What To Do After An Art Challenge
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Art challenges provide a wonderful burst of inspiration, accountability, and community. But they all end eventually, and to really dig into your own art practice, you can’t always be responding to a challenge. So what do you do when...
How To Art Journal Every Day
This video will show you fun and easy ways to create tiny pieces of art and then combine them in beautiful little art journals. You don’t need any experience, this is for everyone!
The Three P’s Of Making More Art
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Folks often ask me how I find time to make art. It is hard to make time to make art sometimes. It’s my job to make art, and even I struggle sometimes when I’m really busy with the business side of things. But there are a few...
Play With Repetition: An Art Tutorial
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: When I’m creating art journal collages, some of the elements I like to play with are repetition, variation, and texture. Let’s start with texture. Texture in Art If you haven’t thought about texture in art before,...
How to Organize Your Art Studio
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I have always had a space dedicated to my art making. For years while living with roommates it was tiny – a container under my bed, or a small desk in my bedroom. Now I’m lucky enough to have an entire room in my house....
More Art Play Makes Better Art Work
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I spend a lot of time urging you to repeat yourself, to focus on exploration, and to luxuriate in the joy of the process. Today I’d like to illustrate what that looks like for me in the hope of inspiring you to push further in your...
The Power of Starting Simple
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: What is the simplest thing I could do artistically right now? I’ve found this is such a powerful question for my art practice. I don’t ask: What masterpiece could I make? We need to build our skills over time. You’re not...
Creating Slow Drawing Patterns
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: One of the questions I get a lot is how I come up with my slow drawing patterns. In December, I come up with the batch of patterns that we will explore in the first six months of the year, and in May, I generate the second batch. Since I...
The Mindful Art Studio Book List 2022
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Each year I compile a list of books that have been important to me and my creative life during the year. I hope you find a few that speak to you here, and that you comment at the bottom to add to the list. Art + Drawing Books: Life is...
The Complex Beauty of Simplicity
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: It happens so often with the “simplest” slow drawing patterns – folks initially dismiss them, but once they do the workshop, they say how surprised they were because they loved the simplicity and found a lot of room to...
Join The Inchie Challenge 2022!
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: This is one of my favorite times of year – The Inchie Challenge! Watch this video to learn why + how we do The Inchie Challenge. Join the Inchie Challenge Here: ‘ (You could win a free copy of my book Draw Yourself Calm!) I...
Draw Yourself Calm Is Available In The UK!
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I’m more than pleased to tell you that my book, Draw Yourself Calm, is now available in the UK! Even more fun is that folks in the UK can purchase with a special coupon code I’ll offer at the end of the post. I thought it...
Making Art Work In The Time You Have
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Last week I had the great pleasure of returning to Maine to camp for the week with my family. It’s always a time of incredible views, hikes, bikes, and far too many sticky buns and ice cream cones. It’s also a time that I...
Clear The Clutter and Make More Art
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: For some of us, it can be hard to make time and space for art making. It’s easier to buy art supplies than to create with them. It’s easier to put the things that need to be dealt with in your art space, than to deal with...
Our Longing For Retreat
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: It’s been two years since I’ve been able to return to one of my most beloved places on earth – to Squam Lake for an art retreat. When I arrived, the lake was a sight for sore eyes, and I felt myself sink into its...
What Can I Do With My Slow Drawings?
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Slow drawing has seeped into every part of my art practice. I love the way these nature-based patterns seem to have a connection to everything, and everyone sees them differently. It speaks to the way these patterns repeat throughout...
Finding a Sense of Wonder in Your Art
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I’ve been hosting Slow Drawing Parties since the beginning of the pandemic, and so many folks have told me how important the practice is to their lives. But when folks first start, especially if they are new to art, it can be hard...
Join the Simplest Things Challenge!
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Last year, during all the stress of the pandemic and lockdown, I pondered a simple question: What would happen if I created the simplest thing I could in my journal today? It’s a pretty radical question, isn’t it? How often do...
The Best Gifts for Artists 2021
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: This year, in the spirit of reducing the amount of stuff that might end up in our oceans or landfills, I’m suggesting some less tangible, but highly valuable gifts. Some of them are completely free, and others are an investment....
The Best Gifts for Artists 2022
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: While I tend towards minimalism, I enjoy a new art supply from time to time as much as the next person. But for me this is the key: I buy just a few, high quality supplies so that they work well and keep me having fun. Here are a few of...
The Mindful Art Studio Book List 2021
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Every fall, I compile a list of books that have made an impact on me that year. I include a broad scope of topics because our art practice is made up of bits and pieces from every part of our lives. I think about books as an important...
Is it Art Talent Or Art Work?
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Over the last two weeks, we engaged in a simple art challenge. The idea was to create for a short period of time, on a small square, every day for 12 days. You were invited to let go of perfectionism and embrace play and...
You Don’t Need an Art Style, You Need an Art Practice
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: One of the most common questions I get from students is this: How do I develop my style as an artist? It’s a logical question, but it’s the wrong question. Trying to develop your artistic “style” is a bit like...
The Inchie Challenge 2021
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Each summer I host an art challenge that focuses on getting you to meet your top art goals – make more fun, meaningful art. There is so much that can get in the way of your creative life. I want to help you make art making so...
The Simplest Things
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: At the Nature Spells Book Retreat last week, one of the things we discussed was the power of making space for the simplest things. We think our ideas need to be grand, or complicated, in order to be good enough. But it’s not true. I...
Do Less, Make More.
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: One of the things that has fascinated me most about art over the last few years is how powerful it is when we create space. I find the less I do, the more I make. For me, and my students, it’s about creating space: Physical space in...
How to Sew Your Own Journal
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I have been making my own journals for some time – some sewn simply, some rolled or loose, and some folded accordion style. I love the playfulness of these techniques. But I have longed to sew a more traditional book – a...
To Get Creative, Get Curious
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: What is sparking your creativity these days? For me, it’s been the tiny, itty bitty interior spaces of natural objects. I’m fascinated by the abstract shapes made by the gills of a fungus, or the holes and crevices in a piece...