Over the years and in my 30+ years of painting experience, I have painted many little white churches.  One of the attention getting details to me, is all the triangles.  People of olden times took the time to make their homes, churches and other buildings decorative.  I’ve always thought it was to honor the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This is certainly a demanding use of the power of 3.

When I attended a Master Gardener’s Tour and photographed flowers, I especially looked for clusters of 3.  I was surprised at how many photos that came up that were a combination of 3.

When painting, my canvas or watercolor paper is divided into 3 distinctive areas.  Top, middle, and bottom.  A 3 tree combination, short, medium and tall are included many times.  I also include light, medium and dark areas.

When we were deciding which trees to leave in our yard at Loblolly Cove, we left clumps of 3.

So, if you are having a hard time deciding just what to paint next, consider the power of 3.  Start by brainstorming all the words we use in a combination of 3, just let your mind relax and drift and soon you’ll have more ideas than you can implement.

This doesn’t work just for landscape artists, but for every thing, you may be a personal trainer, a high rigger or internet marketer, and many other occupations, but think in this combination of 3 and apply it to your work.  Be aware, ready to receive and use the ideas that come to you.

1.  You will get more accomplished.

2.  You will know in advance what is needed.

3.  No more missed art club meetings.

4.  A neat work space = greater creativity.

5.  No more running here and there, taking time to find materials or find your day runner.

Being organized begins by making a schedule of what you want to accomplish and when it needs to be finished. You will know exactly where the materials are to complete your project and have an estimate of the time that is needed .  This eliminates the need to spend unnecessary time looking for some misplaced item.

You may think that unorganized people make paintings as beautiful as anyone else. This is probably true, but how efficient are they? They may rush here and there, miss club meetings or show dates and are generally unsure of what they want to produce.

Do you find it hard to have time to learn new information about your chosen field?  Most of us spend time in our cars, whether we work at home or hold a 9 to 5 job. This time will be well spent and you will be  more motivated, if you listen to C D”s or MP3’s  that are informative and inspiring.  Even if you are able to listen for short periods, over time the information you receive will add up.

If you have a deadline of having a commissioned piece ready for your collector, or an art show is coming up, if there is no goal plan for getting it done, there is a good chance you will be rushing and not do the job that you or others are expecting. Procrastination and not using your time in a productive way slows you down.  Lack of a goal plan may be destructive.

To increase your productivity, know exactly what needs to be done and when.  Even if there is no deadline the painting still needs to be finished, so decide when it will be finished and incorporate this into your goal plan so that necessary time is scheduled to complete your painting.

At the right top there is an opt-in box where I invite you to join the Valle of Yellow Creek Art Studio E-Zine.  The E-Zine is published each 1st and 3rd Saturday.  So why not join the 200 + that enjoy reading the E-Zine with their morning coffee every other Saturday.  My thank you is a Special Report that I’ve written to encourage you on your artist journey, opt-in and your report will immediately be on its way to you.

“Honor Your Creative Spirit!”

Ellene

Ellene Breedlove Davis

http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

http://ellenebreedlovedavisradio.com (10am Wednesdays at Blog Talk Radio)

http://twitter.com/ellenebdavis

http://facebook.com/ellenebdavis

At first glance wet into wet paintings appear to be an easy way to paint.  One should just wet the paper and drop paint into it, watch it spread and have a beautiful painting.

Hold on, hold on! As with most everything it is not as simple as it appears.  Ask yourself these questions before you begin your painting:

Have you decided which paints to use?

Do they complement each other?

When they come together on the wet paper, what color will they make?

My students were amazed at how much paint it takes to make a bright sky.  When they put the paint down, it seemed they had added too much, but as it spread and dried there was hardly any paint color left.

The way I prepared for this class was to paint a chart of the colors I thought would make this painting beautiful.  I charted pinks and reds, yellows and greens.  Before hand I had also determined if all the paint was transparent. This was determined by drawing a line down the middle of a piece of watercolor paper and painting each paint color over it. Wanting to be sure how the paints would look when glazed, I then painted another chart. When we were ready for class, I knew which colors to recommend and why.

All of this and my students haven’t arrived for the workshop yet!

After discussing the charts and how I determined which colors would work  best and why, we settled down to start the wet into wet process.

So, another round of questions came up -

How much water do I need to put on the paper?

Should my brush be dripping wet?

How much paint do I need on my brush?

These are questions I will answer in the next blog post.  Be sure to check back for these important answers.

Until then, remember to “Honor Your Creative Spirit!”

Ellene

Ellene Breedlove Davis

Web site - http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

Follow me on twitter - http://twitter.com/ellenebdavis

Friend me on facebook - http://facebook.com/ellenebdavis

For more art information listen as “The Landscape Artist Speaks” on Blog Talk Radio at 10am each Wednesday Morning.  http://ellenebreedlovedavisradio.com

Creativity is the ability to transcend traditional ideas and to create new ideas, methods, interpretation, originality or imagination.

How could one use the essence of creativity, their way you might ask?

Here are tools to help you use the essence of your creativity:

A certain expertise in whatever area you chose to work in. If you have no knowledge in this chosen field, odds are you won’t make the next fantastic breakthrough in this field.

Find the field that you are passionate about. Imagine a whole realm of possibilities in that field.

Have persistence – that determination to keep on turning your goal over and over in your mind, until you know what you must know to be successful.

Know when to look at things in a different light. If it’s a painting, turn it upside down or hold it to a mirror and you will see places that need your attention.

Have courage, take creative risks and try new things, things that you’ve never thought that you would or could do.

Be open to new opportunities and possibilities as they present them themselves to you.

Know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your desire to succeed will take you to your goal.

Make your idea work, no matter what.

Face any creative challenge with the mind of a child. Make each work period a play period.

Childlike creativity can and should be studied and imitated. Can you think that anything is possible?
If you think you are not creative your thoughts will be telling you “I can’t, but the creative mind will be spurring you on telling you “I can, and here’s how I’ll make it happen.” You obviously can see, speak, hear, remember and understand, so you are creative!

Never say you don’t have a creative bone in your body, that is misleading for you, because whether you believe you can or can’t, you’re right.

Believe in your creativity and seek guidance from others that have used these ideas to reach their goals.

A few weeks ago, I felt my creative spirit urging me to compile some of the writings that would be meaningful to you and encourage the essence of your creativity.

You will find these writings compiled into a Special Report – Choosing To Be An Artist – For A Lifetime. Just enter your name and email address and this report is on its way to you. In the first chapter there is an interview with an artist that has always worked from the essence of her creativity. I know you will enjoy reading her story.

Remember to “Honor Your Creative Spirit!”

Ellene
Ellene Breedlove Davis

P. S. I’m sending you a special invitation to join me each Wednesday at 10am on Blog Talk Radio. The call in number is 347-326-9962. If you are not able to listen to the live show, “The Landscape Artist Speaks”, go to the archives at http://ellenebreedlovedavisradio.com and listen there.

I appreciate your participation in my artistic journey so very much!

“Can you tell me how you got to where you are with your work. I mean, my art is all over the place. I don’t know where to begin or when to finish. There’s no commonality in anything I am making. How do I make paintings like the ones that you do?” (Questions taken from Nancy Reyner’s “Painting Blog” January 8, 2010).

My answer to these question would be – you choose to be an artist for a lifetime! There are times when you would much rather be doing something else and not sit at that art show in the hot sun. But, you have chosen to be an artist.

How long will it take to paint a cohesive body of work? Do you have a subject that you are passionate about? Then paint a series of work that accentuates this passion. Set a number for the amount of paintings you will paint for the series, when the series is finished, you will have a much clearer picture of what and how you want to be known for.

Practice makes perfect and your art is no exception. After deciding on the type painting to paint for the series, the number of paintings in the series, then the hard part begins.

How much experience do you have in the type painting that you have selected? If it’s not much, then your time will be longer. Practice, practice, practice. Even tho I’ve painted for 30+ years, if I decide to paint something in a style that I haven’t perfected, it takes many hours of practice before I feel I have mastered the techniques such as the way to hold my brush, or lay down the colors and on which ground do I want to paint this picture.

I have always been a landscape artist, but I’ve grown in that I started with oils, when I was called away from my easel for a while, due to the illness of my daughter, I didn’t want to paint with just oils anymore. While I wasn’t painting I read watercolor and pastel books and learned that other mediums offered beautiful ways to express my creative spirit also.

But, when I was back at the easel, there was much practice that had to be done and I accumulated quite a stack of used watercolor and pastel paper before I had a painting that was good enough to exhibit.

If you have chosen to become an artist, I invite you to download “Choosing To Be An Artist – For A Lifetime”, the first chapter is an interview with an artist that has been an artist for a lifetime. I think you will enjoy this Special Report and gain insight and encouragement for your artistic journey.

Ellene
http://ElleneBreedloveDavis.com
http://ElleneBreedloveDavisRadio.com
http://facebook.com/ElleneBDavis
http://twitter.com/ElleneBDavis

Painting with only a single color wash makes a clear color. But, a single wash does not make the brilliant color wanted, in most cases.

1. Use transparent colors near each other on the color wheel.

2. Use a soft brush and gentle hand to apply the paint.

3. Glaze to add brilliance, in the shadows, texture and depth of paintings.

4. When we glaze we add another color over the dried, first color, which gives a greater richness or glow than one color alone.

5. Adding glaze to a shadow impacts the way light and dark play against each other.

6. Glazing helps to emphasize the contrast between light and dark.

7. At times you may place as many as 6 glazes to get the effect you want.

8. Glaze can be applied warm transparent color over warm transparent color, or cool transparent color over cool transparent color.

9. Another way is to lay down the warm color first and lay the cool color over it.
Glazing can bring wonderful effects to oil paintings or watercolor paintings. The technique for glazing oils is just a bit different.

10. Especially in watercolors, only go over the area once. This needs to be very dry before applying the next color.

11. In her book”Building Brilliant Watercolors, Judy D, Treman advises to apply reds last.
The reason being they go everywhere if a drop of water or wet brush happens to touch them. She also advises to paint reds with a single, smooth wash.

Glazing is a technique I frequently use and experiment with. I think it’s fun and effective.

Ellene
Ellene Breedlove Davis
P S To see my paintings click on http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

There were 7 students (3 new) in class. These are often ladies that have known each other for a lifetime. They are serious about learning watercolor fundamentals! They do not take this workshop lightly.

The subject this month was a poppy. Everyone had a great picture, even the ones that had not painted before.

Would you like to learn to paint with watercolors? They are more forgiving than everyone thinks. In fact, several students made note of this when I was showing them that changes are relatively easy with watercolors.

Contact me,(just click the Contact button at the top of the blog) and tell me YOU want to learn to paint with watercolors.

“Honor Your Creative Spirit!”

Ellene
Ellene Breedlove Davis
http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com
http://ellenebreedlovedavisradio.com
http://twitter.com/ellenebdavis
http://facebook.com/ellenebdavis

These are some areas of variety could be described as variety of shape, variety of tone values, variety in edge shapes, variety in texture and a variety in graduation.

Each of these elements has a rhythmic quality of its own and it’s a long list.

The shape of variety is one of the most common things found in nature.

To give our paintings life and interest, try to draw a row of trees. All about the same height and the same distance apart, from your imagine.

Do you see how hard it is to get nature into them?

No matter how imaginative you may be, or how far you are able to go with design, there comes a time when it will be imperative that you study from nature.

To see how I use nature to inspire my paintings. Opt in to receive the Valle of Yellow Creek Art Studio E-Zine and receive a short report “Choosing To Be An Artist – For A Lifetime as a free gift to you from me. You will enjoy and learn more important art information in the E-Zine and Report. The E-Zine is published on the 1st and 3rd Saturday.

“Honor Your Creative Spirit!”

Ellene

P S Here are some ways to learn more art information.
My website - http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com
My twitter - http://twitter.com/ellenebdavis
My facebook - http://facebook.com/ellenebdavis
Blog Talk Radio - http://ellenebreedlovedavisradio.com

Please join me in any of these venues.

7 Tips to assist you in letting others know your paintings are for sale.

Question # 1 -  When you are asked “what do you do?’ speak up and say “I’m an Artist”, with pride and excitement.

Question # 2 will likely be “What do you like to paint?”

Question # 3 ” Do you paint plein air or from photos?

Question # 4 ” Do you have a studio?’

Question # 5 “Do you take commissions?”

Question # 6 “Do you teach?”

Question # 7 Do you have a business card?”

Have your answers prepared and be able to talk about them immediately!  All these questions may possibly be leading up to a commission or straight sale.

At the least your conversation with the viewer is building a relationship that can turn into a collector relationship for many years to come.

In the upper right corner of this blog post you will see a picture of an e-book.  I invite you to press this button, register with your name and e-mail and receive “Choosing To Be An Artist – For A Lifetime“.  It’s at no cost, and my gift to you.

This will also entitle you to receive the Valle of Yellow Creek Art Studio Blog that is published each 1st and 3rd Saturday. It’s full of helpful information whether you are a beginning or more advanced artist.

Honor Your Creative Spirit!

Ellene

Ellene Breedlove Davis

http://ElleneBreedloveDavis.com

http://ElleneBreedloveDavisRadio.com

http://twitter.com/ElleneBDavis

http://facebook.com/ElleneBDavis

The combination of horizontal and vertical lines as in the Cross.  The Cross is a combination of lines that instantly rivets the attention, and probably has the most powerful effect upon the mind that could ever have been devised.

These lines and others help paintings have a natural appearance.  An emotional significance depending on some arrangement of abstract lines is to be found underlying the expression in every good painting, usually hidden by the artist.

Ellene

Ellene Breedlove Davis

http://ellenebreedlovedavis.com

http://ellenebreedlovedavisradio.com

http://twitter.com/ellenebdavis

http://facebook.com/ellenebdavis