Blooming True — And Falling in Love with Painting

The last five weeks have passed in a flash. A paint-, joy-, and discovery-filled flash. Five weeks ago, I started the Bloom True e-course hosted by Flora Bowley and Beth Nicholls. Flora is a fine artist and instructor and Beth is the woman behind Do What You Love for Life. They teamed up to create the most inspiring and information-packed e-course I've ever taken. I'm certainly no expert and haven't taken nearly the number of courses others have, but I think I can safely say that Flora's course is leaps and bounds above many others.

Flora's generosity in teaching is incredible. She's supportive, joyful, shares her process with grace and whole-heartedness that just makes me want to be a better person, as well as a better painter. She focuses on everything positive, giving us exercises to build our creative courage, banish our negative self talk and inner critics, and just BE. In the moment. Inspired. Intuitive. Bold. Brave.

I learned about Flora's course through Beth's site, watching the informational video as soon as it hit my in-box. I was mesmerized, enthralled. And then the words, "Be Brave" painted on Flora's studio wall flashed on the screen, and I knew. I knew I HAD to take this class. You see, sometime late last fall, I decided that "Be Brave" was going to be my mantra for the new year. And then quickly re-decided that it would be my motto starting right then. Those words just came to me, tapped me quietly on the shoulder, whispered in my ear. I had to obey them.

I immediately signed up for the class. This was November 30, 2011. I told my husband that he didn't need to get me anything for Christmas. I just bought my gift. And what a gift it has been. There is SO much more I need and want to learn, and this course has set me down a path that has made me incredibly happy. I'll be painting and just start smiling.

I never thought I would be a painter. I avoided painting classes in high school even though I loved taking art classes and went out of my way to take as many as I could. Painting was so daunting to me. I was much more comfortable with drawing or using other media. Now, I'm in love with it. I want to paint all the time!

One of the other women taking the Bloom True course had a slide show of a painting in progress on her blog. I loved the idea so much that I created one as well. This painting process involves lots of layers, and I also rotated the canvas MANY times as I went through the layers. I've oriented them all the same way for this slide show so you can see the evolution. This painting is not finished. I need at least one more layer, but I wanted to share this with you in the mean time.

The quality isn't the greatest, but you can see all of these images in my flickr set. I've got three canvases going for the class; this is just one.

52 Week Photo Project – Weeks 6, 7 & 8

I've been slacking on the Photo Projects posts! Here's a combo one for your viewing pleasure.

Week 6 theme was "Movie or Song Title." I'd planned on doing a movie title, but this song popped into my head and just had to shoot it.





I love Jim Croce's music. It's hard to believe that he was only 30-years-old when he died.


Week 7 theme was "Light." I shot a few things — light streaming through a glass of water, sun shining on the fireplace just so. But I went with this shot of my Keurig coffee maker buttons.



The depth of field is very short and I was going for the blurry, slightly dreamy look.


And we come to Week 8. The theme is "Laughter." I cheated a bit since I was so busy with work this past week and weekend that I picked a photo I'd taken at Thanksgiving. I asked my nieces to sit so I could get a photo of them together. And this happened.



Actually, lots of feet and hands in the air, laughing, goofing around and generally silliness. I did NOT get a "serious" shot, but that's OK. This represents them MUCH better!

Missing an Appendage (a.k.a. My Camera)

*Insert sad face*

Not to be confused with *distraught face*

(Sorry, I can't help myself. I find me endlessly hilarious. I realize I'm the only one that does. Don't care. Besides, PhotoBooth is freakin' AWESOME. The end.)

OK, back to the point of this post. Ahem. 

MY CAMERA DIED. *sob*

Which is why I'm both sad and, yes, a bit distraught. I've become incredibly attached to my lovely little D80, so being without it has caused me some serious identity crisis moments. "What am I going to do NOW?? How will I ever function again? Ever?! GAH!" Stuff like that.

There it is. My extra appendage in better times. You know, when it worked. Dusty with flour, crusty with dough, probably some paint on the back. *sigh*

I sent it away last week after trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the flashing "ERR" message on the display. I was pretty sure I knew what was wrong. I heard back from Nikon today and they confirmed it. The #%&#!@ pop up flash is broken. I DON'T EVEN USE IT. 

It's like not being able to drive your car because the CD player (THAT YOU NEVER USE BECAUSE IT'S 2012 AND YOU HAVE AN IPOD AND ITUNES) doesn't work. 

The good news is that it can be fixed and for much less than buying even a point and shoot. But still. I don't have my camera right now because something that I don't use is broken on it and I have to PAY to get the thing that I don't use fixed. 

Good times. First world problems, and all that. OK, I'm done now. 

I feel better. Like this:

Wait. That's manic, crazy-face.

SEE? I'm capable of not mugging constantly. 

Almost. (By the way, this is what I call the "Oh, GOLLY!" In case you were wondering.)

52 Week Photo Project – Week 5 Favorite Place

The theme for Week 5 was "I left my heart in…" If I had my druthers, I would have gone back to Hawaii to take some digital photos, but it was not in the cards. For you see, Hawaii IS where I left my heart, but all of my photos are on film. I found an excellent back up, though – Warren Dunes, Lake Michigan.

Dwight and I managed to go back in October last year. Yep, this is October!

It was an incredible day; probably the perfect day. It was really warm without being crazy-hot, sunny all day, and the beach was gloriously free of the hoards of humanity that frequent it during the actual beach season.

We got an early start and made a stop at Meijer to pick up an a umbrella or some other contraption to keep me out of the sun. Remember this post? Yeah, I'm totally serious about being protected in the sun. Seeing as we were going to be baking on the beach for hours and not just out and about, I wanted physical cover instead of just sunscreen. I don't like being baking in the sun, even covered in sunscreen; I get way too hot and start feeling icky.

We found this tent and It. Was. Perfect. I abso-freakin-lutely love it. It's my new BFF. I was happy as a clam in there. It was GLORIOUS.

My view from the tent. Heaven.

Look at these vistas? Gorgeous. If you haven't been to Lake Michigan or any of the Great Lakes, you might not realize how vast they really are. If I can't be in Hawaii, I'll take the Lake Michigan coast any day.



I did leave a little bit of my heart on this beach that beautiful day in October. It was one of my very best days of 2011.