A Little Saturday Afternoon Doodling

 

I thought I'd share with y'all the most recent page from my sketchbook. Since Spring seems to be just around the corner, I've been on the look-out for the first signs that Mother Nature is ready to take off her Winter coat and send us some Spring warmth and flowers!...  so "Nature" was my inspiration word for this page.

Often I find that picking a topic or theme word for each sketchbook page helps me to avoid the "fear of the blank white page" that can happen when I'm starting something new. And really, the word that I pick can be anything! 

Looking back in my most recent sketchbook, I've used all kinds of themes to jump-start my drawing... everything from mermaids to space aliens to seasons and holidays. I've got pages about things that make me happy... and pages inspired by our family vacation. Any topic will do!... For me, having a theme is just an easy way to dive in and start doodling!

I think the beauty of keeping a sketchbook is that it provides me with a safe place to experiment. I'm free to explore any idea that I want to. No one is looking over my shoulder, telling me what to do and how to do it. No one will be putting a grade on my doodles. They are just for me... for my learning, for my growth as an artist, for my self expression, and for my fun! And much of the time, my sketchbook provides the inspiration for paintings I create or cards that I design. It's a black and white account of the progress I'm making as an artist, and it's a huge source of my own unique creative ideas.

Over the years I've filled up many many spiral notebooks with my silly drawings. I like to work on graph paper with a plain old mechanical pencil and a kneaded eraser. Nothing fancy, and super portable. I take my sketchbook with me when I go on trips, and I always have it at the ready right next to the chair in my art studio. 

How about you?... Do you keep a sketchbook? What works for you in capturing your creative ideas? I'd love to hear all about it!

Happy Birthday To Me!

 

My birthday was in February... and yes, I'm 39 again! *wink!* My sweet husband surprised me with a trip to the mountains for a weekend with our family! He couldn't have given me a gift that I would have enjoyed more! We rented a cute little cabin near my son's house so we could be with family during the day and retreat in the evening. LOTS of eating out and catching up with each other and playing with my granddaughter!... What could be better?!!

So, I thought I'd do a "Five Different Things You Probably Don't Know About Me" for my birthday post. Starting with...

1. I am definitely NOT a morning person! My husband has an "internal alarm clock" that gets him up early each morning... but that feature must have been overlooked when God put me together! It takes me a while to mellow into the day. I'm good to go about 10 AM.

2. My husband and I were high school sweethearts. I was 15 and he was 17 when we first met. After my Dad was transferred to a different state while I was still in high school, we had a very lengthy long distance relationship (I do not recommend this!). We finally got married after we'd both finished college.

3. I didn't grow up making art. When I was young, I always had an attraction to art and crafty things, but I never seriously pursued arty things until my late 20's and early 30's. In fact, it was only when my son was unhappy at preschool that I started to draw little pictures for him. I drew simple pictures on 3x5 cards to put in my son's lunch box for Lunch Bunch... and I was hooked! I've been doodling ever since!

4. For those of you who know Myers-Briggs, I'm an ISFJ... I'm introverted, so I'm quiet and a little shy. I take in information as a sensor through what I see and hear (I don't just KNOW something by intuition like my husband does). I'm a feeler, so I make decisions based on my feelings instead of by logic alone. And I'm a judger, so I like routine, organization and "everything in its' place." 

And finally... 

5. I'm a vegetarian... and I'm really not a very good (or enthusiastic) cook. Give me all the fresh fruit, salads and veggies. Throw in some yogurt, cheese and whole grain bagels and I'm a happy girl! And my favorite ice cream of all time is Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip... YUM!! 

Just a few words about the silly chicken card above... This is one of the cards I recently made for the Creative Kindness Foundation's "Cards For Kindness" program. This organization accepts handmade cards of all kinds and distributes them to people in hospitals, nursing homes, and people in crisis in order to spread encouragement and kindness. I like that a lot. 

I'm fairly new to card making, so I'm figuring it out as I go along. I enjoy mixed media, so most of the cards I've made so far are a combination of drawing, painting, collage, lettering and a little bit of sewing too. I'm having fun with this!... and I hope that the cards I create bring encouragement and hope to those who receive them!

If you'd be interested in Cards for Kindness, check out their website. They are always looking for more handmade cards!
 

Welcome To My Studio!

 

In the wintertime, my studio is my very favorite room in our house! The south facing windows allow the warm sun to shine in most of the day, giving the room an extra boost of cheerfulness! Being in my studio feels like a warm hug during the cold weather... It truly is my happy place!

Years ago, this room was a bedroom for our two little boys. After a major attic renovation to "This Old House" back in the 90's, we were able to bump our bedrooms upstairs and give each boy his own room. That left the downstairs front bedroom of our bungalow for my husband to create his own office. And happily, I "inherited"the back bedroom to be my studio. It's in a perfect location, just off our kitchen, so I can work on projects between loads of laundry or while I have a few minutes during dinner prep.

In many ways, my studio tells a story of acquisitions and repurposed pieces along my life's way. For instance, the drafting table was found in a used furniture warehouse near our neighborhood. My sweet husband bought it for me for my birthday one year. The lamps came out of our sons' rooms once they had flown the nest. The standing lamp holds handpainted ornaments I've created. The barrels you see once held candy that my father-in-law had delivered to our family farm. I put them to good use by turning them upside down to hold my paint water and brushes. The green and purple wreath is a Target find that I've had for years. The colorful basket on the desk is handmade from woven magazines and was a treasure I found in a cute little shop on our summer vacation at Ocacroke Island last year.

This is the corner of the room where I doodle and journal. My husband took me out to a consignment furniture store on my birthday one year, and we found the cute white wicker chair and wicker table next to it to hold my sketchbook, Bible, pens and journal. The stand up lamp behind the chair belonged to my grandmother and it holds a paper mache bird that I made (which my granddaughter loves!). On sunny days, our dog Jake (a Great Dane mix) likes to keep me company on the dog bed nearby. The chest was a thrift store find that I purchased just before my first son was born. We used it as a changing table back then, but now it's found a new lease on life holding various art supplies. On top of the chest stands the wooden manekin that my grandfather used in his studio long ago. If you squint really hard,you can see a little basket I made during my basket-making era, as well as a tiny canvas painting of flowers I created.

When I needed a place to store my paints, I searched and searched until I finally found these bamboo cubbies on Amazon. They were intended for kitchen storage, but they've been great for displaying and organizing all my paints in rainbow order. Seeing all those pretty colors everyday just makes me happy! And the top of the cubbies has been the perfect place to display my handpainted rocks. The stamped white clay piece was made by my youngest son when he was in elementary school. I've added a couple of "people" on each side of it that I painted on paper and then cut out. A big treat to myself a few years ago was the PholkartStudio sign that I ordered from Lori McDonough from WhimsyStudios on Etsy. I just love having a piece of her handpainted art in my studio! Last of all, there's a little black and white photo of me at the beach when I was about 4 years old. It helps me remember to let the little girl in me come out to play!

 

 

This is a little peak at a great big bookshelf that originally came from an elementary school in our town that had closed. It used to "live" in our living room, but several years ago, we did a giant clean out at our house, making this bookshelf available to come "live" in the studio and hold lots of my art supplies. It's nice to have a place in the studio to corral my supplies in an organized and colorful way!

This quirky angel was a roadside find from our neighborhood a few winters ago. When I rescued her, she was covered with snow. I know she's kinda odd looking, but I still like her! I think of her as my studio mascot! I use her as a place to hang my handpainted ornaments after I've created them.

And finally, the newest addition to my studio is this very purple Janome sewing machine! I just love it! I got mine from Joann Fabric, but the link I've left here is from the Janome site. It's a super simple machine to use, very easy on the wallet, without any bells and whistles... and it's exactly what I wanted! I have gotten interested in mixed media art and art journaling (more on that in another post)... and I really wanted to be able to sew on the papers I've been painting. My husband and I once again went hunting for a small used table that I could use to hold the sewing machine, but sadly we weren't able to find a suitable one within our budget. So I opted for this 31 inch wide table from Amazon (you can see it better in the first photo above), and it's working just fine. Now I can enjoy sitting at the window that overlooks my neighbor's garden and sew my little heart out!

I hope you've enjoyed this mini tour of my studio!.. Pulling all the things together to create my studio has been a work-in-progress and a labor of love over the years, and I think it's a very happy place indeed! 

I'd love to hear about where you create!... just leave me a comment! 

Happy Creating!!

2024... A Year Of Transitions

 

"An After Christmas Treat!"

Merry Week After Christmas!

Incredibly, it has been almost an entire YEAR since I last wrote in my blog! But I'm dusting it off at the beginning of 2025 in an effort to get back to what I truly enjoy... telling life stories and illustrating them with my silly art!

A very BIG change for me midway through 2024 was that I closed my Etsy shop. Much as I enjoyed feeling like I was part of a bigger handmade community as an Etsy seller, my art sales were low and the amount of work involved in running my shop was high. Designing, painting, photographing, scanning, listing... it all added up to a lot of mostly non-art time. I'm sure I could have been more successful sales-wise if I had been willing to post regularly on social media and if I'd pursued online community more diligently... but I honestly just didn't want to do that. I wanted to be spending my time making hands-on arts and crafts in real time rather than promoting what I made online. In some ways, closing my Etsy shop was a hard decision... I'd been an Etsy seller since Etsy's early days. But in other ways it was an easy decision to make. Being an Etsy seller just didn't feel life-giving to me anymore... and so it was time to move on.

2024 was also the year I turned 68 years old. This was a harder birthday for me than most. I started realizing anew that my time here is a lot shorter than it used to be... and I want to be making that time count for something meaningful and good. I want to be using my art skills to bless other people and bring them joy!

So, after taking some time to explore my options, I decided to pivot... and I'm happy to say that I'm now creating one of a kind mixed media cards that I donate to Creative Kindness' program called Cards For Kindness. This is one of several programs that Creative Kindness offers to"help people find happiness and healing through the creation and donation of handmade gifts." ...and it's just what I was looking for!

Over the next few months, I'm going to do a bit of housekeeping on my blog. There are things here that just don't apply anymore, and more things I'd like to include. So please bear with me as I do some dusting and reorganizing and tweeking (I just love that word!). 

Wishing you a cozy week after Christmas! I hope your days are filled with creativity and happiness!

Why I Don't Do Social Media Anymore

 

Social Media Icons from Rawpixel.com

 

 

I've been thinking about writing this blog post for a very long time. And I need to say from the get-go that I haven't deleted my Instagram account because I still I love to see photos of my granddaughter on there. But I don't post anywhere anymore... and here are my reasons why not. 

(Just a little warning here... This is gonna be loooong!)

Back before the 2020 election here in the US, I was using Facebook regularly and was involved with several art-related groups there. I really did enjoy the feeling of "hanging out" with other artists online. As an introvert, it was easier for me to find and make friends with other creatives online than it was for me to do that in real life. But at the time, I was also aware of the amount of time my Facebook involvement was taking from my creative life... and from my day-to-day life. And it just wasn't sitting well with me. Still, I stayed involved because honestly... FOMO! I was so used to having all the input all the time that it felt really hard to back away from it all. What if I was missing out? (Heaven forbid!) Plus, everybody else was doing it (and when has THAT ever been a good reason to keep doing something?).

Then came the pre-2020 election ramp up with all its divisiveness and unrest and argumentativeness. Facebook just didn't feel like a safe place to me anymore. It felt like a platform that encouraged hatefulness and schisms, both in the US and around the world. The anger there was palpable and it seemed to me there was no end in sight. The atmosphere there was anxiety producing for me. So, after much deliberation, I "abandoned ship" and deleted my Facebook account. It was a hard decision... and I experienced a sense of loss after doing that. But as time went on, I felt lighter and happier, freer and more alive. And I haven't looked back since then.

When I joined Instagram (sometime quite a bit after I joined Facebook), I carefully curated the people 

and businesses that I followed. I followed artists I admired and creative businesses that peaked my interest. I enjoyed posting about everyday things in my life, as well as art I was creating for my Etsy shop. I can't say that I was much of a marketer, but I did think (in the back of my mind) that Instagram was a way to "get my work out there" for other people to see. And that was OK for a while...

But eventually, I realized that I was very susceptible to comparing myself and what I created with what other artists posted on Instagram. Sometimes I was inspired by what I saw there... but other times I could feel an ugly competitiveness rising up within me, or the feeling of "I'll never be THAT good" that led to discouragement and inertia. And I also found myself feeling like I was scrolling, scrolling, scrolling my life away, rather than being rooted and grounded in my real life here and now.

So, a couple of years ago, I abruptly stopped posting on Instagram. No more show & tell, no more thinking, "That would be a good Instagram post." I still lurked (though less and less over time)... and I found that I was relieved not to feel the pressure to post or learn how to make reels or keep up with the latest Instagram algorithm or the newest platform changes. I felt more focused and centered and engaged with what's going on in my one and only life.

 

Today, I still enjoy seeing all the cute things my granddaughter is doing on Instagram. It's a way I can keep up with her as a long distance grandma. And truthfully, I still struggle with scrolling... though I try to be aware of it and cut myself short when I realize what I'm doing. It's addictive and I'm certainly susceptible to the mindlessness. 

All this is to say... This has been my experience with social media. And these are the conclusions and the actions I have taken. I am certainly not condemning other people who choose differently than I have chosen. We all need to make our own decisions... and I am comfortable with the place I have landed regarding social media in this ever-increasing online world that we live in.

 

My Favorite Paintings of 2023

Before we get too far into the New Year, I thought I'd share my most favorite paintings from 2023!... kinda like Instagram's "Top Nine" without the Instagram! *wink!*

Looking at all these paintings together, it's hard to miss that I'm a lover of primary colors! I'm also a bit of a minimalist when it comes to my designs, and that's OK with me. Over the past year, I did a lot of experimenting with texture in my backgrounds... mark making and using words & lettering. I'm pretty happy with the results and can't wait to find more fun ways of making my paintings playful & creative in 2024!

Wishing you lots of JOY in your creating in the coming year!

BTW... I used the free Collage feature at BeFunky to create the photo collage above... Easy Peasy! Their free tools are limited, but they do have an upgraded version with lots of options.

Santa's Gonna Be A Little Late This Year...

 

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. In our 44 years of marriage, my husband Joe & I have always been able to celebrate Christmas with some branch of our family on December 25th. We've packed the boys up in their jammies in the middle of the night and driven to New Jersey to have Christmas with my parents and siblings... We've  gone over the river and through the woods to the Moore family farm in Virginia to celebrate with Joe's kin... We've had Christmas at our house with excited little boys who got up waaaay too early in the morning to open presents... and we've had Christmas in the mountains of North Carolina with our now grown sons and their families (including our brand new grandbaby!).

But sometime mid-November, Joe & I got out our calendars and realized that for Christmas 2023, we'd be home alone for the very first time.

It turned out that this is my oldest son & his family's year to head south to Florida for Christmas with my daughter-in-laws' family... and my youngest son and his partner had made plans to celebrate Christmas day with her Mom & Dad in Eastern North Carolina.

OK, no problem. We just needed to set expectations and come up with a fun Plan B for Christmas day. We thought about going for a hike with our dog Jake, or volunteering at the local homeless shelter. We had all kinds of options that might be possibilities...

...and then I came down with a doozy of a case of bronchitis & walking pneumonia. *cough cough*

So now we're on to Plan C, which includes staying home from Christmas Eve service at our church, snuggling up on the couch and watching football & movies together, drinking more French Vanilla tea with honey than I ever imagined I could, and waiting for the antibiotics and steroids to kick in. While I wait, I've been having fun creating some Christmas doodles in my sketchbook, reading a fun mystery series, and crocheting hats for little noggins for World Vision. Oh, and eating too many Christmas cookies that my husband baked!

Plan C also includes bumping our Christmas celebration to the following weekend when we'll be opening presents with my youngest son and his family.

Not the Christmas we had planned, but I'm oh so grateful for an understanding husband, wise doctors, improving health and the unexpectedly restful pre-Christmas season we've been given.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!

A Prayer For Peace

Every year when my family exchanges wish lists for Christmas gifts, on the top of my list is always World Peace. This year I long for that peace even more as two wars are being fought at the same time here on Earth. 

As we approach the Christmas season of "Peace On Earth and Good Will To Men," my heartfelt prayer is that forgiveness and mercy would triumph over hatred, that love and goodwill would abound, that families and loved ones could gather in peace in homes that are safe and without fear. Let us all seek to be healers and peace makers. Let us seek justice for those who are oppressed. Let us love and care for the poor among us. Let us discover the humanity that we all have in common and give each other grace. We were made by God's great love and creativity for His love, joy and peace. We were made for relationship with our loving Father who loves us more than we could ever imagine. Let us seek to love Him more and more each day by fixing our eyes on Jesus and walking close to Him, courageously caring for the people He made and loves. Let us seek to be Jesus' hands and heart to a broken and hurting world.

Let it be so!... Amen.

Happy (Almost) Halloween!

October has always been my favorite month of the year with its bright blue skies, crisp-y air, and all the glorious colors of the changing leaves! Our neighborhood is decorated with the reds, oranges and yellows of the Autumn season, and I'm loving it!

 'Most every year, we fill our big treat basket to overflowing with sweet goodies for the Trick-Or-Treaters and enjoy the parade of princesses and pirates, ghosts and ghouls, robots, dragons, monsters and more who come to our house looking for a treat. We even have quite a few grown-ups who dress up with their kids and make the rounds!

This year will be a first for us though, as we head up to the mountains to take care of our little pumpkin of a granddaughter over the Halloween weekend. Can't wait to spend some Mimi and Opa time with our happy, busy, music-loving, dog-snuggling little munchkin!

No matter what your family will be doing this Halloween... whether scaring up treats in the neighborhood or hosting a crowd of Trick-Or-Treaters at your house... or like us, doing something entirely new for the very first time, I hope you have a happy & safe Halloween!

Happy Halloween Friends!!

Summer Experiments... My First Abstract Paintings

"Summer Splash"

I've been playing around with a little bit of abstract art this summer... and I think I might have a brand new art love!

It all started when I found Australian intuitive artist Deb McNaughton over on Instagram. Deb uses acrylic paints in bright happy colors to create her signature whimsical abstract designs. It looked like so much fun that I decided to give it a go too!

"Crazy Quilt"

For both of the paintings above, I started with a 4x4 inch canvas panel. I decided to limit my color palette to two or three colors plus white.

To begin each painting, I randomly added shapes of color in acrylic paint to the canvas. Once the canvases were dry, I went back and added a variety of mark making, also with acrylic paint. Mark making can be done with all sorts of media (like Posca pens and oil pastels)... but I decided to stay in my comfort zone this time and use my trusty brushes and acrylic paint!

I had lots of fun creating these paintings, just following my intuition while adding color, instead of planning out my designs ahead of time. I enjoyed the freedom of playing with color and putting down paint. These paintings are only my first attempts at abstract art, so I know I've got a bunch to learn!... but I'm certain they won't be the last!

Thanks so much for the inspiration Deb!!

Deb McNaughton