......well, you know what I mean.
Seriously though.
I had two idyllic days of painting this week which is more than I have seen in a long time. I was working on submissions for a juried show held by Art Saint Louis, a local organization to which I belong. I joined this group right after I moved to St. Louis nearly ten years ago. Connecting with like minded souls is incredibly important to me and I have met many of my friends, most of them really, through local art groups.
The show this time is called Under the Influence and the submissions are supposed to be referential to some influence, either an artist, a time in art history, a movement, that sort of thing.
It was hard to decide what to do as so many things tend to influence my work. I eventually decided on Richard Diebenkorn since he was an early inspiration to my abstract painting, back when we lived in California. I remember standing in front of his Ocean Park paintings at the Palace of Fine Arts. It is a miracle someone didn't have to pick me up off the floor as I swooned over his work.
And he has influenced the way I perceive divisions of space within my work.
Here are the paintings I did. As you can see, one of them has jumped into my new banner.

"At the Corner of Park 5.01", 40" x 30" Mary Beth Shaw, copyright 2013

"At the Corner of Park 5.03", 24" x 20", Mary Beth Shaw, 2013

Spring sheep & Book Winner!

First things first, we have a winner of Quinn's book - the lucky number 21 was chosen by my husband..........and, drumroll please.......congrats to 

KIM MAILHOT!!!

And now, on to my weekend. SO.MUCH.FUN.
I headed over to Paducah, Kentucky to visit my friend Kristin, who is opening a new mixed media store and workshop space called Ephemera Paducah. She had asked me to do some stencil & Gelli Plate demos on Saturday. Plus, I signed up for a felting class taught by the amazing Sara Renzulli. Now, keep in mind, I had not really felted before, a wee bit here and there, but certainly nothing sculptural.
We started with this.....uh, yeah, twisted armature wire. Seeing two pieces of wire at my seat should possibly have made me nervous. But Sara is such a patient and organized teacher, she guided us every step of the way.

And I ended up with this! To say I am thrilled is a vast understatement. I want to make felted animals full time. LOVE it.

Here is a link to Sara's etsy shop where you can find felting supplies including kits and also her original art. She is an excellent teacher and a nice person to boot. It was terrific fun.
I got to see a posse of her work over at her Dad's gallery on Saturday and he is also a gifted artist, not to mention a fine person. We talked about art and Italy and technique and Sara. All good of course.
Paducah is a pretty charmed spot, I think it's worth a visit. Just sayin'
And finally, I leave you with this cute picture of Sara and results from our class.

Baa, baaa, baa....