Envy and coming up against challenges.

Do you ever feel envy and come up against challenges? I do at times, or quite often when it comes to challenges. As far as envy goes, I envy those who can stick to one style of art and be successful at it. They just keep on going with the same flowers or faces or whatever the motifs are, and they are happy. Envy is a tough word, but how can they find so much pleasure in just one style?

I get bored easily, and I don't know how many styles I've gone through in my days as an artist. A lifetime full of styles. Every day I'm faced with the challenge of what to create. I look at my recent art and think I should do another like it, but I can't make myself do it. Some are similar of course, but when it comes to painting, it's an onward and upward kind of scenario.

When I make crafts I can repeat myself endlessly. It's soothing and grounding, whereas painting sometimes is a battle of what the painting wants to be and what I think it should look like. The Great Battle of wills! Not so fun, but when the painting wins, I feel a lot of satisfaction because I could not have planned the end result.

I never plan my art journal spreads, and sometimes they are easy, sometimes hard. They turn out really crappy or really good, no balance there. :) I guess life is an endless exploration; that's how it's working out for me anyway.

Today I made a "grunge" art journal spread video. I had no plan except for using an old family photo as a starting point. I made a photo copy of the picture and went from there. You can check out the video below.

I hope you're having a wonderful, creative day! And if not, it's never too late to start... Life is an exploration after all, and it happens NOW.

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xo,

Maria

Art journaling background video.

Hi gorgeous artists,

I created a wee video about how to make an art journal page background using water, paint, and alcohol. I love the effect of the blended materials. Check it out for some inspiration. :) 

Fun and inspiring art journaling video...

I had this idea to make an art journaling video with a photocopy of my selfie and applying a whole page of positive affirmations.  As artists we are often way too hard on ourselves, so why not get in a really good mood via some affirmations to uplift us?!

Have fun creating today! :)  Let me know in the comments what you thought of the video, please.  If you'd like to join my newsletter, please click HERE.

Art by some of my favorite artists...

Who is your favorite artist, or type of art?

I have a long list of favorite artists, but you would have to spend a week reading this post, so I will keep it short and sweet.  Lately I have been doing a lot of art journaling and mixed media.  Everything seems to go in cycles, so acrylic paintings could be next.  Here are some of my favorite artists:

Iris Fritschi-Cussens lives in London, England.

There is a tutorial on how to make this lovely image on her website.  She also has lots of fabulous how-to videos.  Check out her website HERE.

Another favorite is Christina Colwell in Oregon.  I love her whimsical style and happy colors!  

You can check out her Facebook art page HERE.

Tracy Verdugo is from Australia.  I love it that you can find artists from all over the world via the Internet!  She is teaching a really cool ecourse starting on September 24.

Check out her Facebook art page HERE.

Tamara Laporte has a massive blog hop going.  Check out all the wonderful art.

This picture is by Jane Davenport.  She is part of the blog hop and ecourse:

This looks like a really cool course.  Lots of great teachers involved. 

Check out Tamara's Facebook page HERE.

More about the Life Book course HERE.

Willowing and Friends community page on Facebook, HERE.

Those are just a few of my favorites.  I'm a huge fan of Flora Bowley too. Here's a short 

video of her by Zipporah.  Click HERE.

Who gives you inspiration, or nudges to keep on going with your art?  Please comment 

and share.  :)  Have a great day full of inspiration!