Posted on March 1, 2021
How to use a cat’s tongue brush
I recently created a short demo on the cat’s tongue brush with watercolor. I hope you enjoy!
by 
Updated on March 1, 2021
Cleaning Out
When is it time to grow up?
I went to University because it was the thing to do. People said you grow up by going away to University. I think that might be a divisive opinion at this point… And I’m not being offensive, politically or economically leaning in saying that. I mean simply that you end up parroting all the opinions of your professors. I’m not sure that’s growing up… it is simply not parroting your parents opinions. You’ve simply adopted new parents. It isn’t thinking for yourself. Not yet.
I went through a liberal arts University and got a broad liberal education. I can remember arguing with my boyfriend about “art for the sake of art”. Art as a conversation and how important that was. Either I won him over or he just started to agree half way through the heated conversation for the sake of peace.
“Art for the sake of art” is when an artist puts a toilet on a pedestal and we all ooh and aah about how profound of a statement that is. The taboo of the toilet brought out into the open. Or once, in a museum, I walked past a piece of plywood leaning up against the wall with a label. Yes, this was and maybe still is considered art.
Don’t get me wrong. I was trained well and can set up a gallery show, draw, sculpt and paint but I also came out of University with an elitist idea of the arts that lasted many of my young adult years.
Twenty years later, I sifted through the old University art text books and ran across this same high brow “art for the sake of art” book. What a load of high brow rubbish? As if one art form is better than another. What my professor didn’t talk about (at all!) was that there are industrial artists and designers working diligently to make a pen have a pleasing look or even that toilet. How is one better than another or more valued? Quite honestly if you place a piece of plywood against a wall isn’t that the absolute height of plagiarism. You didn’t create anything. You just showcased someone else’s work without giving them credit and in so doing claimed a type of elitism over someone else’s craft.
I flipped through the old “art for the sake of art” textbook one last time and threw it into the trash with a resounding thud. A whole lot of blathering talk. Absolute rubbish!
What is art that cannot improve a person’s life, whether through job, hobby or the brighten of a wall, center piece or courtyard, and inspire a dream?
As for the technical and industrial arts… I toured a Technical two year college 2 years ago with my son. I never knew how much fun they had. It was none of the high brow theory but more hands on hard work, creation and skill. I never knew. I left excited and inspired that my son might choose that school! I wish I had!
How often do we parrot with our brains turned off not really understanding the depth and knowledge we are missing out on? One of my professors spent an entire functional sculpture class (the entire semester) teaching us nothing useful. We made a non-functional bowl and a twisted metal tube that blew flower in a persons face.
All the while, another student (who went to a technical school with woodworking before University) worked on sculpted dressers and furniture as an art form. I signed up for the functional sculpture class because I thought I might learn that student’s skill.
Maybe I should have thrown that book in the trash a long time ago…
by
Updated on February 24, 2021
Back at it
Is there such a thing as a break from art that is too long?
I’d like to say no… take your time… no worries. But the reality is that you do loose skills. I have family that believes in me and in the end that’s one thing. But do I believe in me?
We hit into this Covid thing and I found myself focusing on little things, necessary things, like painting and sealing up a very dry rotten shed. Before that, I hit a certain age and ended up with back issues — doing anything for too long, standing or sitting, and the muscles just tightened up and were killer — and I had to seek the help of a physical therapist.
I found myself saying I don’t care about my hobby… I’d be fine if it went away and that wasn’t a part of me anymore.
I’m the kind of person that I don’t beat myself up over things. In my weight, I go up and down by 20 pounds and I shrug and move on (inwardly self-checking — eat more balanced meals, healthy proportions, no seconds) and the weight falls off slowly. It wasn’t a big deal. But are there things in life that you should really drive into and discipline yourself better on? Yes!
Here’s a good example: Our family has slowly picked up the habit of guitar every Tuesday and Saturday. We were fortunate in having bought guitars and lesson material right before covid, so when the pandemic hit we had something to focus on and give us a goal. Did we get better immediately? No. Was it a habit immediately? No. We wrote down the date for each practice and it was often just twice that month. Now a year later it is a habit every Tuesday and Saturday. We don’t get our free time until we’ve done our practice for the day. It’s now tradition.
The same holds true with art. I have a web page, I have a you tube channel, I have some training and skill… but eradic discipline what if I upped the heat on myself and started to get it done again. Brought out the old books, revisited the old basic lessons and get at it.
I’ve been doing very long art projects lately, like a large steam train that took a year to research and paint or portraits of family. So… that’s the first thing to change. The best way to keep a skill is to do it regularly, small and steady… revisit the basics… like the color wheel…
Or how about just run the video camra while I paint small paintings. Then create a time lapse…
And they seem to work! I’m using simple equipment, nothing fancy. Editing through a free program and posting. If I can keep on, just little art subjects and creations, two per week for a year is about 100 videos or just art moments. Now wouldn’t that be something. And maybe along the way I’ll create a better and more consistant habit. If life crops up again, don’t sweat it, but get back in there.
This artistry part of me just might be a hobby and a habit worth keeping!
by
Updated on February 14, 2017
Squeezed into a corner
This is real and it happens… So how do I move back into art
I’m at either the best or the worst time to blog about art: Currently creating no art at all.
I was swept up in life: creating and mixing colors for house paint to sell our house, moving and shifting into a new house. Then, we were hit with an unfortunate family accident, non fatal but terrifying, which took months to recover from. I am now at 2 years without art and the inevitable has happened: Art Block. It has been so long it feels like art has left my life. No inspiration and no desire to sit at that drafting table and get down to work. Bingeing on old TV series is my current addiction.
I’m human. Really I have no excuses for myself. There are no magic fixes to life or even how to get back into art. I lost my beautiful art studio in our move and am now relegated to a corner of the living room. It is a wise spot — the best spot for juggling kids, home-school, art and life. Not glamorous but that’s not a big deal, art can be done almost anywhere. After such a big shift in our life and the need to readjust, it’s normal to take a while to recapture momentum — that old work spirit to want to sit there and create.
I prefer to be positive because the opposite is failure, frustration or tons of negative that I don’t want in my life. A positive attitude and an expectancy that it will come back works for me.
Back Burner is Ok
Several times a week the thought is in the back of my mind to do art, vague but there, even just looking at that drafting table. It could be considered a negative but, on the flip side, that back burner pressure is a good thing because it does build. This isn’t the first art block nor will it be the last.
Now, if I add some art books or like other artists on social media and just start surrounding myself with a little bit of art magic: beautiful creations. The hope is that a flame will grow from that back burner and maybe it will become a reality into the push to create again.
I’ll get there. It’s just going to take turning up that back burner a little hotter till it comes out in momentum.by
Updated on April 27, 2016
Art vs Life
What is art and what is just life?
Maybe I’m crazy but I don’t think I’ll ever quite figure this one out.
We’re as busy as ever. The only art I’m allowed these days, or at least till we get our house on the market, is skill in craftsmanship, choosing paint colors, remodelling and design.
Yes, we probably could host our own reality house flipping show. We’ve remodelled and flipped a few but without the stress of cameras rolling, watching all our trial and error.
Now we’re remodelling the house we’ve lived in for the past 14 years.
Paint anyone?
Over the years we’ve worked on 4 old houses for various reasons and have a large storage closet filled with partial gallons of paint. It’s rather ironic after all these years to finally be so flush with paint. This house is also the first house we bought. We were a young couple with not a lot of money but a lot of love. Buying even 1 gallon of paint was a stretch, so we formed a plan and committed to improving and painting just one room every year. In a day and age of instant gratification that is mind blowing.
When you’re young and money is scarce you’re cautious but over time you randomly pick up knowledge, ability and leftover paint and it doesn’t seem to matter so much if you follow all the rules or what the room color is… So you try new things.
I never would have mixed random paint in the old days to make a full gallon but 14 years later I’m mixing with abandon. All those art lessons are coming in handy and I’m using my color knowledge to make some really cute colors for the next owners.
So now freshly patched and primed walls in the kitchen go from this kind of blah…
To this kind of zing…
I find that if I look hard enough life is still all tangled up with art…
And I’m okay with that!
Updated on January 12, 2016
Life on hold
Derailed
This is becoming the busiest summer on record for us. All projects are on hold (so much for good intentions in creating a summer goal), life and any kind of fun are on hold as we get down to work for real – the final stages of selling a house.
A Little Background
A year ago we bought a fixer-upper, a ratty old neglected house. In between all the business of life (homeschooling, volunteering, shuttling kids, running a house, etc.) we’ve been fixing and creating something beautiful but it’s time to get serious, rap it up and get it on the market.
No art, just eating a sit down meal is difficult enough, so art or at least the fine art part if my life is on hold. There are still moments of creativity and color. That’s not something that one turns off. It’s a part of who you are. But how that comes out shifts and changes during different stages and seasons of life. That’s life. This is just a season and it will pass.
End goal
We have a dream and are making it a reality through old fashioned sweat and hard work. Our goal is to earn enough to buy a larger house. 7 people with one bathroom and a tiny kitchen is doable until they become teens. We could patiently make it work. We have for 14 years but the housing market is just right for investing in, earning and moving.
So covered in dust, paint and all other kinds of filth we’re putting our noses to the grindstone for a family dream.
Blogging will be a little sketchy for a time so bear with me. I will update as I can and get back to it once we’ve come through this tunnel.by
Updated on June 18, 2015
Blank Page
What in the world will I make?
We’ve been busy this spring parts of it to the point of madness. Now I find myself at a pause as spring activities pause and summer activities have not yet started and yet my mind is a complete blank. There is so much momentum in being busy and trying to find time for everything that life brings your way and then it lets up and I should be in there finding time for me and yet I’m not. My mind is a blank.
Solutions
I don’t have all the answers. But I find myself saying how do I inspire myself to get back in there and do art. Painting houses is not art. Though matching colors and all that is a small piece of art it doesn’t cut it for the skill that I’ve learned or am trying to learn and develop.
So after a week, I’m feeling antsy I know I should be in the studio and am frustrated at going nowhere. My little one year old wants to play outside all the time… so forget the studio, maybe my work needs to be outside and a little more portable for now. After all that’s where life is at.
So I completed a little nothing. Quite literally. Just tried to get the lines and the right angles. If I could increase my speed it would be a sketch of my baby playing in the little kiddie pool but I’ve slowed up from lack of practice. I’m happy to have captured a few lines of art no matter how pathetic. It’s progress to bigger things and getting myself going again in my art and that’s all that matters.
by
Updated on May 29, 2015
Working from photos
How to make it work
Working from photos isn’t ideal, but it allows me to work anywhere and at any time. A photo doesn’t have all the color that real life would have but what it does have is the information and idea that I need to practice at nap time, bedtime or whatever free time I have available. And that is a huge advantage to a busy life.
Use your own photos!
You may find this hard at first because you may not have a huge library of reference photos. But given enough time, travel or family outings your library will grow. And the next time someone asks for a horse painting you’ll remember that hay ride you took and be ready to go with an original one of a kind painting that is truly your own.
I thought I could borrow. Right?
Copyright is a copyright. Right after college was the last time I used an image other than my own. One of my teachers told us that all we needed to do was change the image enough and copyright would be nil and the piece would then be original to ourselves. But how much is enough and how much is infringing on another artists copyright. In class, we were narrowing it down to a very small window of the image and the outcome was unrecognizable to the original so I do believe what our teachers told us was probably correct at the time. But if I’m painting a specific well known location then people want to know and recognize that location and I can’t really change someone else’s photo enough to feel like it’s really mine. It just doesn’t work for me. In this digital age copyright is often imprinted on the image so no matter how much cropping and rearranging you do that image is still someone else’s. As I said, shortly after college I said no more to borrowed photos, unless its a commission for a customer and its their photo, otherwise I have always used my own photos from that day to this. I know there are books and sites that you can freely use the images or even pay to use the images. It just depends on what your needs are and the choices that are right for your artwork. But those photos have never spoken to me. For all my photos I was at that site and saw that butterfly drinking in the sand or saw those magnificent mountains. I know the essence in the scene that wasn’t and can not be captured but is a part of my memory of the moment. For me that’s important.
Avoid flash
If you can don’t use flash (for people shots especially). There are times when it is a must because of the lighting but it’s a killer. I’ve tried to paint people from flash photography and it doesn’t work. The eyes look like two dead pebbles. Just the other day I took a picture of my 1 year old. 
As I was holding him and watching him enjoy the view outside, I saw his eyes and the reflection. It was gorgeous the kind of light reflection I’d give anything for in one of my paintings. Amazing! The light was literally laughing in his eyes as you can see. Even if I don’t create anything from this I can add it to my reference photo library or simply study the play of light, so next time I find myself painting a person with dead eyes I have a reference photo that will help me add depth and life.
Time & patience
As in all things, gathering worth while photos you’ll use in your art takes time, practice and experience. As you look through your camera or phone lens gathering snapping shots you’ll start to see the painting it could become someday. How the fog is drifting over the lake or the boats are moored at the dock. In this digital age, I take way more photos than I can ever use but the one painting that comes out of it was worth the moment it took to pause and snap a few shots. As you start, you’ll find the next time you’re on a hike you’ll think “I want some photos of bark or a bank or moss”, or “I need another shot of a horse”, or “this sky would make a beautiful backdrop for that image I captured the other day” and you’ll snap your way into an endless file of ideas just right for those moments your time is all your own to start creating.
by
Updated on May 29, 2015
What really matters?
Let me just start out by saying I hate emotion!
Not really all of them just the bad ones. I reach for the good emotions – joy, laughter, and peace – and I try to avoid with a vengeance sadness and anger. A lot of times the two latter ones come out when I’m exhausted and need more sleep. I’ve always felt that my kids deserve better than who I am when I’m angry and yelling. They deserve a mom that takes care of herself even to the extent of leaving the dishes for a moment or laundry and taking a nap. Dishes can wait. If you don’t take care of yourself chances are no one else will. That nap or moment to refresh yourself can be more precious than gold.
If you took a walk around our house you would see a perpetual, ever changing, pile of laundry on the couch these days. It’s been that way for at least a year. They’re clean just not put away. If you need a clean towel or washcloth go look in the pile you’ll probably find one. There are times when I go to the pile more often than I go to get something from my dresser. My kids are so used to not having a cleared off couch they sit on the piles as if they don’t exist. In fact, I’m a little suspicious they prefer it that way like sitting on little mountain all their own.
In our house, you will find a family with a sense of humor and a high tolerance for mess because those things just don’t matter as much as the people inside this house.
Now come into my kitchen where there’s no dishwasher except this tired mom. There are dishes in the sink most days and yes quite often with a bit of food dried on. Remember, those things just don’t matter but a good day of school with my kids, a rare walk around the block when we can, a talk with my husband, a nap or getting to bed on time when I just can’t go any longer. Those are the things that matter!
This spring, my main goal has been to lay out in the sun for at least a little bit each day. I am no sun bather I simply want to soak up a little Vitamin D. Such wanton laziness when there are mountains of work to conquer in my house… Yes! And I excuse it too. It’s what I need to keep sanity in an insane world! Living so far north we are all deficient in precious Vitamin D. It’s something that we need to function and the pause in my day helps me to refresh ME.
Because that’s what really matters!
What about them?
What happens when you see someone in distress or living in stress and fatigue? Will you walk beside them? Will you run after them and let them cry and rant? And maybe even cry a little with them?
I was at church and saw that something was wrong. I sat and talked for a moment with her. Her night had been short, her morning long and at church one comment from someone she didn’t even know had been a bad moment for her. After church, I heard and saw another bad moment in her day and when I heard the loud ranting, yelling and storming out of church, my one thought was “Oh, no,” and I ran down the stairs. I knew something was wrong and had gone from bad to worse.
What would you have done? As I sat with her, I cried with her and let her pour out her stress and weariness. Yes, stress! After such a bad morning, she was listing all the things that she needed to do when she got home and then maybe she could take a nap. “Take the nap first and take care of yourself!”
I didn’t know I would be there or that I’d be the one to run after her and cry with her. If you know me you’d know how much I hate crying and try to avoid it. What made me go after her? Because it mattered! And I’m glad that I did! She is worth the tears and the caring. People always are! In life, we have all found ourselves at one time or another at the point where stress is just too much for us. It happens.
Take care of yourself! Leave your to-do list for a moment. Take a pause on life’s business and ask yourself “what can I do to refresh ME”. People matter! I matter! Quite often the things we thought were so important can wait for just a little longer.
The dishes can wait. What can you do for your mate or your kids?
What can you do for YOU?
Updated on May 29, 2015
Success + exhaustion
I think these two words all too often go hand in hand. To lead, to have a successful event especially when all of us are unpaid volunteers, means you’re in there doing. You have the right people beside you but there are always little things that need to be in place and that means that you, the organizer, are in there pretty much the entire time making sure of the little things: For us, at our art gala, that meant that the musicians had due recognition and billing, that the artist’s bios & business cards were displayed to advantage, that signs were made and printed and on and on…
Am I running in circles for nothing?
That’s something we, as human beings, always wonder. Especially right before an event begins.
Our church art group, just had surprisingly successful show. I planned and had a lot in place with the help of some really great volunteers but always at the back of my mind was the thought that no one is really going to show up. Last year it was dead. Quite literally! This year would be the same thing right?
Because of a scheduling goof we ended up in the top most part of our church. Ironically it’s also one of the most intimate and friendly settings there is in the whole building. Our “gallery” felt like a gallery not just a bunch of paintings on the walls. This wasn’t an accident.
Countless hours were spent the day before jogging through the church, down to the basement, back to the office and then up to the top floor again and again, setting up pedestals, tables, creating atmosphere, making copies and putting up signs. A friend and her husband walked countless blocks with fliers and leaflets to the point that she was reportedly sore the next day.
Nearing exhaustion yet it’s not over
The next day through nearly the whole gala, though tired already, I was able to work and tend to the details of keeping food stocked and tables cleaned and cleared until evening. At 5pm, my body began to crash and I finished one more check around the gala and quietly snuck home to finally sit down! And eat! That’s all I wanted. I was drained. A little moment of separation and some food and then I headed back again to close up. I had to take care of myself and my health. There were volunteers there to see to some if not all of the running of the event. They did fine without me.
My one regret during the whole gala is that the seasoned artists who’ve gone through countless shows together and even a few fairs carried most of the event. It will take time but the young bloods should have pitched in more. Volunteers were greeting, musicians playing, but the artists are responsible for the gala: the food and the hosting. That is my fault and a lot of it stems from my own fatigue and the thought that the event probably wouldn’t be a success. As my husband wisely said “You’ll just have to teach them.”
What happened that day was the beginning of a legacy.
When we opened, the musician began to play and it was amazing. I realized, in that moment, I should have found a volunteer to record this one of a kind event. What we had accomplished had never been tried before and as the people filtered in throughout the day it was obviously an amazing success. This is an event that, if continued, will grow until it is looked forward to year in and year out — a legacy of art to future attendees of our church and the neighborhood.
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