Tag Archives: inspiration

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Celebrating My Mom

I first began trying to sell my art in the mid-90s. Several framed photos and watercolors with quotes had been in a gift shop on consignment for about 6 months with none selling.

I was beyond discouraged on the day I opened the envelope from Bittersweet with a check reflecting the sale of 3 photos. I phoned my mom to tell her of my success. She celebrated with me. That first sale had been just the boost I had needed to keep me going.

When I visited my parents a few weeks later, I was shocked to see those three framed photos hanging in the hallway of their home.

I turned to her accusingly, “It was you!”

She laughed, “I can buy your work if I want to!” 

And soon had me laughing along with her, feeling very loved.

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Celebrating my Mom.

She was strength and joy, fun and laughter.

http://www.finchandfinchfuneralservice.com/obituaries/Sabra-Plymale/

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Busy Wren – Basics & Background

In my January 1, 2013 post, I shared the 2012 stats for my blog and mentioned an upcoming return to watercolor. We’re entering the second quarter of the year. My 3rd DVD, Piñata Alcohol Inks On Ceramic Tile DVD is now available at a $19.95 intro price which includes six demonstrations along with all the basics to work on and seal glazed ceramic tiles. I have a sense of completion and the timing seems right to turn my energy and focus to explorations in watercolor and water media.

While I will continue to play in alcohol inks as they are quite relaxing, freeing and fun, and occasionally showcase some outstanding work by artists who have purchased my alcohol Ink Dreamscaping DVDs, it’s time for me to do a little dreamscaping in watercolor. Let’s begin with the basics and background of one of my newest and cathartic, (dreamscaping can be cathartic) watercolors, Busy About Her Business.

Basics

I used Daniel Smith’s Extra Fine Watercolors: Mostly, Hematite, Tiger’s Eye, Genuine, Sedona Genuine, Purpurite Genuine with accents of Turquoise Genuine, Amozoninte Genuine and Rhodoninte Genuine. Also used Maimeriblu Raw Sienna.

I worked on 140 lb. Fabriano CP using sable and sable blends flats and rounds. The background and gourd were painted loosely and quickly using Winsor Newton granulation medium and a lot of dreamscaping, dropping  and guiding. The next few posts will show some of the process steps. Below, you will see where I began by masking some of the details.

Now, The Background

Here is the reference photo for Busy About Her Business.

I took this reference photo while in Virginia visiting my mother Spring of 2011. I have fond memories of the two of us sitting around her kitchen table in front of her sunny picture window watching this busy, Carolina Wren build her home. I took about 50 photos while we laughed at her antics of going in and out. In and out. Talk about a purpose driven life :D

We didn’t know it then, but that turned out to be the last spring we would sit around my mother’s kitchen table. Nov. 2011 brought with it a move into longterm care. My mother’s house has recently sold. That chapter has ended.

Is there any wonder this painting set-up felt more like a healing station for me? As I worked, I heard my mother’s laughter and felt the sun and the joy and the urgency of this little wren, fully present, busy about her business. She was so intent on building her life as each of us are so intent on building ours.

I am thankful to have my mother’s kitchen table, to touch the smooth oak and feel the memories made around it. So thankful for the joy shared and rekindled in the painting of this unassuming, little Carolina Wren…the gateway for me hearing my Father once again sing, Precious Memories, How They Linger…

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Anything calling to you to be painted?

Consider following where it wants to lead.

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May Each Of You Have A Spring To Celebrate & Remember.

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My Husband Is A Visionary

He Has Inspired Me To Paint

As Many Autumn Dreamscapes

As I Can The Next Few Weeks.

I Did These Three Today!

This will be our first Autumn in the Southwestern tip on NC. We feel encircled and cradled by the mountains, looming large around us.

The other day as we were in the car together, driving through town, I said, “It’s beginning to happen.”

“What,” he said, with hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.

“The mountains, they’re beginning to change. In a few weeks they’ll be all colors.”

There was a brief pause as we took it all in.

“And after that,” he said, “They’ll be all brown sticks.”

The vivd colors in my mind began to mix and neutralize….

“And then, they’ll be covered in a blanket of white,” he said, as he continued driving us forward….

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It’s an ever-changing, impermanence, we paint….

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Define Studio Space

Wherever You Are

 

In The Creative Moment….

 

including up against the far side wall of the living room…

with your over-zumbaed, hurt knee, propped on a chair  with an ice pak around it…

and the only thing you’re aware of is this multi-hued gateway into another world :)

Define Studio Space: Bliss

 

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Rolling Along Now…

Because of the response I have gotten from fellow artists, subscribers, face-to-face friends and Facebook friends regarding yesterdays’ post…I wanted to show you some of what I did yesterday and today:

Writing yesterday’s post was a risk. I have a tendency to hold things in and endure, which is what I had been doing.

But by expressing my true feelings, I felt something shift. And then when I began receiving encouraging e-mails, phone calls and comments on this blog, I felt affirmed for being real. Thank You!

Yesterday and today, I’ve been dreamscaping. And based on the energy infusion I’m experiencing, I might as well say, I’ve been breathing. Because when I am not experiencing the creative process, I am suffocating.

What Have I Learned?

How easy it is to think there is no time for art, for creativity.

How easy it is to put art last on the list.

But if we don’t claim and carve out the hour or two or three for art, yet another day will go by, and another and another…

And the artist we might have been…

Will never be.

Choose Art!

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Have Never Been So Thankful For A Rose Of Sharon

With a relocation comes a dangling, uprooted feeling.

The familiar is gone.

The flowers, the beauty, I have tended and photographed and painted aren’t outside my door any more. Some may be arriving in containers soon…

But, in the meantime, this has been the visual joy to greet me every morning when I take out Clyde, my toy poodle.

It’s on the edge of the yard of an empty house beside the parsonage at the end of our shared driveway. I was aware of some Christian symbolism attached to this enduring, flowering shrub, so, I googled it this morning. Rose Of Sharon

Now, its Enduring Presence means even more.

 

Message Sent. Message Received.

 

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My No. 1 Obstacle To Becoming An Artist

I am honored this week to be

 

Daily Paintworks Featured Artist.

 

After answering Jen’s interview questions, I was reminded of what I have battled all along on my artistic journey.

To read the interview, click: Artist’s Spotlight

LITTLE DREAMER DPW GIVE AWAY
Dreamscape No. 153 4×4
DREAMSCAPING WITH JUNE ROLLINS™

Let’s Keep Dreaming : )

 

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Crowded Day?

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning

Can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day -

Like writing a poem or saying a prayer.

-Anne Morrow Lindberg

Surrounded by packing boxes in all different states of neediness, I walked out on them this morning. There is more beauty happening outside than I can keep up with. Not that my flower gardens are beautiful this year. They aren’t really. Because of the upcoming move, I didn’t go to any nurseries this spring, I’m behind in weed pulling and there has been no filling in with colorful annuals. But still, it is a thing of beauty to me and I felt like it was passing me by. I had to stop and lose myself in just a bit of it. That’s all it took. Restorative healing is so potent in the garden.

So, I brought some of it inside.

What do you find restorative in a crowded day?

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Bridal Bouquet Watercolor Completed!

This Has Been A Joy To Paint…

Bridal Bouquet
Watercolor Commission

For A Number Of Reasons…

 

1. Great reference photo – Thank you, Ashlee!

2. I love peonies – Childhood connection via my grandmother

3. Loved the combination of the stripes and floral shapes -

Kudos to the floral designer

4. Loved the contrast of colors and values -

Kudos to the floral designer

5. Loved the mystery of the rhinestone brooch -

Love the symbolized love :)

6. And most of all, love who commissioned me to do this -

Fond memories always, Marilee.

Okay, now I’m crying, so I gotta go….