What does this quote mean in your life? Do you challenge yourself daily to do one thing different in your life that will change you and provide a diverse you?

Learning to do this is not on everyone’s list because it takes time out of their day to learn first and then do. But when you do set aside one hour a day to learn something that will improve you, give you joy and possibly make you a better person, then is when the world looks different and you begin to see things in a different light.

Painting and learning every day new aspects of painting is what kept me chasing the adventure. I didn’t have to paint, I wanted to Learn to paint and through the learning and then the doing, I began to see the ugly world through a clearer lens.

What is your challenge? Answer that question and then begin the adventure..life is to short not to.

Earlier I told you I would share with you the finished project of the arches, rocks and door. It was a long process, but worth every minute spent on it.

I use a new medium to me “Gouache” is a very opaque and high pigmented paint. Unlike Watercolor that is very transparent and fluid. The experience was great and I will be using this again.

Here is the process from beginning to end.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I hope you enjoy following me on my journey of discover into different mediums.

At this time I am putting together a Learn to paint with watercolor private group on facebook. It will launch June 1, 2019. If you are interested please contact me through the contact tab and I will get back to you with information.

This will be for the very Beginner and cover everything from how to wet the paper to mixing paint without making mud. Color value and tone. The most important thing I can say is “You don’t need to know how to draw or paint, just a will to want to learn”

Come join the group and you will enjoy the time spent.

Before the brush there is prep work to be done. The photo or subject to be chosen. I chose a photo by Ebowalker on Pixabay.

I love very old doors, bricks and arches. I don’t like sketching them, but that is how I get it on the watercolor paper or sometimes I trace it out. This photo needed to be sketched out because of all the crazy rock and brick. Hand and brain needed to connect.

Before the brush is one of the most important part of painting. Getting to know the subject, connecting with it and deciding how you will begin. Colors to be used is the next step in this painting.

For this painting I will be using Gouache (Gouache (/ɡuˈɑːʃ, ɡwɑːʃ/; French: [ɡwaʃ]). It is similar to Watercolor, yet very different. Watercolor, for the most part, is transparent where Gouache is opaque with higher pigment.

Tomorrow I will be diving into this painting. I will share my progress as I go.

I have chosen 3 of my pieces of work that I feel best send a message of the theme for this Art Show.

• 

• 

• 

I have been missing for a few days in order to get ready to submit 3 pieces of my Artwork to an Online Art Show.

The theme for the paintings are “The Healing Power of Color” and was making me very nervous to try to capture what colors helped me heal and hoped that my color choice would help others feel the power of those colors.

Basing my choices of color on my own dealing with “Grief,” I chose to represent Sadness, Hope, Change and New Beginnings.

I will be back soon with a preview of the three paintings I will be submitting.

Beyond the Brush is about more than just painting a picture. There is more to art when you look beyond the brush.

Our lives are full of color. It can make is happy, peaceful, excited, relaxed, sad etc. Color affects our emotions and sense of sight. It triggers our brain to react.

Think about basic colors..Red, blue, yellow and green. They are natures colors. Summer blues and yellows, Spring greens, Fall is a combination of red, yellow and green and Winter is snow white, no color.

I ran into an article this morning that answered many of my questions, as an artist, about color. I hope you will take a few moments to read it and really think about what colors do in your daily live.

Thank you to the Healing Power of Art for this great article. https://www.healing-power-of-art.org/the-power-of-color/

Make your day brilliant. Color it up.

To me this is a joy, but to others they don’t fully understand my frame of mind.

For instance, going to the grocery store and looking how the stuff is arranged on the shelves…could this be a painting? Why, of course it could. Andy Warhol would have found a way to do it.

Watching the rain pound down during monsoon season in Arizona, yes except I need to learn how to paint rain falling side ways.

There is Art subjects everywhere you look if you look at it as a beautiful scene. It will lift you spirit and change your view of the world around you.

Happy discovery

If you looked outside what do you see? Can you explain it and how it makes you feel?

We all see things through different eyes and our experience at remembering what we see and how it either makes us feel or how we process it is our emotional mind. We will either remember it by filing it away or we will grab our cameras/cellphones and make it a permanent memory that we can pull out and enjoy for year. We will share it with others in hopes of giving them joy.

Art is much like this. You create lasting memories for others to enjoy.

As we head into the Spring it seems the world is all in bloom. It is the time when a lot of the landscape artist get excited about and begin capturing the world in full color.

From the desert of the Southwest to the beauty of the Northwest and the East Coast, Mother Nature pulls out her paint and begins brightening up the world.

What does it feel like when you decided to do something that makes you doubt your ability? Scared.

I am taking classes online for watercolor. I want to better what I do, but sometimes I am afraid I will fail. I am sure we have all been down this road many times.

Today I stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to take on this Hand and Brush tutorial. I worked on it most of the day and just was not happy with it. I lifted paint off, put more paint on repeatedly until I figured it was done. I am happy with the results and will be attempting more of these paintings.

The point to this post is to reassure those that doubt themselves and their ability, to just keep moving forward, have faith in you and it will work.

My hope is that you also enjoy what you see.