Finding Routine

This year I am determined to find a routine that works for me. A flexible routine because I always need space for changes and spontaneity. 

Love is Kind
Acrylics on 11 x 14 inch canvas

Available. Click here. 

Part of that has been trying to figure how to blog, when to blog and most importantly how often.

When I first started my blog, that was all there was. I'd do a little art (not quite daily) and I'd blog (daily). Now, six years later that has changed dramatically!

Now I spend most of my day - every day - painting. And I'm very active on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to get my art out there and seen (and to connect with all my friends). Plus, I have an Etsy shop, an Artfinder Gallery Store, a Society6 shop and my new website to maintain and keep fresh, which takes a good bit of time. And then there's the rest of life...

Instead of always feeling like I'm neglecting my blog, I decided I will post every Friday. If I have art to show I'll link to Paint Party Friday, my favorite art blog hop!

The more creative my life becomes, the more I find I am in need of a little structure that gives it all a good framework so I have time and energy for everything I want to do! And I seem to be figuring it out!

Do you need a little bit of a routine? What works well for you?

Linking to the wonderful and inspiring Paint Party Friday.

With lots of love and light on this gloomy first day of Spring!

❧ Silke

Arguments with my Inner Voice

Does your intuition or inner muse talk to you? I recently discovered that mine does. In form of thoughts that won't let me go. It's a very persistent inner voice. And sometimes downright annoying....

Gentle Eyes
acrylics on 11 x 14 inch canvas
Available here.

Here's what happened with this painting.

I had it to this point and decided it was finished. I even put it on Facebook and listed it in my shop.

Inner Voice: "It's not finished."
Me: "Yes, it is!"
Inner Voice: "It needs more. Here, I'll send a picture to your mind."
Me: "No, I decided it's finished."
Inner Voice: "It's not finished yet."
Me: "I can't hear you!!!"

Later that day, Daniel got home. I showed the cow to him. His response? "Is it finished? It doesn't look quite finished to me." Me: "Ok, I give up. It's not finished."

So, I painted the decorative items around the cow that I had seen in my mind the day before. 

I looked at it and thought, well, that's nice. I wonder if that's it.

Inner Voice: "Yellow"
Me: "No, not yellow."
Inner Voice: "Yellow."
Me: "No, I like it white."
Inner Voice: "I'm telling you, yellow. Listen to me."
Me (almost sulking): "Ok, let's try yellow."

Me: "Wow, that's yellow! Are you sure about that?"

Inner Voice: "Sandpaper."

Me: "What?! Sandpaper? Are you kidding me?!" 

Inner Voice: "Sandpaper. Go get some." 

Me: "Really? Sandpaper?" 

Inner Voice: "Sandpaper. NOW."

So, I went to the garage to rummage around and find some sandpaper.

And I sanded my cow.

And you know what? My inner voice was right. The cow hadn't been finished before. Yellow was a good choice for warmth and the sandpaper was an excellent idea to make it all look a little textured and less intense.

The moral of the story? I don't take direction well..... (Never have and probably never will.)

Linking this to a fabulous creative blog hop over at the talented Veronica Roth's blog.
And to the always fun Paint Party Friday.
And, because cows and inner voices are "strong" (this week's theme) to Illustration Friday.

❧ Silke

Painting in Layers

Layers! I love painting in layers. There is something so meaningful and mysterious about them.

My favorite Monkey
acrylics on 9 x 12 inch canvas

Much like us as humans, isn't it? We see who we are right now, but really if we were to peel back the complex layers of our lives, we could see everything that helped us be the person we are today. I'm sure I've written about this before, but I keep being reminded of it at this time in my life. All the layers are so necessary, even the ones we would like to wish away. I'm learning to embrace them and I'm certain that my painting process is helping me with that.

This painting started out simple with a few colors, some thin washes and some paintbrush doodling over top. I did not like the painting at this point - I didn't like the colors or the shapes very much, but i knew that they would contribute something to the whole painting. And I knew the final piece would look nothing like the beginning.

I kept doodling, this time with red and teal and still wasn't thrilled, but it was starting to show some depth, which I always like. As soon as there is depth, my subconscious gets engaged and starts looking at the shapes to figure out into what they might evolve.

Then I did something I never do (and this is almost too sappy for me to show you here), but I was thinking that this was going to be a gift for Daniel and so I wrote some words...

... and quickly covered them up.  :) Another layer that would not be visible, but still add to the painting!

Finally, I added a few drips. Those I always love - they are somewhat controlled but also quite unpredictable. Sort of like everything in life - you make a plan and then you watch as it unfolds. Hardly ever as you had planned, but often so much better than you imagined.

And finally My Favorite Monkey for my favorite monkey. :) Daniel loves monkeys and I when I "saw" it in the layers, I thought it would be a perfect gift!

Ramses approves! Which is very important!

Are you having a good day? Did you have a good weekend? My friends up north - are you thawing out? I hope everybody's week is off to a creative and fun start!!

Lots of love!

❧ Silke
P.S. If you haven't done so yet, click on the link for my new website in my sidebar. And - if you feel so inspired - sign up for my newsletter. The first one will come out in March...just as soon as I figure out how to create them. :) 

Color on a rainy November day

Why is it that when life is gearing up to be very busy, all I suddenly want to do is paint?!?

Oh well, it's ok with me, especially when the result is such an intense wolf face! Love it!! He looks straight into my soul it seems.

This following week is going to be busy and so much fun. We are getting ready for Thanksgiving, my very favorite american holiday and then for family coming to visit.

And the week after we are all leaving together to cruise the Caribbean for a while. I can't wait!! But it's still more than week before that happens and there's much to do to get the house ready for our house/pet sitter.

And there's still more to paint! I have another one in the works as I'm writing this. I might even get it finished today... The next one is less intense and more playful again.

And here...drumroll please...are my new business cards! I love them!! These are from moo.com and they do such a great job.

I leave you with a wish for a color-filled week for you! If you celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy this time of family, friends and abundant food. And if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, still enjoy your family, friends and abundant food.

With much love and gratitude,

❧ Silke

Garden Excitement and Giveaway

I've been looking every day for many days and I finally spied them:

Tiny monarch butterfly caterpillars. We plant the milkweed only for the monarch butterflies because that's where they like to lay there eggs and that's what their caterpillars like to eat. This is so exciting!!

Also exciting, but in a different way was the morning "our" giant spider caught a big moth. I felt so bad for the moth, but I'd feel just as bad if a bird ate this beautiful spider, which is getting bigger and bigger. She must be ready to lay her eggs soon...

All this butterfly/moth action inspired this painting, which is relatively small, but took a long time to come together. Finally, I detached from the outcome and just enjoyed the process and - voilà - it suddenly worked!

I decided to give it away and have a giveaway both here and on my Facebook Page. You just need to enter once - either leave a comment here or on Facebook. I'm keeping this really simple.

I'll draw the winner on Thursday, August 21 after 9 p.m. my time. Or thereabouts... :)

I hope you are having a fantastic start to your week. I'm hoping to get a good bit of painting done!

❧ Silke

Color me Happy!

Bright colors make me very happy!

As does this fat little squirrel.

It's loosely based on a  photo my sister took when she was visiting of a fat squirrel in our backyard.

I love the expression on the face. It could be a really sweet squirrel or ... it could have shenanigans on it's mind...

In any case, it's fun and it's available in my Etsy shop!

Until it finds its new home, it'll live on our fireplace mantel and make me smile...

Linking to:

Paint Party Friday

P.S. I just went to PPF to link up and saw that my toad was featured on this week's blog post. How exciting!! Go check it out if you want to... Thank you!!!!

❧ Silke

The Toad

Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile know that I love finding toads in our garden. Any kind of animal really that we don't see so often. I get most excited about snakes, then toads, lizards and frogs and then everything else. :) 

When I was a kid, I had a pet lizard for a while and named him Alexander. He was very tame. My dad had accidentally dug him up during winter and so I kept him and fed him all winter long and then let him be free again once it got warm enough. I might have to paint a lizard one of these days...

The photo above shows the colored background I played with for this.  Somehow while I was painting it, I kept seeing a toad in the finished piece. Maybe because we've been seeing so many baby toads around here...

And here it is. I love it!! Truly. I love everything about it. Not in the least the fact that I recycled an old canvas for this and bits and pieces of the previous painting are still showing through. Fun! 

The Toad
8 x 8 inch acrylic painting on canvas

I know I'm a day late, but I'm still linking to Paint Party Friday. Happy Painting!! 

And a wonderful weekend to you all!!

❧ Silke

A Surprising Direction

You know all that playing and experimenting I have done lately with abstract layering and acrylic inks? Well, I had a feeling something was percolating beneath the surface and it was.

First was the pig (click here if you missed it), which I shipped off to Norway yesterday and now it's cows that are making their appearance. Beautiful cows with their gentle eyes.

For the very first time since I started painting in 2009, I feel like I've found my very own voice. My very own style. And the subject matter is so dear to my heart.

Growing up I spent several summers working on farms, both small and big.  One of them had about 15 dairy cows and I loved them. I learned to milk them by hand and by machine, I drank their milk (the best I ever tasted), I learned how to herd them out to pasture and bring them back in and I helped with the birth of one of the calves one night. I named all of the cows and talked to them and scratched their heads every day.

But what I loved most of all where their intelligent and gentle eyes. Beautiful animals!!

Cows
30 x 30 inch acrylic on canvas

In my Etsy Shop.

I love this big painting! A lot!!

And the next painting is already in the works... Wishing you a beautiful and creative Tuesday!

With lots of love and gratitude,

❧ Silke

New Painting

Transformation
12 x 16 inch mixed media painting on canvas

This painting was a royal pain at times and a joy most of the time - especially when it finally came together. 

There are layers upon layers in this painting, and some of the layers were amazingly ugly. But I resisted the urge to gesso over it all again and just kept going.

Adding many more layers. Many more! Sometimes thinking I might never be done with it...

Finally this morning, I worked on it some more and thought I made a mistake. When I wiped it off, it left behind the most wonderful fluid color play. And it was done. Perfect to me!

There really are no mistakes, are there?! Sometimes they add the most beautiful layer yet.

I hope you all had a great weekend and start to your week.

We celebrated Daniel's birthday yesterday with lots of good food that got topped off with a pumpkin pie (you can find the most excellent recipe here), Daniel's choice of birthday cake! It was a good day!

Wishing you a beautiful Tuesday!

❧ Silke