Paradise - One of my canvases from the workshop
The Workshop was called “Bloom True – A two day Adventure with Flora Bowley”. Some of the description was: “Let go. Be bold. Unfold. Letting go of expectation and allowing your art to unfold. The emphasis is on finding your own true voice and allowing your personal expression to bloom and grow with flow and ease. There are no mistakes here”. Well that sounds pretty amazing and I am all in.
Many people are fascinated by artist’s studios / workspaces and I am often asked by clients if they can come and see my studio and I am delighted to oblige. I am also hoping that some of the things I suggest may be helpful to other artists to give them ideas of how they might set things up. We are all individuals and work in different ways so ultimately you need to find what works for you.
I had the pleasure of attending a workshop experimenting with Golden Open Acrylics by Chris Cozen.
These open acrylics were created to remain workable for longer periods of time than the regular heavy body and fluid acrylics. They are formulated with an optimum balance of pigment load and 100% acrylic polymer dispersion to produce a paint with a uniquely relaxed set of working characteristics and a versatility that allows artists to explore a wider range of techniques such as portraiture and landscape painting that rely on softening, shading, glazing and creating fine detail. They remain wet on the palette for extended periods and you can mix them with any other Golden mediums and paints to reduce their open time or you can mix them with specially formulated Open Mediums to keep them workable for the maximum time. There is even an Open Thinner which will make the paint workable again once it has begun to dry.
Have you ever gone into your local art store and looked at all the Golden pots of product and wondered how you would use that product or what it would contribute to your repertoire of products to enhance your work?
I was so moved by this article written by a nurse about the most common regrets that people experience on their deathbed and thought it was so important to pass it on so that we the living could learn from the dying how to live our lives now.
Be who you are and not what others want or expect you to be. Do what you love. If you have dreams to sing, dance, paint, write poetry or learn to fly a plane, write a novel – whatever it is – do not put those dreams on hold – start acting on your dreams today.
So here I am at the very first day of a New Year sitting in a chair with my 3.5 lb yorkie lying on her back in my lap – I am in heaven and she is in heaven.
I feel so grateful to be surrounded by “Mans Best Friend” and of course I am a woman so “Woman’s Best Friend” and I have four of them. The first picture is my yorkie Mango and we are both attached at the hip. She sits on my desk in a basket when I work and the other picture is Teddy – short for Theodore – or as we sometimes call him TheoDorable and he is a Yorkie Poo.
Here is a new landscape, well actually more of a seascape that I just painted with oils on canvas. It is 16″ x 16″ x 1.5.
I have finally taken the leap from my beloved acrylics to use some oils however being the health enthusiast that I am there was no way I was going to use all the toxic thinners and mediums that are usually associated with oils.
I used Holbein’s duo aqua water soluble oil paints and I used walnut oil as a medium with this new landscape painting – the only downside being it takes forever to dry.
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