A Different Kind of Painting Inspiration

  

 

 

"Fractured" Reminds me of sunset light shining through tall grasses.

Last January I saw that Nicholas Wilton's free course called the"Creative Awakening Challenge" was going to be offered in February.

My art making plate was already dangerously full last winter, but this class was exactly what I had been looking for. I had been searching for awhile for another way to approach my art making and Nicholas promised that his 20 minute a day "Bloom" practice could really transform the way I made my art.

I had never allowed myself to paint this type of sadness before, it helped me.

 

The class was only for 25 days and when I read that we would be making paintings too and not just listening and observing, I squeezed a little more space onto that overflowing plate and signed up.  

"Feelings of Hope" I felt compelled to start with pink and green.

 

Essentially, Nicholas was teaching us how to tap into our own feelings as inspiration for creativity. This may sound very odd to many of you, but this was never a topic discussed in my time at art school. 

 

Design, Value, Color theory, drawing skills, all the essential building blocks were covered but never anything about how to use emotion as inspiration, this was very new territory for me. I suppose they just expect that you already know how to do this, but I honestly didn't, of course I learned how in the sense of using color and design to reflect a mood, yes, but not tapping into what kind of marks and color choices reflect me.

"Headache" I tried to capture how awful I felt that day.

Imagine using NO photo references, just sitting with an emotion, choosing a color and putting it down on the paper however you want. Then choosing how to respond to that color and continuing for 20 minutes or longer if you wish, but only 20 minutes were required. 

"Feeling Stressed" The work load was overwhelming me.

  

It was fascinating over those 25 days to see what colors I chose, what marks I loved making. I had no idea how much I loved cadmium orange as an exclamation mark of color, or how just the movement of scribbling with a colored pencil could feel so good and then the satisfaction of spreading thick acrylic paint over it all with a palette knife.  I could use any materials I wanted, I used acrylic metallic inks that I rarely use, it was so much fun!  

"Feeling a Little Blue" I love this painting so much.

I chose to make small paintings on paper, some of them amazed me with their power or beauty, others were not that great, but it didn't matter. The point was to practice gaining confidence in connecting to my own inner north star.

These paintings are the first seven I made in order day by day so you can see how varied the images were. I certainly wasn't sure what I was doing at first, but I did figure out a format eventually. For me, 5 x 7 inches was a good paper size and after the first four, I changed from painting in my sketchbook to heavier 185lb watercolor paper.

"Constrained and Contained" An image from a dream that morning. 

All of this exploration involved making abstract art and after 25 days of trying this type of creating, I was interested in figuring out how to take what I learned and combine it with my usual style of realism, but I will save that post for another time, so until then, challenge yourself to try a different type of inspiration for making your art, you might surprise yourself.

Happy Creating! 

>^-^< 

Tina 

 p.s. If you are interested in learning more about Nicholas Wilton, his website is:www.art2life.com  This link sends you to the Sunday Bloom tab where he posts weekly insights about art making.

He also has a YouTube channel called Art2Life 

 

Autumn Walk in the Park

 

"Autumn Walk in the Park" ©2025

 

In my last blog post I mentioned that I hoped to use the small 3.50 x 2.50 inch paintings in my sketchbook as inspiration in painting larger artworks.

I rarely paint fall landscapes, so I made a goal to make several in my sketchbook this year. Out of that group, this little mini painting really captured a fall mood, so I decided to try painting it larger and on canvas. 

 

Small, but has a mighty big mood.

 

I have to admit, in the end I couldn't resist the the pull of the referring back to the photo. Which is a really good inspiration point and nothing wrong with using it, I just hoped to get closer to that wonderful expressiveness that lives in these little paintings.

 

October 19, 2025 photo

To be fair, my larger 7 x 5 inch painting isn't an exact copy of the photo either and that is exactly what I am striving to do, create an interpretation that is mine but still hopefully expresses why I thought this moment was worth painting that other people will resonate with too. 

 

"Autumn Walk in the Park" ©2025

 

I believe that what the camera captures doesn't always compare to what the mind's eye sees. I may not be able to step very far from my references yet, but I will keep trying because think there is an important skill there for me to learn. 

If you find you are feeling stuck in the same old, same old in creating, think of a small way to push your boundaries and feel that excitement of exploring the unknown again. 

Happy creating!

>^-^<

Tina 

 

Summertime Sketchbook Tour

 Summertime and I can never get enough of sunlight shining through the various types of green leaves, whether it be flowers or trees, I'm always looking for those glorious, glowing moments. 

Here's a quick look at a few "stop me in my tracks" inspirations which have made it into my July sketchbook pages so far...

Early morning in a nearby park and the blossoming Russian sage is captivating, I took so many photos!! I love the soft purple surrounded by all that green.

 

 Photographing into the sun, hoping to get a balanced image of the brilliant sun rays and dappled shadow below pine and deciduous trees.

 

The formal arrangement of repeating sprinkler arches and strategically placed trees is satisfying to me. It feels balanced, serene.

One of my favorite trees to photograph, I always find it's twisty branches so interesting.

 

 A reminder that all of these little gems are truly small, only 2.50 by 3.50 inches, it takes me about an hour to paint each one. My goal is to choose my favorite ones, then paint them larger and try to capture that same fresh brushwork.

I haven't been successful yet, but I keep trying. I find it's often helpful to have an inspiration and goal to keep me focused and moving forward to improve my skills. 

 What type of creative journey calls to your heart? Decide on one small step you can take on that path and begin.

Happy Creating! 

>^-^< 

Tina

Beware The Reference Photo Trap!

 

"Shades of Pink"

 

Question: What does that blue diagonal section on the right side of the painting above look like to you? 

Is it a river with a mountain range behind in the distance? 

Is it a sidewalk in shadow, speckled with sunlight? 

Here is the original photo I took for reference to give you the answer.

Beauty behind bars.

 

When I put the photo and painting side by side, you can see I actually painted what I saw fairly accurately, minus the fence bars, of course. 

Original photo and "Shades of Pink" painting

 

I painted "Shades of Pink" in 2021 and it never felt quite right to me and I couldn't quite put my finger on "why" exactly. 

This spring, I decided to try again to figure out the problem. When I asked for input from my husband, and my cousin, both of them with great artistic sensibilities, it finally became clear that they were visually confused by the sidewalk in shadow and they both thought they were seeing a river with green mountains in the distance.

My problem suddenly became obvious, I had been trapped by one of the biggest pitfalls of painting from photos! 

I've known for over 30 years that sometimes what you see in a photo may not translate well into a painting, even if you paint what you see accurately, it may not look right no matter what you do.

Both of them gave me some useful advice on how I could clear up the confusion. My cousin in particular had this excellent insight to share:

Essentially, the sidewalk lacks context, there are no visual clues to suggest what it actually is, there is no grass growing in the sidewalk cracks, and we can't see the tree that is casting the dark shadow. So I could either add more detail to the sidewalk or I could emphasize the cast shadow. 

"Shades of Pink" with more shadow, less "river."

I didn't want more details in the background pulling the focus away from the poppies, so I chose to increase the shadow. It only took a little bit of time and paint and like magic, a painting that has puzzled me for years already looked so much better!

Now, that one lonely poppy bud really looks odd and I think the painting needs a few more buds to balance it out. Since they don't exist in the original photo, I used a little digital "copy and paste" to test out where to place them.
 

The One has become Five.

I think it is an improvement! It is these kinds of visual puzzles that make the art of painting both frustrating and very exhilarating when you finally solve them. Now it's time to get out the brushes and paint those buds in for real.

Happy creating!

>^-^<

Tina

Stuck? Think small

 

Some of my favorites.

I have a confession to make, it used to take me several years to fill up a sketchbook because frankly, I didn’t use it that often.  

Having a sketchbook was a requirement back in my art school-college days, so of course I had one, but after college, I might sketch out a few ideas, but I was more likely to draw something directly on the canvas or paper and get straight to painting.

 

Early in 2019, I bought my first Canson Mix Media sketchbook and that little change helped shift my whole approach. The paper is sturdy enough to handle wet media like acrylic paint and sketch-wash pencils, so figuring out a value drawing felt more like painting than using regular pencils and I liked that, a lot.

I didn't realize the type of sketchbook I had was part of what was holding me back from the valuable skill of practicing!
 

Learning that I can make several small paintings in the same time it would take me to do one large painting, with very little risk, means less stress and more practice, and more practice is the best way to ease anxiety and gain confidence in making art. Plus, I can see which of my painting ideas are successful before attempting to paint them larger.

"Indian Paintbrush" - for Fred

I have wanted to do a series of paintings based around the flowers that are blooming in my garden, but it always took too long to do a full size painting, keep up with the season and everything else in my life that I need to do too.   

My solution this year, think small and practice in my sketchbook and don’t worry about larger paintings right now.

The crocus and miniature yellow daffodils are always the first to arrive in my little garden and so far I am pleased with these little 2.50 x 3.50 inch paintings that I can get done in around an hour and a half total time each. I often sketch out the design one day and paint the next. Hopefully, this time I will be able to keep up with the blooms this year.

If you find yourself stuck on a creative project that isn’t moving forward, perhaps try changing one small part of your usual way of doing things and get those wheels rolling again.

Happy creating!

>^-^<

Tina

p.s. No, I'm not getting any perks or money for mentioning Canson brand, it's just the type of sketchbook that suits me best right now. I was genuinely surprised how that one small change made such a difference for me.

January Blooms

 

The creative process rarely goes in a direct line...

In the spring of 2023, I started 3 mini-geraniums from seed. They bloomed so well all summer that I didn't have the heart to let them die in the fall, so I brought them inside to my studio.

 I was amply rewarded because when the snow was at it's deepest in January, they were blooming with all their hearts. 

The low winter sun shining through their petals was such a boost to my winter time blues, I wanted to make at least one painting of them, to try a capture some of that summertime beauty. This winter I was determined to make that wish happen.

 

I set one of the potted geraniums down onto my office chair and was able to take this wonderful photograph. The way the sunlight made the petals and leaves glow was very inspiring to me.

Several small practice attempts in my sketchbook this year led to the 6x8 inch painting on the right, but unfortunately, I didn't feel like I came close to expressing what I was after, I know I've missed something when the photograph is better than the painting!

 

 I went back and studied more of my original photos from 2023 of the flowers against the snow and tried again.

 This painting is much, much closer to the feeling I was hoping to express, so it was definitely worth trying again. I think there may be an even better painting waiting to come into existence, but I won't know until I give it another try. It's a zig-zag journey from one painting experiment to another.

Happy creating!

>^-^< Tina

A Tale of Two Kayaks

 It's November and another free class taught by artist Chris Fornataro becomes available. I almost didn't sign up again because there is so much to get done in putting the garden to sleep for the winter and Thanksgiving just around the corner, but at the last minute I decided I really need the practice with landscapes.

Again, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the reference photo, but I knew from the last class in March that it is still possible to end up with a decent painting even with a less than inspirational photo.

The first lesson was breaking the landscape into large value shapes and not getting stuck in the details which is great practice for me. I already like where this painting is going better than the photo.

Here it is with all the steps completed, but the water reflections and getting that illusion of sand underwater in the foreground didn't look right to me.

I decided to forget the sand under the water and make the side canal more still and reflective, but I'm still not certain this choice was an improvement. ??? 

One of Chris's tips was to remove detail and add more blue grey color to the background trees to get a deeper sense of depth on the painting. You can see the difference between the two paintings above, I found that suggestion was very helpful and I loved how that little change made such a difference. 

                                              *****************

Next I decided to challenge myself to see if I had really learned the skills from class by painting from a photo I took of Jeff kayaking Sept of 2019,

First step, start with a value sketch. Second, adjust the design to feature your main focus. I wanted to showcase the sunlight through the trees and also extend the land more than the photo so that I could practice adding visual depth.

Blocking in the shapes, I added an extra step by adding an under-painting of yellow and orange just because I wanted to try it out.

Adding the darker colors of the water and trees went well, I wasn't too keen on the sky and had to go back and fix that!

The sky is much improved, but the water reflections don't look correct to me yet, too bright, the lake water isn't that choppy, also not enough shadow on the vest or kayak.

Greying down the water reflections and adding shadows to the  vest and kayak helped a lot, but I still don't think the water looks right. Obviously I need more practice understanding how to paint light on water.

Overall, I'm thrilled with most of it, I improved on the photo, I got the depth and "atmospheric perspective" looking pretty good and I resisted the urge to do anymore detail on the trees which is a big win for me, "Miss Fiddle-brush."

I'm glad I did the class, even though it was very similar to what we did in March, I know the repetition really helped some concepts sink in for me! Practice makes progress...

Happy Creating!

>^-^<

Tina

Here's a sample of Chris's teaching style on YouTube: Click to watch 10 Tips to Improve Your Landscape Paintings

Lost in the Shadows

 

  As an art student, I wasn't always excited about making still life paintings. We did several of them in school, but I didn't feel compelled to make any more after I graduated. 

Lately though, I am appreciating the wisdom in regularly practicing this style of art work. 

I recently set up a simple still life of two Bosc pears, my goal was to practice blocking in color more efficiently.

 

"The Kiss"

 In support of this goal, I decided to make a drawing from my photo in digital form on my computer to pre-block out the colors. I thought this would make them easier to see and help me make better color value decisions.

 

"Digital Kiss"

 Everything was going smoothly, the 8x10 drawing and complementary color under painting came together nicely and I thought once I had those dark and light values in place, I could just charge ahead with the final color. Imagine my surprise when I suddenly felt stuck! 

 

"Complementary Kiss"

 

  My color blocking plan had been too successful, I could see so many colors in the shadows of my digital sketch that I wasn't certain how to mix them to get all those subtle shifts! 

I usually only use a limited palette to mix my colors so that the painting feels cohesive. 

 The bright oranges, yellows and greens where the sunlight was hitting the objects were not a problem, I wasn't certain how to mix that wide range of  browns that varied from tones of green, deep orange to red violet from a limited palette.

 

"Digital Kiss" it's all in the details.

 Mixing colors is usually the part of painting I love the most, it was weird to feel so stuck. 

So before putting another brushstroke on my still life, I went to my tried and true anxiety calming back-up, testing out color mixes in my sketchbook.

Anxiety reliever.

 

  Six hours of mixing and painting later, I finally had some answers.  

My great light-bulb moment came when I finally figured out how to mix a wonderful range of related of browns by adding a little blue to cadmium red light or cadmium orange.

I was surprised that even using different blues still increased the color range without looking out of place.

 

Hearts and stars marking my favorite mixes.

  That little 2.75 x 3.50 inch color study took so much work, but I feel like I can paint the larger 8x10 with a lot more confidence now, since I've mapped out how the color temperature and value changes as it wraps around the pears and across the plate. 

Painting such a subtle shift in colors in the shadows added so much interest and richness, I really loved the effect.  I know I will be thinking more about what is going on in the shadows of the next paintings I make.

 

"Little Kiss"

Here's to the wisdom of going back to practice the basics. 

 

Happy Creating! 

>^-^< Tina