marching on and on

It's mid-March already! Here's what's been going on with me.

Thank you to everyone who supported my 15th Brushstrokes With Impact™ “Paint-a-Thon” on Saturday, February 25th in Claremont, New Hampshire! Together we were able to raise $105 for the Claremont Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry. It was a fun day, complete with visits from family, friends, and new, friendly faces. I even sold a painting! Here are some photos: 

The start...

...and, eight hours later, "Avocado Star" was complete! 

"Perpetual Light": SOLD! 

The winning ticket! Yay for Rebecca!  

The winner of "Avocado Star" is none other than the lovely and talented Rebecca Boothby Conley of Boco Video Pro! As you can see, Rebecca was very excited to win, and I'm thrilled that "Avocado Star" has gone to a good home where it will be loved and appreciated! In addition to running Boco Video Pro, Rebecca hosts the Evening Sun Blues radio show on WMPG! Tune in to hear her every other Wednesday from 5pm-7pm (and you can stream it online if you're not local)!

the handoff! 

In other news, I painted a Little Free Library for Curtis Memorial Library's "Booked For The Night" fundraiser, which took place on Saturday, March 4th! I wrote all about it for my Curtis Creative Spaces blog, so rather than writing the same thing twice, here's the link if you're curious:
http://curtiscreativespaces.com/in-the-books/


Speaking of Curtis Memorial Library, I'm happy to say that "Playing With Paint" is coming back in the month of April! We'll be focusing on the same artists as last time (Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Marc Chagall), but we're changing up the paintings ("Sunflowers", "Convergence", "Red Canna", and "Blue Circus", respectively). Woo hoo! 


Time for another announcement: I’m having my sixteenth Brushstrokes With Impact™ “Paint-a-Thon”! On Saturday, March 25th, I will be setting up my easel at Selby Shoes Etc (220 Maine Mall Road, #5, South Portland, ME) and painting from roughly 10am-6pm. At the end of the day, the completed painting will be raffled off, and 50% of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the conservation efforts of Maine Audubon. Raffle tickets can be purchased in person for $5 each or 3 for $10. I will also have a “pop-up” show of my art at Selby Shoes Etc and 10% of all my art sales (excluding magnets) from this show will be donated to the conservation efforts of Maine Audubon. Please contact me via email (maria@brushstrokesbymaria.com) for raffle information. Here's the link to the Facebook event page:  https://www.facebook.com/events/286541395116060/


I'm excited to be going back to Selby Shoes Etc.! They were so nice to me when I was there in December...hopefully the weather will be nicer this time around! Fingers crossed...