The Painted Chair Project : "Time to Bloom"

I'm excited to share that I've been working on a fun project

with two wonderful organizations:

The Woman's Club of Palo Alto & The Pacific Art League,

called 

"The Painted Chairs Project".

Each of the 1930's wooden folding chairs,

from the Woman's Club, are actually party of their history.

I took some photos before I painted mine, it had so much 

character and was still functional.

What a great way to help support and raise community awareness!

I was so excited to be one of 60 local artists chosen to receive a chair!

Now the hard part was to decide what to do with it....

I decided to do a twist on my aesthetic:

floral designs in a bold pastel palette.

As you can see in the lower photo,

I like to draw inspiration from my sketchbook.

On the back panel, I did stay true to my style.

This is one of my latest botanical line designs.

Here is my chair, "Time to Bloom" all finished:

The Painted Chair Auction Fundraiser Event

will be held

Saturday, March 29th from 6-9pm

The Woman's Club of Palo Alto

475 Homer Avenue, Palo Alto, CA

Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door

In the meantime all the chairs will be displayed 

in local businesses throughout Palo Alto.

All the artist's chairs look amazing.

It's going to be a fun evening seeing all the ideas

that each of the artists created.

I know they all worked hard on them!

The underside of the seat

My art to yours,

Yvette

UPDATE:
My chair is displayed in downtown Palo Alto
at Romi Boutique

 Cute pic with my girls!

A Peek into My Art Studio :

I've always been fascinated to see other artist's studio spaces.

How they organize their supplies, 

what materials they use, and

what unique characteristics they add to make their space personal.

After all we spend a great deal of time in them, 

and it's important to me that my art studio keeps me inspired.

Let me explain, 

I don't have one of those fabulous rooms in my house, 

or in my backyard, nor do I have a lofty space downtown (but I can dream!), 

but I do have a small but amazing space just for me.

You see, my husband very graciously offered me some prime real-estate:

inside our garage = his workshop space!

He opened up a space that is roughly 8x8, just enough room for

my fabulous 8 foot wood work table (that he built for me!)

and some wall panels and desk top (on loan from my brother-in-law).

He left himself just enough room for his workbench and tools.

As you can see, part of my husbands workbench is in the background.

Oh, he's been working on a series of recycled wood birdhouses.

We already have a woodpecker residing in one in our backyard.  

Note I have my own electrical outlet on the wall

for my music player and blow dryer.  There is

also a switch to two lamps on the wall panel. 

My green stained work table is usually covered 

in a plastic sheeting to protect it from messy me.

But I had to show it off today!

Like I said this is prime real-estate so every inch is used wisely!

Every single thing has it's own place.

 Brushes and buckets galore: I use them all and more.

 I try to keep this area dry for my notebooks and such.

The shelves are pretty full with mini works of art to finish.

You can see some of my "doodles" tacked on the wall.

 These plastic bins are an easy way to keep my paints and mediums separate.

I find it helpful to label the lids on the jars for quick reference.

 Some more amazing things my husband built for me, 

are these recycled wood tool boxes.

I designed them after the classic vintage ones.

I painted them in my favorite colors 

and then painted on the numbers.

 I got the idea from my grandfather.  

He had several small white open wood boxes

on a shelf in his workshop organized by numbers he painted on.

Here are two that I kept....

I saved one of the favorite parts of my art studio for last:

There is an 8 foot cloth canvas draped on the wall

above my work table.

 

It's that personal piece that is the focal point in my studio.

Something I constantly add to with left over paint.

Call it a large sketchbook or a mural in progress,

but it represents that freedom of expression I crave

as an artist, where there are no boundaries.

I love my art studio!

My art to yours,

Yvette