Sketchbook

Once again I am committing to writing my blog on a regular basis and I am committing to working in my sketchbook every day.  As I was sketching today, I realized that I had forgotten how much pleasure I got from just sitting down and drawing from life.  It truly is a habit that every artist needs to develop.  What better way to make those connections from life to art.  It is also a way of noticing the things around us and relating those things about ourselves and the things that we surround ourselves with to our art.
Below is my sketch for the day.....flowers from my garden to my dining room table to my sketchbook.  Those are my thoughts in this moment.

A New Year

It's a new year and a time to again resolve to be more diligent about writing my blog.
I have spent some time re-reading my notes on blogging and pondering just what my blog is about.  I chose the title for my blog "In the Moment" to write about not just my painting, but about what I am doing, thinking, making, and discovering at any given moment.  I have spent most of my life planning the next day, the next week, the next month, but as I get older, I want more and more to just be in the moment.....to appreciate the here and now. 
Mostly my blog will be about painting, my passion.  But, I also love to knit, crochet, bake, work in collage and mixed media, and try lots of new things.  I have a new grandson who is occupying a large portion of my heart right now......so my blog can be about all of those things.

My newest project which turned out a little funky is felted flowers that you see pictured in the post.  I love the colors and curly petals, but they didn't turn out exactly as I had expected.  The movement of the petals is simillar to the movement that I capture in my paintings, so I think they relate.  I am going to work on them a little more and make pins for my artsy friends.  I hope they like them.  Check out the patttern for Lion Brand Wool. 

""doorway into Spirit"

I am finding that I am not as diligent I would like to be when it comes to blogging. It is really more difficult that I had thought.......just deciding really what this blog is about and what I want to say. I am not a great writer and I so admire people that have just the right words to express how they are feeling. I love running across quotes that say exactly what I am thinking and say it so much more eloquently that I could. From this month's Oprah magazine, Eckhart Tolle writes, "....In all things that we tend to overlook: feeling the gentle breeze on your skin, the sunlight filtering through the clouds, the sound of the rain, the wagging tail of a dog, the shiny apple you are about to bite into. You notice the in-and-out flow of your breath, the feeling of aliveness inside your body. And then there is the beautiful stillness behind it all, which is deep within you. It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up. So let's celebrate our anniversaries as they arise. What we are really celebrating though, is the present moment, the doorway into Spirit, and all there ever is." That's what I wanted to say!