Resolutions and Goals

This picture is one Mother Nature painted on my kitchen window.
Yes, it's frost.


 I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday season you celebrate.  I certainly did.

I got a very interesting gift this year. It's called a Buddha Board.  I had never heard of one of these before, but it is a flat panel that you paint on with plain water. The picture vanishes as it dries.  It's a fascinating thing, as sometimes, while it's drying, the wet bits suggest a different picture, and then you can connect the dots and come up with a new painting you had not originally planned on.  And as that one dries, it can happen again.  You have to work quickly as there really isn't any time to stop and think. It's really freeing, and already I'm learning that art does not have to be perfect to be interesting.  This may take me in entirely new directions.

The new year is fast approaching and some people like to make New Years Resolutions.  I used to do that, but usually, after getting off to a great start, the whole idea would just fade away. Last year, I thought of my resolution as more of a goal.  I had decided I wanted to advance my art.  I have succeeded in that.

First I started an art journal, where I could try out things, without worrying about how they turned out.  Nobody ever had to see what I'd done in there.  Amazingly, I've dug it out and shown all kinds of people various attempts throughout the year.  I tried a few different mediums, some with texture, some without. I saw progress as the book went on, and I have now bought a new one for next year. 

Then I started gathering with a couple of friends once a week. This was a good move as it forced us to have something new to show and discuss. None of us are the sort that would ever just say, "That's lovely."  While we do encourage each other, we all know we want to hear the truth, so nobody ever hesitates to make constructive suggestions.  We all appreciate that, and move forward in the directions we have been pointed in.

Recently I was in my first art show as a painter (I've been in several as a photographer before).  While I didn't have as much confidence this time, the hardest part was figuring out the pricing.  I had a great time at the show though, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.  I even made a couple of new artist type friends that day.  One of them, Jayne Couch,  has since shown me a much better way to draw faces, and I truly appreciate that.  That may also take me in some new directions as time goes on.




Finally, over the past week, I got a phone call  from someone in BC who saw a photo taken on the day of the art show. She was all excited about my hibiscus my paintings and wants to buy it.  The deal has been struck and now I just have to get it shipped out to her.  I've had two other artists suggest I take my painting right to the UPS store, and have them package it up for me there.  As I don't have a clue how to do it properly, I will be following that advise.

So, now that I've succeeded in following that goal this past year, I think I will work a little harder at it this year.  I have a perfectly good spot designated to work on my art. The original idea was to be able to attack it anytime, without having to set up first. Over time that area has accumulated piles of stuff, both art related and not, and it is anything but a workable space at the moment.  I'll fix that, even if I have to reorganize a couple of rooms, to get the everything into a more logical and permanent spot. Then I'll try to divert some of my wasted computer time into doing something a bit more creative. That may be necessary anyway as the paint class I have been attending the past couple of years may be folding for the time being.  I have a couple of paintings underway at the moment, and several more in my head so I'll have to set aside some time to work on them at home.  Hopefully that will become more of a habit once I get my space cleaned up.

I want to put some of my paintings on an online shop this year too. Oh, I know that was one of my resolutions last year. At least I have a couple of places picked out, and will decide soon, which to pursue first. I think I know, but need to read all the fine print first. 

And on the blog, I think I may attempt something a bit new here too. I get lots of free things, and I'm thinking of adding Freebie Friday to tell you about those things.  I'll tell you what came in the mail through the week, and do a bit of a review on some of it.  We'll see how that goes. 

So, my usual New Years Resolution is to lose the Christmas weight gain, as always. With a few new art related goals in mind, I have more hope of moving forward in the coming year, just as I did in the past one.  I'd love to hear what you have planned for your coming year too.  Please share.

The Art of Progression

I seem to be a bit more serious about my art this year. Instead of working on it for a couple of hours once a week, I'm doing something at least 3 times a week now...sometimes more.  I have some good newsletters, and bloggers to follow, and I discovered a site that inspires me to try new things.

Though I have been attending art classes for a number of years, I wasn't progressing very fast. I guess I don't have any natural talent, but I do enjoy playing with the paint so I just keep going.  Last year a couple of things happened. First a friend asked me to bring some of my stuff to a church hall where it would be displayed along with hers over the winter months. Then I was asked to sit and paint in a garden that was part of a tour.  I don't know where I found the nerve, but I did it, and greatly enjoyed the experience.  The resulting paintings  were among the best I'd ever produced to that point, so that boosted my confidence. 

More than one of the blogs I follow mentioned art journals, so I went and bought myself a multimedia journal, and have been enjoying having that space where I can create and experiment without fear of failure. Sometimes I can't seem to leave that little book alone!

This year I found the Art House Co Op online and took part in a couple of their projects. First I did the 4x6 exchange project. We were instructed to create a piece of art just 4x6 inches in size, and mail it, along with a self addressed stamped envelope to the Art House Co Op by a certain deadline. They sent the artwork on to someone else who participated.  I created  a painting of a local church, and got back a card with a little motorcycle riding along a thin red line.  Another friend got back a truly beautiful card with a leaf pattern on it.

The second, and most recent project I got involved in was called Mystery Project. Everyone who signed up was sent a Prismacolor Pen and an little card with a theme on it.  The idea was to create something with whatever colour arrived to match the theme presented.  I got a Red Prismacolor pen, which has a thin nib at one end and a truly thick one at the other.  My theme was The Future of the Year.  Well, that instantly made me think of two things. The first was about being In the Red, and the other was more to do with fire. We are told there will be some major sunspots later this year and the long range weather forecast also tells us we will have hotter and dryer conditions than usual.  Either way, there will be flares or flames.  I decided to go with that one. 

The second part of that project was to leave it anonymously, in a public place, for someone else to find. I've just left it in the perfect spot. I can't tell you where  it is though I did leave mention of the Art House Co Op Mystery Project on it so the finder might be able to look that up and discover what it's all about. 

It was a fun project and I do hope they offer some more of these little creativity kick starters real soon.  Right now they are busy with the annual Sketchbook Project. I'm not involved in that , but am actually thinking about it for next year. I think that would be another major step forward.

Year One.... A Summary

I had a well established blog about my geocaching adventures but I came to the conclusion that sometimes I wanted to tell you about other places I go, or things I felt like talking about, so a year ago I decided to start this new blog. I have tried to tie the two of them together, but never succeeded.  Now that this new one has a good following, I'm thinking I might just put the future geocaching adventures in here too.

Blogging has been quite an experience for me. This is my 77th entry in this new one, and I've published 82 comments so far.  The most popular post so far was called Nothing Natural About Art.  I was in an online webinar by Johannes Vloothuis with at least a thousand other students at the time.  I happened to mention the blog post in one of the forums about that at the time, and so it's not surprising that so many people decided to check it out.  The second most popular post was Girls Just Want To Have Fun, and that's not too surprising either. It was about Red Hatters and Elvis Impersonators, so I'm sure it popped up well on the search engines.  The third most popular post is my own personal favourite. It's called In Case You Didn't Know .  I just felt the need to explain why it is that I am always offering so much unnecessary, and likely unwanted, information and advice.  The next three most popular posts all have to do with food.  They are either about  testing Chatelaine recipes, or about the 17 Day Diet. 

Statistics show that I not only have a following across all of North America, but also in Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom and even Singapore.  Others have dropped in from Sweden, Iran, Hungary and South Korea, among other places. I can't help wonder what it was I said that drew people from such far away locations to my page, but I do hope they continue to drop by.

Most of the comments I get are from people I have never met, and I love that they take a moment from their lives to let me know what they think. I often click on their link, if they have one, and follow it back to their own blogs and leave a comment there too. 

Because of that, this year, through blogging, I have enjoyed watching one family adopt 3 little girls, to add to the 4 children they already have, and then try to get to a point where life could continue in some sort of normal fashion. I really enjoyed stories another mother writes about her "twinnies" and younger daughter....and sometimes her hubby who, like many men, is often just one of the kids anyway.  I have followed several art related blogs, where I learn all kinds of interesting ideas and techniques.  I have recently become more interested in multimedia and art journals, and always enjoy stopping to watch the videos by Donna Downey, where I learn not to be afraid to just try something different.  There's no telling where it, or blogging, will take me.

I actually feel like I've made a few new online friends this past year, and I even got a lovely homemade Christmas card from one of them.  So, please, if you're reading this, feel free to comment at any point.  I'd love to hear what you think.