I did a Facebook Live video the other night where I answered some of the common questions I get about my mixed media process in creating art.
The entire video is at Facebook but I’ve got a few snippets about each painting I talked about.
One Day She Decided to Trust
“One Day She Decided to Trust”
This picture was a reference to my word of the year (trust) which I adopted a couple years ago and have done every year since. The word of the year practice is great when combined with another mindful practice (like art) which is why I created an ecourse for it. And even though now I have a new word this year I find myself still incorporating the word trust into my art, which is what I did for this painting.
So often you all ask me about the poetry I put on paintings and some of it is a way to encourage you all and some of it is just a message I need to encourage myself.
In this video, I talk a little more about how my painting “She Decided to Trust” came to be.
Her Home Was Peace and Kindness
“Her Home Was Peace and Kindness”
This is a picture that began with the feeling of love and what it means to “be home.” I talked about the many different mediums I used on this picture, like acrylics, inks, paper, and oil sticks. Very often I will sketch out my paintings, or create an image from something I’ve played with in my art journal. This was one I could envision right away, sketched out, and then thought about for a long time. Then, I went for it, and I knew I wanted lots of layers of color and paper.
Purple Flowers in Her Hair
For my painting “Purple Flowers in Her Hair,” I used a canvas board and focused on Pitt pens and India ink for the face. I love the effect this creates! I created this image as part of my Mixed Media Faces ecourse, so if you take that class, you will see exactly how it came together and why I made the medium choices I did.
Her Heart Is Light
“Her Heart Is Light”
One of my favorite recent paintings! “Her Heart Is Light” is a reflection of our spirits. We experience things and go through heartache and come out of it with God’s help. We may not be without scars, but our hearts are light and filled with His spirit.
This picture started with a smattering of black paint, which is unusual for me. I usually go for the colors first. But once the dark colors were on the image I could see this girl clearly, and created her face and dress from oil pastels. I love working with these! I use Sennelier brand and they are creamy and light and wonderful. I continued this picture with acrylics, inks, and paper, and in the end, some poetry. Those pages you see are from my own earlier work.
Her Earnest Prayers
There is nothing like the power of an earnest prayer. We have access to the creator of the universe any time we want. Amazing! And in this part of the “Tree Girl” series I wanted to convey a sense of season, of going through struggle in life and coming out stronger because in the end, we have God and that is all we need. “Her Earnest Prayers” was created with acrylics, oil sticks, oil pastels, paper, and ink. It is a painting I loved creating and I hope whoever buys it will love having it in their home.
Mixed Media Process – What Are Your Questions?
If you’re really bored (ha!) and you want to watch the entire thing, the entire live video is here. Of course, most of my videos come from your questions. You send me lots and I love them, so please feel free to ask me anything about art and life and writing and creativity…. or whatever you’d like. 
This was a fun video and I hope seeing the variety in my paintings helped answer any questions about creativity and my personal mixed media process.
