While on my holiday break I enjoyed working on inchies for my art journal stash. I love taking these on trips because everything fits inside a small ziploc bag. All you need to bring are the tiles and 2-3 different sized Sakura Micron pens.
I do a little prep work before the trip like cutting the watercolor paper into varying sizes. Then I’ll splash paint on a handful of tiles while leaving the rest plain. That’s it! When you have a little spare time, you can create some really interesting and fun pieces of art. There’s no mess and it all easily fits into your purse or bag. I love bringing minimal supplies and creating on trips because it helps to keep the creativity flowing😊 Plus this would also be a great idea for kids to use their creativity on trips!
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“A true artist is not one who is inspired but one who inspires others.” ~Salvador Dali
I needed a change of pace so I went to my art journals. I got carried away with this one and went crazy with color. The paint was flying in the studio as the colors exploded off the pages. I think I had more paint on me than in my journal😂
I added some wording to each page and it was just really good medicine, exactly what I needed. That’s the beauty of journaling, it doesn’t need to be neat or pretty. It can be a total explosion of color. It can be anything you want it to be!
So if you find you have some time over the holidays, take a much needed break and just have some fun. You’ll be less stressed and much happier for it!!
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“Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.” ~Paul Gauguin
With Thanksgiving only a week away most of us will be indulging in all the delicious holiday delights. Sadly, our waistlines will be bulging as a result 😂 But have no fear, I have a few tips to help get you through the holidays. What you want to do is limit your calorie intake the week before Thanksgiving so when you go over on that one day, it’s not detrimental to your waistline and you won’t miss out on any of the delectable food. So here are the tips:
Plan your meals for this coming week. Eat clean and lean. Load up on salads, veggies, juices and all things healthy. You can do it! It’s only for a few days😅
Eat well portioned meals and don’t over eat.
Avoid refined sugars like desserts and candies. There’ll be plenty on Thanksgiving!
Steer away from carbs like breads, potatoes and pastas.
Add more fiber to your diet so you’ll feel satisfied and full.
Schedule workouts to burn some extra calories and keep your stress levels to a minimum.
Drink plenty of water.
Planning is key to losing or maintaining your weight. After your grand Thanksgiving meal, go for a nice walk and enjoy the great outdoors. It will make you feel good and help burn some calories so you’ll have room for pie!
If you do put on a little weight, follow these tips for the week after to help bring you back down. Stressing over what to eat and not to eat doesn’t make the holiday enjoyable. So eat in moderation and savor every bite. Then get yourself back on track!!
Hope this helps get you through the holidays, thanks for stopping by!!
Music has a way of calming the mind and soothing the soul. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. He became a world wide sensation influencing musicians with his bold trumpet style and unique vocals at the beginning of his career in the 1920’s.
Louis had a charismatic stage presence and was highly respected by musicians from all types of music and not just jazz. He recorded many popular songs throughout his 50 year career including “Hello Dolly, La Vie En Rose, Star Dust” and my personal favorite “What a Wonderful World.”
I created this watercolor mixed media artwork as a tribute to Louis Armstrong and his beautiful, moving song. You can see the lyrics to “What a Wonderful World” in the background of this piece which he recorded in 1967. This recording was different from his others because it did not feature trumpet. It became a #1 Hit around the world including in England and South Africa but wasn’t really promoted here in the US. However, it was used in Robin Williams film, “Good Morning, Vietnam” and as a result became one of Louis Armstrong’s most-beloved songs.
The lyrics are quite beautiful and moving:
Louis stopped performing in 1969 due to health issues and passed away in his sleep July 6, 1971, at his home in Queens, New York. He was a phenomenal bandleader, jazz trumpeter and singer. I love listening to his songs especially “What a Wonderful World” which can be found on YouTube, just click the live link and it will take you right to it. He saw beauty in the simplest things and that’s what I love most about this song; I find it so comforting. Do you have a favorite Louis Armstrong song?
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I thought I’d share with you a fun art journal layout I made a while ago. I love the fall colors in this one and cupcakes are always fun!
It was a pretty simply layout that I started with collaged pieces of printed tissue paper by Tim Holtz for the background. I lightly painted over them with pink and orange acrylic paint making sure you could still the collaged papers peeking through.
I have a large cupcake stamp that I used to create the stacked cupcakes. I added a few designs to the background using white acrylic paint and then printed the quote from my computer and added it to the page:
“The more you thank life, the more life gives you to be thankful for!”
It’s fun to see where your art ends up because when I made this I started with my cupcake stamp and it grew into a stack. There wasn’t a lot of planning involved but rather going with the flow. So when you’re journaling and leery of the blank page, just start even if you only add a few scribbles. The important thing is to start and let your creative muse take over and have fun!!
Hope this inspires you to create today, thanks for stopping by!!
Just wanted to show you how easy journaling can be. I made these fun doodles in my Strathmore 5.5″ x 8″ Mixed Media Journal using nothing more than a ball point pen.
Most of you know I’m a bit of a color nut, so I prep pages in advance with splashes of watercolor paint and let them dry. Normally I’ll prep a handful of pages at a time so I have them ready to go.
Then when I’m on a trip or waiting for an appointment I just pull out my small journal and pen from my bag and let the fun begin. It’s easy, relaxing and calms the mind plus the supplies are minimal. Journaling doesn’t have to be complicated to make it enjoyable. Simple art is extremely fun and satisfying to create.
There are a lot of holiday sales coming up so make sure to buy a small journal and create some art!
Claude Monet was a famous impressionist artist who was born in Paris, France November 14, 1840. As a young child he loved to draw and would make money creating drawings of people that were quite good. His mother supported his interests in becoming an artist but his father felt he would do better to stay in the family business as a grocer. Luckily for all of us, he chose to pursue his passion in art.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1867 – 1886), Impressionism art was born in France. It was a major movement of that time. Impressionism is a style of painting that attempts to portray visual reality with transient effects of color and light.
Claude Monet became known as one of the principal painters of this style. It is his work that inspired me to try impressionism painting which I love. It was much harder than I had anticipated and as a result gave me a greater respect for the amount of work that goes into creating one of these paintings.
Claude Monet, Frederic Bazille, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley along with other well known artists would work together and influence each other’s art especially during exhibits. But it was Edouard Manet, an established artist who greatly influenced Monet’s work in the 1860’s.
The painting above titled “Woman with a Parasol” was painted by Monet in 1875. It’s an oil painting on a 39.4 x 31.9 inch canvas (100 x 81 cm). This painting belongs to a series that Monet created during the summers of 1875 and 1876. His wife Camille and his son, Jean served as his models for this painting which were set in the gardens surrounding his 2nd home in Argenteuil, located in the suburbs of Paris.
At the age of 85, Claude Monet passed away on December 5, 1926 in Giverny, France. He left us a legacy of stunning art that is admired and inspires us today.
Hope you enjoyed this art history post, thanks for stopping by!!
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“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.” ~Claude Monet
Did you know, art in any form has a monumental affect on your brain? Having art in your home is as important as having a bed. Studies have shown that when looking at art it can trigger a surge of dopamine which affects your mood. Depending on what you’re specifically looking at you can feel love, calmness, relaxation, joy and happiness to name a few.
Bare walls can be make you feel sad, depressed and even lonely. But having art in some form in your home whether a photo, print, painting, sculpture or anything else you can think of can completely change the mood of a room. Looking at artwork can reduce stress levels, increase awareness, boost creativity, improve problem solving skills and much more. Plus it can be a great investment too!
Express yourself with different forms of art throughout your home. You can use it as a color palette for decorating your home or strategically place it in a room as a conversation piece. You can also add artwork to a room to create a feeling of warmth and serenity.
Whatever your style is, collect art to evoke happiness and well being throughout your home! It will most certainly have a positive impact on your life!
Have you ever been in a situation where the other person upsets you with harsh words or failed to see your point of view? I think most of us have experienced something similar in one way or another.
Don Miguel Ruiz has written several books and in “The Fifth Agreement,” he makes an excellent analogy using movie theaters. The gist of it was that you go into a movie theater that’s showing a movie about your life. You recognize everyone in the scene and remember it playing out exactly that way because this was from your point of view.
After a few minutes you go to the next theater and the same movie is playing. However, this movie is different than the last because this is your mother’s point of view. You see yourself differently because this is how she perceives you to be. You also notice your mother’s character is quite different from your movie because this is based on her story and how she feels about herself and perceives everyone and everything around her.
You go from theater to theater and the story keeps changing as the main characters and points of view change. What you need to remember is that each person you engage with in your life will have their full attention on themselves and what they create and believe to be true in their minds. Once you understand everyone has a completely different point of view it will change how you view the world around you. And when someone uses harsh words or does something that upsets you, understand that what they’re projecting onto you isn’t about you, it’s about themselves and what they perceive to be real. Dealing with conflicts from this point of view will be much easier but it will take lots of practice.
Lots of food for thought in this post but I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by!!
Flowing Waters Art 