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Art Shows

Arts of the Mountain

Photo graph of Autumn Powers standing in her art tent, surrounding by her art.

Meet me at the Silver Lake Grange this coming weekend for some art and music!

If you are currently in Washington State or willing to make a trip, then you might want to consider the Arts for the Mountain Art & Music Festival.

I will be there in my cozy art tent showcasing my work for purchase. Many of my birds will be for sale, in addition to a few more recent ballpoint pen pieces. Not only will be I offering prints, but I will have stickers, magnets and few of my books on hand for sale.

So, if you are in the area or willing to take a day trip to a beautiful part of the region, be sure to stop by and say hello!

As always, your support of my art journey means the world!

-Autumn

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 2

Hope you alleviated some possible jitters by doodling a word in your sketchbook and no longer is it a book with blank pages. After Day 1, you have declared you are serious and you are going to make some marks! Those trees will not go to waste. 

Here we go for Day 2: Draw your art supplies!

Draw what you are using in your sketchbook to mark the page. These supplies can be the “right-now” supplies or ones you intend to use later on. Or, Heck! You can draw ones that you are too afraid to use, the ones that you find intimidating. Add some horns and pointy teeth to those ones. 

Draw them once, twice, or multiple times until you you fill the page. Sometimes, by repeating one thing, you can make a pretty cool pattern on the page that you may want to improve upon for a finished art piece later on. 

You never know what ideas and finished art pieces can come from simply keeping a sketchbook. 

Remember, please feel free to comment on this post or in the Facebook group your work, questions, or A-HA! moments.

Happy drawing!

Autumn

Categories
January Sketchbook Challenge

Art Supplies

So many art supplies to choose from…Yes, there sure are! 

I suggest keeping things simple. I believe in the inspirational powers of limitation. You don’t need the fanciest of supplies out there to get started and to make art. If you think you do, then, I will tell you right now, that’s just an excuse. And you don’t need another excuse to keep you from creating.

Now later on, you might want to splurge on quality watercolor paper or an expensive ink pen that delivers precise lines in just the right way. I won’t tell you that you won’t notice a difference in the end result. You will, especially when it comes to watercolor paper. But, for the every day sketching and learning, you don’t need to shell out the hard-earned coin for anything special. 

For the month of January, I will be limiting myself to the use of pencil and ink pen. My intention is to get better with line drawings, so I will be using this 31-day challenge to practice with only these tools. I imagine that after 31 days of drawing daily with pencil and pen, I should learn something knew and gain a bit more control of using them. 

So, when it comes to choosing art supplies for this challenge, think about limiting yourself. Maybe you will do 31 days of drawing with colored pencils or maybe even using crayons. Perhaps you want to have the option of combining a few items to see what you can do. And then there are those who don’t need to limit themselves at all. 

Go for it. But whatever you choose for supplies, make it something that is meaningful for you. Choose something that you are curious about using.

I would love to hear in the comments what supplies you will choose during this month!

– Autumn

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Uncategorized

Intuitive Sketching

As an elementary school teacher, I make a multitude of decisions every hour, every minute and, seemingly, every two seconds. I spend my day reacting and responding, attempting to analyze and judge every decision I make in hopes of an improved outcome. Needless to say, when the end of the day comes, I’m tapped. I’m exhausted. Even deciding what I want to eat for dinner seems laborious. I don’t want to make any more decisions. I just want to be. My guess is that you don’t need to be a teacher to know this feeling.

When it comes to art, depending on the project, sometimes I don’t want to dwell in my thinking and judging brain. I want to dwell and create via my intuition and instinct. I need this balance, especially when I show up to my studio needing and wanting to create. I believe it’s important for fostering creativity.

If I am working on a book or commissioned piece, I tend to work with much more intention and from within that place of thinking and judging. I love this work. I love solving creative problems through the thinking and the judging. But, it is also important to give myself a break from this place.

So, at times, I will pull out a pad of paper, a sketchbook, the first tin or pouch of materials I find, and just go for it. I don’t think. I work from a flicker of inspiration and simply start.

I don’t plan. I just do. I scribble with charcoal. I make marks with a pencil. I fling and splash paint. It’s a time to be messy. And, I don’t erase. I rely on my intuition to start making marks and I rely on my instincts to form them into some image on the paper. I honestly don’t know how it will turn out. Sometimes it’s garbage. Sometimes it’s a piece that shocks me, making me question as to whether I actually did create it.

Working from an intuitive place is not only inspiring and freeing, but also healing. It’s a time I practice trusting my abilities, trusting my inner voice, trusting that my hands and fingers will work in sync with that intuition. It’s a time I learn how to rely upon and trust my abilities a little more, which I otherwise question and doubt daily.

I practice making quick decisions and don’t worry about what the final outcome will be. I don’t judge it. I just act. I just do. It is an absolutely freeing moment that is necessary in order to gain balance back in my life. I think we could all use more balance between thinking/judging and instinct/intuition. I think we could all gain from learning how to trust that which is, and always will be, within us.

In fact, I believe very strongly that in order to be a creative, you must practice trusting your inner voice equally as much as learning how to reflect and analyze your work deeply. Lose the fear. Lose the need to control every decision. Too much of that attempt to control will zap creativity. At least, it does for me.

Now, the next step would be to share those pieces born from instinct and intuition with all of you. So here’s to the next step!

The Polar Bear Cub Series you see in this post were all made from the gut, the intuition, from being in the moment. Each piece was created in less than 30 minutes, on 18 x 24 mixed media paper. I even left the original pencil marks on the page. I worked fast and put down paint in a messy manner. Working on large paper forces me to rely on instinct by making larger marks and brush strokes. My instincts guided my decision when adding paint and layering color. It is frightening for me to post these publicly. But, I know, it will be equally freeing and healing to do so.

We need to sit with our intuition more often, tapping into that mysterious inner voice that is responsible for creating. We need to learn how to trust that inner voice. We ALL dismiss it far too much and far too often.

How can you practice using your intuition today? And in what way can you make space to rely on your instincts?

Happy creating!
Autumn