Monday, October 17, 2011

Your Creative Genius

The world will miss the creative genius of Steve Jobs -- he certainly showed us his genius and our world became a better place -- everyone has been touched in some way by the products that he invented!  And, he will be remembered -- forever!
We all have a creative genius inside us.  When we listen to our Higher Self and create from our own super powers -- who knows what greatness we will create.  
As Raymond Aaron states  is his book, “Double Your Income Doing What You Love”, we all have a SuperStar inside us -- it is up to us to go and find it!”  And then go out in the world and share it.  You can actually download his book for free right on the internet -- it is a great book!
Our time here on this planet seems to just fly by -- so today is a great day, to sit and meditate and think about your own Creative Genius and have fun showing it to our world.
Make this day the Best Day of Your Life!

"The Garden"
16 x 12 Oil on Board
Donation to Gabriel's Angels
Pets Helping Kids

Friday, October 14, 2011

Fall Cleaning

Fall Cleaning!
It is Friday and my lesson to myself is to be organized.  Yes, organized -- well, sort of organized.  It is time to clean out my studio, and even more importantly, my paints and old brushes that I have been hanging on to.
I throw away more paint than most people use -- I have a large glass palette and I like to use a lot of different colors -- and, I usually add a new color just for the fun of it.
When I am painting, I don’t like to take time out to put more paint on the palette, so when I run out of a color, I tend to throw the tubes (without the caps on) on top of my palette - I am in a hurry and I am painting -- I certainly don’t have time to stop and put the cap on the paint and put it back into the drawer -- so I throw them on the corner of my palette.  And when the pile gets too high, I throw them in boxes.  When I am creating, I can't stop and organize!!!  I am in the moment and want to stay there!!!
If you do not have a tube wringer -- run out and get one -- get the metal ones as they will last forever.  This saves you a lot of money on paints.  And when they get down to the very bottom of the tube, I cut the bottom off and squeeze the daylights out of the rest of the tube!  This is similar to what Wayne Dyer does to his family’s toothpaste -- he talks about squeezing out every last drop!
And, thus, there are lots of remnants of paint tubes that have been sitting around in my studio, which when I clean my palette, I throw in  boxes!  These are great paints, some are very expensive, and some are not.  Needless to say, I am not throwing them out!   Sooooo -- I have decided that I have to use up all of these paints before I purchase any more colors -- except for the cadmium yellows and reds!

Now, just in case you don’t think that I am organized -- well, in some ways I am.  I keep my paints stored in bins and marked with colors.  I usually buy my paints in bulk; however, this past year, I have only been buying them a few tubes at a time at the local art store, Arizona Art.

And, although these drawers, which are directly under my palette, presently look messy -- they are actually color-catagorized -- and I will be cleaning them up too!  Yikes -- looks like there is some major cleaning happening here!

This is indeed a challenge for me -- an economical challenge -- and a painter’s challenge.  You can email me your ideas -- mine is to pull several tubes out of the boxes each day and put them on my palette and use them -- I have already started and have found some colors that are magnificent to use and mix with my other colors.  
Let’s see how this translates into my paintings -- I am sure that this challenge will be fun and with the money that I save not buying more paints, well, I guess a good bottle of wine will do!
The challenge is on!
Next week, I am going to clean my garage!