Art Rave Buzz

This past Saturday was the Holiday Shopping Extravaganza for District 41 in Lake Villa. This was a great way for us to reach more families within our community who haven't heard of, or experienced an Art Rave. I had new and existing art on display, as well as ornament painting for kids. For a small fee, adults or kids could sit and have a mini Art Rave expereince! One mom painted an ornament with her daughter and they were hooked! Her and her husband joined an adult Art Rave through Facebook, at Art Rave Inc, at Chill on November 28th, and they are excited about bringing their daughter to the next Club Art Rave at the Twisted Cow.

Over the next few days I will be painting a zebra for a Club Art Rave birthday party, and getting ready for our Thanksgiving Special Art Rave on Saturday from 2-4 at The Twisted Cow in Lindenhurst . I always look forward to our painting parties at Twisted Cow because the kids are always so excited about the paintings!

Custom Painted Iphone case

I have been bitten by the dog painting bug! I have added a few new dog portraits to my portfolio, including this new one of my sweet girl, Sasha, on my iphone case. I will be taking commissions at this Saturday's Art Auction and Wine Tasting for Green Pup Shelter. 20% of all proceeds from portrait commissions taken at the auction will go to the Shelter. For more information go to

http://greenpupshelter.org/New_Events.html

These are two paintings that I did in the Fall of last year. They are for very dear friends of mine.

The first one is titled "Veronica" and the second, "Caring for Orchids".

I'm back! It's a new year and I'm so excited about all the things I am going to be doing with my art. This year is "art without limits"! I am working on so many things I don't know where to begin, but to start the year off on a great note, I am the feature artist for January and February at a new coffee shop/art gallery in Lake Villa called Julie's Coffee, on route 83. I will be displaying a collection of my oil paintings there starting Jan. 14th, and the grand opening will be Jan. 20th. Please stop in Saturday the 20th, if you're in the neighborhood!

I am also starting something totally new for me: teaching drawing/art classes. Well, it's not totally new. I taught individual instruction classes when I was still in college. I will be getting more information on my classes added to my website in the next month or so, but for now I have three students to start the new year.

A quick update on the bench I painted last year. Here is the finished product. The sale of my bench, along with many other benches painted by local artists raised over $12,000 for the Lake Villa food Pantry and Art Scholarships for Lake Villa High School.

Art on a Bench

I volunteered to paint a bench for my home town of Lindenhurst for "Art on a Bench". My goal is to get myself more exposure, and be a participating artist in my community. I want to connect with more artists, like myself, and get more involved in local events for artists. I'm excited because I have already met a few artists also doing benches, that I think will be great people to know!

The last few days I've been busy illustrating dolls for Ashton-Drake Galleries, the doll company that is part of The Bradford Exchange. I have been illustrating dolls for over 7 years now. These two dolls are for their Harley Davidson license, and I think they came out really cute!

If you'd like to see more of my work you can visit my website at mvanpatten.com.

This June I will be participating in the Highland Park Art Walk. My painting, "Butterfly" will be on display at Beanstalk, 654 Central Ave. Mark your calendar and be sure to shop downtown Highland Park to see all the beautiful art on display throughout the downtown area.

http://www.anatomicallycorrect.org/HighlandParkArtWalk2011.htm