Paint and color your world!

Paint and Color Your World (even if you aren't an artist.)

This is how writer and mindset coach,Tobi Camilli's, guest post starts. I'm so glad to have her write about color here! I think you will find the post fun and inspiring.

 

For me, when I think about color, I'm always reminded of my mother and her paintings. Growing up, she was always working on one painting or another. I seriously cannot remember a time when my mother wasn't painting or teaching others how to paint. Watching her paint always amazed me and still does to this day. Back then, I could spend hours watching her take blank canvases in her little studio and turn them into amazing works of great art.

She'd dip her paintbrush into the water and then swirl it onto her palette among the paints.The paints were the magic yet her palette always held a jumbled mess of blobs of blues and greens, reds, yellows, pinks, purples, some bright, some muted. I always wondered how she picked the colors and knew when they were ready for her canvas, and I was convinced she had some magic power. Her paintbrush was her magic wand.

I'm still amazed by painters. How do they know what colors to use? Why do they pick the colors they do? When do they know they have mixed the correct color? How do they decipher the mess on their palette and find the exact right and proper magic color for their painting?

As I've gotten older and been studying the Law of Attraction, I realize now that painters and the act of painting actually is the Law of Attraction in action. When a painter starts a painting and they start mixing the colors for it, they have an idea in their head. All paintings begin within the artist's mind.

They visualize their subject. For my mom, it's flowers.  She starts to picture the perfect colors for that subject. The perfect blue or orange or red or pink or...?

Once they have the concept they mix the paint, slowly or furiously, and then the magic begins. I believe there is real magic in the action of placing it on the canvas. They express their particular energy through the paint colors.

So what does that mean for the rest of us? What can we learn from artists like my mom? How can we be like the magic painters and artists and take what's in our heads and bring it forth into our lives? What do we want? What do we see when we close our eyes and give ourselves permission to dream? What colors do we see or use and how do we mix our paints to color our world even if we aren't artists?

We start with our own picture. Our picture is our dream. What do we want our life to be like? Where do we live? Who are we with? What do we want? How detailed can we be with our vision? Is our dream blurry? Take some time and think about that for a minute. Seriously. Close your eyes and let your imagination and spirit guide you.

Second, what do we color our dream with? How do we mix and find the perfect colors of paint?

Since we don't have paint, we use our thoughts and our actions to color our world.

What we do everyday. How we behave. How we live.

Are we living in a way that supports and nurtures our dream, our picture, our vision? What do we think about everyday? Are those thoughts supportive and nurturing of our vision? These are our paint and the colors we choose and attract into our lives.

I believe we are all artists and creators of our lives. Our lives are our canvas, every one of them unique and beautiful.

We can choose to paint a beautiful life full of fun, happiness, and joy..or the opposite. The colors and paint we use to create our lives are our thoughts, behavior, and commitment to ourselves. 

We attract the paint for our unique vision and dream with our thoughts, desires and wants.

So spend some time today with your eyes closed and dream of the perfect picture you want your life to be like. Paint that picture with your actions and thoughts.

We are all artists. 

Indeed we are. Paint your life bright with happiness! You can check out Tobi's blog HERE.

She is also offering a cool online e-course titled COLOR YOUR DREAM, color mindset training. CLICK HERE for more info. 

Thank you, Tobi, for your guest post! 

xo

Maria 

Now what?

I have been really busy and accomplished a lot these last few months. I created three full size e-courses and had a lot of fun creating them, but now what?

I have learned a lot in life and I felt a need to share my knowledge. It's kind of a mix of things, but I can't help that I have many passions in life. You can check out the offerings HERE. 

There are some freebies to download as well.

It feels a bit like an anti-climax to have gotten this far, and I'm grateful that I had the stamina to push through. I ask myself if the offerings truly are my passion. They have been for sure, for many years. Now that I have shared them, I'm not sure what the next step will be. I'd like to try something else, focus more on my art. Maybe move more deeply into the art expression since there is so much to explore.

Feeling like I'm in limbo at the moment. I like to take action, so not seeing the next move is not something I like. However, I have created some art lately, a tried-and-true polymer mosaic box. Once in a while I get inspired to make one.

I enjoy the process very much as long as I don't have to make them on an assembly line.

I experimented with a muted art journal page. Got a mixed media background going with some decorative papers and stamps. I drew a face with a charcoal pen, and I liked the effect. I usually paint with lots of color so this was something different.

Picture complete with Bailey the cat. He always spreads out on my work table...

I'm going to have to wait and see what kind of inspiration strikes next. Maybe it will strike in a new direction or be calling me to more creative depths.

Hope you're having a great day. Would you share what you're working on?

xo

Maria

P.S. if you'd like some more art news, sign up for my newsletter HERE.

Art journaling and some background techniques

Hello lovelies,

I have been doing some art journaling lately, experimenting with a lot of background techniques, which is fun. It's an adventure since you don't know how it will turn out. Art is very forgiving so usually everything turns out ok in the end.

In the two pictures below, I wet my heavy duty journal paper thoroughly with water. Then I used very diluted acrylic paints and dripped them on the water-logged paper. The paints spread in a nice, sometimes subtle way. You can use any craft paints or finer art paints as long as they can be diluted with water. Watercolor paints would work well if you want a more diluted and subtle background.

This is another version on my freebie art tutorial Star Angel. You can get that tutorial HERE.

In the one above, you can really see the background variations. Lots of fun. :)

The one above is a faux crinkled leather background. I used medium spread liberally across the paper, and then I glued tissue paper over it. It's important to crinkle the tissue paper into a ball in your hand, and then spread out the wrinkled paper on the medium. Let dry thoroughly, and paint whatever colors you like. I used some raw umber on my fingertip to brush over the ridges as a last coat to make the creasing more dramatic.

Fantasy flowers on top of decorative paper, which was glued down in my journal.

Just for fun!  Grow wild and free. Hell yeah!!!

What are you working on today?

Please share in the comments.

...because Life happens NOW!

xo

Maria

PS. If you're interested in an art journaling ecourse, please check out my Visionary Art Journaling with the six senses HERE.

For a free mixed media tutorial, sign up for my newsletter HERE.