Artistic Endeavors Archives | Page 33 of 55

Artistic Endeavors

All Things Home

mini landscape “place cards” & a giveaway

While the boys were at the climbing lessons, I mingled around the nearby , looking for inspiration and pieces to use in an upcoming post about a summer table setting. I found beautiful as a great launching point, but I wanted to add a whimsical element to the table beyond fruit, flowers, and a pretty cake for the pedestal. This particular Walmart has a pretty robust art supply section and, of course, I meandered through there to see if any new art supplies caught my eye. I found some mini stretched canvases and cute wooden stands and the wheels started turning. What about painting mini landscape “place cards” as a little takeaway for guests? I put them in the cart and couldn’t wait to get started on them the next day. are the mini canvases I purchased for the landscape place cards They are about 2 x 2″. I wanted

August 12, 2019 605 Comments

All Things Home

cow/calf pair

A couple of weeks ago, I painted a cow-calf pair. If you follow me on Instagram, you would’ve seen some of the process as well as the final painting shared on the grid. For those who don’t follow me there, here is the underpainting… …and then the finished work… I didn’t have plans to keep it when I first started this one. I’m pretty good at selling my works. It’s partly a hobby, but painting was absorbed as a part of my business pretty early on, so I try not to get too attached. I paint with the intention of selling. But I was in love with this one as soon as I rolled my chair back and viewed the painting in its entirety. I was so excited that I had an antique gilded frame that fit it, so I tried it on before the painting was even dry. It

August 1, 2019 138 Comments

a slice of life

climbing up weeds

Walking has become one of my best tools for generating ideas. In the past, I sort of felt like walking was an alternative to “real exercise”, but since I’m still limited by my shoulder (I’m still doing PT), walking has been what I can reliably do. And I’ve seen and felt the benefits of it beyond just weight loss and increased energy. That time is spent learning, thinking, and just being open to new ideas. It’s become a hybrid task that bridges personal and professional perks. So, while I was walking yesterday, on a path I have walked hundreds of times before, I noticed a small floral vine creeping up an obnoxious weed. I observed it for a minute while Sebastian was sniffing around and then we kept walking. After a few steps, I turned back around for a closer look. I tromped through the tall weeds, confusing Sebastian, and

July 31, 2019 52 Comments

a slice of life

How I Journal

I’ve mentioned journaling a few times on Instagram and here on the blog and have received some questions about how I journal. I know there are a lot of “journaling methods” out there and I wouldn’t say I follow any specific method, but just started writing and figured out the best way to organize it all for my brain and my creative work. The first thing I learned is that writing everything in one notebook didn’t work. My ideas, to-dos, thoughts, plans, and notes were like a debris field scattered across too many notebooks that I had to sift through every time I wanted to reference something I wrote down. It would’ve been fine if my journaling was just about putting something on paper, but I journal so I can remember and revisit things. I collect quotes, fragmented ideas, and thoughts, notes on books I read, sermons I listen to,

July 29, 2019 22 Comments

a slice of life

ABLE leather backpack & other pretty workhorses

I don’t spend a lot of money on clothes or shoes or purses or jewelry. I don’t eat out a lot or get expensive coffees every day. I don’t get the works done to my hair every eight weeks and I don’t get my nails and toes done with any regularity. What I do buy is good supplies. I love notebooks, binders, portfolios, pens, pencils, papers, pouches, and anything that’s a pretty workhorse. My newest pretty workhorse is a from … I saw this bag first when I visited Shaunna in Florida. It caught my eye, but I didn’t ask her about it. When she visited me a couple of weeks ago, I admired it again and this time asked about it. It’s the . Well, it wasn’t a day or two later that I ordered it. She has owned hers for a couple of years and has traveled with

July 25, 2019 28 Comments

a slice of life

mastery & all things worthwhile

Mastery… I’ve been thinking about that word a lot lately and have been challenged by it as I’ve been reading books like Essentialism and The Creative Habit. If I had to draw a diagram of my creative journey, it would probably look more like a spiderweb than a straight or even meandering path that heads in one direction. And, I have to be honest, these books have made me feel like that’s wrong. I once was on a straight path that led to Broadway. The markers on that path were plays, voice lessons, dance classes, monologues, auditions, stagecraft, improvisation, and hours of rehearsals. It was practicing a routine until I could do it without thinking and rehearsing a script until I could mutter it in my sleep. It was singing scales to improve my range and learning how to stand in the hotspot of a light without looking at it.

July 16, 2019 95 Comments

a slice of life

number one

On my @marianparsonsart Instagram, I shared my very first oil painting along with this caption… Number one. This was my first attempt at oil painting just over two years ago. You can see my tentative use of the paint. The barely-there stippled cloud declares my uncertainty. The mishandling of the colors and weak composition show my lack of knowledge and skill. ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But, you can’t get to painting number 500 or 1000 or 10,000 without having a number one. ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Don’t compare your number one to someone else’s number 500 or 10,000. Let your number one be your number one…in all of its embarrassing artistic immaturity. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ You have to start somewhere and this is where I started. ⠀⠀ As a comparison, this is my most recent landscape painting, almost two years and around 400 paintings, a dozen online art courses, and 100 art books later… I felt

July 2, 2019 50 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

“cover bands don’t change the world”

I love Todd Henry’s quote from the Accidental Creative podcast, “Cover bands don’t change the world. Don’t be a cover band.” Initially, I took the quote at face value. Right. Do your own thing. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot more lately and getting a little deeper with it. It really is not simple or easy…mostly because the market wants you to be a cover band. It constantly pushes you in that direction and you have to not only fight against it, but intentionally focus on doing your own thing. Think about it. Using the band analogy… If you’re a new band trying to gain footing, are you going to do better at concerts playing songs you’ve written that no one knows? The tunes are unfamiliar and they can’t sing along with the lyrics? Or a crowd pleaser that was already a hit? The audience is fired up,

June 26, 2019 46 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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