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How to motivate yourself to create
This morning I ended up showing to my dad the art of other students I had been in the same art classes. Particularly I really like the recent series of Jarrod Bai who has done some nocturne paintings in oil. Then I also told him about the pencil work of Leo whose work I also…
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A jolt of inspiration
I just had a moment waking up at midnight and after my brain had processed a new idea for my next painting in my Reminders for Everyday Living series. It’s like riding a wave. You wake up, have a burning itch to create. If you don’t act quickly enough, that sheer pull to the blank…
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The last checks
This morning I had to do my last checks in prep for the Queen West Art Crawl. It always paid to double check things rather than assume things were set up properly as I had left them from my last art show. This morning, I discovered my Square reader didn’t seem to turn on. I…
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New things to think about for an outdoor art exhibit
I finally finished up my last prints and cards for my upcoming Queen West Art Crawl 2025 exhibit. I’ve previously written about all the takeaways from my first exhibit here and there are things I’ve thought about the second time around that are changes from my previous time. So there you have it, the next…
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Ergonomics of Doing Art
While doing the arduous task of cutting around 60 matboards for my limited edition prints and original works, I thought about little tweaks to make it slightly less taxing on the body. Putting items at waist height so I wouldn’t be bending over, or being mindful of where I was putting my clamps every time…
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Setting up a Small Art Business
Last weekend, I discovered that I was unable to use the online print functions at where I would usually do my limited edition prints. It meant a bit of panicking and then finding a new place for printing. Fortunately, I got my prints I intended to make, and in fact at a lower cost, so…
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GIMP Frustrations
I realized this morning that I had not sent a “Save the date” around yet, and so I decided to open up GIMP and get to it finally. For those who don’t know, GIMP is a free open source software that edits illustrations, like Photoshop. The Queen West Art Crawl sends out their social media…
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Returning to Queen West Art Crawl
I’ll be returning to the Queen West Art Crawl, on Saturday September 20 to Sunday September 21 2025. I exhibited there at back in my first year in 2023. I haven’t received yet the package of where my booth will be but will be very happy to announce it when it comes out. It means…
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The value of talking about your art
When I explained to someone how I was being tough on myself for not creating more art, I found that a key to getting back was talking about my previous ones to other people live. I got to share with her some of my paintings and got excited about what I made in the past.…
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Learning from the masters
I tried to do a few John Singer Sargent style watercolours to see if I would learn anything new. The first was the “Beaudoins”. What I found challenging was – well, I had not used enough of the canvas (considering the original was larger than mine) so getting the details was hard. But I did…
