Art School
Art lessons for the traveler.
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Creative Art Lesson: Use Only ONE Color
When choosing to do an art project, we sometimes can get overwhelmed or feel the necessity to use all the “crayons” in the box- or all the colors we can, since, well, they are there! For this creative exercise, I actually challenge you to do the opposite, and only use ONE color when doing a drawing. Given I decided to draw icons or doodles of summer, I chose the color yellow. I have to admit, it was very hard to not want to go in to the drawing an embellish with more colors. Also, it was hard for me to not want to draw my swimming pool in blue (not…
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Portland Art Party: Design a Portland Food Truck
For my new Wanderlust Portland – A Creative Guide to the City book launch I had the best time getting together online with many of you for an art lesson/art party and coming up with an imaginative food cart celebrating Portland’s food truck scene! My favorite part was working together to brainstorm a food truck theme, and then designing it as we went along! For those who could not make it, we decided to go with a Japanese/French themed food truck that specialized in Japanese teas and French patisseries! We named it Pa-TEA-sserie, and decorated it with sakura flowers, fleur de lis, tea cups and of course treats. I just…
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The Psychology of Yellow
Yellow just makes me happy! I love spotting it on my walks (a front door? a yellow center of a daisy) as well as wearing it – in a sweater, scarf, t-shirt! We only moved once during my childhood, and my parents selected the yellow bedroom to be mine before I had seen it. The room had yellow checked wallpaper. It was so cheery! Perhaps that is where my love for yellow started! The Psychology of Yellow It’s no surprise to find the psychological reactions that yellow can people. Here are just a few feelings and thoughts people have when they see yellow: optimism happiness hope positive thinking friendship good…
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CWC Open House – Decorate Ukrainian Style Eggs
April 2022 – Creative Wanderlust Community Open House RecapTo celebrate springtime, I hosted a wonderful, in person creative open house where we decorated eggs inspired by the rich tradition of Ukrainian/Eastern European egg designs. It was a sublime evening weather wise– almost a bit surreal that in mid-April we were having an 80 degree day, but we took advantage of this warm weather and set up outside to create. With paint pens, glitter markers and more we had a great time decorating painted wooden eggs with a variety of motifs, from traditional egg designs to our own making. As always, it was a wonderful way to come together, catch up on life,…
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Creative Wanderlust Prompt: Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan. It’s definitely one of my favorite places in all of New York City, and the area I frequently stay when I visit. When I lived in New York City many moons ago, I rarely went to midtown. I was a student (in graduate school) and midtown catered to the working world. I did go to Grand Central Station frequently as I’d take the train out to Connecticut to visit my sister, but in general, I roamed all the other neighborhoods for my NYC energy, not midtown. Fast forward to today, and I can’t get enough of midtown Manhattan. It fuels me with energy. I’m convinced it’s because of…
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Creative Wanderlust Prompt: Doodle
The Art of Doodling I’m sure you’ve done it many times before. Scribbling in the margins of your paper in a boring meeting, or while listening to a long lecture. Many times are doodling is just simple mark making, some squiggly lines or a few shapes. Sometimes we doodle more representational items, a heart, a house, a tree, a rainbow. In general, when we doodle we don’t give much thought to the final outcome, let alone what we are actually drawing. Doodling is a passive creative act, a way for us to “space out,” yet did you know if has many benefits to our health and creativity? Studies have shown…
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Let’s Build a Creative Community
As many of you know, I’m passionate about building community. Whether in person or online, I couldn’t have made it through this last few years without community! The word community can be a loaded word and mean many things depending on context. For me, community is about people coming together and sharing experiences – and in particular in my case, creative experiences whether that be making art (drawing, painting, collaging) or through words and exploration (storytelling, learning new skills, trying new things and travel, of course!) Creativity is a very large umbrella in my mind and definitely doesn’t have to involve actually making art. I find, though, being with others…
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Creative Wanderlust Prompt: Spring
For many, especially those in colder and darker climates in the Northern Hemisphere, the arrival of spring is literally a breathe of fresh air! More light in the sky, birds chirping, blossoms blooming, and new life everywhere. For others, though, the passing of a new season may just seem like another week. This can sometimes be the case for me, as I live in a temperate climate, where the change of the season is not nearly as noticeable. Instead of letting the change of season pass me by, I’m going to celebrate spring time with a week of creative prompts. My goal is to be more mindful of the change…
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Learn How to Draw a Pot of Shamrocks – 20 Minute Free Art Lesson
I love shamrocks! They remind me of not only spring time, but also my mom! Every March, she would bring home a pot of shamrocks for my siblings and I to put in our room. They are a simple yet fabulous house plant to have (for all ages), as they are extremely easy to maintain. They grow and flower very quickly which can be very satisfying for those without a green thumb. Hunting for a four leaf clover in the bunch was always fun too- as I am confident it definitely brought me good luck! To celebrate spring, follow along with my step by step, 20 minute art lesson as…
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Come Explore Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way with Creativity!
Come explore the rugged coast of Ireland and learn how to capture and paint a layered landscape of the Wild Atlantic Way! We will focus our tour on the Dingle Peninsula where we will explore the small port town with its colorful buildings and fishing boats. Then, we will “drive” along the coast and paint the stunning rugged coastline dotted with cottages, sheep and historic sites. This online class will begin with a “virtual trip” to Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way where I will share with you loads of inspirational photos of the area. Following we will discuss a tried and true technique for making inspiring landscape art, then we will…
