What a question! I want to paint in the garden. I want to have breakfast and tea in the garden. I want to spend my days painting. I want time to just mix color, add a stroke here and a stroke there. If that doesn’t work cover it up with a brighter color. I came across a person who said don’t try. Many people say I’m going to try. Don’t try,just do it!
So I’ve got a roses book to paint. I have started a file. I’m adding new work to my shop. Borrowing the words from an awesome first grade class, I was born ready!
Do I know how to paint floral arrangements? I’ve just painted one. I’ve painted good sketches.
Children never fully say they’re artists. They always grin and say,” I like to paint!” I was doodling with my bag of markers. I felt the childhood days of coloring with a huge box of crayons. I didn’t care if I had skills. I wanted to use the colors. I’ve been thinking like this all day, always.
I have a lot of paint
Do I need to buy more paint? Maybe I need a cerulean blue. I’m always going to want more paint. But, I should use what I already have. I have tubes of pink, blue, yellow, and neutral tones. I can paint beautiful flowers with what I have. I remember when I went to the store to buy green. I have blue and yellow. I have turquoise and teal. I can mix beautiful greens! Color is part of my story.
I have professional grade and student grade paint
I was, cleaning and organized my paint: watercolor tubes, acrylic tubes, and acrylic fluid bottles. I’m a lover of color, not brands. I read that someplace, and I declare. I have favorites. Some of my favorites are professional grade. Many of my paints are student grade. Someone else said,” You can give an artist a box of crayons. They’ll be able to make awesome art.” Crayons are great. But you make the tools. The tools don’t make you.
I seem to prefer Windsor Newton Watercolors
The professional acrylics are creamy. Other artists will fall in love with Liquitex Heavy Body. I have my favorites. I have my doodles. I have my happy mistakes.
I haven’t used my violet iron to paint
The best way to learn is to paint. Paint with your supplies. Use what you have and make it work. I walked through the aisles of a Blick store and sporadically picked violet iron. I thought it was an interesting shade of brown. Tomorrow I’ll be color-mixing with violet iron.
It’s so much fun to doodle
I have tons of markers. I like to draw. I organized my markers and pens in a pencil pouch. I can easily grab them when my blooms need a little more life. When I don’t have time to paint, I can doodle. Let’s be real. The only time I don’t paint is when I’m sick. Basically, I paint every day. Oh, I should take them with me on the road! Lunchtime draw! When I go downtown!
Yes, these are the roses I’ve been painting. Do you see the hearts? I painted the background weeks ago but hearts are the right symbol to remind me to paint with heart. All I need to do is keep exploring. The ideas and the talent are already here. I don’t need permission, except my free will to continue self-expression.
My earliest memory is finger painting and making a mess! I’ve loved art every day of my life.
I still like to make a mess!
Here I am stamping with an eraser. It’s Corita Kent, James Victore, EttaVee, Shantell Martin…who opened my spirit to an art that has me understanding, this has always be me. I am an artist!
I’ve been going through all of my art and penciling in projects. Beginning next week I will start using these prompts to share my roses project. Is it next week?
One of my techniques is texture. I love the surprise of trying a random tool to see what happens. These are the ideas that satisfy my curiosity.
Stamping with a candle lid is one of the best texture ideas I’ve ever had. I don’t want to say best because there are many more textures to come.
The textures that come from stamping with a paper roll are random and beautiful. Oh, this makes me think of the ceramic pitcher at Anthropologie. I’ve got to work more with this kind of texture.
Creating writing paper by stamping with ribbon? What an idea!
Stamping with a facial sponge creates a rough vintage texture. It’s fun to do this and then paint over it.
This was absolutely random. I used a semi-dry flat brush. I love it!
There are many textures that I painted for paper collage purposes.
Oh and my favorite natural beginnings rooted in nature
Now that I’ve found fluorescent pink or fluorescent pink has found me, my pinks are brighter and bolder. I feel like I need to do the same in my writing and my work. I have a list of topics for my pink roses project. In fact, it’s going to be a book. There are more and more flowers in my wild thoughts paper flower collage project.
I just want to take this moment to say thank you for being a fan. Your comments, feedback, and subscription mean a lot. I love what I do and want to do more of it. In the next few days, I’ll be creating lists of my favorite projects, favorite supplies, and more on my word of 2023. Speaking of 2023, the Pantone Color of the Year is Viva Magenta. I’m going to do a lot with this color.
I wrote this post a week ago and somehow it stayed in draft. Finally here we are.
It’s the holiday season. We are about to begin winter. I can’t wait for spring. Last week I wrote about my obsession with roses. Have these lovely shades of pink always been there? Have they? I could be walking along in thought and suddenly I stop. Pink and peach roses catch my eye.
My next project should be pink roses? I could work on creating pink tones. Ettavee wrote this wonderful post on how to use fluorescent pink. I have been working on painting roses. I have! I am working on the layout and working on flower arrangements. Yes, I can use my art journal for this exploration. Pink Roses is a good book title? Ok there we have it. Pink Roses it is!
There is strength in letting go and painting. There’s pink, purple, blue, and a little sparkle. These colors are the creativity, faith, and play that should be in every painting session. I layered, splattered, painted and you know what, this is the best painting I’ve done in a long time. I say best because this is me, my ideas. Yes, my influences come from everywhere. But I’m not painting with outside forces. It’s just me. It’s the tools. Sure I’m holding the brush and gliding it along the page but the idea takes over. It isn’t about me. It’s the idea.
Kute Blackson had this amazing quote in one of his posts. Surrender your attachment to the outcome and get into the flow. Yes! That is what I did for this painting. I need to keep going.
Who would have thought that using scrap paper could create lovely texture? Morgan did and I thank her. I have a collection of objects but paper isn’t one of them. Using paper to create texture, is as much fun as stamping with a candle lid. You stamp, mix and blend. You don’t know what will happen until the paint dries. Oh, that reminds me, I want to paint more ornament flowers.
I can’t get over the texture and color. Art and nature always help me navigate through negative thoughts. Art satisfies my curiosity. To paint this flower I applied color. I did a few sprays with a water bottle. I added more color. I flickered drops of blue and green. I used the piece of paper to stamp over the wet paint. And I painted on thin mixed-media paper. The more I experiment the better my art gets.
Wait that’s not the brush I used to paint the brush strokes or stamp the stigmas but everything about these blooms is me. I stamped with the back of a paintbrush. I sporadically mixed a wonderful peach. And the warm yellow, it was great. Then, I wanted more pink. Let’s just say this wasn’t a happy mistake. I went through four sheets of good watercolor paper. I kept trying to recreate the peach tone. I kept trying to paint the strokes. It just wasn’t working. The more I tried the further I deviated from the freeness that allows me to paint.
So why is all of this me? This painting session was about what happens when I let go, when I let go of what should or could be and simply paint. Yes paint like the young spirits who in the moment, ooed and awed over randomly mixing tones of green. They painted like true artists. No one gave them permission. They just painted. That’s how I paint when I’m painting blooms. Some ideas work and others are filled with brilliant lessons.
Now that’s the me I want more of. Here’s to the peach flowers that led to this post. What a lesson! These pink blooms are me coming back to all that is me, the color, the texture, and peace. I’ve been painting lots of paper collage flowers. More on that tomorrow.
Thank you dears for subscribing. Every day there’s more of you.
Not sure about the title for my next book project but wildflowers are what I paint. Wildflowers are wild and free. On my daily walks, I see these blooms. There’s this lawn. In the spring it was covered with tall grass and random colorful flowers. The way my thoughts meet their color and breeze, as I write the freeness and wild dreams linger. You know when you go for a walk and you begin with a thought. With each step, you let go. With every breath, you dream, you imagine and live your artist dreams. Every bloom I paint has the essence of wild and free.
Everything in nature is wild and free. It’s beautiful. The Just Ask book expresses this wonderfuly. I’m an expressive artist who paints wildflowers. Flowers that are wild and free. With every bloom I paint, I am brighter, bolder, and free. The time is now to let go of all that no longer serves me. Oh, one of my favorite songs is Quiero Ser! Yes my about me page needs revision.
My new book project will be page after page of these collage blooms. Each fower filled with experiences, thoughts and it’ll be a self-love memoir. Maybe. In the meantime, I will keep creating these blooms.
Color. Nature. You.- Creatively Hue 