Creativity- Releasing Perfectionism

Having given myself permission to paint with bolder colours and abandon the expectation of replicating the perfection of photographs, I am venturing into more ambitious projects. Mistakes, I am learning, can be tossed or mended.  The featured image was meant to be a sunset over water, but my mother called just as I was putting […]

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Photo A Week: Fruits of Labour

Finding an outlet to express myself creatively (beyond writing) has been my biggest accomplishment this year.  Picking up a camera and a paint brush both happened simultaneously, as our adventures across country begged recording. Converting image to art, via watercolours, has become my passion, although to date, I’ve only had a few lessons, and each […]

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I Wish My Art Would Quit Judging Me

A set of 150 watercolour pencils – a gift from my husband – challenges me to paint.  In the busyness of moving, I have let this practice slip, and a number of sketches sit in my portfolio case waiting for me.  Inspiration comes from the photos I take.  The lone turtle (featured), for instance, begged […]

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RDP: Duck

Mother Mallard and her baby ducks foraged along the shoreline of Sparrow Lake at day’s end.  As she waddled past the dock, her little ducklings fell in line, like wind-up toys trying to catch up.  All except one little fellow, who lost in his own world got left behind. “Peep! Peep!” He let out a […]

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Art: Still Learning

Clouds mesmerize me.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a clear, blue sky, but clouds are the stuff of poetry, lending themselves naturally to personification, often drawing my lens to their ever-changing moods. I searched for You-Tube videos on how to paint clouds.  After watching three different artists work rapidly and with great confidence I […]

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Brush Strokes (Fiction)

The brush felt awkward in Kate’s hand and she could feel her frustration mounting. The last time she had painted had been the twin’s room more than a year ago and that was because the boys had outgrown the pastels of the nursery. Now, here she sat, legs crossed on the floor with four other […]

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Art (Life) Lessons

The how-to’s of watercolour, I am discovering, are applicable to other areas of our lives. Inspired by classes I took in Texas, I have continued to try my hand at this art form.  This is what I have learned so far: Begin with a plan.  We used carbon paper to trace the image’s outline, although […]

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