Animalia: A Show Annoucement

I'm thrilled to announce my upcoming show at the Village Community Gallery in Old Hickory. It's no secret that I LOVE ANIMALS, and thus am having a show dedicated to them:

Animalia

A solo exhibition by Sarah Shearer

percentage of sales will benefit animals in need in the Old Hickory Village area. 

Show reception on Tues, Feb 12 from 6-8p

Meet the artist, check out brand new work, and join us for a one night only Valentines Making Workshop!

A suggested donation of $1 is requested per person for Valentine Making to benefit the animals. 
Come join us and make Valentines for the ones you love! Tons of supplies provided. 

Click here for all the event details!

Recent Pet Portraits

Some of my favorite pet portraits from the last couple months:

All are 8" x 10", watercolor & ink on paper. If you are interested of getting one of your own, just shoot me an email!
sarahkshearer@gmail.com

Thread Painting- Also Known as Embroidery

Textiles have been calling my name lately. Although I don't have a background in working with them, I've gathered some basic knowledge from YouTube tutorials and Pinterest pins. I decided to experiment with what could probably be called embroidery. 

First, I gathered a needle and threadz (yes, with a Z). Basically, the threadz consist of a handful of embroidery floss colors that caught my eye. I am uncertain of the needle size I chose, but I looked for one with a larger eye that would allow me to thread and re-thread very easily. The only downside to choosing a needle with a larger eye is that it does "stress" the fabric a bit if you try to force it through a tightly woven cloth.

Next, I picked not one but two fabrics to embroider onto. Because more is more. One side is a neutral burlap; one side is a blue and white cotton stripe. I thought I would work with the burlap side facing out and somehow use the blue and white as a cool additional backing. Keep in mind- I don't actually know what I 'm doing. I quickly changed my mind, flipped it over and used the blue and white as the surface I wanted to work on. I chose to do this because I sketched a pattern onto the fabric surface, and burlap was difficult to sketch on!

My embroidery approach was basically to think of the thread colors as paint- placing and blending them like I would pigment on a canvas. I kind of love it! This is a very small piece; the embroidery hoop is 4". Time wise- it is NOT fast. This took me the better part of the afternoon, but I really enjoyed the process. More textile experiments are definitely in my near future.

If you have any tips and tricks you think I should know- please share!

Catching Up: the Christmas Window

 Christmas is always a big, blow out, sparkly time at Rodney Mitchell Salon . They love to go all out with the window and decorations at that time of year and I love to go over the top too sometimes...so that works out well!

Here is what I came up with :

white trees with blues, copper, gold and brown accents

tree close up- LOVE the pattern on this ribbon

my handmade paper and glitter snowflakes hung as garlands

from the sidewalk, looking into the front window

twinkle lights above the sitting area

from the back of the salon looking forward- I just love the sparkly-ness!

front awning closeup

front awning with garland and wreaths

*photos courtesy Cristina Young Photography

So It's 2013 Now

Everyone else and their mother posted a 2012 wrap up/ Yay 2013 post a couple weeks ago in a timely fashion- here I am behind the curve, but here none the less.
One of my favorite end of 2012 events was the Huntsville Marathon. I had a good run and great first trip to Huntsville, AL. It was my second full marathon; I was pretty happy with my 4:13:50 finish. The race organizers even sent a certificate and printed photo- how cool is that?!

We spent Christmas with the in-laws and had a pretty low key New Year's Eve celebration. The following week Blake turned 7!

It's been quite a year for us, and I look forward to all that 2013 has in store. My year began with a pretty rough flu episode, but I 'm finally feeling back to normal! I'm thankful for a productive Monday- it kinda feels like I finally am actually kicking off the new year the way I meant to (but then couldn't as I lay in bed with chills and body aches).

Coming soon from me you can expect to see:
Show announcements
Brand new art work
And, of course more races!

I know, it may seem like I talk about running a lot. This January marks the 4th spring I've trained with East Nasty for the Country Music Half Marathon- that's how it all began! What a great community, and a great change it has brought about in my life. I feel healthier, more confidant and outgoing and all around happier because of it- and that's why I keep doing it!

Bring it on 2013 :)