happy mess

(a Springtime project for the upcoming workshop)

For weeks it seems the days have run into one another.  I have been hiding in my studio (I can't help it, it is just what I needed!).  It is the time of year I am most prolific, productive, plenteous, effluent...(I do love juicy words).  Projects piled along long counters, bits of paper and paint stuck to my sweaters, bright sketches filling up my sketchbooks, and calendaring out days of deadlines...trying to stop time long enough to finish and breathe.  

It is a colorful and happy mess.  

I know in my heart that winter is pulling away.  Snow and ice still hang on my home, my trees, my muddy boots, but I feel the change in the air and it brings new energy and life to my days.  Can you feel it coming?

The sun streams in the sun room windows.  Birds are busy outside the kitchen window making my poor cat crazy.  Little patches of green are poking through the muddy snow, making my eyes hunt for those bits of neon.

Perhaps it's why my paints exploded in color this spring~ I am so hungry for nature to come alive.    

March is always a month of messiness.  

A year ago, with Christy Tomlinson, I launched a brand new workshop called "The Art of Wild Abandonment", it literally made a mess of my schedule for the entire year~ new creative ideas, collective projects, new friendships, wild new sketches, and so much goodness.  I suppose this workshop is a celebration of that art-sprouting-wonderfulness.  Or simply a celebration of God's goodness and love! Messiness in life and art is to be expected ~ birthing and growing is full of colorful chaos, yes and amen?  

Would you like to join me?  Perhaps you are sprouting this spring as well.

New sketches?
A try at selling art?
Writing 3 pages a day?
Launching a blog, a business, a new idea?
Trying some new tasty recipes?
Opening your heart to life again?
Seeing the world in a new way?
Trying a new artistic medium?

New baby lambs on the way???  (yes!)

I am so excited for you and me ~ May God's passionate joy accompany our paths this spring!  

In His hope-filled hands,
jj

A few basic Supplies for "The Art of Spring":

***Christy and I both feel the importance of letting students see the projects and decide what to use before purchasing all of the supplies, it saves you money, so I am sharing the most basic supplies needed in this list.

The updated list (with all the extras) will be available the first day of class

A favorite sketchbook - mine is 9x12 spiral bound (inexpensive)
Strathmore visual journal mixed media or any watercolor paper you like to use

An Art Journal of your choosing - purchased or homemade

Watercolors - a simple set (neocolor ll crayons work great as a set!)

Titanium heavy body paint (I use Golden, 2 or 4 oz. is fine)

Acrylic Paints - some favorite spring colors 

Gesso 

Decoupage - matte

6x6 packs of springtime papers or any assorted papers

mechanical pencil

Canvases in various sizes of your choosing (if working outside of an art journal)