A Snowy Saturday

Snow falling - expecting about a foot! Beautiful little Juncos at the bird feeder this morning.
Their little bellies are the exact white of the snow. Amazing!

Afternoon tea and a good book.

Simply Meditative

Meditative - Perfect way to spend lunchtime.
"Limiting" myself to pen and watersoluble graphite has Freed me - to observe, really observe all the little details. See how the center branch at the top comes toward the viewer - that was meant to be my focal point and hopefully comes across that way in the sketch. This sketch holds a lot of meaning for me - beauty and meaning. With these simple tools I was able to capture what I saw - what attracted me to this subject - the protruding limb at the top and the light and shadows. Funny...I have over 100 art-related books and about a million different art supplies and I captured it...with a simple pen, a pencil, and a waterbrush. Hmmm... something can be said for simplicity.

This "Following" thing - I just figured it out!! Duh!

I just now - this very morning - totally by accident figured out this whole "following" thing, and that you had to follow your own blog in order to send messages to your followers. I guess if I had read the directions to start with, it would have been a more satisfying experience. I apologize to all my followers for having never sent them a message - Duh!

Have a good day everybody!

Today's Sketch - my latte mug and birds

Continuing with my limited art supplies - a Pigma Micron pen (sz 03 and 08 used here), a watersoluble graphite pencil and a Niji waterbrush. I accidently picked up a Cretacolor MONOLITH pencil instead of AQUAmonolith and drew the shadows in the cup. Then it got pretty dark and somber the more I added with the correct pencil. But it matches this gray, cold winter day. And the fact that I'm home sick again this afternoon.

Thank you all for your comments on my first sketch in this series of black and white, limited supplies drawings. I can't imagine not having the support, encouragement and understanding of my online artist friends! You are all so wonderful and helpful.

And yes, I highly recommend you pull The Creative License off the shelf and see it with fresh eyes. I had gotten so bogged down with all the materials and styles available that I just felt lost, confused, and stuck. This newfound focus is just what I needed. Creativity is great, but we also need discipline and practice, and focus. I'm thankful I've found it at last. Hopefully after this little jaunt with black and white I can return to using color with more skill and more understanding of what I want to say with my art. I think we can get lost in all the media and forget or never find out who we are.

Danny Gregory's Inspiration

Danny Gregory's blog again inspired me, and his book "The Creative License" which I pulled off my shelf today. I've been feeling scattered lately, and I've decided that I need focus. I am going to carry only a small sketchbook, my Niji waterbrush, a watersoluble graphite pencil and a Pigma Micron pen for a while and just sketch my surroundings. Just draw. Hone my skills and forget about "styles" for a while. I want to draw and fill a sketchbook, consistency. Stick-to-it-iveness.

It may be a while before I post again. But when I do, I hope to have some nice sketches like the one above to show you. It felt good to work with limited supplies and just draw. This is what I need for now. Please bear with me while I simplify and sketch and we'll get together again to discuss the results.

Thank you, Danny Gregory for endless inspiration.

New Journal Pages

Some new journal pages I've been working on lately. I just completed the bottom one at lunch today.

My thoughts are on comparing myself to others, which is always a dangerous thing to do. I am so thankful for all my online artist friends who share their studios, their creativity and their lives - we need each other. My daughter's friends homes are so organized, uncluttered, decorated perfectly with what's in style. Just like a picture in Better Homes and Gardens. Mine is not. Mine is sometimes pure chaos, small, and full to the brim with art supplies and books and my colorful crazy art. It leaves me feeling like I'm lacking and yet I wouldn't trade this creative, colorful, chaotic life for anything. But today I'm feeling like an unorganized, clutzy, flying by the seat of her pants mom who could use some getting-it-together. Anyway... enjoy my journal pages and share in my chaos.

Saturday Morning Sketch

Ahhhh, Saturdays...I slept late, sat quietly watching Modern Marvels on the History Channel, then turned off the tv, read 1 John and Jude in the Scriptures, and sketched the birds - all while enjoying cup after cup of coffee. Bliss, pure bliss!

Sunday Praise and Worship

For the first time in my life, I am without a church. We have grown more and more dissatisfied with our current church and finally we decided that it was time to leave, and we don't know where God wants us to go yet. Honestly, we've enjoyed a couple of Sundays at home - but realize certainly that this cannot become a habit. It's been so nice though to rest and "recuperate" so to speak. Next week we've agreed to visit one of two churches. Please pray that God will lead us where He wants us to be. Visiting churches is so very hard.
Today I woke up thinking about what I wanted to do today...a joyous, colorful painting in praise to God. My own way of worshipping and honoring God. The two paintings are 14" x 17" in size and were so much fun to do. My daughter has claimed the bottom one for her room. I want to take the other to work for my office, which is quickly filling up with my artwork. I have no idea how I'm going to find a place for this one...
Happy Sunday evening. It's been a good day.

Enough!

Playing around in my sketchbook - colorful, bright, graphic.

A pretty big contrast to the watercolor below, which I just completed.



Which do you like best, and why? Once I hear what you have to say, I'll tell which I like best and why.

I went to the doctor Thursday for my 6-month checkup and I was so excited that I was doing so well. I told her that I hadn't had a migraine in a long time and that I felt the best I've ever felt in my life. Then BOOM the very next morning, I got a migraine; and was in bed all afternoon adn evening yesterday!! The first in many months! What happened!!!?? I do think I've been stressing lately - reading http://www.flylady.net/ and trying to do better, be better, and do more without evening knowing it! I didn't even see how I was stressing and obsessing with flylady's suggestions. I was obsessed with keeping everything clean and organized suddenly; thinking almost nonstop about how to declutter and clean. Enough! I'm not reading her website anymore! It's great for some people, but I declare I'd rather have a little clutter and less obsessing!

Today although, it doesn't look like very much, I did do some decluttering. I threw away a lot, cleaned out drawers, and got rid of the two bins in the corner on top of the table and the narrow tower in the floor. The picture reminds me of the "find what's different" puzzles. LOL But it does make me feel better. I want to focus on watercolor for a while... we'll see how that goes.

Before:

After:

Daily Prompt: Flow

My quick journal page before bed.

Philippians 4:6 (New American Standard Bible)
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

May His peace guard our hearts and minds tonight. Good night everyone.

A WIP - and ponderings on Binging and Purging

This post will cover two subjects: 1. - my WIP handmade book, and 2. - my reading and ponderings in my journal.

I am finding myself sharing a lot of my journaling with you - must be getting more comfortable with this whole blogging thing. I like sharing with you and being very open and transparent. Because when it comes down to it - we're all in this thing together :-)

So first my handmade book -


Remember my post on December 26 regarding my handmade book - http://daloweartist.blogspot.com/2009/12/handmade-book.html

Well this is my first session of starting to fill it. The photo above is the very first page as you open the cover - I guess in most books this would be the title page. I began by painting each page in blue watercolor and then adding collage elements. The page below is two paintings, one on fabric - collaged into the book - I will add text and other elements later. This is definitely a work-in-progress.



The page below is a paper towel collaged on the page. I liked the pattern imprinted in this paper towel and noticed how nice it looked when I blotted the watercolor painted page at left. So I was inspired to glue the blotter paper towel in as a nice background.



Now my next subject - I'll call it "Binging and Purging - Creativity Bulemia"

Yesterday I was reading Suzanne Simanaitis' pages on "Addition and Subtraction: An Artist Finds Herself Amidst the Clutter" in Sheri Gaynor's book Creative Awakenings. She writes:

"That's why its so sad and so difficult to get rid of all this stuff. It feels
like I'm abandoning the dreams that go with it...

This hoarding is symptomatic of a failure to live in the present. I saw, I desired, I bought. That felt gratifying. But I didn't follow through on the vision; now I barely recall that beautiful object I so fervently wished to create."

Now I don't know if this hit home with some of you, but, oh, it did with me!!



Pictured above at top left is my little corner of the kitchen, okay big corner... Then I show my individual drawer of watercolor tubes (top right), and acrylics (bottom left) and lastly colored pencils.

Now Ms. Simanaitis was writing this "intention" (to find out what that is you'll have to order the book :-)) because her house was so cluttered with art supplies that she couldn't get to a clear space to create. I don't have that problem necessarily, but I do have a problem; as perhaps do we all, with the need to buy art supplies and, for me, books.

I know I can be inspired by a new material reference in someone's blog entry, an excerpt from a book, and suddenly I must have that new art thingy-majig, and I must have it NOW!! Another weird thing I do is that I must have two of everything. Two of all my favorite colors of markers, colored pencil, paint tubes, etc. Two Faber-Castell Pitt Big Brush Pens in black - two Ebony design pencils -- whatever the new thingy is - I must have two. What is that?

I've thought this over to some great length - as this isn't the first time I've examined this whole issue. I think in my case, it's fear. Fear that I'll run out of something. Fear of not having enough. Because my thought process goes like this - "Now let's see, how many tubes of cobalt violet watercolor do I have? Oooh I love that color! Uh-oh I only have 2 1/2 tubes and this one is almost empty - what if I run out - I should order more!" Now I ask you, is one tube of any color not enough at one time? It's as if I think that one day the world is going to run out of art supplies and I will be left bereft and alone with my partial tube of dried up cobalt violet paint.

Also I think that for some reason buying new art supplies or new books for me is like getting a "fix". It creates excitement and gets my adrenaline flowing. The problem is it's short-lived and within a few days or a week the new "thing" I was so excited about is now old. And the cycle continues.

And then one day I feel guilty and overwhelmed by all my new "things" and I gather up a box of things I think I can part with and I donate or somehow rid myself of them... only in most cases to eventually buy at least part of them back and bemoan the rest asking myself how I could have been so silly as to have sold that/given that away!! And the cycle continues.

Where will it end!? It must end.

What about you? Any of this ring true? I'd love to hear your thoughts.