orange fantasy land and silhouette woman

good morning peeps!

(or whatever time it is in your corner of the world...) 

A fun little painting session last night...

I hardly ever watch tv,

so painting at night is easy peasy.

i had fun with this one.

At this stage, it reminded me of Dr. Seuss's imaginary worlds.

I visited the blog of Tara Leaver yesterday,

(for the record - i love her and i love her work. Check her out, kay?)

and something she wrote inspired me to do this.

She's taking a pen and ink class,

and in one of the exercises,

she "took a line for a walk".

I suspect that means making one, continuous line,

without lifting the pen (or in this case, marker).

I ended up lifting at one point, but generally,

i took my line for a walk. ;-)

Added a few dots and a few wisps with black micron pen,

and there you have it.

It was fun to do.

That's what i love about semi abstract stuff.

There's no pressure to make it look like anything.

Not sure about the wisps, but they're there to stay. ;-)

It was still early when i finished the orange fantasy land,

so i thought i'd do a quick watercolor 

with my watercolor crayon

using this silhouette from a magazine as inspiration.

I used my small postcard size watercolor paper

so this was really quick... this only took about 10 or 15 minutes to do.

As i always do with most of my artwork,

i turn the page around,

to see what it looks like from a different perspective.

This levitating kinda freaked me out,

so i put the paints away and went to read. 

;-)

I want to say something about habit.

The wonderful Tracey Fletcher King is no doubt

far more qualified to teach us about the creative habit,

but here's my 2 cents worth.

I take a meditative walk every morning and sometimes again in the evening.

This one habit was formed by telling myself i would go

for a 15 minute walk. That's all. 15 minutes.

Eventually, it became 20 minutes,

and then 30 minutes.

I look forward to my morning walk now

and if i miss it for one reason or another

i feel less grounded. Less connected.

The important thing is consistency,

whether you want to develop a habit

of walking

or meditating

or painting

or writing

or (fill in the blank)...

We often go too big at first when it comes to habit.

We've all seen those people who join the gym in January

with the intention of becoming Mr. fucking Universe in a year,

but by March, they're back to sitting on the couch

cuddling a bag of chips the size of a house.

Habit is about baby steps.

For me, it's about doing it alone,

and doing it consistently,

at about the same time every day.

So for those of you out there who read art blogs

and yearn to create something,

but still haven't "found the time" yet...

try doing it for small intervals of time at first.

Like 15 minutes.

Take out a pen and paper

and draw.

That's it.

It doesn't need to be a whole broadway production.

Just a pen or pencil and paper.

And then the following day,

do the same.

Your awesomeness may surprise you. 

:-)

the woman in the moon

Life shrinks or expands

in proportion to one's courage.

Anaïs Nin

I decided a while ago that i would blog less often

and paint more.

And guess what i discovered?

That blogging is what kept me painting more often.

Knowing that i would be posting something in the morning

inspired me to be creative at night.

I blog less now (about twice per week)

and instead of using the extra time to paint

(like i thought i would!)

i clean the house

or go for coffee

or read

and more often than not

i work.

That's just yucky.

;-)

So i'm back to posting more often,

every day or two.

Yay for me!

It just gives me the kick in the ass i need

to keep myself creating.

I did this one in my journal last night...

acrylics, markers and white pen.

I really have a thing for twirls, don't i?

colors are off and i don't usually fiddle much

with making adjustments,

but you get the idea.

The woman in the moon. 

:-)

and this is my little blue room,

after the painting last night.

more stuff

and still more stuff. :-)

i took this pic this morning, in natural light.

By the way, i got a lovely invitation a little while back

to be a featured artist on Jennibellie's fabulous blog.

For those of you interested in reading the little interview

just click here.

Jenny is a talented and kind artist and spends much of her time

making beautiful things and spreading the love by

sharing her artwork and her tutorial videos for everyone.

I just love anyone who's willing to share so much of themselves

with the world.

Thank you Jenny!

Wishing you all a wonderful week

filled with sunshine and lollipops. 

xoxo