Let’s Move!

Paintings #72 - #78 of 100 in 100 Challenge

I have been thinking about this month’s theme of Move for the Creative Every Day challenge and, as usual, Leah has provided some excellent examples and ideas to inspire us to incorporate this theme into our creative activities this month.  I’d love to be able to get up and dance and move my body to help move the creative flow in new and exciting ways.  I do have some difficulty with that at the moment because of the arthritis in my hip and other joints. 

Today I read about another artist that Leah interviewed and shared with us – Cynthia Winton-Henry of Interplay who, among other things, suggested something called “hand dancing” that I could utilize even with my aching hip.  That was fascinating and I generally love the idea of getting more into moving my body to get me out of my “head”.  I know first hand that this helps inspire my creativity so much.

I also have realized that I am moving forward in my artwork in general, especially since I have been creating nearly every day in one form or another.  When I think back even a couple of months ago, I can see real movement in my paintings and writing as well.  I am generally hard on myself, though, and expect so much of myself. 

I so much want to be contributing in some major way to others, through my painting or writing.  It’s difficult sometimes for me to see if I am moving in the right direction with this as I have so infrequently made any sales of my artwork.  This is the only “objective” measure I have of whether my art has had any impact on others.  Sure, I can imagine that it still has even if it hasn’t resulted in a sale of my work.  However, I do struggle with believing that at times.  Can anyone relate to that?

Well, the other part of this post is to share more of my work on my “project”, and once again, I will show you only small details of the work.  I am getting so close to finishing it!  Here they are:

Watercolor Painting # 72 Detail

 Watercolor Painting # 73 Detail

Watercolor Painting # 74 Detail

 Watercolor Painting # 75 Detail

 Watercolor Painting # 76 Detail

 Watercolor Painting # 77 Detail

 Watercolor Painting # 78 Detail

As you can see, I AM moving ahead!!!  Any comments?  I welcome them. Thanks.

Creatively Yours In Spirit,

Arlene

Technorati Tags: 100 in 100 Challenge,Creative Every Day,other artists,paintings,watercolor painting,spirit essence art,move,movement

Watercolor Details and Acrylic Painting

Paintings # 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, and 71 of 100 in 100

Sorry to overwhelm you with so many pictures at once.  I am just doing my best to catch up to where I should be.  I think I am actually on target with painting, just haven’t posted them all yet.  I have more than these, but I am going to post them the next time.

Again, all but the last one (# 71 – Two Worlds) are just a small detail of the big project I have been working on.  To complete this project, I have aimed at 25 different watercolor images, and am at the point now where I am redoing some of my earlier paintings to match up with the “look” of my later ones.  Soon, all will be revealed, I promise!

So here are today’s images:

       Painting # 66 Detail                   Painting # 67 Detail

       Painting # 68 Detail                   Painting # 69 Detail

  Painting # 70 Detail

One more abstract painting I did just to have fun and to play a little with some new acrylic paints I got for myself.

Painting # 71 – Two Worlds In the Flow

This one I had fun with and just played with colors and lines, and when I finished, it looked to me like two planets or “worlds” in a current of some kind. 

So, that’s all for today – it’s enough I am sure for one post.  Until next time -

Creatively Yours in Spirit,

Arlene

Technorati Tags: 100 in 100 Challenge,paintings,watercolor painting,acrylic painting,abstract art

Catching Up (Multi-tasking Can Backfire)

Paintings # 61, 62, 63, 64, and 65 in 100 in 100 Challenge

For those of you who have been following my blog, you may have realized I have been slower to post my painting progress in the 100 in 100 challenge lately.   I apologize for that.  I can assure you I am still painting and still participating. 

It’s just that my usual multi-tasking tendencies have been serving lately to help me procrastinate too.  That is certainly not my intention, yet I have fallen into pattern.  I have been really hard at work drawing and painting a project that I thought would be a relatively short-term one.  However, I completely underestimated the complexity of it and the time it would take me to do it. 

This is due, in part, to my inexperience in taking on such a project, but also to my tendency to procrastinate when I start to get into overwhelm.  Thankfully, I did realize this, and I really intend on finishing it.  Consequently, my efforts this past couple of weeks has been to focus on it, clear my art desk of other things that could distract me, and just get on with it!

It has paid off and I have made great strides in completing the work.  I am now in the finishing and revision stages of the task and am looking forward to sharing the completed work with you very soon.  I do want to share with you some of the work I have done in the past couple of weeks, but I am not ready to unveil it just yet.

With this in mind, what I can share with you are some close-up details, rather than the whole pictures. 

First, though, I will share 2 paintings I completed before I started focusing on my other project.

This was one of those unplanned, abstract “squiggle” paintings that I didn’t even do in pencil or pen to begin.  I just took paintbrush in hand and starting splashing paint on the page.  I haven’t been able to come up with a name other than “Green Squiggle”, so if you have a more imaginative name for it, I am open to suggestions!

 

 

Painting # 61 – Green Squiggles

I did this painting in response to a challenge I have been doing with a Plurk friend of mine, and the theme was Magical Doors.  My image that I worked on capturing was of a land beyond a doorway in a wall, that otherwise is not visible.  A magical land that only exists in the imagination.  I just want to walk through that gate in the wall to experience the flowers, trees, and purple mountains in the background. 

 

Painting # 62 – Magic Doorway

The next 3 paintings are from the project I spoke of earlier in this post, so they are close-up details only at this point.

 

 

Painting # 63 Detail

 

 

 

 

  Painting # 64 Detail (above)

Painting # 65 Detail

I also have paintings # 66 through # 71 completed, which I will post at another time so as to not bog you down with too many images at once.

Thanks for your interest and patience!  The next post will either be up later today or tomorrow.

Creatively Yours in Spirit

Arlene

Technorati Tags: 100 in 100 Challenge,creativity,drawing,paintings,spirit art,watercolor,abstract art,fantasy,landscape painting

The featured Powerup ACT artisan is Diana Siah of DJStoreRoom, who is a very talented seamstress artisan AND the creator and organiser of this Powerup project for our Artfire Cafemom Team Guild! Somehow she also finds the time to be a SAHM mom, do lots of sewing projects and sewing tutorials, maintain her blog and 2 storefont websites, and all the other thousands of things that a mom has to do!

She was an award-winning fashion designer in her school days who left the craft until she had her daughter, and then got back into it after taking more fashion and design courses. I just love her purses and her unique antique button jewelry! Please check out her shops and you'll see what she has to offer.

Arlene

Unique Gifts at Artfire

Just a quick post today to tell you about our Artfire "Power Up" artisan of the week. Well, it's 4 days actually. This time you will see over in the right-hand sidebar that it is Jenn Miller of Jazzy Jemz and My Bragg Bag. Jenn is an energetic and imaginative handmade artisan and a powerful leader (Guild Master) of our Artfire Cafemom Team guild. She somehow finds time to be a mom to a toddler, a military wife (whose husband is serving overseas), a writer on Handmade News, and so much more. Her experience includes being an avid crocheter since she was 7 years old, teaching herself how to sew at age 22, and also dabbling in knitting and drawing.

Every 4 days I will be featuring another of our crafty moms from our Artfire guild, and I hope you will enjoy visiting their shops and purchasing something from each of them. You can find her items and other unique gifts at Artfire, the up and coming place to shop!

See you all later.

Arlene