Concept Development

Autumn is the time to gather ideas for winter creativity

| Patricia

“The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In countries like Canada, the winter can be an inhospitable environment for plein air artists and writers who take inspiration from nature.

Whether you hike on a forest trail, walk to the local park or snap pics of colour in your own backyard, now is the time collect images to use through the winter as inspiration for making art.

You may choose to take your paints on your hike and create colour studies en plein air air. (en plein air is a French expression that means in the open air or outdoors, to describe the act of painting outside on location.)

Images can be colour corrected on your computer or tablet and reflected on to a large tv screen as inspiration on days when the icy winds are blowing in January. Writers can also find that images work as inspiration for writing a verse or describing a scene.

How do you like to work during the long, cold winter months? Do you brave the temperatures and go out on location, perhaps finding a sunny spot out of the wind, or do you prefer to work with photographs or rough sketches captured in your travelling sketchbook? Or both? Do you have an unusual process that others might try? Please leave a comment. Thank you for reading.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

What will YOU do with YOUR 168 hours?

| Patricia

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

What if one week, 168 hours, was all that was left of your life. What would you do differently than you are doing now? Are there amends you would make with estranged family or friends?

Would you spend it hiking a well-worn trail through an old-growth forest? Compose an opus for the generations, paint a masterpiece or write a biography of your life and times? Would you teach a language or craft to underprivileged youth, or perhaps volunteer to work in a food bank?

Much has been written about the impermanence of life. Love ballads, songs of sorrow for missing times and people. Grand epics, from The Lord of the Rings to Asimov’s Robot series; Shakespeare’s Othello to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

The saying “youth is wasted on the young” may be true in the respect that we have no foreknowledge of the impermanence of life when we are becoming who we are, whether it is who we are ‘meant’ to be or who we become as a consequence of our life experiences.

Jot your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading.


All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.



Goodbye Summer Segmented Landscape 8.25.2026

| Patricia

“August is like the Sunday of summer.” — Unknown 

GOODBYE SUMMER: As summer winds down, the fields are filled with wildflowers and dandelions morphing into cottony white feathers that disperse like a swarm of butterflies riding on the wind.

Lately I have enjoyed creating NatureScapes with various elements contained within their individual segments. It’s like a way to honour the feature by calling attention to it on its own.

WET WEATHER AHEAD: Ontario’s fall 2026 weather forecast, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, predicts a cooler, wetter September and October for southern Ontario with above-average rainfall. Chilly weather is expected to hit during the last week of September. So, fellow Ontarians, get out there and enjoy the waning days of Summer and dig out your boots and slickers for the coming deluge.

HOW HAS YOUR SUMMER BEEN? What is your favourite spot to sit outdoors and ruminate on life, love and all living things? Put your thoughts in the comment section. Many thanks for reading.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Modern Technology: A Not So New Paradigm for Creating Art

| Patricia

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Modern Art 2022

I resisted creating digital art for a long time. I was wrestling with whether it was ‘real’ art if actual materials were not used. For example: paint (acrylic, gouache, watercolour), pastels (soft and oil), graphite, coloured pencils, as well as other materials.

Although I still mostly work in analogue art (click links to see a couple examples: link, link, link), as arthritis worsens in my hands and arms, I might work digitally. At times creating concepts to be reproduced later with brush, paint and other materials.

I created this 2022 screenshot of some of the devices I utilized (iMac not pictured) to try out concepts as well as to create fully digital works. Note: a flat-bed scanner is also a useful tool for incorporating analogue work.

Procreate is one of the applications I find most useful, along with Adobe Fresco and, for a time, the Affinity Suite of apps, though I have not used them since they added ai (artificial intelligence). Call me old-fashioned but I want my art to be my work and mine alone, not taken from other artists without their permission. I ran a design agency for many years and we took copyright issues seriously. Nothing has changed in my attitude to using work that is someone else’s, without payment and/or attribution.

Thanks for reading.
How do you like to work with new tools?

Leave a message in the comments.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Strokes of Paint Define the Artist’s Story

| Patricia

“That a work of creation struggles and insistently demands to be brought into being is a fact that no genuine artist would think of denying.” ~    Dorothy L. Sayers, Author

What happens when a painter or writer or other creative person sits down to work?

Does she know what the end objective will be or is it an exploration into the unknown?

Does the sculptor look at the lump of clay before him and envision the finished work?

For me, in these later stages of my lifetime of creating art, I tend to sit down with materials spread around me, zero in on something that catches my eye or my imagination—a paint colour, a shape, a few words or a snippet of verse that pops into my head—and I begin. I try not to censor any idea at this point, allowing all zaps of inspiration to take their place in the beginning lineup of inspiration.

After all, what is there to lose? A bit of time? A few materials? For me, the experience is the thing, the equity, the purpose of the entire process of creating something that wasn’t there before I started.

The verse included in today’s post came all at once with only a few improvements made after the fact. I popped the text over a digital watercolour I painted months ago to create this piece.

What is your creative process? Please add your thoughts to the comment section.
Thank you for reading this post.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Hey, There Lonely Girl / Lonely Boy

| Patricia

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” Maya Angelou, Poet

A few weeks ago I happened to hear this old song, from the late 60s, and it conjured memories of listening to records on my parents’ combination tv, radio and hifi record player, sitting on the floor shuffling through their collection of LPs, 78 and 45 rpms.

“Hey There Lonely Girl” released in 1969, by Eddie Holman, was an adaptation of the 1963 hit “Hey There Lonely Boy” by Ruby & the Romantics.

Holman, who earned a degree in music from the Victoria College of Music, trained his voice to move smoothly between chest voice and falsetto as demonstrated in this song.

Additional information.

Do you have a song that elicits memories? Drop a comment below.


All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

The Night the Artist’s Tools Took Over the Studio

| Patricia

An Anthropomorphized Tale – After hours artist’s materials do their own thing.

The Artist had left the studio for the day. Her materials breathed a sigh of relief. Their workday was finally over and it was time to  play.  

The micron ink pens wiggled their way out of the package and rolled across the table toward the drawing pad. “What will it be tonight?” the .30mm asked. “How about a nice linear seascape” the rigger brush suggested. So it was that the ink pens sprung into action and sketched an outline of a simple linear landscape. First, drawing a rectangular box, wider than deep, then the outlines of rolling hills and striated clouds, along with a round orb hovering on the horizon. Standing back, hands on ‘hips’ they surveyed their work. “It’s a good start” an older stub of a graphite pencil said, balancing on his almost used-to-the-rim eraser. 

Next the watercolour box flipped open and the number six rigger brush jumped into action. First wetting its long hairs in a jar of water and then, rolling itself in a pan of colour, mixing up a warm teal and a light turquoise. The brush then deposited light layers of colour inside the inked-in lines. The painting tools finished up with some shading in the sea and sky sections and dabbed on a yellow-orange wash in the sun shape.  

Then the pens and brushes stepped back and admired their work. “Won’t the mistress be surprised in the morning” cooed one young liner in her high squeaky voice. “Hah, she will likely think she painted it and just forgot, the dolt” boomed the ancient, and well-used, 1” Aquarelle, to howls of laughter. ~ Patricia White (the dolt in question), July 5, 2026.

I hope you enjoyed this fanciful vision of art materials feeling the need to bust out of their servitude to the whims of the artist.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Scribble Tree – Daily Concept Fresco Sketch

| Patricia

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ~ Chinese Proverb


Just a quick little scribble that turned into a wee tree.

With summer hitting its stride here in Southern Ontario, Canada, my thoughts turn to the abundant greenery surrounding our home in a tiny corner of the city. It feels like we are living in the country again, only here we have sidewalks, LOL.

Trees are integral to life. They absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. Our city was built on the steel industry. it is also one of the greenest cities in the province. We must work to protect the trees. Thanks for reading.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.