Hello! Welcome to the very first edition of my art studio email newsletter! (republished here for those who don’t subscribe.) Thank you for subscribing. I am planning to publish a newsletter for each season, roughly four times a year, with the occasional announcement for important events. Unsubscribe at any time, or if you’re enjoying it please share with your friends! Thank you for your support.
As I type the sun is rising, casting peach-coloured light over the garden in between deluges of rain. It is beautiful. Fall has arrived with a good west coast soaking, and the summer forest fire season is over. What do you do when the world is on fire and there’s a pandemic on? Make art of course! It’s been a tough time for everyone, and creativity has been an essential source of joy through it all. Here is a burst of creative joy coming to you from my little studio!
New website
Ever since the pandemic began last year I have been making a LOT of art. I want to revitalize my art studio business so I decided my website needed a refresh. I hired my friend Nicole Bottles to build me a new website. It is launched and ready to view! I have a large portfolio section, a blog, and further information about me and my art practice. It’s truly a feast for the eyes and I couldn’t be more proud! Please visit www.carolinestengl.com.
We also built a subdomain website that is just for my art students. That section is password protected, but if you become one of my students you will have access to this section to enjoy a student art gallery, a blog, art education resources and other goodies. At some point when it becomes safe to do so I may offer art workshops again, and participants will get access to the student website as part of their workshop experience.
ETSY online art store launch
The natural extension from having a website is to also sell my art online. I have been working very hard to launch my online art store on etsy.com.
Here is the link to my newly launched store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/cstengl
Ta-dah!!! I’m super excited about this! Here you can purchase directly from my art studio! (Just within Canada for now. For orders outside Canada please contact me via email.) I am selling original artwork, giclee archival quality prints, handmade linocut prints, paper marbling, colouring pages and many other things. Right now there are listings for my new giclee prints. Soon I will add some handmade linocut prints. I’ll be adding to my shop over time, releasing new things as I create them. The best way to support my art studio practice is to visit my Etsy shop and order something! I’m very grateful for the support as it allows me to continue to make more art. I hope my artwork makes a difference to your life by bringing you joy and meaningful expression.
New art series
As part of my Etsy store launch I am also releasing a new collection of paintings to the world! I was teaching watercolours through the pandemic so naturally I also learned a lot about the medium. I fell in love! This watercolour series is a combination of happy, comforting images and hand painted lettering, using phrases that I hope put a smile on your face and comfort in your heart. In some cases I took common phrases with a negative connotation and changed them into positive affirmations. We need more positive energy in the world!
My dad helped me to produce a small inventory of archival giclee prints of my paintings using his professional quality printer. (Thanks Papa!) I have a small first edition available, and we’ll make more if they turn out to be popular. Know someone who needs a lift and would enjoy a happy art image on their wall? I think these make great gifts or a source of comfort for yourself in your home. The whole series began with a birthday painting I made for a special friend who loves growing cherry tomatoes in her apartment. Like a tomato vine it just grew from there!
Does my new series spark some ideas for more paintings? I find that people often have ideas for me of phrases and images that they’d like to see illustrated in this style. In fact several of my paintings came from chats with good friends! I’m jotting down new ideas as they come to me. I’d love to hear from you so please send me an email!
Teaching online – my YouTube channel
The past eighteen months have been very unusual to say the least. Many of us found our lives completely upended and shaken like a snow globe, with the storm still swirling around us even now. Some aspects are very hard, but I also make a point of looking for the silver linings in the clouds. In several ways I have been thriving through the pandemic in spite of everything!
For the first time ever, the WSANEC school board sent us all home to teach and work virtually. Like many people I have been working from home for the last 18 months, until this fall when we returned to school. I discovered while working from home that teaching art classes over Zoom is very challenging. (Remember when you’d never heard of Zoom? Ah, those were the good old days!) The picture quality and my inability to reach out and touch art materials with my hands meant I really had to adapt my methods. I had to PIVOT… (Such an overused word these days! It helps to picture Ross on the Friends TV show, yelling PIVOT to his buddies as they wrestled a big couch up a tight New York stairwell!) …and I had to find a new way to teach. What I discovered is video tutorials! I made more than 30 new art tutorials, demonstrations and time lapse videos since the spring of 2020, learning all the necessary videography skills along the way. I’m still learning with every new video project.
You can view all my videos for free on my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/carolinestengl/videos
I will be adding more videos over time because I discovered that I love making them! It’s lots of fun. Also there are many cameos in my videos of Bilbo and Ember Tabbikins and our new puppy Elska Chinook! When you feel like a healthy dose of art go check out my YouTube channel!
Feeling grateful
I’m extremely grateful for how art and creativity have carried me through 2020 and 2021. When life gave me lemons I squeezed out the cadmium yellow paint! Thank you so much for being an essential part of what makes art so meaningful – having an audience to appreciate it! I’m wishing you all the best for the fall and the seasons beyond.
Caroline Stengl
cstengl@shaw.ca
Victoria, BC, Canada
Links Recap:
New website! – www.carolinestengl.com
NEW Etsy store! – https://www.etsy.com/shop/cstengl
My YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/carolinestengl/videos
TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER – Want to receive this newsletter in your email inbox? Go to the main page of this website and fill out the “subscribe” box with your name and email address. You will get 4 to 6 issues a year (seasonal, with occasional announcements in between), each issue a short burst of joy from my little studio directly to you!
