Don't Overthink Your Art

Altered Book

 I got the latest issue of Coastal Living in my mailbox this week (I don't live on the water...) and it has some wonderful recipes for a Cinco de Mayo type of celebration.  Empanadas!  I love empanadas and I can't even recall if I've ever made them ....so if I did...it was ....a very long time ago. I picked up the necessary ingredients to make some this weekend.  I know it's not Cinco de Mayo...but I was practicing...and the empanadas turned out great!  When I was a child, we lived in Madrid and I have a charm bracelet with a Cinco de Mayo charm on it...my birthday is in May.  None of this has anything to do with the painting!   

Today's art isn't about the subject...it's about trying to be a little bit more free with my art...the 'just do it'....finding my inner child with no pre-conceived ideas about what the empanadas should look like or anything else on the pages.  I just started putting down color.  My favorite colors always show up...red, blue & yellow.  I didn't want to worry about shade and shadow or perspective...ohh to spend an afternoon with Matisse!  

Close up:

 

 

 

My Friend & Book Artist, Janet Lee

I am so excited!  My friend and Artist, Janet Lee, has her work in a book that's about to be released....

 

The author, Anne O. Kubitsky, has put together a collection of post cards from the thousands she has received on What Makes You Grateful....it is amazing how many individuals from around the world, have sent her postcards and one of them is from my friend, Janet.  Her's is featured in the short YouTube above.  I met Janet a few years ago at an art workshop conducted by Lynn Perrella.  Janet is a very talented book artist whom I so admire.  Congrats to Janet!!!  Can't wait to get the book!

Listen To Your Inner Child.....

"What did you do as a child

that made the hours pass like minutes?

Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits."

------Carl Jung

 Art Journal

Acrylics, Watercolor pencils

Sometimes you just need that thread of an idea to get your creative juices flowing.  So I went to my Pinterest boards...these are such a great visual filing system ....a place to store ideas. I recently pinned the quote above by Carl Jung.  I often reflect about my childhood years when I'm trying to come up with ideas to paint.  What did I love to do the most back in the day?  Three things came instantly to mind.  I loved to curl up with the latest Nancy Drew mystery.  For her day, Nancy Drew was a confident, smart, forward-thinking woman.  (I hate that there are "updated" versions of Nancy Drew).  I wanted to be like her...not the detective part....just the confidence and smart that I liked about her. I liked that she wasn't afraid to try things....that's where she and I often differ! (I know she is fictional, but I can pretend).

I painted an oversized, comfortable chair and left a copy of a Nancy Drew mystery lying there.  

 On the opposite page, I added a bookcase to store my books...what were they besides Nancy Drew and Seventeenth Summer and other stories that had a young woman at the center?  What would Nancy Drew be like in her "golden years" I wonder.....

 

Across the back wall of both pages are giant crayons....and I made them large, because I loved to color....there is nothing like the smell or look of a new box of crayons...even today.  They've added so many colors!  When I was a senior in high school, I ended up in the hospital with a ruptured appendix and one thing I made all of my visitors do....was color a page in a coloring book I brought for that express purpose....and they would sign their page.  I kept that coloring book for so many years ....and I so regret that I no longer have it.  

Last but not the least, is the HiFi (High Fidelity) stereo sitting on the floor, records on the stack and floor.   Books, music, crayons....I couldn't give any of these up.  I went to our annual library book fair last year....and I couldn't resist ....

Just for "old times sake"....I'm going to curl up in a chair and read it soon.

Art & Wine!

Art Journal

Saturday Night Art & Wine

These two pages are my homage to the night I had last night....a night of painting and sipping wine at our local art center.  So much fun!  There were about 15 students in the class; some had painted before and some hadn't.  The subject we were painting was a bouquet of red tulips.  I chose to do just one of the tulips, as seen in the picture above.  Everybody did a great job and we had a wonderful instructor....how nice to have something like this going on literally 3 miles from my home!  Can't wait to do it again!

More....

Here's the actual painting....

(Sorry about the zebra in the photo....I'm too lazy to crop!)