OOOPS! I moved!

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Week in Review!

 It has been a very good week.

Lots of new habits,

new explorations,

new fun.

I am painting ahead for my 30 in 30 challenge 

to cover the days when I know I will not be able to paint,

not cheating, just planning ahead.

I am also taking full advantage of

Powder Valley Nature Preserve.

I'm out there hiking the valley trail,

then having coffee and journaling in the woods.

The Japanese call it Forest bathing.

I love it.

I come home fully charged and ready to paint.

The photos above:

1. a paint "string" of values pre mixed on my palette before I even begin to paint.
2. a repurposed dishrack I use to hold wet paintings and store dry work.
3. my perpetual calendar reminding me how close I am to September and the kick off!
4. Coffee and journal ready for a rest after my morning hike.
5. The trailhead for the hike I love so much.

Now for some fun links:

http://littlecoffeefox.com/  is a great site on bullet journaling...a great way to organize your life!

http://www.chasejarvis.com/blog/30-days-of-genius/  is a free series of talks with some of today's geniuses about how to start your own path to success.

http://www.marieforleo.com/  Marie Forleo is my new inspiration hero. Check out her Marie TV

http://www.stankakordic.com/  is my latest portrait hero. Her website has a free video and some of her amazing drawings and paintings.

Hope this keeps you busy and having fun for the weekend. You may also want to head out to the Wildwood art fest. You never know who you will see out there!

Create Magic and Savor

This  reminder is on my studio wall...

a great philosophy when it comes to creating art.

Creating is the magical part, the part we need to summon up

all our energy and spirit for.

Little rituals help.

I clean and organize as much as I can at the end of each day,

but those first few moments are for choosing a canvas, 

laying out tubes of paint, contemplating what I need

to begin the magic.

Then the strokes of my magic wand....OK, it's a charcoal pencil.

Here you can see brushes ready to go, paper towel waiting,
easel standing at attention with a brand new board.
That cute black and white power tool with the pink accents is a heat gun, not a blow dryer.
 I promise it will fry your hair.
It helps when I'm in  hurry.

You can also see I have a thing for butterflies.
It's the concept of transformation.
That's what we're all doing , all the time. It's just that sometimes
 we're controlling the process,
and sometimes the process is controlling us.
We do get to choose most of the time,
some of us just don't realize that is a possibility.
There is a lot more to savor,
if you control the magic.

Getting organized

 Way back in 2012, I did attempt Leslie Saeta's

30 paintings in 30 days challenge.

I did about fifteen paintings.

Not bad,

but not 30.

So this time I have a plan!

Beware a woman with a plan!

above, you can see I have been hitting every canvas sale in town.

My only limitation is size and cash.

I'm sticking to 8 x 10 and 8 x 8 canvases.

I'm also trying to get gallery wraps as much as possible...

a little bit pricier, but no framing necessary.

Paint

Lots of paint!

I am working in acrylics because it dries fast

and....

I seem to have a lot of it!

Although you can see a wild collection of color here,

for the most part, I plan on sticking to a limited palette.

The third part of the plan is to use this covered palette

to save paint from one day to the next

and try to use leftover paint from one day's work

on a smaller painting the next day.

Since I tend to mix big piles of paint when working with acrylics,

this could be a time and money saver.

So these last few weeks in August are dedicated to cleaning up the studio,
sketching out 30 (or more) possible ideas,
and gearing up for the challenge,
Oh!
and one more thing...
I'm limiting my subject matter somewhat.
My theme for the 30 paintings in 30 days is:
WINGS.