I’m strangely wordless as I face a New Year rolling in. 2012 was a beautiful year, for many reasons both creatively and personally. I’ll detail some of that in an upcoming post. But I feel a sweet hush around me as I contemplate a new year ahead. The possibilities. The unexpected. The dreams. The hopes. Even the fears are all a part of my reverie. No resolutions. Only to keep on looking around me with my eyes peeled for Beauty, both evident and not-so-evident. I sit with some yarn in my hands. I have desires to put more of my designs out there for others to knit and crochet. If you’d like to peek at my knitting blog, or follow me over there, please do! But these things always morph and change with the seasons. I’ll go where inspiration takes me, drawing it along the way.
Thank you. Thank you so very much for visiting here. For checking in on the crazy things that run in my head and down through my arms to pens, paints, paper and yarn. You just don’t know how I appreciate your presence here. May 2013 bring you beautiful days to draw and paint and create!!
A couple of days ago, Maddie and I sat out in our backyard, in the cool morning, to draw. I had several sketchbooks (as I do when using watercolor, so that I can move on to another drawing while one is drying), pens, watercolors; and she had her big sketchbook, pencil, and markers. When she is finished with her drawing, I’ll show it to you…so wonderful!
Lately I’ve been captivated (once again) by watercolor and all its oozly, wazzly goodness. I’m enjoying making images with ONLY watercolor. No line. Just washes and a few calligraphic strokes here and there. But the line & watercolor version stands out to me today. I was thinking about why as I went on my morning walk. I know you won’t be surprised at where my thoughts went:
When I draw first and then add watercolor, I am free to splash the color around any way I’d like: outside the lines, splashy, sloppy, or as minimalistic as I want. It’s as if the lines are a foundation, a structure, a scaffolding on which the watery colors can hang or stand upon. Without the line structure, watercolor needs to maintain that structure itself, even if it has a free look about it.
This seems a lovely picture of our lives…when we have a solid foundation, a good structure or scaffolding for our minds & hearts, we have much greater freedom to swoosh, splash, or hold back as we like. There’s a sense of rootedness. A feeling that we’re anchored in some way and that anchoring allows us to fly around in dreams. This image comes to my mind here as well.
So I thought I’d share it with you, dear reader. It is always my hope that your art will speak volumes to you about life and living. That it will give you more and more inspiration for living your life fully!
I’ll still be swooshing watercolors around without lines…I wonder if they’re invisible on my paper as I paint. Hmmm…something else to think about!!
To Peer Behind the Veil often requires childlike eyesight. Not child-ish, but child-like. A childlike sense of wonder in a work-a-day, responsibility-laden world, is very difficult to maintain. But I uphold that keeping a sketchbook can connect you to the child within you that longs to come out and play. I’m convinced that cultivating a childlike view of our lives is a key element to freeing ourselves to draw and paint our lives.
As adults, we have a highly developed ability to turn ANYTHING fun into a structured endeavor for improvement or for money-making or both. We’re adept at making artful explorations into a burdening responsibility. When keeping a little book of your life in images, the best approach is that of a child…wonder at simple things, a willingness to get messy, and an ability to view life free of the skepticism and cynicism that lurks in our adult world.
Think back to when you were a kid…or if you have children, to when they were little. Try to remember the wide-eyed wonder at things like ants marching in a line on the sidewalk and stars twinkling in the night sky. When was the last time you marveled at something like that?
My husband and I had an affectionate nick-name for our oldest daughter when she was little. We called her “pokey little puppy” because we would be walking along as slowly as we could for her to keep up, only to find that she was way behind, squatting down on the edge of the sidewalk to look at the buttercups or clovers nearby. Other times it was ladybugs and ants. Another time it was an earthworm. Still to this day, at 17 years old, Catherine has a wonderful ability to stop and smell the flowers. Her dad and I hope this stays with her til she is 80.
Here are some ideas and suggestions for cultivating a childlike mindset:
*Be fascinated! Seek out things/places/events that fascinate you. Ask yourself what captivated you when you were a child and go draw that. What did you love then? If you were captivated by insects as a little boy…return to looking for them, draw them, make a shadow-box of the different species. Did you want to live on a farm when you were little? Seek out a farm to visit. Take your camera and sketchbook. Go dig in the dirt, jump in a pile of leaves, lay down under the stars and gaze. Create space in your life for wonder and fascination.
*Sit on the ground spread-eagle style or criss-cross applesauce to draw.
*Lay down on your tummy, feet up in the air, drawing the grass and the moving things in it.
*Draw the clouds and what they look like to you…a horse with wings? a unicorn? a teddy-bear? jellyfish?
*Draw a picture of yourself as a child. Find a photograph of you as a child and draw from the photo. Or draw yourself as YOU REMEMBER yourself to be as a kid.
*What were your favorite things to dress up in when you were a kid? Cowboy boots? Twirly skirts? Draw yourself, either now as an adult, or as a kid, wearing these beloved items.
*What were your favorite toys/stuffed animals as a kid? Was it Lincoln Logs? Legos? Teddy bears? Dolls? Barbies? Draw them!
*What were some of your favorite books when you were a child? I have blogged about some of mine here, here, and here.
*Use kid-like stuff to draw and paint with: crayons, markers, tempera paint, side-walk chalk, cray-pas, crayola watercolors, construction papers, glue sticks, dry-erase boards, stamps and ink pads, etc.
*Find a child in your life to draw with. Draw and paint beside them OR together on the same page. You’ll realize just how uninhibited they are on a white piece of paper. The above drawing I made just a few weeks ago sitting at a table with Maddie. She was engrossed in drawing her sunshine-filled beach scene. She is an inspiration to me!
A Blessing: May the kid in you come out and play this week! May he/she find wonders and marvels in the little things of your life. May your adult self step-aside for at least a few moments to allow some childlike wonder, fascination, and playfulness. And may your sketchbook be filled with these wonders as you peer behind the veil to re-cover your childlike self.
***Access all Mini Lessons for Drawing Your Life at the top of the home page on my blog! (OR just click the highlighted words in blue!)
Does it have something to do with the brown mess of twigs and sticks, mud and leaves, tenderly assembled into a home?
Is it the wonder of these little creatures so diligently crafting their home to house and hold their little-ones-to-be?
Is it the pretty, soft-colored eggs that lie there in expectant waiting?
Does it represent hope? new life? spring? future joy?
Perhaps it is all this and more. Perhaps it’s the perfect picture of an exquisite everyday exclamation! A monumental mundane! A typically UN-noticed and hidden jewel perched precariously in a tree, exposed to wind and weather, yet enduring.
When we peer into a Bird’s Nest, do we see ourselves? our lives? our life’s work?
I don’t know. All I know is that I love to draw them. Love to knit them. Love to crochet them. Somehow they speak to me of Spring. Of Hope. Of Life.
A new print for my Etsy Shop! This one is titled, Wonder in the Weeds. You can read the posting that went along with it HERE. The watercolor painting was created eight months ago and since then I’ve been humbled to hear of how this little image has encouraged many of you. Life certainly has a way of feeling like the weeds are crowding out the beauty. But a little bit of searching, sometimes on our hands and knees, can reveal wonders untold even in the midst of the overgrown weeds.
The date of this little sketch of Genevieve in my writing journal is April 3rd of last year…Creatively speaking, I was feeling way overwhelmed with the overgrown weeds at the time. Life seemed to be choking out a lot of the ideas I was dying to get out, so many of them Genevieve related. I began to take some baby steps even then, which resulted in the opening of my Etsy Shop.
Each little baby step I take is like a little seed gently planted out in the world. These seeds take root and begin growing immediately, even if it is only in my heart, giving me cheer. But it is my hope that it will bring cheer to others as well. I’m learning a lot about this practice of taking Baby Steps…it really is good medicine! Thank you all so much for joining me and receiving these little steps as I go along.
Thought for the Day: Baby Steps Make Glad Heart
**P.S. If you’d like to be notified via Facebook of all things related to Genevieve and My Etsy Shoppe, then CLICK HERE and “like” this page. I have so many more “seeds” to be planted in the Shoppe…more cards and prints of Genevieve, Original Artwork by me, Happy Day Birthday Boxes, more knit & crochet patterns and so much more!
