Fresh Starts for the New Year

     Hi, I hope you all had wonderful New Year Celebration no matter how you decided to spend it. We prefer quiet ones at our house. Well , where does the time go ? I ask that question every year as time just flies by. I want to fully use the days the Lord has given me to create,  inspire and help you grow as artist as well.
      After Christmas celebrations I gave myself some quiet time to read and relax then got back to practicing, spending time in my studio cleaning and sketching. I threw out old stuff to make room for the new and looked through many old art books to get rejuvenated and inspired. . I practiced a lot. I know you are probably tired of hearing me say that but it is so important no matter your skill level. I have hundreds and hundreds of practices in the corner of my studio. They don't have to be big ,little ones count as well. I often take 1/2 sheet of watercolor paper and tape it off into four parts and start there. A wonderful place to start, the important thing is you are doing it and you will take off from there.
     When I practice I pick an artist and painting I like and copy  it and change it  and ask myself , How did they do that ?  How do I make those colors ? What brush should I use ?  I do it again and use what I learned from that exercise to paint my own painting from a photo or head outdoors .  I actually went out painting in the cold , wind and snow, something I want to do more of and you know what , I loved, loved, loved it !
      I also took a few little trips in the car and sketched in my sketchbook the scenes in my view with an ultra fine sharpie marker and a little watercolor kit. This has become a great way for me to practice looking at the world around me, enjoy some quiet time and a cup of tea or coffee. I hope I have inspired you to start your year off practicing and getting warmed up and getting all the iggly wiggles out and then ENJOY the painting process. I know you will see improvement in the coming months.   Enjoy this one and I would love to see some of your practices and  finished paintings , just send them via email .
   

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