Art "full" weekend (continued)!

To add to this weekend's artful theme, we went to the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival in Reston!

I visited twice, once by myself on Friday night and again with my family today.  The weather was gorgeous and we had fun looking at all of the beautiful artwork and talking with the artists.  We came home with a few small pieces and lots of inspiration!  One of my favorites was "Live Your Dreams!"

Art "full" weekend!

This week/weekend was full of fun art projects for me and my family!  I experimented with abstract painting.  As you can see, I was drawn to blues, greens, and purples in the first piece.  Next I tried abstract collage.  I used acrylics, paper mache, metal charms, and decorative papers to create "Birdhouse in My Soul!"  This piece is very different from my usual color palette, but I am very happy with the results and hope to do more.  My husband led a family art project in the garage.  We all had fun creating marbleized paper!

Art Opening at Del Ray Artisans!

This weekend I participated in my first gallery show at Del Ray Artisans in Alexandria.

It is the 20th Anniversary Show and it runs until the end of the month. Check their website for details www.thedelrayartisans.org. The best part for me, was that my husband Paul and daughter Autumn also had pieces in the show!!! It was Autumn's first gallery show ever! We had such a fun time meeting the other artists and visitors on opening night -- over 180 people showed up! Gallery sitting on Saturday was another Artful Adventure. We enjoyed our special guest Grandma Tury.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year--Blank Canvas for 2012!

It was an Artful end to 2011:

In November I participated in the Alexandria Art Market with the help of my daughter Zoe.

For my daughter Autumn's birthday, we took her friends on an Art Adventure to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. It is a fun-filled art destination featuring all kinds of cool outsider art from paper plate mandalas to mirrored mosaics--definitely worth the trip! The last time we went, my girls got to drive the giant pink poodle kinetic sculpture named Fifi! In December, we continued our tradition of creating a fun family Christmas card. This year's theme was the grinch. I gave my mom a private class in beeswax collage. For Christmas, I set her up with all the supplies she needs to do beeswax at her beach house. I also had a fun with Leslie, Linda and Mary at Wine & Design in Raleigh, NC! Now here we are in 2012...a blank canvas to fill. I'm not sure what artful things are in store for me this year, but I am looking forward to all the possibilities! Happy New Year!

Etsy Shop now Open!!!!

YAY--I am so excited!!! I finally have my Etsy shop up and running!!! Please come by for a visit!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/jackietury

Right now, the shop is featuring several sweet treats from my "Cupcake Collection."

Thank you Paul for all of your help and support!

Crazy for Cupcakes!

For my daughter's 11th birthday, we had a party inspired by the show "Cupcake Wars!" Our family made our traditional cardboard cut-out decorations and baked 96 cupcakes. My daughter and her friends had tons of fun decorating their cupcakes and competing in all the cupcake games and contests! I was inspired to paint some mini cupcakes with my special frosting technique! Yum!