
Feb13
Almost Valentines Day



“Each Day a Gift!”

Today is a beautiful day for art! Even if it’s raining, or cold and icy, it is always a beautiful day to paint!
I ‘ve been dabbling a little in art, and I’m starting to get re-inspired once again. Unfortunately, I have dry spells. As I’ve been trying to figure out why I’m having a dry spell, this is the obvious, and what I’ve come to realize is the demise of my creativity.
It has been a while since I’ve taken any trips or visited a museum. With winter, and cold wet weather, come hibernation. I guess I’m not only a Goldie Locks Girl, but I tend to hibernate like a bear the minute we have a time change, it starts getting dark early, and winter sets in for real. This is not beneficial to any artist, but particularly not to me.
We all need creative energy, and although it has been the topic of many conversations, where do we get that creativity? I tend to hunker down at home the minute it gets dark, and in all fairness by the afternoon I get tired and run out of energy. At that point, vegging out seems the best option. If I cook, it needs to be started early so I haven’t any choice but to finish for dinner. If I paint, that too needs to stop by around three in the afternoon. Three seems to be the vegging hour for me. I can get quit a lot finished between the hours of nine in the morning and three in the afternoon.
My husband Les and I have been talking about vacations this year, and one of the places I love going to is Yosemite National Park. There is something about connecting with nature in a forest of huge ancient trees that washes away all the stress and dirt from the big city. Walking amongst the trees, listening to wildlife, finding little treasures like leaves that inspire, or a branch that has fallen, walking in the streams, and visiting a meadow with deer grazing is what I need to replenish my creative energy. There are other things also that help with creativity, like a gallery or museum, heck it all helps. But, hunkering down in a heated hark house away from people, and places doesn’t do it!

My blogging has been sporadic lately, and not what I had anticipated, but I’ve been blogging now for three plus years, and even if I’m on vacation, my blog has gone out five days a week. I don’t want to give up my blog, nor do I want to give up creating. Not surprisingly, I want to paint, and cut back on my blog for now.
I’m still here, I’m just busy creating a masterpiece! As a friend once told me, it’s never going to hang in La Louvre! I laugh because years ago I was in sales, traveling sales one might say. Each day of the week I had a large handful of clients to visit, and supply them with product for their hair salons. What I haven’t told you is that I was driving a truck stocked with all kinds of products that the clients used on a daily basis. Isn’t life a journey?
I loved being able to be on the side lines of the beauty business, and will always miss the people, the smell of the products, and the exhaustion of the tight schedule that took me all over San Diego, and into Temecula in Riverside County. This story I tell you because creativity comes from everywhere, and manifests in many ways. I didn’t have time or energy in those days to paint, but I was creative in the way I helped the cosmetologists, and store owners.

I leave you today with the idea that we all need to go places, and do things that will inspire us, and fill us up with creativity. Even a walk maybe on the beach to breathe in clean fresh air is a big part of energizing. A hike in the mountains, down a path, or in a meadow. Where ever it is, I wish you much happiness, and creativity on your own journeys.
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday, and a safe, happy New Year Celebration.
I much appreciate being able to take a little break from blogging the month of December, and focus on family, and making Christmas perfect for our kiddos. Now I feel revitalized and ready to get back to painting, blogging, and just plain having fun!
Today I thought this video from YouTube would be a great start to the new year. Ginger Cook is doing this one, and I really like the way she takes it step by step. She describes her process in a way that beginners, and seasoned painters alike can find helpful methods for using color, texture, and dimension alike to explain her process.
It is my hope that everyone will find something they can use in this demo.
It’s good to be back, and look forward to another wonderful year of Stone Soup!

Saturday I spent the day with my two grandchildren, Connor and Sage. Just before lunch I got hit with the big question!
“Your staying to help us carve pumpkins aren’t you grandma?”
There it was…the big question….the pumpkins!

Sage Carving pumpkin
All I could think of was how strange it was that my daughter asked if I was spending the Saturday with the kids. Pumpkins are not my favorite things to carve. Oh sure, I like some of the candy, but not the dirty work.

Connor working on his pumpkin
Once I thought about it, I realized that both my daughter, and son-in-law were working all day, and I’d bet money they were both tired. The last thing they would want to do is carve pumpkins, so I sucked it up, and carved pumpkins with the kids. Later the next day my daughter called to thank me for taking care of the carving. She said they were both so tired, and it really helped to see them finished. (Kudos for Gramcracker)



Sage’s pumpkin all lit up!

Connors dragon lit up

Well we have one Scary Guy, and one Magic Unicorn….
Remember we always sort through all the candy just to make sure there isn’t anything dangerous in the bag. AND… it’s our duty to check to make sure there isn’t anything too rich. Sometimes that means questionable things need to be removed. Things like Snickers Bars, Hershey Mini Bars, that candy is way to rich for the kids to eat. If there is, it’s our duty to remove the candy and eat it to make sure it is OK. This is a sacrifice we parents make for our children… Remember if you ever feel guilty about the removal of sugar foods from the bags, if your children were to eat all that rich candy, they would be bouncing off the walls, and you would be a very unhappy parent. So it’s for their own good. They will never understand this until whey have children of their own. Never feel guilty!
Someday they too will have to sacrifice themselves to protect their own children.
I’ve been doing this for years, and fortunately there is never anything bad in the candy bags.
I ran across this video, and thought it perfect for my blog. One could say it is the beginning in an abstract course. That’s true in a way, but it’s much more than that. I think abstract painting need only be as complicated as you want it to be. Most of us over think, I know that’s my problem.
For me, if you start simple, the painting will take its own turns, and twists that are never expected. That is what Rita Siemienski claims. She lets the painting take the turns it wants, and runs with it. My favorite kind of art!
I think this is a great video because it’s simple, it allows the viewer to slip into their abstract art in a much more relaxed, and stress free way. Again, that’s my kind of art!
A gentle reminder of how easy abstract can be, and how to get out of our own way!
Gentle reminders never hurt, after all isn’t that what we artists do……share energy, ideas, and helpful advise?
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