Tag Archives: mixed media

Sep3

Lazy Labor Day

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After finishing all the things I had planned for today, and taken a nap, I’m now dragging myself  back to the computer to find the blog post that disappeared.  I am still unable to locate it, and if it finds it’s way back to  it’s rightful place,  that’s a bonus.  I think the fault is with me!   We have a Mac computer, and it saves everything automatically.  I didn’t think (for the second time) about saving my post, and I lost it!  How long  will it take me to learn this lesson is anyones guess, but I’ll try!

This morning I was going on and on about the end of summer, and how as a kid I hated Labor Day, because school started the next day.  As I grew up, and had kids of my own, I loved Labor Day, the kids go back to school!  Now school starts at different times, in different places?  My grand kids have already returned, and we celebrate that event.  They love school, and welcome the start, and we love for them to start also!

The challenge for this week is each day, sketch, paint, collage, or otherwise create something from the yard.  Something that grows, or lives in your yard.  If you have time, at the end of the week, you will have five works that will help get you motivated to think about the following week.  Start slow, and small if you like, what matters is that you did it.  Don’t compare your work with anyone else’s, yours is from your journey!  Make it as easy on yourself as you can!  No point in aiming for something so complex that you are discouraged from creating regularly.  It’s easy to bottle up, and difficult to get creativity flowing again.

When you are finished, post on Facebook, or send your picture to me, (Karensamenow@me.com) and I’ll post it with your name on it, on this blog.

Have a great afternoon, relax, and enjoy the rest of Labor Day!

Aug31

Let’s Wrap It Up!

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It suddenly dawned on me that not only is it the last day of the week, but the last day of the month!  Just think of all that has happened this month; I’ve been sketching each day, I’ve shopped for  the grandkids school clothes, sat through the surgery for a broken arm on an eight year old, started a new blog, and much more I can’t even remember.  Each day I jump out of bed, get dressed and take an early morning walk with buy dog Daisy.  It has to be real early because of the heat and humidity.  Both of us drag home after forty minutes of walking the neiborhood, glad to be home, and throughly pooped!

This morning I kept thinking about how I really needed to get a new pair of running shoes.  The old ones are beginning to hurt my feet, and I am uncomfortable on our walk now!  Well, naturally once I started to think of running shoes, that quickly morphed into all kinds of shoes, and this became the theme for the day.  So, today the challenge is to sketch, paint, collage, mold, or maybe even decopague shoes!  Any kind of shoes, for anyone.  Let us all see what you come up with……  As I’m writing this, I’m realizing the little sketch I just finished could have been so much more!  So in coming up with the challenge for today, and working hard to suggest things that I think might trigger your creativity, I’m realizing how much more fun I could have dad with this shoe sketch.  I used Derwitt Ink Tense pencils for the color and really love them for traveling.  I guess I get lazy with mu morning sketches because they are to be easy to do and help spark creativity.

As I finish up the week and the month, I am reminded of the beautiful summer we have had so far.  I have complained a little of the heat, but when it turns cold, I complain about that also.  Ok, I admit I am totally a “Goldy Locks Girl!”  Monday through Friday is going to be the format for my posts.  We all need some down time, but occasionally I might add something, or post a sketch or painting just because!

Have a fabulous Labor Day weekend, I’ll be back on September 3rd with a new challenge, and sketch!

Aug29

Experimenting with Ideas

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Part of being an artist is experimentation.  We get ideas, usually at two or three AM, we try remembering what they were,  and then we try to duplicate the idea.  This can be a colossal failure, or can morph into something great!

This morning I wasn’t feeling particularly  sketchy, but I had some ideas I wanted to explore. This brought me to spraying rocks through rice paper.  NOT very successfully, I might add!  That turned into taking black paint and putting a design on them.  This idea I’m still working on.  Finally in desperation for some kind of creativity, I put bug stickers on them that were left over from an art day with my three year old grandson Nolan.  Even though it looks like a three year old worked on them, at least they are finished!

Feeling not particularly creatively satisfied with what I have just worked on, I decided to work on some greeting cards I needed for some friend’s upcoming  birthdays.  This was more gratifying, but this must be an off day because I feel so undeceive.  My artistic side is in hiding!  The cards are ok, but not fabulous as in the past.  This I attribute to not having gotten together with my artsie fartsie friends! (Artsie Fartsie – Technical Art Term)

It seems when we collaborate with our artist friends, when we share creative energy, and work through ideas we flourish as artists.  I belong to a couple of groups that meet once a month, but in between, I feel sometimes like I take a nose dive.  I hit the creative wall, and am unable to cultivate any ideas.  Even the ideas I thought were too good to be true two weeks ago I can’t seem to move on.  Is this a problem with all artists, or am I the only one that runs out of energy?  Is this the time that we are supposed to recharge our creative batteries, be gentle with ourselves, & lay in a hammock with an ice tea?

Today must be a day of reflection, and ideas, maybe a little construction of greeting cards, but most of all, a day to be lazy, lay in a hammock in the shade with a big glass of peach ice tea!