20th Anniversary of the SOMA Studio Tour

Yes, that's right...this year is the 20th Anniversary of the incredible SOMA Studio Tour with 70+ artists showing their work all across Maplewood and South Orange! I have been participating in the Studio Tour for most of the last 18 years - wow, time flies!!

You will find me exhibiting outside on at 729 Valley Street in Maplewood, ONLY on SUNDAY, Nov 5th with Chrissy McIntyre and Ridley McIntyre.

I hope you can stop by to say hello, see some new work, some older pieces (priced to sell) and catch a Sketching Demo!  Live sketch demos at 12:30 and 2:30, bring your sketchbook if you want to draw along with me!

Click here to find more info on all the participating artists on the SOMA Studio Tour website

Please Note: the official map has our location showing as Saturday but we are exhibiting on SUNDAY ONLY

I hope to see you there!
Erin

Daily Watercolor Sketchbook, Day 10

Tons of distractions today, putting our crazy little dog on high alert - he startled me any number of times! Pens, brushes and pencils flying out of my hand!

But I stuck with it and did a bit of doodling…

These 1970s groovy ladies are preliminary sketches for bigger ideas. You gotta start somewhere.

I almost gave up today but I knew I would be disappointed with myself if I didn’t commit to putting some ink and paint to paper. I am happy and satisfied that I stuck with it.

There will be more to come...

Daily Watercolor Sketchbook, Day 6

An apple a day keeps the Dr away, as the saying goes.

We saw it in action when our daughter was little. Apples were one of her favorite foods and she ate one every morning. Sometimes 2! And she was rarely sick.

As in she has only been on antibiotics twice.

I can count her stomach viruses on one hand, and have fingers left over. So I highly recommend that whole apple a day thing!

Today’s inktober prompt is Golden, and it is anything but golden outside (back to rain, fog, grey – Again) so I wanted to do this one to bring some sunshine into my day.

Enter the Golden Delicious apple. A beauty though truth be told, not my favorite apple variety.

Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp are my first choices (red delicious and mcintosh are my least favorites).

 Today I sketched in ink before painting, looking for a variety of loose painted and detailed drawn for contrast and interest.

 My favorite part of this is where some of the yellow apples bleed into the purple shadows.

My colors: lemon yellow, permanent gamboge, permanent scarlet, ultramarine, and dioxazine violet.

My sketchbook is a Canson XL Series Watercolor book, 7x10, 140lb paper

My pens… Micron, 05pt

The text is paraphrased from SpecialtyProduce.com ivory flesh is fine-grained, aqueous and semi-firm with a crisp light tender consistency. They are also prone to bruising. Love the way they are described and makes you want to nurture these little beauties.

Finding Your Creative Connection, Farmer's Market Artist Date

FINDING YOUR CREATIVE CONNECTION

Weekly Inspiration to help you find and stay connected to your creativity.

This week’s creativity trigger is an artist date… 

#4 Visiting a Farmer’s Market

The farmer’s market in Union started last week and I used the opportunity to take myself on an artist date. I learned about artist dates when reading The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. If you are not familiar with the concept it is a once a week, solo excursion to explore something that interests you, you find fun and that will spark your imagination.  It doesn’t have to be an all-day thing, an hour, or even 30 minutes can do the trick.

It was unexpectedly very hot here on Thursday, and I had long list of to-dos, you know how that goes when it’s the have-to’s vs. the want-to’s … and I almost didn’t go. It’s easier sometimes not to, but I had the inspiration on my morning walk to go as an artist date – not just a shopping chore. Again, getting out of your routine, talking to new people, seeing and noticing new things can be very reviving.

Being the first one of the season, it was very light on farm vendors and I was a bit disappointed. My initial instinct was to zip through and return home to the air conditioning, but I am glad I didn’t. I went to the Wagner Farm tent first as they had a tiered display of herbs in pots and I can never resist potted herbs. I ended up having a lovely conversation with the couple working the booth and bought some fresh ground beef, in addition to herbs. And I will be back next week for their fresh eggs!

 Alstede was the other farm with a booth, and the radishes I bought were delicious, and so cute. I love the visual of all the vegetables lined up in baskets and piles. I could sketch and paint those every day. And the roasted zucchini we had with dinner was so good! Topped it off with a lovely conversation there too. 

It was so nice to take my time, really look at the produce, the colors, all the shades of green, and the abundance. It was more about the experience - taking time to really look, and interact as opposed to going there to shop. What I first thought was a bit disappointing ended up being very inspiring and gave me a lot of material to work with.

It’s difficult to communicate the essence of why/how it can create a spark… maybe it is slowing down and really looking. Not rushing through to get to the next thing on the list.

Maybe it was finding and seeing all the abundance within the limited choices.

Maybe it was interacting with new people and hearing about what they create… they created these offerings of produce!

I do know that when I got home and was trying to describe to my husband the initial reaction of ‘not much there’ to my actual experience – he wanted to go. And he definitely wants to visit next week.

 I think the only way to get across the advantages of the artist dates and triggers that I experience is to do a deeper dive into how it makes me feel, and what it brings forth. Then maybe I can inspire you to try them. I truly believe we all owe this to ourselves. By taking a little time each week to cultivate and nurture our creativity, and fill our buckets, we are serving ourselves and all those around us.

I encourage you to visit your local farmers market, not just for the fresh local produce, but to really look, interact and experience it. See what surfaces, and what sparks you.

Please let me know if you try it and how it feels!  See you next Tuesday.

Cotton Candy Chickens

 Stay creative my friends.

Erin

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This blog series is an exploration into staying creatively connected. How to find it, nurture it, and keep it flowing. And, possibly to find it again if it’s been disconnected for years, or decades.

In each weekly post I will share one idea/artist date/activity that I have tried and invite you to give it a try for your own creativity connection. If it’s flowing, there is so much more peace and enjoyment in life.

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