Coming soon in Country Sampler Magazine…

Hello everyone and I hope you all had a great New Year! 2019!  I can’t believe it! “Doesn’t it go by in a blink.” as quoted in the movie, “Meet Joe Black”.

I always feel just a little sad after the New Year, I don’t know quite why that is. I guess it just feels like the years are just racing by and I feel everything is just a big blur. On with the new though!

So I have been making new plans for my Amish Art and I decided I would try to advertise a few pieces in Country Sampler Magazine, a well known publisher of country themed goods.  I had advertised with them many years before for wooden plaques I had painted with amish scenery. (It had worked out well for me then, and that was before computers!) I have been thinking of other ways to reach a wider audience. An audience that has a love for country and simple decor items, where I think my Amish art fits. The process has been great so far.

I’ve decided to advertise “Katie and the Bunny” in the March issue, which should be out near the beginning of February. This will be a small ad in the back of the magazine called “Simply Sampler”. Then I will also be advertising “Daydreaming” (the amish girl in the back of the buggy). This will be a larger ad, and will also feature the framed print in a room scene. This will be out in the June/July issue at the end of May and will also be featured on their Instagram page and Facebook page. So this is a little exciting for the New Year! I can’t wait to see how it all works out. I will keep you posted!

Well..back to the drawing board and on with the new! 🙂

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Katie and the Bunny will be in the March Issue

“Daydreaming” will be in the June/July Issue

An Example of Country Sampler

Amish Country News October Issue

Hello!  I just wanted to let you know,  The Amish Experience is using my “Amish Woman With A Pie” painting for their October Issue of Amish Country News! Amish News is a monthly visitors guide for Amish Country, Lancaster, Pa and surrounding areas. I am so thankful and grateful to them.  There is an article on myself and my work (page 15) and several paintings throughout. I can’t thank them enough! Here is the link to the issue:

Two Amish Paintings in the Works

Hello!  I have had some trouble trying to come up with some ideas for some new Amish paintings, although I have a notebook with written ideas and tons of cut out pieces of  reference material. It was like I had a dry spell or something.  Nothing was working out right…the flow was all off.  I had to just step away and try to make a slow come back.  Listen to quiet music, dream a little bit…something.

It finally came back, but it’s day by day with what steps to do on the paintings next.  What will the backgrounds be? Do I add another child, blades of grass, a barn perhaps?

Anyway, I needed to show something just to get me to stay with these, focus and finish them.  The first one is two amish children and a horse.  I knew I wanted them to be looking all in the same direction,  like they see something in the distance. I was thinking winter clothes here, and maybe with some falling snow, some breath showing from the horses nostrils.  A sunset sky…maybe.

The next one is an amish girl hugging a jersey cow. I wanted her to look like she’s dreaming and really feeling comforted just hugging this cow around the neck. Now….here’s the dilemma.  Are they in a barn with a dark background? Are they outside with flowers and a light background. Is she hugging this cow above the neck, or below!  What will I title these? Arrrrggghhh!  This is what takes so much time!  But I must admit, it is rewarding in the end…because like I said before..I don’t even know what these will turn out to look like until the very end! How cool is that!  Until next time!

Two amish children and a horse

Amish girl hugging a cow

Any Ideas anyone? I’m not at Pebbles and Lace Anymore!

Hello everyone. I just wanted to give you all an update on this new news.

Many of you may know that I was selling mugs, pillows, totes, prints and more in a store in Strasburg, Pa. called “Pebbles and Lace”. They just recently made a move to Lititz, Pa in the hopes of expanding the store. It is a beautiful store, and although my artwork was selling well in Strasburg , it has not been the best in the Lititz location. Strasburg is more tourist oriented than Lititz, and it just seemed they weren’t buying amish items that much at all, but more trendy items seem to be popular there.

With all that said, they had to remove my things eventually, but are still holding on to the products for now in the hopes I can find a store in another touristy area  of Pa.  ( or another State), that would be interested in selling my products. If the store was nearby , the manager said she could drop off what she has on hand instead of sending it all back to me. At the moment, she has also brought some of my things to “Discover Lancaster Visitors Center” on Greenfield Road in Lancaster to see if anything would sell there. Fingers crossed!  So in case you are in  the area, please check it out!

I have also heard that Yoder’s Restaurant and Amish Village Gift shop in Sarasota, Fl.  would be a good place to try. I am gathering photos and writing up some drafts now to reach out to some other places I am familiar with in Pa. (from past trips) and other amish gift shops that may be interested.

So, if you have any ideas or know of anyone that may be interested in having some of my items to sell, please let me know here in a comment or reach out to me at mcprop@cox.net.  I thank you in advance. 

Pink and The Amish Girl, Update

So I am trying to get as far as I can on my paintings, but I have had to do some of the painting at night in small increments(?) just to complete a step here and a step there. Slowly advancing….

My son, Patrick, is coming home in a week from Tennessee, and you see, my art room is his old bedroom.  So I have been busy trying to tidy and clean up what I can before he gets home so he won’t be sleeping in my pastels!!! I just want to sit and paint and all I can think of is “Clean!” Anyway, I just had to show you something, so this is how far I have gotten on Pink and the little amish girl in the buggy.

The little amish girl is taking a little longer only because I feel like I need to add something else in the picture for interest, like a flower in her hand or something…I really don’t know what it should be, if I even need anything.  So I put the painting in front of me, and hesitate…that’s why her hands are not completed yet. I want to complete her hair and cap and shading while I wait for something, if anything should come to me. But that’s where I am with this one.

As for Pink, she is coming along nicely, but I was hesitating on what the background color should be that would show of her eyes and that awesome white hair! So I finally came up with blue and darkened it around her face so I can make everything “pop” and look brighter. I can’t wait to do her hair. Anyway, I am hoping I can finish these by Friday as that’s when Patrick comes home.  We are all getting together because my youngest daughter is graduating from college, University of RI for Nutrition and Dietetics, although she has still 2 years for her masters. Yay! So, I will touch base as soon as I can. Until then…blessings!

Amish girl daydreaming. Her cap strings are painted and blowing to the side. The bottom of the buggy is painted as well.

Pink…she is getting there. The jacket is blacked in ready for highlights and shading. Can’t wait to do the hair!

Two Amish Projects -Next Phase

Well, here are the two art projects I am working on (from the previous post) which are now in the second phase.  I say second phase, because I know I am almost done, but there is just a few more steps I have to complete before they are both completed (the final phase).

You can see in the amish picture with Kelsey holding the pumpkin, it is  slowly getting closer to completion. I’ve got the mums down, placed in the background, the cornstalks are a little more defined, the sky is there now, all blue, with the feeling of autumn in the air.  The pumpkin patch was a little bit of a challenge, but I think it finally worked (I was ready to give up!). I just kept adding colors, lights and darks, trying to look at pumpkin patches all over the internet and just kept going. Now I just have to add the background behind the corn…I am thinking part of a house to the right with all fall foliage to the left to bring out all the colors.

Then I have to think what will be in the foreground next to Kelsey’s back. Will it be some tall, pale grasses? I’m not sure yet.  Then it’s down to all the final tiny details…the extra pieces of hair blowing around her face, shadows and the like.  I just can’t wait to finish this painting!

The other folk art project has a little more added here, too.  I am still trying to think of where I am going to place everything I want to place in this painting. I know the amish quilts will be in the foreground next to the cow and there will also be a white fence along the bottom.  The sign is painted in here, and I want it to read “No Sunday Sales”. The sunset is more intense now. The covered bridge is more detailed.  I want a white barn with a silo on the top of the hill, and yet still, I have to find where the buggy will be in all this! Oh yes, and some cows painted in the background somewhere. Oh my gosh…that sounds like a lot!

But anyway, I thought I would share this and hopefully next week, they will both be completed. Enjoy!

Kelsey’s Amish Painting, next phase

Folk Art Painting-Next Phase

Two More Amish Projects, Moving Right Along!

So I have two works of amish art that I am currently working on.  One is something I have never tried before, so I really can’t wait to see how this will turn out.  It is a sort of folk art piece done with pastels. It resembles a collage of sorts, and the items I am painting are things I see the most of when visiting Pennsylvania. It almost looks like, or I hope it will look like a poster you would see advertising Pennsylvania.  I am actually  a little farther ahead of the photo you see here, but I will post the finished piece when I am done.

The reason the other painting is being painted  is because when I recently visited Pebbles and Lace in Strasburg (the shop that is selling my amish pieces), the owner, Becky was told (by my daughter, Kelsey, who visited)  that I use family members as models a lot of the time. They both realized I never used Kelsey as a model. SOOOOOoooooo….I hadn’t started an autumn painting, and found a cute picture of Kelsey when she was in pre-k with the cutest grin. I figured I would try to use her.  The way she’s sitting I could envision the whole painting.  She will be holding a pumpkin out in a field of pumpkins…muted in the background.  There will be brightly colored, fall trees and maybe a muted white barn in the background…maybe some leaves in the foreground.  And there you have it.  I had wanted her hair to be more strawberry blonde, and I added her freckles in too. I actually have seen amish with freckles and reddish hair! We will see how it goes. She’s happy now. (wink,wink) I will put up some other pictures very soon!

The folk art collage painting

Kelsey’s picture and the first stages of the painting

She’s coming along….:)

Another Amish Painting Completed

Hello all!

I finally finished her! It took  a little longer than expected only because we went away for a week while she was only half finished.I really haven’t named her and I may just call this one “Winter’s Day”. I’m not sure yet.But she is done and I hope you like how she came out.  I always think I should do more as usual, and I want to keep touching and fixing, but I think this is better left alone now. I really like the snow flakes on this painting, as I think it gives the painting that extra “winter chill” effect and just finishes the whole look.  I also went with greens and reds intentionally to give it a subtle holiday feel.

All in all, I am pleased and can’t wait to add her to my calendar collection and Etsy store. I am also starting another painting and will be putting that one up soon as well, so please watch for it.  I will be back soon, I promise.  Thanks for your patience on this one!

Winter’s Day/Amish Girl With Firewood

 

Kelsey Goes To Pennsylvania

Hello everyone and sorry for not writing in awhile.  We are doing some fixing up and painting in the home and it takes up a lot of my personal time that I would have for painting.  But I have kept ideas that are rolling around in  my head all the time, of things I want to paint next, so I will be starting those soon.  I will post the beginnings of these when  I get going here. I am even thinking of putting a calendar together this year, hopefully by September, of most of my paintings.  I will most likely sell these on my Etsy store and at Pebbles and Lace in Strasburg, Pa.

This leads me to my title…Kelsey goes to Pennsylvania.  Kelsey and her friend have wanted to go to Pa. since we have been going as a family for so long, but wasn’t able to  these past two years because of her schedule. She decided she was going in July and didn’t want to wait until my husband and I go in August. She had the greatest time and purposely stopped in to Pebbles and Lace in Strasburg, to not only check out the shop she has heard so much of at home, but to meet the owner and say hello! And that’s just what she did! She went up and waited for the owner, Becky, to be finished with a customer, and then she introduced herself. Becky was so glad to see her (I had told her that Kelsey may stop in on her trip) and she hugged her and brought her over to my art prints, etc.  They had  great conversation and Kelsey bought a wallet,  but Becky said she just had to take a picture of her holding one of my pillows in front of my cards and prints before she left!  And so here it is! So stop into Pebbles and Lace if you get a chance to go to Lancaster.  It’s a beautiful shop!

She had a great time, and of course who wouldn’t!  But she is coming home today and bringing gifts (YAY!) to many.  I can’t wait to see her and go over everything she did on her trip.

Well, I will write again soon and hopefully I will have some sketches to show you all.  Take care until next time!  Cheryl

Kelsey at Pebbles and Lace, Strasburg,Pa

Pebbles and Lace

Hello!  I am just so happy to announce that some of my prints are being sold in a new shop that opened in Strasburg, Pa. Just last week. Becky, the owner of Pebbles and Lace, found me through Etsy and asked me if I would like to sell prints in her shop.  Well, I just jumped at the chance and I can’t thank them enough! I can’t wait to go visit and check out all the beautiful things in her shop! It’s also nice to actually have my prints sold in an area I love so much and feel so much a part of, but unfortunately, live so far away from.

Someday….someday…

So if you are ever in the area in Pa., go check out Pebbles and Lace Gifts.  It’s on 11 East Main Street in Strasburg, Pa.!  Enjoy!