A Beautiful Way to Spend a Sunday

Yesterday I went to a wonderful art gallery to watch artist Tom Nachreiner demonstrate his plein air oil painting techniques. If you look closely, the canvas he is painting on is

upside down.

Above is the photograph he is painting from. Tom says that starting the background of his paintings upside down allows him to not get bogged down with the details of the photograph and concentrate only on the basic shapes.

Here is his painting (still a work in progress) shown right side up.

Part of the art gallery is located in the woods, which creates a beautiful natural backdrop for some of the sculptures.

Creative Connection & Swap Reveal : Part Three

I am thrilled to be a guest blogger on The Creative Connection Blog today. Such a wonderful place to go for inspiration and to meet other creative bloggers. You can read my "In Your Own Words" post by clicking here. Take a peek and leave a comment on that post and tell me what you think.

Next up, I want to share with you the final installment of my Paris Edition Inspiration Box swap. The lovely box shown above is from sweet Becca. The entire box is covered with glitter, which really gives the box some sparkle and great texture. Take note of how she positioned the paper just right so that Ooh la la shows on the side of the box.

I just love the sweet little bird and pearls on top of the box.

As you can see Becca filled the box up completely to it's brim!

And look at how much was inside! With the exception of the roll of vintage sheet music, most everything else was inside the box.

Crepe paper, ball fringe, pink birdie, crepe paper, handmade stick pin, beads, creamy bouillon fringe. . . the list goes on and on!

Thank you SO much Becca - it was fun being your partner in Heather's swap

Art Saves!

Today (and all week) I am sharing my Art Saves story here as a Guest Curator for Jenny Doh's Crescendoh website. How exciting is that? The story I wrote is rather ironic since shortly after submitting it, I suddenly was thrust into a similar event that has become another huge test of my faith and all the beliefs I wrote about for Art Saves.

I am trying my best to apply what I learned 34 years ago to this new situation.

I've been journaling like crazy, completing several pages each day.

Some are still in the "work in progress" stage like the one pictured below.

And some are complete pages on mundane topics such as Sleep,

or doodling,

or a favorite flower.

But most of all it helps to keep busy and submerge yourself in something that you love. Something that will help to clear your mind and allow life's lessons and gifts to emerge, helping you to make some sense of all that is happening around you. In my case that "something" is art.

And for me, Art Saves!