As I sit here today with the fire going in my fireplace in MARCH....I'm missing the warm sunshine on my skin from my visit last week in Ft. Myers Beach Florida!
I was asked to teach my whimsical painting style to the people of Ft. Myers Beach. So as you can imagine....."twist. my. arm."!!!
I called it Coastal Whimsy.....and it couldn't have been titled better!
I started with plain white furniture pieces for myself....and asked each participant to bring their own small piece to paint! They brought sofa tables, nightstands, small accent chairs, a porch bench, TV trays, magazine racks....a breakfast table and even a really unusual oversized 7 foot tall candle stick! This was the most color loving group of people I've ever had the privilege of working with!
They were open to anything that involved bright colors! I chose to use the popular sunset colors for one of the little chest. I gave it a base coat of Flamingo by Dixie Belle Paint....and built the finish on top of that.
This Coastal Whimsy class of over 40 people were engaged....excited....full of crazy fun ideas...and even possibly a tad bit overwhelmed with creative flow! They asked great questions....took video of me painting.....challenged themselves to new techniques and beamed with pride at their completed projects!
It was SO much fun and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! They were blown away by this cool color wash/color blend/paint scrape technique that I used on the sunset chest!
I chose to keep it simple and clean with the other nightstand....demonstrating furniture painting basics.......
....as well as my simple stripe application techniques that are a must for all new furniture painters!!!
Want to learn the easiest way to create stripes?? Purchase my stripes and harlequin course here for all my tricks and tips!!
Below you can see a small collage of a few in-progress pieces along with a few finished pieces......AND a few smiling faces of new furniture artist!
A big thank you to Carla for hosting such a wonderful Coastal Whimsy event! It is my hope to return again next year and teach a more in-depth class after giving these new budding artist time to grow!
The painted pieces that I finished in the Coastal Whimsy class will be auctioned off and the proceeds donated to a rescue foundation for Havanese dogs that Carla works closely with.
Whew! That was a lot of work!! But so worth it to have met so many amazing people! Now its time for a little R&R on the beach. Thank you Ft. Myers Beach.....I'll be back next year!!!
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The products listed here are what I used for the pieces in my Coastal Whimsy Workshop! Dixie Belle Paint company offers amazing products that will make all of your projects successful no matter what your skill level! You can also find my favorite products and tools in my Amazon influencer list here.
Striped Piece products used...
Washed Piece products used...
