"Best Friends on Top of Monhegan" 24X36 Watercolor
"Monhegan Island Here We Come!" 24X36 Watercolor
Recently I have been experiencing "Painter's Block". For months I did not feel like painting. At first I felt tired and wanted to rest. After another month went by I still did not feel like painting. This is a common occurrance among professional Artists. I was on Facebook one day. I asked fellow Facebook Artists for their thoughts on beating the Winter times blues concerning painting. I quickly recieved at least 30 helpful suggestions. Here are just a few good ideas to get an Artist back to painting: These are only suggestions. Some are just ridiculous!
1. Paint from photos you took during the Summer months.
2. Day dream about your favorite place to paint.
3. Pick a subject and just paint it.
4. Paint from a still life you set up in your house.
5. Go to an Art Museum to get inspiration.
6. Take Vitamin D supplements such as Fish Oil. If you live above the 40th latitude, there is no Vitamin D from the sun in your location. Lack of Vitamin D can make you feel tired.
7. Turn off the TV and cancel your cable company.
8. Take a smaller plein aire painting you did during the Summer and create a large painting.
9. Set up your easel near a window inside of your house and paint the view.
10. Take an antique painting from an antique magazine and rearrange it's composition, colors, size, and medium to create your own painting. You will have a greater understanding of what type of paintings you like and why.
11. Grab onions from the kitchen and paint them now!
12. Buy flowers from the Grocrey store and paint them!
13. Change the medium in which you normally work.
14. Paint your bath tub full of water as Degas did. When you are done, take a bath. It will probably be cold water by then.
15. Use a 42 inch HannsG to create a realistic image to paint from.
16. Pump up the lights. Light deprivation can cause depression. Light deprivation can suppress creativity. Chromax light bulbs can help with seasonal blues.
17. Go to the tanning booth. UV rays from tanning helps your body produce Vitamin D. It does take a few days to feel the results.
18. Stapleton Kearns had a quote. "If you only paint landscapes in the Summer, you are only painting part time."
19. Just look at other Facebook Artist's paintings they are creating for inspiration.
20. Take a drive in your car. Pull over when you see a beautiful scene. Make sure you are safely parked. Paint from the inside of your car. Make sure you have good music on your radio playing.
21. Go to a Winter time Art workshop given by a good artist and teacher for inspiration.
22. Invite another Artist over for lunch and painting. The company might help you feel like creating. Loneliness can create depression and low creativity.
23. Give yourself a present if you finish a paintng. Usually after one painting is finshed, others will follow.
24. Go to your Doctor to have your blood drawn to check for any problems.
25. Take up Quilting or play a musical instrument. Sometimes doing something else in the creative field may inspire you to go back to how you better express yourself, by painting.
26. Drink very strong coffee all day!
27. Turn up your heat! Try heating up a room to above 70 degrees. Turn on Reggae music. Eat ripe Mangos over your kitchen sink and let the juices run down your chin.
Well, the tanning booth really helped. After the first day of tanning I found myself talking more. I also started to THINK about things I wanted to paint. I switched from drinking tea, to very strong coffee. I also started to eat eggs each morning as they contain lots of Vitamin D. I do not eat very much meat at all and so eggs are a good substitute. I switched mediums temporarily from oils to watercolor. I also started to paint very large paintings. I decide to paint a few people paintings for a change! I gave myself a TV for finishing a commissioned painting. These suggestions worked for me! I thought you might get a laugh at these suggestions. Facebook is great place to meet Artists!
This is a photo taken of my Father and I in Rome.
Photo of my Mother and I.
I was a flowergirl in my cousin Sandra's wedding. They are still married! I remember loving my haircut. I was about 5 years old.
This is one of my first works of art. I had never seen an elephant. So my Mom had to describe what an elephant looked like. To describe how to draw the elephant's tail, she told me to go look at the broom. I would draw them elephants all of the time. This is how I started my classical art training. I remember being a little upset my teacher drew "Very Good" and a check mark on my drawing.
This is one of my favorite photos of my brother Jim and I. It was a hot summer day in Florida. We each were drinking slurpies from the 7'11 store. 
I was 14 years old here. 
Here I was 18 years old. I had my own apartment. The little yorkie puppy was Snookie. She was a great companion and lived to be 16 years old. I took very good care of her and we had a lot of fun together. I had a popular perm! 
My friend took my photo with my new little puppy Jessie. I had three yorkies at one time. Snookie, Oscar, and Jessie. Jessie loved Kentucy Fried Chicken's leggs. She could eat four leggs all by herself! A boyfriend had bought me the pretty flowers sitting on the coffee table for my 28 birthday.
Robert and I were married in 2005 at Captiva Island, Florida. Captiva Island was a beautiful place to be married!
"Fallen Winter Spruce" 6X8 Oil on Copper Panel
The deer did not move. He just stood there for about three minutes. Finally another deer came out of the woods. They proceeded quietly by me. I have seen deer in Acadia many times before. They always seem to come right out before sunset. They never seem afraid. They look well fed. What a pleasure to see them!
