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Watercolors

a slice of life

travel journal workshop

I’ll give you fair warning that my posts will be all over the place for a few weeks.  We’ll be bouncing around between Christmas decorating, gifting, and crafting, to early October in Italy, and then whatever else I’m working on.  Welcome to my life.  Today, we’re back in Tuscany at the La Dolce Vita Retreat.  While this trip was a vacation, it was also work.  I was here to teach a creative workshop for the retreat attendees.  I wanted my workshop to focus on art while staying approachable for those who don’t consider themselves artists.  I decided to teach on keeping a travel journal that went beyond sitting and sketching what you see.  While that can be a part of keeping a travel journal, I think that’s the piece that is intimidating to most people.  I am an artist, and it intimidates me!  I’m not as at home with paper

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Art

Small Business Spotlight | A Gallo Watercolors

When I first started my business and blog, many creative entrepreneurs supported me along the way.  They showed me the ropes, invited me into their community, and introduced me to their audience and customer base.  I love that I can now return the favor to other creative entrepreneurs, from small start-ups to established, thriving companies, you may have never heard of.  This Italian company, which makes handmade watercolor paints, fits into the latter category.  They already have a devoted following, but you probably haven’t seen them in the aisle of your local craft store.  For that reason, I’d like to introduce you to A. Gallo.  (They are Italian-made, so it’s fitting I’m introducing them while in Tuscany!) A. Gallo handmade watercolors are developed and made by artists for artists, and they are passionate about their craft.  Their watercolors are made “according to a traditional recipe of raw pigments, gum arabic,

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Art Supplies

packing art supplies for international travel

I’ve been bringing along art supplies when I travel for the past few years.  When I went to China in 2017, I had a vision of standing on the Great Wall and capturing the experience in a sketchbook.  I was nervous about it, but I did it!  The sketch was rubbish, but I learned that it wasn’t about the results.  It was about the process, about being fully present, and taking time to observe.  (You can read the post about that HERE.) Since then, I have always brought art supplies with me when I travel.  Both times I visited Europe, I made a point to set aside time to sketch and paint.  Again, I didn’t end up with anything I was particularly proud of, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’ve always just brought along supplies for sketching and watercolors, though, because they are easy to pack and travel with. 

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Art

royalty-free artist reference photos site launch

I’ve been working on a new project behind the scenes for a few months and now, we’re ready to officially launch!  I am so excited to introduce you to my new site… www.artistreferencephotos.com One of the greatest frustrations I’ve experienced as a growing artist is finding reference photos for the things I want to paint that I might not see daily.  My readers and Instagram followers have generously shared photos with me when I put the call out, but not every artist has a generous audience as a resource to tap into when specific photos are needed.  Yes, artists can search for images online, but there are restrictions even on “free” photo-sharing websites and things can get sticky if you want to license your work for reproduction and sale.  I found in all of my online searches that there isn’t a website that is truly a royalty-free reference photo library

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Art

two sketchbook tours | artistic endeavors

As I have shared in a few posts recently, I made the commitment to draw and/or paint daily in 2023.  Daily-ish.  And I’d say I’ve done pretty well given the number of paintings I have produced and that I’ve finished two sketchbooks that had been languishing in my studio unfinished for a while.  I have already started on three new sketchbooks (I’ll share why I work on more than one later in this post), but I set these aside to do two sketchbook tours together.  Sharing these sketchbooks accomplishes a few things for me.  First of all, it’s a record that I keep for myself in case these sketchbooks are ever damaged or lost.  Second, there is some accountability in knowing that I will be sharing them.  Third, as with everything I share, I hope the sketchbook tours will be an encouragement to someone.  Maybe seeing my creative play, my

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Art

15 creative exercises to fill your sketchbook

Last night, I said it out loud.  “I am finally starting to really see myself as an artist.”  I have put the title on my profiles and have reluctantly used it in introductions, but I didn’t really feel it down to my bones.  I don’t know what shifted or what gave me permission to internally embrace it, but it happened recently.  I’ll have to think about it a bit more…about what changed and why.  But the result is that I feel freer and more willing to make a mess and create something I don’t like.  I feel more accepting of what comes out of my hands.  And I feel more excited to draw and paint.  I am hoping to share some of that enthusiasm with you by starting at the simplest, most honest, and forgiving place an artist can start – a sketchbook.  I’m going to share 15 sketchbooks exercises

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Artistic Endeavors

making color wheels with homemade watercolor paints

Before I dive headlong into holiday content, I wanted to share the last installment of my series on making handmade watercolors.  To me, experimenting with the paints and exploring the color palette is one of my favorite parts of playing with paints.  Whenever I feel stuck, I just start making color wheels and charts and that gets my hands and creative brain moving. You can find the first three parts (including videos, a printed recipe, and supplies list) here… mineral artist’s pigments from Choosing Keeping handmade watercolor binder recipe & video making handmade watercolors I have a huge assortment of pigments to choose from, but I decided to start with five colors that would give me a small palette to experiment on and play with.  This was my first time mixing homemade watercolors, so I knew there would be a learning curve.  As I shared in the previous post, the

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Artistic Endeavors

making handmade watercolors

You can find the first part of this series about making handmade watercolors HERE.  That post shares about the pigments I purchased.  In the second post, I shared the handmade watercolor binder recipe I’m testing out.  You can find that post (along with a printable recipe and video HERE.)  I received so many comments and messages from people who were eager to see the binder actually mixed with the pigment to make handmade watercolors and that is going to happen in this post and video! Let me lead off by saying this is my first time making handmade watercolors.  I’m very experienced when it comes to working with paints and pigments, but actually mixing the paints is new to me.  I am so excited to finally be doing it though.  It was actually on my to-do list for 2021, because it’s something I’ve been curious about and interested in trying

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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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