Positively Inspired

The orange, red and yellow fall leaves have mostly cascaded to the frozen ground, but the colours of fall have positively inspired my recent works of art.

Inspiration has also filled my artistic heart from other places as well.  In October, I was fortunate to attend the Alberta Teachers' Association Fine Arts Council Conference, where I spent two whole days drawing Zentangles, painting Chinese Brush techniques, visual journaling, and creating mixed media collages.  It was so stimulating being around like minded intelligent people willing to question the current education trends and offer innovative ideas to stimulate the young minds of our students.  The keynote speaker challenged us to think about the following statement, "Focus on the things the students do well and their shortcomings will soon disappear!"  Isn't this something we should do with everyone we know?  When I arrived home after the convention, I spent the entire evening and the next day experimenting with the techniques I learned and the new art supplies I bought!

While at the conference, I bought a book of quotes from the hotel's gift shop.  I copied them into my art journal.  Can you find a quote that is similar to the keynote speaker's quote?  Quite a coincidence, huh?

I decided to take the plunge and volunteer to be the co-editor of  the Fine Arts Council journal called A Fine Facta.  Now I am on the look out for art lessons, articles, journal prompts, innovative artists, and professional articles on art, dance, music and drama.  Who knew?

One of the little pieces that I created in the workshop is up for auction at my my son's football fundraiser.  I will let you know at the end of the week what the outcome is.

Journal Fodder 365, Daily Doses of  Inspiration for the Art Addict written by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler, has also stimulated my creative juices to flow.  I have created a series of fun watercolour cards consisting of random lines and basic shapes.  Watercolour designs and colour can also be discovered on the inside of the cards, on the envelopes and the back of the cards.  This is so addicting, I am planning on painting some Christmas cards in a similar technique!

The cards can be embellished with text.  Here are two cards that I gave to my son for his 16th birthday and my mom's 65th birthday.  I added adjectives to the front to celebrate their positives!

I have also been altering an old Nancy Drew book that I recently purchased at a garage sale for $0.25.  I read the book first, of course, then began to remove some of the pages, keeping the ones with illustrations, painting gesso on the remaining pages, gluing in old patterns and various pieces from old experiments, and painting backgrounds.  Now the extra fun part has begun, the journaling and embellishing.

I still have many photographs to share from the summer.  Can you believe winter has almost pushed autumn out and Christmas is a month away from tomorrow?

As I was sitting at my art table today, looking out my large patio door, I was further inspired by all of the variety of birds visiting my bird feeders.  I was impressed with how the different species share the food.  At one time there were red poles, chickadees and a downy woodpecker all chowing down. At other times, a blue jay and little house wrens.  What a positively amazing world we have!  Nature sure can be a positive role model and inspiration for us!

Fall colours have positively inspired me lately. What have you been positively inspired by?

If you see anything you like, 

please leave a compliment.  

If you would like me to create

 some art for you, 

or you would like to purchase

 any of my photos

contact me

 at

dowling@shockware.com