Winter Solstice - A Painting & A Poem

December 22, 2019 by And So We Begin in art, creativity, painting, poetry

Inspired by the shortest day of the year. And now the light starts to tiptoe back in.

Little Treasures

November 20, 2019 by And So We Begin in painting, if in doubt create

Simple pleasures.

National Portrait Gallery

July 18, 2018 by And So We Begin in painting, art

I can’t walk past the National Portrait Gallery without popping in. How wonderful to see such masterpieces so easily. These two particularly caught my eye today.

Sketchbook Tips From Semi Skimmed Min

June 17, 2018 by And So We Begin in painting, inspiration, if in doubt create

I stumbled across this video full of wisdom for freeing up your creativity. I am much too ordered with my sketchbooks and there are some great tips here to encourage loosening up.

Vlog - Minnie Small

March 14, 2018 by And So We Begin in youtube, painting

Minnie Small's YouTube channel is a lovely, soothing place to spend time. She's got a great manner and shares meaningful insights into her art process. I love watching her paintings come together and how she experiments with so many different styles. A perfect example of a quiet life.

Watercolour

February 13, 2018 by And So We Begin in watercolour, simple things, painting, #littlebitofpretty

I'm obsessed with these colours at the moment. And I'm also very much still learning about watercolour. I like how this musing feels like a map of my state of mind. I generally let the paints flow but tried to also experiment with putting water on the paper first and dotting colour here and there to see how it progressed. Very good for the soul.

Experiments In Watercolour

August 30, 2017 by And So We Begin in art, mindfulness, painting, watercolour

This is a little corner of one of the mini abstracts in my watercolour sketchbook. I've mentioned before how therapeutic I find drawing or painting and playing with watercolours is a wonderful meditation. I am learning about how the paints behave with more or less water. And letting them seep into each other teaches me to relinquish control and to let the painting be what it wants to be.

Data To Creator

August 06, 2017 by And So We Begin in art, illustration, inspiration, painting, wellbeing

I've written before about how I use abstract painting to transition my mind from spreadsheets back to illustration. This weekend I was inspired by the colour palette of Laura Horn on Instagram.

Abstract

June 24, 2017 by And So We Begin in art, illustration, painting

I spend a lot of my time in my day job as an event manager having to be very precise with logistics and planning. I find it very satisfying putting everything in order. But the other side of my personality is messy and free-flowing. Illustration and writing feeds this to a certain extent but drawing the picture book for example still needs an element of structure. This is why abstract painting is something I often come back to. I start with an empty page and watercolours, acrylics, washi tapes and pens and just see what comes. I'm a big fan of using words in art and at the moment I often find myself inspired by one word which I'll meditate on so it can become colours and patterns.

This one is inspired by the word 'resonate'. If you fancy, why not create something yourself inspired by that word too and share it with me on Twitter or Instagram.

Illustration Inspiration - By Bun

January 25, 2017 by And So We Begin in art, illustration, inspiration, painting

I've been enjoying watching Roxanne Coble's YouTube channel since I saw a couple of her Vlogmas videos over Christmas. Roxanne, also known as By Bun, is a multimedia artist and illustrator based in LA who shares her work and life online in daily vlogs. Her art combines patterns, colour and collage, line art and words. I love how free her style is. Watching her videos and learning more about her style has encouraged me to play with my art a bit more, to try collage and layering and to combine media more. Her videos are friendly and absorbing, click here if you fancy a look (they also feature her two super cute pugs!).