MY NEW ART-VENTURE

Palette knife (plastic knife) painting on gel plate and then pulled on black cardstock

I have always had a love for printmaking but I couldn’t afford the cost or the space for a press for printing but two years ago I discovered the Gelli Arts® Company and I have been hooked! With the gel plates you don’t need a press so after many years of not printing I have rediscovered the joy of printing again and I even teach numerous classes on gel printing throughout the year. I am so excited to share with you a new art venture I am embarking on; I have been asked by the Gelli Arts® Company to be a brand ambassador for their product line of gel printing plates!

This year my program Art Has No Barriers is in its second phase at the Lansing Art Gallery and Education Center. Through this I have taught the gel printing process to those with and without disabilities. The gel plates are a great hands-on art project and it has been very well received for the positive impact it has been having on those who participate in the program and in the community.

As a Brand Ambassador for Gelli Arts® I will be working with a team of artists from around the world to bring exciting and creative projects to you all. To make sure you have an opportunity to create alongside me, the company will is offering a 10% discount of Gelli Arts® products if you order with my code: CatherineTP @ https://www.gelliarts.com.

I am thrilled to start this new chapter in my art career and to bring you along on this journey! I will share some photos of some of the things I have printed and you can see some things my students have printed with gel plates here at my Art Has No Barriers facebook page. I hope you will share what you create with me, too! Please "Like" my fb page C.L.Tonning.Artist to keep up with my latest creations.

The possibilities ahead of us are endless!

Ink & Acrylic on Parchment Paper

                   

                           

Jewelry made from Gel Prints

Printing on gel plate with feathers on handmade paper

Pocket journals made by gel printing on manilla envelopes

KEEPING BUSY.....

MOTHER GIRAFFE

In case you were wondering where I am..........I have been keeping busy in my studio since my Creative Creature project at the Potter Park Zoo came to an end.  I have been working in my studio almost every day while we here in Michigan are caught up in this polar vortex! They say it has snowed every day since Dec. 2nd!  My loving husband (he edited this, lol) snow blows me a path out to my studio almost every day so I can make it out there safely. I have been fighting off the urge to hibernate away these dark and snowy months.  So out to my studio everyday to work on paintings, techniques and prepare for upcoming classes I will be teaching. I am trying to get ahead of schedule while we are in this deep freeze as I have a couple of exhibitions coming up in the spring and summer.  I keep looking out my studio window and dreaming of all the beautiful blooms I hope to see soon in my gardens.  When the gardens thaw and start to bloom, I will be out there weeding so it is good to have this down time to get some paintings done.

Yesterday I worked with a great bunch of kids at our local art center  They made my job easy as I gave them the tools, some techniques and reference photos and they created some great art!  One boy was so proud of his tiger painting that he wrapped it up in some paper and wrote "Happy Valentine Day Mom" on the package.  He said it was the best painting he ever did! Love it!  As much as I enjoy painting and creating art, teaching and sharing it with others is the best part of my job and to see the excitement on their faces is priceless.

I am excited to have also been asked to teach a class at the Community Mental Health office this spring for a group of disabled adults.  I have always felt the therapeutic effects of creating art personally and I hope they will discover it also.

MY BILLBOARD ON I-69 IN MICHIGAN

On another note, my billboard went up in December so if you are driving

 in Michigan on I-69 east of Charlotte near the Potterville exit you

 will see my painting of a lion watching your driving, lol 

CREATIVE CREATURES ON EXHIBITION

My complete collection of my Creative Creatures is hanging at 

Absolute Gallery in Old Town Lansing, Michigan.

CREATIVE CREATURE ENCOUNTER COME TO A CLOSE..........................

As you probably can tell by the long silence from me on this blog, I have been very busy with my grant project.  My Creative Creature Encounter has officially come to a very successful end. Over the summer, I had over 300 children and some adults paint with me at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, Michigan.  I had all the supplies available for the kids to sit down and paint with me, and we painted tigers, ducks, butterflies and giraffes.  Everyone that participated went home with a painting. This was all made possible through a grant from the Arts Council of Greater Lansing and thanks to them, I was able to supply paint, brushes and canvases for everyone to paint with.

I met a lot of awesome kids and great painters during my project.  It amazes me what great paintings the kids did with just a little direction from me.  I hope I inspired at least a few young people to follow their creative spirit.

During the times I was not at the zoo painting I was in my home studio painting 10 of the animals that reside at Potter Park Zoo.  I also managed to fit in time to paint an exhibit for the Golden Lion Tamarins that the zoo acquired. Now they have a new home with a mural of the rain forest canopy as their back drop. My daughter Katie and I worked on it together  and I think it looks pretty good for our first attempt at a mural. 

Potter Park Zoo is a lovely park with great staff who are very friendly and helpful. They made me feel at home and welcomed me into their family (human, that is). They have a very wide variety of animals for all to see.

My Creative Creature Encounter project ended with an exhibition of my 10 paintings in their Safari Room.  On September 15th there was a free reception open to the public. We had a great turn out. The paintings continued to be on display until October 5th.

As a result of the grant from the ACGL I will have an outdoor billboard with the Lion on it somewhere along the highway! The Arts Council has partnered with Adams Outdoor Advertising to produce billboards for artist member grantees of the Arts Council. I am very honored and excited about this and as soon as I know where it will be I will let everyone know of it's whereabouts!

What I learned from this project:

Kids are great, creative, energetic and inspiring (but I really already knew that!)
This project enabled me to share my passion for art with others.

I was challenged and I stepped up to the challenge.

I was able to hone my craft over the 6 months of the project.

Painting wildlife is still my favorite subject to paint.
Don't stand too close to the Mandrill's cage as they have very long arms! lol

Most important lesson of all: 
I would like to acknowledge and thank my family and friends for believing in and supporting me!

CREATIVE CREATURE ENCOUNTER HAS BEGUN...............

On June 1st the Greater Lansing Visitors and Convention Bureau coordinated "Be a Tourist in Your Own Town" by convincing over 70 businesses and attractions to waive their admission fees and hold special events - all to celebrate how much art, culture and entertainment our city has.  At Potter Park Zoo they threw a truly wild party by celebrating International Migratory Bird Day on June 1st as well!  One of the main components of the Individual Artist Grant that I received from the Arts Council of Greater Lansing was "community impact".  I couldn't have picked a better day or a better place to get more people in our community as passionate about painting wildlife as I am. I knew it would be a busy day, but I had no idea how busy!  I prepared over 70 canvases, did line drawings of a Bengal Tiger, a Wood Duck and numerous varieties of butterflies for children of all ages to create art with me.  I also brought my trusty side kick and sister Christine along, and thank goodness I did!  4,687 visitors came to the zoo that day!  I was set up down by the duck pond on a deck with a canopy in case of rain.  The rain held off all day and we had a great time painting.  I don't think any kids that passed by didn't stop to paint.  I did a line drawing of a Wood Duck in honor of Migratory Bird Day and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service asked me to promote their Federal Junior Duck Stamp contest. We had so many kids painting that 2 hours before the event ended I ran out of canvases and paper to paint on!  The last few kids that came through painted on the copy paper I had printed the line drawings on.  Christine kept them supplied with paint, brushes and paper while I gave them direction but they knew what they wanted to paint and they did a great job with or without my guidance. We had all ages from 2 years on up, even had a young couple sit down and paint the Wood Ducks together.  I was very impressed with how well behaved and eager to paint the children were.   I am looking forward to another great turnout when I return to the zoo on July 19th, August 17th and again on October 5th.  
Come paint with me and try your hand at art! 

                                                      Painting Tigers at the Zoo

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