Paint Lab for kids!

How did I forget to post this??? My painting/collage  was recently featured in a fabulous new art book, written and designed by the lovely and ÜBER talented Stephanie Corfee. The book is called Paint Lab for Kids  and it's now available at Amazon, B&N and local book shops (which are SO important to support!)

It has 52 fab art projects and also shows "Inspiring Artist" examples from many artists I know and admire such as Tracy English, Jennifer Orkin Lewis & Anne Bollman. I had so much fun creating this piece for the book - from start to finish - without ANY use of the computer! :)

You can preview some of the pages here. And below is a close up of my piece. 

Collage + Painting by Barb Chotiner

I also offer a limited edition mounted print of this image. You can see that here in my shop. 

I had fun creating some of the art projects with my 5 & 7 year olds a few weeks ago when we first got our copy off the book... I don't typically put photos of them up here,  but they are concentrating so intensely on their paintings so I thought I'd share. 

art planters // spring sneak peek

I'm very (VERY) excited to finally be able to show these planter designs I created for studio-m, which will be available in shops this spring. You can find them on their website here & also you can find a retailer near you right here. 

((( March 2016 - UPDATE - I'll be selling a handful of the planters and mats locally. You can purchase them in my shop here. )))

Also - if you want to see the art in full (360 degrees) - here it is below. 

all you need is love

If you are still looking for a holiday card - this one - happens to be my design. Tiny Prints is currently having a 30% off sale AND you can still  get by Christmas. Available in many photo/size/color options! 


holiday houses

My Kindred Art Collective just made some lovely downloadable + printable holiday houses. They really are a lovely set! View them all here. 

Here is my winter woods inspired house. Feel free to print, cut out, fold, fill with a treat or hang.

Shown below is my in progress house - made quickly with regular paper... The graphic designer in me just HAD to do this...

house.jpg

cricket cringle - 2015

This past weekend I participated in the 2nd Annual Cricket Cringle - a holiday pop-up outdoor market in Ardmore, PA. There were over 30 merchants and the event was held on a Friday night (5-9) and the following day (10-6). I do not sell at many art/craft shows, but i can say this one was so much FUN to be a participant in. (And to help plan.) I do wish I had been able to walk around a bit more. There were many entertainment options, food trucks, restaurant samples (mmm... pumpkin beer), kids crafts, and even Santa popped by. 

At the market, I sold prints, cards, mugs, tote bags and even a few pillows. I will be adding inventory to my online shop and you can also find my things at Pucci Manuli. 

Aliza of Aliza Schlabach Photography took some AMAZING photos of my booth at the event. You can see more of the event photos at the Cricket Cringle event page. 

introducing... kindred art collective!

Some fun news today! Five very non-local friends and I are announcing our new artists collective - named Kindred Art Collective. See our pretty website here.

The six of us gals met online within the last 2 years through the Make Art that Sells course offered by the art agent Lilla Rogers. The fabulously talented Jan Avellana (along with the superstar illustrator Lucy Banaji) & I all roomed together in May 2014 when we went to Surtex. (Surtex stands for Surface Textile and is an annual ginormous tradeshow in NYC where artists show art, meet new and potential clients, and sell and/or license their art to manufacturers, retailers, etc..) The idea of a collective was first floated around then, and thanks to Jan, her vision, her reaching out to some like minded artists, and a lot of Facebook interaction, finally it has come to fruition. Some of us are plan to exhibit at the next Surtex in 2016. (But, more on that in the new few months...)

Here are links to the individual websites of my co-collective mates: Sara Brezzi, Malu Lenzi, Kelly Angelovic, Jan Avellana, & Antoana Oreski. We literally live ALL over the world. (Philly, Italy, Brazil, Colorado, Croatia, Hawaii). I think we might even represent all the time zones. 

Here is our facebook banner doodle which we all participated in drawing on. (Be sure to visit and like our page if you are so inclined...) Can you tell which ones are mine?

We will each be introducing ourselves daily on our blog/website.

For our first collective project, we each did a Halloween piece. Shown below are the first 2 pieces in my collection. And the rest you can find on the Kindred Art Collective Gallery site here. 

Wouldn't it be FAB to see this artwork incorporated onto a table cloth for a large home decor manufacturer? Well - OK - now you know one of my dreams + goals.

Thank you for reading this, and do have a wonderful Monday. Let's all have a productive week!

pumpkins galore!

Working on something for next week. Sometimes getting off the computer is VERY therapeutic. Especially after an intense week of working on the computer till 2am - multiple nights!

our house. in the middle of our street.

Having some fun drawing houses today. I've been driving thru the streets of Google looking at houses all over the world. 

Just learned about the house term "Fachwerkhaus." We have some tudors here in PA, but these are extreme and pretty fabulous. If it wasn't time to play with the kids, that is what I would be drawing...

PS - thank you to Madness for the blog post title... Great song! Reminds me of hanging out with the theatre folks back in high school.

first friday on saturday

In September I participated in a local event called First Friday on Saturday, in Ardmore, PA. It was a beautiful day outside where the community had the opportunity to meet 6 local artists and learn some techniques. I also did the poster design for the event (shown in the gallery below.)