Inspiring Reading Retreat

I was lucky enough this week to spend two days and nights away on a reading retreat with a great friend and professional colleague. We read, talked, brainstormed, inspired, laughed and slept. It was an intense time of self-reflection, business dreaming, research, planning, and creative exploration. I am exhausted and exhilarated. I feel like the ideas and projects that make my soul happy got the attention they deserve. And I'm back in my studio again, tackling all my wonderful client projects and personal projects with revitalized energy.

One particular book really stood out for me:

Grow Your Handmade Business: How to Envision, Develop and Sustain a Successful Creative Business, by Kari Chapin

I love Kari's creative approach to business planning and dreaming. Hers is the first business book I've successfully read cover to cover. She focuses on all the right things for creatives; pursuing your passion, determining what's a hobby vs a business, developing your mission statement/ purpose, time management, writing a business plan, and so on. A great book.

Thank you self. That break was just what I needed.

Doily Heaven

I bought a few vintage doilies on ebay and etsy recently. They are so much fun to use for texturing backgrounds.

There has been a creative burst and a new painting is emerging with these...

Lots of gratitude and happiness!

Tea Motif!

There hasn't been a lot of time for creating lately, but with stolen moments here and there I've had some fun extending my tea motif to greeting cards and more paintings. New supplies have added to the fun.

I ripped up yogi egyptian licorice mint tea pouches for these ones. 

I've been experimenting with adhering glitter so it's really on there & doesn't shake off easily. It seems Golden regular gel medium and workable fixatif are the magic combo.

Isn't it neat to see how far a motif can go?

Happy V-Day!

I used to feel Valentine's day was a manufactured holiday. Now I've really come to love it. It's a day we can give ourselves permission to stop the chaos and simply enjoy each other. It's fun teaching our young son that it's a day about showing others we love them, and thinking about others before ourselves. We made valentines for his friends and preschool teachers and special heart cookies with sprinkles (gluten free, but still yummy). He was pretty thrilled with it all.

I hope you and your loved ones have a great Valentine's day!

Creative Happenings

Creative happenings around here lately: I finished my surrender girl - she has come alive with rosy cheeks and a beaded scarf floating in the breeze. I'm really happy with how this piece turned out, and the process was wonderful – such a journey of personal introspection.

I've been experimenting with mounting my art prints onto wood blocks/panels. I'm giving each one a unique hand-finished touch including book paper sides, stamping/ ribbon/ glitter etc added after the print is mounted. I love this because it gives them that unique feel of an original. Also, I've done a bit more hand-carving of my own stamps. The one pictured here is a simple scallop stamp for edging. Fun. 

I love integrating small jewels, buttons and other 3D embellishments into my art. Here are a few new ones I've collected and am playing around with.

Creative play is such a big part of my soul-time. I love experimenting with new things and letting the process unfold organically. My studio is usually a mad mess after the creative storm, and I feel ALIVE! It's a beautiful thing. I bet you know exactly what I mean.

With creative energy and happiness,

Teacups!

A neat little number I'm working on right now. Teacups. Designed digitally with pen tablet, then turning them into motifs, making my own papers, and using them in my art. 

Illustrations from the heart

My latest creative explorations, hand-illustrated with my wacom intuos pen tablet.

One minute I was on task, working on an illustration project, and the next this lovely creature and these inspirations and textures were pouring out of me. When creativity hits I can't turn my back! They print really nicely too – I just did a few high quality runs. I think they'll be fun to carry in my shop.

Work is flowing right now, with lots of fun and inspiring design projects filling my days. Isn't it a great feeling when things are aligned? If only for a brief moment, we must enjoy it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

p.s. it's friday! That means it's time to check out all the posts from other creatives in the "Fearless Fridays" clan. Supporting each other to overcome our fears and pursue our dreams.

Studio Refresh

I'm so excited to share my studio improvements with you! 

A bit of background – I'm working towards doing reproductions of my art and opening an Etsy shop, and over the months it became clear that my current studio layout wasn't supporting this goal as well as it could be. In the past most of my art has been large scale, and I used an easel when I painted (a beautiful hand-crafted easel made by my talented husband by the way). But in the last year I've shifted to smaller canvases and more mixed media elements. I needed a dedicated flat surface to work on, and a dedicated area for printing and shipping prep. 

So I put my easel away (for now) and brought in a big long table to work at. It's really simple, but that's all I need. I'm working on getting everything organized now, and I'm thrilled to have all this surface space separated out from my design work area. At the same time there is some fear there too – making these changes means I'm moving closer to my goal. What if I'm not good enough? Well, we'll leave that thought for now and in the meantime I'll continue on, growing my passion and creating beauty! Next step is to do an inspired art evening with one of my great artist friends. There's plenty of room for two.

See photos of my studio before – http://redpearcreative.blogspot.ca/2012/10/my-cozy-attic-studio.html


Here's to taking small steps to overcome our fears and reach for our dreams! Every little step adds up. What are you working on? Leave me a comment below and tell me about it.

p.s. check out more posts on the topic of fear, from other creatives in the "fearless fridays" blog group: