I’ve had a Craigslist alert on my phone for months for an easel. Then the other day an ad popped up for a vintage Grumbacher portable easel for $35. It was in great shape, and I swiped it up. I’ve been wanting an easel for years, I do believe this will make oil painting much easier. :)

Spring is inspiring me with color and I’m loving that paired with fresh white space. I’ve been drawn to watercolors and all the dried leaves and flowers I’ve been pressing since last fall.

Faces and foliage, these are my favorite subjects lately.

My husband also got me some prismacolor drawing pens that I’m absolutely loving (thank you honey!). If you can believe it, I’ve never really had quality drawing pens so I’m excited to experiment with them.

What are working on lately? Is Spring inspiring and infusing your art?

1. What does art mean to you? What art is, everyone feels for themselves. For me it is a personal experience, based on instinct, something that can be shared and enjoyed, the expression of the maker makes you feel, art work provokes emotions. Art is about awareness and spirit.

2. What is one challenge you’ve overcome as an artist? It is a challenge to combine creativity (things that come from the inner world) with business (make a living out of the pictures / illustrations).

3. Describe one thing or person that has influenced your art the most. For me, that changes by the day.

4. Name three artists that inspire you. Friends inspire me & give good creative energy. I will name three: Louis Reith, Mara Piccione & Nathan Williams.

Thank you Anja! Your work is so inspiring – best to you!

The boys had a blast coloring eggs this year. Their egg coloring process was experimental and haphazard, but they turned out to be the prettiest eggs I think I’ve ever seen. Of course it was messy, but this mess turned into inspiration for this art craving mommy.

We used paper towels to soak up spills, and upon some encouragement from my father-in-law, I decided to save the color soaked paper towels and see how they dried. They dried beautifully! The next day I was dumping easter egg dye on about 20 single sheet paper towels, not really sure what I was going to make of them. If any of you parents saved your egg dye, you can make them too. All you need is paper towels, and you can even get your kids to join in the fun.

How to make them:

Step 1: Dump egg dye onto paper towels. There is really no right or wrong way to do this, so have fun!

Step 2: Wring out excess and gently unfold flat and allow to dry (mine took about a day).

Step 3: Once dry, accordian fold the towel.

Step 4: Fold in half then string onto a strand of thread.

That is how I made my little garland above, but the possibilities are endless. You can make mini-pinwheels, you can cut them to make flag shapes, make paper flowers, it’s all up to you. But no matter how they are configured, I guarantee you they will be gorgeous.

Now I just need an excuse to make a couple hundred of these for an art installation somewhere. (Do you hear me, Anthropologie?)

Happy post-Easter dyeing!

I prayed, I read, I waited, I tried doing my most favorite things, but nothing seemed to “fix” it. But then warm weather hit, flowers started to bloom, and everything was suddenly green again.

Then he gives the command and it all melts; he breathes on winter-suddenly it’s Spring! Psalm 147:18 (MSG)

And again, as He so faithfully does, God pulled me out of my miserable pit and I got my life back – my joy back. I can’t explain it, and I don’t know why it happens, I just know that plenty of Psalms have some pretty rough spots in it, where the Psalmists wonder where God is and why they feel so downcast and alone. So I know I’m not the only one.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:2

Anyway, I’m glad to be “back” and I hope to be posting more regularly again.

I love Spring every year. It’s the newness, the power of life, that just gets me every time. It’s such a miracle. I’ve been photographing our blooming daffodils and tulips – and we have lilies & daisies on the way. It’s amazing how quickly they unfold – I took the above photos in the area of a couple hours. I also did a some sketching of a floral motif, and I’m offering it here as a free download if you like it.

As always, I don’t care what you do with it, you could even use it on your website as a background. Hope you enjoy it.

What do you appreciate most about Spring? Does anyone else have slumps?

It takes alot to wow me these days. When my husband and I stumbled on the work of Willard Wigan, I was completely doubtful that this self-taught artist could create work that fits in the eye of a needle. But after further investigation, that’s exactly what this artist does, create the tiniest sculptures in the world that are sometimes as small as the period that you see on this page – cut in half. Not even visible to the naked eye. So I knew I had to share it with you all.

If you are a skeptic like I was, you might be interested in watching his TED talk, in which he goes into his homemade tools (like a hair off a fly for a paintbrush), and methods (like slowing down his breathing so he can work in between heartbeats).

While his work is incredible, his story is equally as impacting. He struggled in school with dyslexia and is still barely able to read and write. His teachers made him feel worthless and a failure. In fact, one of his teachers told him that the word “failure” was invented just for him. At age 5, he started creating tiny apartments and furniture for ants, as a way of escape from his troubles. His mother encouraged him in his God given ability, and when he was very little told him, “The smaller your work, the bigger your name will become.” He didn’t fully understand this as a boy, but certainly gets it now that he’s grown, where recently his life’s work recently sold for 20 million dollars.

Little things can be the biggest things. The teachers at my school made me feel small. Like nothing. I’m trying to prove that nothing doesn’t exist. – Willard Wigan

Wigan explained that, while working on a grain of sand, he would sometimes use the tremor caused by his own heartbeat as a jack hammer to chisel the tiny particle. When asked if he enjoys his work, he answers, “I enjoy it when I finish it. Not working on it, no. It’s misery. It’s painstaking.” Fashioned from gold, specs of dust, precious gems, droplets of glue and paint along with numerous other materials including eyelashes and spiders webbing, each artwork is living proof of the power of belief.

I work between my heartbeat. I have one-and-a-half seconds to actually move. And at the same time I have to watch I don’t inhale my own work.

The personal sacrifices involved in creating such wondrous, yet scarcely believable pieces are inconceivable to most. He’s not married, and he’s not into the glitzy life. What motivates him I guess is his own internal drive to prove his critics wrong, and to use the gift he says God gave him.

People haven’t seen the best of me yet. I’m going to take it even smaller.

1. Paint

You get what you pay for in this department. I use a mid-level brand (Grumbacher) that I’ve been pretty happy with, but I do find that I need to add more medium to get them to flow properly. With a 40% coupon at Michael’s I got a set of 10 for $35 in the basic colors. Then I purchased a few Winton color tubes separately for about $8 each.

2. Brushes

It’s nice to have a broad range of brushes for oils, and great to have a few with a longer handle for painting with your whole arm, which is very important. Synthetic or natural fiber brushes will do just fine.

I use mostly round and filbert brushes, and I like to have two of the same size of my favorites – one for painting and another to keep clean for blending or picking up paint.

Bright and flat brushes are also good to have – I’ve never used a fan brush so you might be able to skip that one. I also have one or two really tiny brushes for detailing.

3. Oil Medium

This is your replacement for turps and thinners. I use Refined Linseed Oil, but you could use Walnut oil, or really any type of oil medium. You will use this to thin your paint, prep your canvas, and clean your brushes.

4. Palette

A glass palette is my favorite because it’s clear and flat and super easy to mix colors on and even easier to clean – just use some pages from a phone book to wipe it clean! You could also use a disposable palette for convenience.

5. Rag

You will need a rag to wipe your brushes while painting, and you can also use it to clean your brushes of excess paint. An old cotton t-shirt works well for this.

6. Bar of Soap

A bar of soap with olive oil in it works best, which can be found at health food stores. This will be used to clean your brushes. Works like a charm and it’s completely safe!

7. Easel (Optional)

You don’t have to have this, but it does make painting so much easier than having to hunch over a desk. Not to mention dealing with glare from painting on a flat plane.

That’s it! The the next part I’ll go into the basics of toning/priming your canvas and sketching out your subject. I hope if you’ve been intimidated by oils in the past, you will give it a try. Oils have become my absolute favorite medium. Until then! Have a great weekend.

Also, make sure you don’t miss the giveaway at the end of the post to win a risograph printed notebook specially made for our winner with one of Nancy’s designs. Enjoy!

1. What does art mean to you? Art means a few things to me but I think the most important is that art should stir something up inside you. I think good art and design should make you think, feel, ask questions, or solve problems. I’m a big fan of the aesthetic movement and in my slightly vain outlook art means the most to me when I consider it beautiful, I find beautiful art very peaceful. I remember seeing the Monet exhibition in Edinburgh, Scotland when I was still in school. I was blown away at how beautiful his paintings were, that was enough for me!

2. What is one challenge you’ve overcome as an artist? I suppose being the sort of person that I am means I come across daily challenges. I try to have a good work ethic, and set my self lots of tasks. I do think however most of the time I end up giving my self too much work, but those manic moments make the little successes feel so much better! If I have to pin point the biggest challenge I have had to face, it would be the moment after I graduated art school, realising that you have to face the world with just you and your skills is a very scary concept. However there is something magical about being a creative, the fact that I am a textile designer is a wonderful thing and doing what I do feels very natural for me.

3. Describe one thing or person that has influenced your art the most. This is an easy one! Without a moments doubt I have to say its my Father. He was a wonderfully talented artist, photographer, designer, in fact everything. Not only was he incredibly creative but he was also a wonderful person. I doubt I’ll ever meet anyone else like him. I think he has influenced pretty much every thing I do, the good and the bad! Him and my Mother made the greatest power couple ever, and I think my brother and I owe them a lot for how they brought us up.

4. Name three artists that inspire you. This is a really tough one and I think I may have to cheat a little! The two main influences with regard to textiles would be Lotta Jansdotter and Lena Corwin. Both of these ladies are very talented textile designers, their books have been invaluable to my textile education. My talented creative friends are also very important to me, somehow I have managed to surround myself over the years with a great collection of extremely hard working and talented designers and I am very lucky to have them as my friends.

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Thank you Nancy! Now it’s giveaway time. To win this beautiful notebook, perfect for storing your thoughts for the new year, just leave a comment below on what kinds of amazing things you might record in these blank pages. A comment will be randomly selected one week from now. Good luck!

UPDATE: A winner has been randomly chosen…congratulations ESTHER comment #23! You will be a proud owner of a NS notebook. Thanks everyone for entering!

I first discovered my love for drawing in the 5th grade. I always just assumed I wasn’t good at it before then, and had other interests, so I hadn’t even tried. To my surprise, I wasn’t too bad. But after those classes – for some reason or another – I abandoned drawing, only to take it up sporadically in the years following.

So fast forward to last year, and I’ve been having the most unshakeable urge to paint and draw. After my drawing challenge last fall, I rediscovered my passion for it and have been shaking the dust off my rusty skills to see where it goes.

There is a local painter here in Oklahoma City, whose work captured me immediately when I saw it on display in a local art gallery. I recently met with her, and she told me the 5 words that gave me the push I needed – “you need to work hard.”

Understanding that I have to be willing to fail and create bad art while I learn, I’ve been painting with abandon. So I got out my oils the other day while the husband took the boys to the zoo. I created a decent painting, but I could not get her second eye right. So right now the painting looks like this:

And of course my dear husband (ever the comic) had to completely deface it by cutting an eye patch for her out of paper. Haha, honey. :)

I’m not sure where my art will take me in 2012, and I think I will always have a love for the craft arts and DIY projects I’ve done through the years, but be prepared to see more art related posts, as I pursue this passion that I just can’t ignore.

When Janet asked me a couple weeks ago to do some project illustrations for the December box of For the Makers, I jumped with excitement at the chance. I absolutely love the concept that her and Katie have come up with – a box of goodies shipped right to your door to get all crafty with. The projects and tutorials they provide are cute and stylish. Getting the box each month has been so fun – it’s like opening a little box of treasures.

Creating the illustrations was great. I can’t wait to do it next month! If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do that here. They make a great gift for the creative person in your life.

Photo courtesy of For the Makers

You probably already have the materials for it right in your backyard. If you are like me, you want to bring in the colors and textures of fall into your home, so I created these garlands with colorful dried fall leaves. The beauty of this idea is that you can use all the assorted shapes and colors that nature provides and combine them to create the look you want. The photo above gives you an idea of just some of the looks that you can achieve.

All you need is:
thread (I used metallic gold, which I would highly recommend)
dried leaves (you can dry and press leaves in between the pages of a heavy book – just make sure you leave them in there for at least a week)
needle
circle punch (optional for the circle garland)

The how-to is simple: just gather and arrange your dried leaves and begin “sewing” them onto your thread, leaving a long tail on both ends for hanging. After you thread each leaf, make a knot so it will stay put and not slide along the thread.

For the circle garland, just use a circle punch to punch the shapes out of the leaf. Then thread like above.

As for the fragility of the leaves, they held up very well with all my handling, windy photo conditions, and dropping them multiple times. You will want to handle them with care though if you want them to last longer than just one season.

Note: Our trees are just now beginning to turn, so I wasn’t able to find a whole lot of vivid colors – so I did some Photoshopping to make the colors more lively. :)