Hello,

New SALE in my SHOP from Aug 31 - Sept 7th midnight. Save 20% with code FIRSTSALE.

So thank you for visiting, and hope you enjoy the many art tips in my BLOG, and paintings in my SHOP and just feel blessed while you hang around awhile.

Joanie

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May Theme and a bunch of glorious Circle Art

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Hello fellow creatives, Let's start with announcing the May Theme: Abstracted Landscapes. You can provide your own landscapes, city scapes, neighborhood scapes.....and I will lead you thru simplifying the composition and throw in a couple of Try This Color or Technique here.....to jostle your imagination and throw you off too much realism. It will be fun, nothing to be intimidated by, I promise.  As for April, all the artists were so brave to try some iteration of the following prompts - neurographic, mandala - either traditional or hand draw, and even lettering and doodles, it was all so inspiring to see what the artists came up with. I always encourage imagination and inspiration. I offer the seeds and the artists get to interpret those seeds any way they wish. And the results? Glorious! CIRCLE ART, here we go! We mostly used watercolor/gouache, white posca or gel pen, and ink permanent pens this month.
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Student Chairs and April Theme - Circle Art

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 I am so excited to share with you my talented students' work, but first a quick note to let you know what we will be working on this month of April. Circle Art!  We can call it Round art, or Zen art, or Mandala art.....you call it what you wish but we are going to start out with Color Mixing and Theory. A whole class full of it. So that whatever we fill our circles with, the colors will sing together in the most beautiful harmonies. Wk 2 I will introduce Neurographic art which is a deeply calming and therapeutic way to make art. Another approach I will share is how to construct and/or free draw a more classical mandala....adding similar art that mirrors itself around the quadrants of the circle. It's all yours to create as you wish. But all month we will be working in this shape, without blocked in corners like our usual squares and rectangles on paper or canvas as per usual. Supplies: my recommendation is a wetter media such as watercolor or gouache, or if you prefer acryli...
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Coming Up in March: Chairs!

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In December I sent out to all my students a feedback survey. It was chockful of things they wanted to pursue further in their art. For years and years now I have come up with pretty non-repeating themes each month. Sometimes, like color theory, we will revisit this infinite subject, but always with a new twist. But one request, from those artists who have been with me years now, was to paint Chairs again. So that is our March theme.
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Magic Slippers?

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If I am not painting these days I am sewing. [After a 50 year hiatus of not sewing!] Here's a fun little project I just finished..... I love a project where I can just grab a bag of my colored scraps and finish something by day's end. Quilts are not like that!  My feet are always cold! I have an uninspiring collection of designated "wear around the house" disreputable and holey socks. But then I spied this diy slipper idea on youtube  and of course had to try it. All the better that it will use up my color coded scraps. Red won as color of the day. So I pieced together all these bitty scraps and then cut out the pattern. That's always my favorite part - patchworking fabric bits together into something new and unique. Unrepeatable.  That's how I paint in my sewing room. Joy! This afternoon, I have a blue/green pair in mind.  Fun, eh? What creative stuff are you up to? Blessings, Joanie
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Coming Up: Abstracted Still Lifes

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Ooh, this is going to be fun. We will start by taking our everyday objects, learn some basic comp osition techniques, arrange and rearrange our personal items, take pictures for a multitude of possibilities, then begin to learn a few tips to not go so much toward Detail as Suggestion !  Join us.......this month long, 4 week session, starts this coming week. There's no one way to create abstraction, but rather multiple approaches. We will cover these so each artist can experiment with the approach that fits their painting goals. As for January, per usual, we focussed on Color Theory . This time we chose quite unusual and limited palettes with a "wild child" for mixing unique and sometimes uncomfortable, or at least unfamiliar color harmonies. The results were fascinating and we each grew out of our comfort zone a bit, and some. This year, another new thing I am throwing into the mix, is a Skill Building prompt for those artists who wish to expand their skills beyond ...
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About Those Sketchbooks...

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 Hi All I got a few inquiries about my sketchbooks I posted about last week. See post here.  
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Happy New Year of Expressing Your Creativity

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 We did it, believe it or not, we breezed through yet another year. As I age, Time seems ever more mysterious. It does not seem arithematical and precise at all, but more fluid, elastic, alive and willful? And we its mere servants.
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Nov+Dec Theme: Wintery Holidays

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Hi folks Firstly, here's our next theme beginning first week of November and including the first 2 weeks of December....when we take a break until the New Year. This opens up oodles of possibilities, so think Holidays  Wrapped gifts  Thankfulness Beautiful table settings Feasts Family Quietness Snowy scenes Limited only by your imagination! Another month flew by ... And some dolls were painted!  Here are a few of mine... Wishing each of you a wonderful wintery season. Even here in Northern California, the land of two seasons, the summer is clearly behind us. Brrrr! Bring on the rain, hot chocolate and k-dramas. Lol. Embrace your Creativity! Come join us online for some painting inspiration.... End your year with a creative burst along with the most awesome, kind and dear art community. Get in touch! Blessings always, Joanie
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Sept Theme: What's Your Morning Ritual?

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Let your mind wander.....from your favorite brunches to your daily eyes close make your coffee routine. Think up different ways to create a painting out of this theme...... Classes begin next week (we are taking Labor Day week off for a bit of R & R.)
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AUG Theme: Nature Studies

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Greetings my artsy friends, I announced last week that our next theme is Garden and Nature....well here's a bit more of a specific spin on it to get your creative juices flowing. Vines, trunks and branches! And do I have an album of inspiration for us all. Up in the Seattle area, my daughter and I visited a Bonsai exhibit and a Rhododendron Jungle. Oh my, the richness and beauty. The very Breath of Nature. Loads of pictorial inspiration. A quick little ink drawing this morning on mixed media paper with some graphite finger smudges to add some value. I  am proposing Ink for our medium then adding softness with either watercolor or chalk pastel for some evocative backgrounds. But per usual for all my classes, I offer the prompt, and you and your Muse decide on which direction you want to take this. Come join us.....openings in Wednesday AM Zoom classes. 10am to noon California time. Or receive the videos and send me your weekly project for feedback all on your own time.  More on...
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Tartan Plaids and my First Improvisational Quilt

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I scored this collection of Tartan plaids. All wool, close to 8 x 12 inch pieces. They each had two little holes where they had been on a sampler pack. I was entranced by these plaids.....and just knew that if I continued to percolate with ideas, one would come to the fore.  It did. I began to slice and dice...to give it a more modern look. As is, the plaid reminded me of parochial school uniforms. LOL. I LOVE the wonky curvy stripes, don't you? Then i started laying them out....not sure what the heck I was going to do with these. And these were just little bits of scraps to insert whereever needed. You can tell I am struggling here....but I finally went to bed, very discouraged, only to wake up in the morning with a brainstorm. It needed a cohesive idea, some Unity - and for me that was a centerpiece.  This central concept is called a Log Cabin....so here's my rather wild improv on that. You can see where I inserted those little scrappy color bits. Adds a bit of charm I think...
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