Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Adding Onto An Existing Mural

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to add onto an existing mural that I wanted to share with you. The family has a beach themed painting in their living room and each child has their own sand bucket. Since their family has grown, they needed to add two more buckets to their special mural: one for their youngest daughter, Brinkley, and one for the baby boy they are expecting this summer. The original muralist has since retired and the mother, Jaclyn, reached out to me to help update the painting.

I started out using the existing sand buckets for size references and marking the height and width of the new buckets in pencil. I also decided which bucket should be where in regards to the other bucket colors and checked with Jaclyn that the placements were ok. I drew a quick sketch and started blocking in the buckets with their base colors: bright orange and lime green. I then started to add shading and highlights to create the roundness of each bucket. I worked on both buckets at the same time to allow each layer time to dry. As I worked, I had the cutest audience cheering me on!

I tried to use similar techniques that the original muralist did to shade the buckets so that their styles would match. I then added the handles and sand that they were sitting in. Next, I added Brinkley's name to her lime green bucket. I will return after their baby boy is born to add his name since they have not decided yet. Below are pictures throughout the process of painting the buckets.


Buckets sketched

Buckets blocked in. Shapes need refining.

First layer of shading and highlights

First layer of shading and highlights

Second layer of shading and highlights

Handle added and starting to add the sand

Both buckets with handles

Brinkley's name added

All of the buckets

Photo courtesy of Jaclyn


Do you have something you’d like me to paint? I’ll paint on anything: mailboxes, driveway markers, recipe boxes, coffee tables, or even walls. Feel free to email me if you have a special project in mind! kimberlydenglish@gmail.com

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Woodstown Fourth Friday

This week I will participating in Woodstown's Fourth Friday event! There will be vendors, food trucks, and children's activities all along historic Main Street. I will be set up at the beautiful GW Pens Studio & Gallery. I'll have my archival prints, greeting cards, aluminum prints, magnets, drinking coasters, and so much more! All made by me, in my Salem County art studio. I hope to see you!




Tuesday, June 12, 2018

ArtBiz Lancaster Mastermind Workshop

Last week I had the opportunity to work with Alyson B. Stanfield during her Mastermind Workshop in Lancaster, PA. Alyson is the author of "I'd Rather Be In The Studio" and provides awesome webinars, podcasts, blog posts, and other relevant information to help artists build their business. If you are an artist and you haven't heard of Alyson, be sure to sign up for her newsletter to get acquainted!

On Thursday I left my house at 5AM to get ahead of the morning traffic and planned to arrive at the Perkins Restaurant in Avondale right as they opened. I pulled in at 6AM and had a delicious breakfast served by the sweetest waitress, Barbara. I was back on the road in no time and made it to the Marriott at Penn Square by 7:45AM. I was so excited to be meeting Alyson! Over the last four years, I have read her blog countless times, tuned into webinars, and participated in online classes. I was moments away from working with her about MY art business. How amazing!

The first day's morning session was jam packed full of "big picture" activities. We used our elevator speeches as our introductions to the group and shared our favorite accomplishment from this past year. Alyson provided us with a handout that would help us identify opportunities. We wrote down 3 top accomplishments within the last 5 months. We used the worksheet to identify how we could expand upon those accomplishments and identify what we need to do in order to achieve it, as well as recognize any obstacles that may hinder us along the way.

After a short break, we started a question burst exercise which was adapted from Hal Gregersen's "Better Brainstorming"in the March-April 2018 issue of Harvard Business Review. The presenter had one minute to describe a challenge that they are currently facing in their art business along with any emotions that the presenter is feeling. The group had 6 minutes to ask open ended questions in relation to the challenge. We could not offer solutions or suggestions. The presenter could not answer the questions and would record the questions for further review. After the question asking portion time was completed, the presenter had one minute to share which questions were most helpful or thought provoking. The presenter was also encouraged to share what emotions they were now feeling related to the challenge.

The question burst exercise is used to offer deeper divergent thinking and enable creative brainstorming. Alyson was extremely helpful in rephrasing questions so that the presenter had a more open ended question to consider. It was very hard to not ask yes or no questions! I found this exercise to be very helpful and would love to try it with some of my local art business owner friends.

We had a guest speaker come talk to our group: Loryn Spangler-Jones is a local Lancaster artist and owner of the LSJ Studios Gallery. She discussed her social media practice, different income streams, and community involvement. She was full of energy and shared lots of great ideas! We had an interesting discussion about pricing works of art and how to talk to customers who may think the prices are too high.

In the afternoon, we participated in an Artist Case Study. We were given the background and financial information about a factious artist and were to create solutions in regard to her artistic business. In our breakout group, we came up with a list full of ideas! As we were discussing her options with the entire group, we talked about how obvious some of her options were. Alyson encouraged us to use the same technique about ourselves at a later date and that we might discover similar, obvious solutions in our own business.

After Thursday's session Alyson and Mesa, her assistant, had a cocktail party for us. We had Rosé wine and decadent appetizers. Everyone was having a great time networking and enjoying each other's company. We decided to continue our evening at Tellus 360, a local bar with a rooftop area. It was a gorgeous night! After dinner I went for a swim in the hotel pool. It was very refreshing!

The next day we focused on specific goals for ourselves and started our session with a worksheet for Strategy Session Focus. We had to identify our top 3 goals for the next 6 months and the obstacles we might face while obtaining those goals. After we individually filled out our worksheets, we participated in a Mastermind Strategy Session where each presenter shared one goal and the group had 10 minutes to discuss ways in which they could achieve that goal. Alyson organized the groups by categories and I was in the sales group. We had four people in our group and we all gave and received so many awesome ideas!

Throughout the two days, there were also designated times where each artist would share their best business practice tip with the group. There were so many amazing tips about being productive, hiring help, open houses, social media, cataloging artwork, bookkeeping, scheduling, and so much more! I really enjoyed listening to the other artists discuss their most successful practices in their businesses.

Alyson was so attentive to our needs and skillfully led our group through self and group discoveries. Over the two days I learned so much, not just about my art business, but also about how to help other artists! I feel so honored to have participated in such game changing conversations with pivotal contemporary artists. So much trust was built while sharing our dreams, accomplishments, setbacks, and future plans. It was so emotional leaving such a POWERFUL group of artistic individuals. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Below are some pictures from the ArtBiz Lancaster Mastermind Workshop along with a list and links to the artists I worked with.

Group photo courtesy of Mesa

Me and Loryn Spangler-Jones

Me and Alyson B. Stanfield

Tellus 360

 Group at Tellus 360 Rooftop. Photo courtesy of Mesa


Some brainstorming and questions asked

Morning of Day 2


With Dora Ficher

With Lina Ferrara and Rachel Brask

With Mesa

With Mickey Baxter-Spade


Artists at the Lancaster Mastermind Workshop
Rachel Brask
Lina Ferrara
Jacqueline Perreault
Mary K. Bryson
Linda Hugues
Dora Ficher
Patty Hawkins
Jerry Cable
Mickey Baxter-Spade
Nancy Murty
Brooke Harker
Lynn Goldstein
Maryanne Buschini
Elise Nicely
Dot Procter
Thyra Moore

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Calendar Donation Update

We're almost half way through this year and I wanted to provide an update on the 2018 Salem County Farmlands Calendar donation. In total, 125 calendars were sold and a donation of $700 was made to the Woodstown FFA! This included extra money customers donated towards the cause as well as an extra donation from myself. The calendar donation was used to offset the registration costs for the students who attended the NJ State FFA Convention on May 23-25th.

Deanna Miller, Woodstown FFA advisor and agriculture teacher stated: "At this convention the students particpated in various events including quiz bowl, prepared speaking, and creed speaking. Additionally we had jacket winners, scholarship recipients, and were rated as a superior chapter within the state among other recognitions and accolades."

Thank you to everyone who purchased a calendar and helped these students attend this year's state convention! It is so awesome to be able to help this young students in their agricultural education journey. I hope you are enjoying your calendar so far. If you have two minutes, please help me improve next year's calendar by answering my calendar survey. Click here to take the survey. 

Below are pictures from the Woodstown FFA's Facebook page from their convention experience.


Students headed to the New Jersey State FFA Convention




Nathan Sparks, Treasurer of the Year