Moss project

One of the projects I am working on is a series of paintings of moss.

I have made lots of pictures of moss on trees, branches or on stones.

This picture is an inspiration for one of the paintings.

I love the colour combination of the birch bark and the bright yellow:

Coincidentally I recently read some articles on the specific types of moss,

so even more inspiration.

Green

At the moment green seems to be my colour.

I have always liked green but my teacher disliked it. She herself almost never used green...

I like making drawings in one colour and I have a huge box of pastelcrayons, so there is inspiration enough there. But I also like black and white, and permanent markers (which are unforgiving) so I often make small portraits with these markers. And of course the more softer portraits with charcoal.

I like to experiment with materials as well. I followed a course in mixed media and was encouraged to look for textures, tools and materials like sand. It is so much fun to play with those.

It is the time of grass!

All over in the garden and meadow different grasses are growing,

they cast a soft shade of ocre and pink across the field.

Looking up closer, there are many different species, I have no clue what they are, but I'll look into it.

I made a small painting with acrylics and pastels:

Hello little sunshines

Such sweet happy flowers!

Hope they brighten up your day :).

Painting a vase full of lilacs

From start to finish, a vase full of lilacs in purple shades.

I first made a sketch with charcoal:

And then I chose my colours, and started mixing and painting my acrylic paint.

Using different size brushes, now and then taking time to see how it looked from a distance, it slowly came together and it is nearly finished.

Detail, detail

Wow, what details there are in flowers!

YES for Creativity!

Creativity has VALUE!

I think creativity is often underestimated,

sometimes seen as a luxury, an extra.

But creativity has an important value for everyday-life, for businesses, for healing power, for relaxation, for progress.

When children learn to create, they learn to visualize their dreams, their thoughts and they learn how to find solutions. It is a very useful tool in their development.

I have given drawing lessons to teens, and it is wonderful to see how they can develop from an insecure person to an enthusiastic person with even bigger dreams and ideas.

Maybe we, as artists, should emphasize this more, so that Creativity gets the right value, and the financial value as well.

Therefore: