Creative Inspiration

The Eco-Conscious Studio: Tiny 2” x 3.5” Acrylic Seascape

| Patricia

“Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known..” ~ Carl Sagan 

I have become more conscious of what I throw into the garbage and look for opportunities to repurpose found items when creating art. So, when cleaning out some office papers recently, and finding a bunch of business cards mounted on magnetic backing, plus having recently re-read The Big Book of Tiny Art by Karen Libecap, my art material hoarder brain said “hey, these would be cool for miniature paintings”. Two coats of gesso and a limited palette of acrylic tube paints and this little 2”x 3.5” seascape popped off my brush.


BELOW: When finishing a piece, I generally use up any paint left on my palette to make a number of textured washes that I use as bases to start new paintings, or for collagés. Some I scan and import into digital drawing apps to use as a starting point for digital works. Below are a couple quick texture sheets made from palette left overs of this tiny painting.This is just one small way of limiting the waste that goes into landfill.

Red Apple BG Wash
Blue Cloidscape Texture

Artwork Copyright Patricia White 2023.

concept development with MOLESKIN’S Flow App

| Patricia

In addition to my fine art work, I also do graphic illustration. So, I’m always looking for ways to quickly sketch out a concept or idea on my iPad Pro before it flits out of my head. These concepts are often used to provide direction for analogue works or digital brand development. Digital drawing apps, such as the native Apple Notes, or the newer Freeform apps also have sufficient drawing tools to scribble down a thought or image idea.

Ran across this concept from last year when I tried out the FLOW: SKETCH, DRAW, TAKE NOTES APP, which is part of the Moleskin Studio trio of applications, and found the tools to be quite good for marker rendering, pencil sketching, etc. The shape snapping feature was particularly useful for this quick concept. March 21, 2022

Check it out: Moleskin Studio

CREATIVE INSPIRATION: New book based on neuroaesthetics

| Patricia

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross

CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE IN THE WASHINGTON POST. IT STATES SO MANY THINGS I BELIEVE ABOUT ART. For me, art is a ‘MUST’ do activity. It keeps me CENTRED, expresses concepts or thoughts that otherwise may disappear into the ether. It KEEPS my AGING HANDS and brain dexterous. I create EVERY DAY. It may be a sketch, painting or other VISUAL art; or WRITING a chapter in a story or development of a new character; it may be slapping together a COLLÁGE from found materials; or knitting a row or two on a NEEDLEWORK project; it might be FOOD preparation or INVENTING a new vegan dish to sustain our health. I create for the FULFILLMENT of creating SOMETHING from NOTHING .

The author states that “Art is NOT a LUXURY for our downtime, but an important CONTRIBUTOR to physical and mental WELL-BEING”, says Susan Magsamen, co-author of an upcoming book on the new field of neuroaesthetics, which studies the brain’s responses to art. Book: This is Your Brain on Art – Penguin Books.

To Magsamen, founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, her artistic pursuits are ABOUT FAR MORE THAN HOBBIES. “I need it for my SOUL and my HEALTH and my SURVIVAL,” she says. “It’s not a NICE to have, it’s a HAVE to have.”

Art Books: One Drawing a Day – A 6-week Course

| Patricia

“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut

Years ago I purchased Veronica Lawlor’s book, One Drawing a Day – A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media. Coming across it again recently, I thought it would be a good addition to my current daily art-making regimen.

The author opens her book with this quote:

“The important thing is to do,
and nothing else; be what it may.”
~ Pablo Picasso

Thinking about Picasso’s statement, I felt an easing of the grip of creative block that’s been haunting me for months. It’s not what I make that is the most important consideration. It is the action of creating, even something I might consider sub-par, that is at the heart of any habit we want to establish.

As Andy Warhol said, “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

DAILY PAINTING 2.0

| Patricia

I never really got a solid start at Daily Painting a couple years back, but am giving it another try. I am slowly coming out of a creative slump and believe this practice will aid in my progress. Feel free to follow along, make your own daily art, write, sculpt, do woodwork, photography, create a recipe, make fibre art, sew—whatever floats your boat.

In her book DAILY PAINTING: Paint Small and Often to Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist, author Carol Marine noted that: “While the idea of painting every day may sound overwhelming, let me assure you, there are no specific rules or requirements. Really when I say you should paint “daily,” I mean you should paint “often”-but “Artists Who Paint Often” wasn’t catchy enough to jump-start a whole movement! Sure, the ideal might be that you paint every day, but not many of us can commit that much time to art, so we must settle for as often as we can. The daily-painting movement encompasses artists who paint daily, weekly, monthly, or intermittently. What ties these artists together, and qualifies them as “daily painters”? The simple fact that they strive to paint frequently, without getting bogged down by perfectionism, procrastination, or any of the myriad things that keep us out of the studio.‘

So. That is what I’ll endeavour to do—make art as often as possible on days where other daily concerns don’t get in the way. Will work mostly with analogue art materials (watercolour, gouache, acrylic, or oil paint, ink, pencil (graphite and/or coloured pencils), pastel (hard and/or soft), mixed media including collagé, et al, on canvas or paper). However, on days when time or arthritic pain is an issue, I will likely create digitally using my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil with apps like Procreate, Adobe, Affinity Photo for iPad and Mac and a some older apps such as Art Set, which I like for its realistic tools and for getting down concepts quickly.

Note: All original works posted in this blog are copyright Patricia White Creative.

THE big Book of Tiny Art: My First Try

| Patricia

A modern, inspirational guide to the to the art of the miniature by Karen Libecap

I’ve been reading a TON of art books these past months. This week it is THE BIG BOOK OF TINY ART by Karen Libecap.

CREATIVE EXPERIMENTS:

My 1st attempt at drawing MINIATURE ART.
Of course, it’s an APPLE, my subject of choice for the past few weeks, but this one is only 1” wide.

I generally work large so this was a unique challenge that forced me to pay attention to the smallest detail.

MATERIALS: Strathmore Mixed Media 300 Series sketchbook (https://is.gd/pJoFtf) using Derwent Coloursoft Pencils (https://is.gd/BKHilv). 

Artwork Copyright Patricia White, 2022.

Paint Like CÉZANNE

| Patricia

“Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations.”
– Paul Cezanne

Over the past months I have been reacquainting myself with many of the master artists of the past. Most of them came from traditional roots and many were ridiculed when they broke with tradition to explore other ways of looking at and depicting a subject. They are also the artists we revere the most all these generations later.

This is my quick study, working title ‘Paint Like Cézanne’

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.

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.

Daily painting – use it or lose it!

| Patricia

If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery. It wouldn’t seem so wonderful at ~ Michelangelo

This site is dedicated to maintaining a daily habit of making art. It may contain pages from my sketchbooks, examples from past work, experiments, conceptual ideas and inspirational influences. I may use analogue materials such as watercolour, oil, acrylic, pastel, coloured pencil, ink or pencil to create the artwork. Collagé, needlework, or found objects may also find their way into these works. 

As an artist working with the challenge of nerve damage in my arms and hands, there may be days when my works are painted digitally on my iPad Pro using various paint applications such as Procreate, Infinite Painter or Adobe Fresco. OR some works may be a combination of analogue and digital. Experimentation means the sky’s the limit. anything goes.