Owl Mine

A lovely little surprise was waiting for me in the mailbox today. My friend Tiffany sent me this card after I spent an evening whining to her about deployments and stay at home mothering.

Her words were exactly what I needed to hear (and she has excellent penmanship, too). What a sweet blessing. People really should send cards more often. Even if her words had fallen on deaf ears, the image on this card really resonated with me. She said that it reminded her of me. This is ironic because I am working on a very similar owl painting right now. This card was definitely meant for me :)

Thank you, Tiffers, for radically brightening my day!

New Avenues

Since I have taken so many classes with amazing instructors and artists recently, as well as discovered so many many other artists whose aesthetic is similar to mine, I've begun to really feel lost in my art. I have a hard time following prompts in my classes and even just finishing a painting. The only paintings that have really progressed to me liking are paintings that had zero influence from other artists. I guess that's part of finding your own voice as a budding artist, but it's definitely frustrating.

Doodle I did for A Year of Painting with Alena Hennessy using a resist technique

Learning about new techniques and products can be overwhelming. I've been feeling like someone who just discovered cake for the first time and wants to east ALL. THE. CAKE. And inevitably gets sick. It's been overwhelming but also joyful.

Recently I've become really interested in digital art - mainly pattern making, and scanning art to digitally manipulate it. When my husband had to get a tablet for work, I mentioned wanting an art tablet and he bought one for me on the spot, saying I needed it, need it to grow. The fact that he has such faith in my potential astounded me and overwhelmed me. I am not tech savvy. I sit her typing - heck, pecking - away at the keyboard with two fingers. So when I got home and couldn't even figure out how to install the dumb thing, I became really scared. I had this huge lump in my throat, couldn't sleep, and wouldn't touch the tablet for days.

Thank God for the internet though, because one thing I'm really good at is research, and so I watched and read a lot of tutorials.

I have A LOT left to learn, but in the mean time I am having an insane amount of fun on this tablet. (It is a wacom intuous, by the way.)

Above is my first finished "painting". I used stencils, paint, paint roller, collage paper, and even some hand drawing (the flowers were hand drawn - that was the hardest part. Drawing on a tablet while looking at the computer screen is a huge adjustment. I really think those flowers unite all the abstract elements of the painting, though. Love!)

It's exciting to see how many possibilities and options there are out there for growth as an artist. I haven't found my niche yet, but I know I will.

A Process

The past 5 months or so I have really focused on painting. I've never painted all that much, even though I was always involved in art in one way or another, because I found the medium too unforgiving. A year and a half ago, when I spiraled deep down into motherhood depression, art really saved me. But I wasn't really that good at it, and I didn't really further my skills at all. i painted what I was comfortable with, and if I tried to branch out and hit a wall, I let that wall knock me down.

Last August I took a leap and, with my husbands support, dropped a good chunk of change on an online course with Kelly Rae Roberts. After that, I discovered Alena Hennessy (who I am now taking a course with), and many other artists who have really inspired me. I began to paint intuitively.

30x40 custom piece I did for a customer

Even though the art I learned to create with KRR, and especially intuitive painting, didn't teach me technical skills, it did teach me something really important. 

11x14 custom piece

9x12 custom piece

Painting this way, so freely, taught me to be BRAVE.

It taught me that paint is in fact very forgiving. It taught me that you don't need to take college level courses to figure out how to hold a brush. It taught me that people like my art just as it is, and that if I never try to take it a step further, I'll never know if I can or not.

One day a few weeks ago I took a leap.

And I created this.

16x20 (SOLD)

And then THIS.

30x40, Not currently for sale

And I found that as long as I follow my urges bravely, they never really fail me. Even if the piece of art doesn't work out, there is so much learned in the process, it is always a WIN.

So I would encourage you, if there is something in you telling you to touch some paint, to dip a brush in joy and go to town, follow that urge. You never know what you might discover about yourself.