Before the “Break” October Blog
October 6th, 2024
Before the “Break”
This blog is about creativity before the “break”. The “break” was an actual fall I had two weeks ago in Chicago on the L train platform. My husband and I were on our way to the airport to come home. I fell, dislocated my left shoulder and broke my arm bone near the shoulder. My husband and I got several ambulance rides to two hospitals. The dislocation was fixed and my arm stabilized. Twenty-four hours after I fell, we flew home.
Watercolor inks for background on unsized cotton paper. Gouache yellow with black ink over background
Cancelled
Unfortunately, the September Mandala & Creativity Circle and ten-hour Fantasy & Real Flower Mixed Media workshop were both cancelled. I was so looking forward to sharing the creativity of those gatherings. Instead, I am sharing some pieces I made before the “break” in preparation for the workshop. I played around with new and old materials, and techniques that will be shared in upcoming gatherings.
Oil pastels flower and vase. Watercolors painted over and soaked into unsized cotton paper.
Time for Healing
It will be many weeks of bone healing and physical therapy before I can write, draw, paint, make pottery, garden and other things I love to do. Fortunately this is temporary. Now I can discover new ways of tapping into the healing power of creativity.
Gouache purple coneflower over watercolor background on unsized cotton paper.
Gold, silver & pink watercolor iridescence on black paper.
Oil Pastel Backgrounds
In preparation for the workshop, I took an online class about oil pastels. I hadn’t used them as the only medium in a long time. I didn’t like these paintings until I filled in the background, which pulled everything together. Sometimes I forget how important backgrounds are.
This painting didn’t work until the peach and purple background pulled it together. I love these colors together.
Suprise Flowers
Inspired by something I saw online, one of the workshop activities was to be a painted collage of flower and plant parts. I can”t wait to share this in upcoming gatherings.
Explorations
During this healing time I will be creating with my non-dominant right hand exploring “loose florals and abstracts ”. Sounds terrifying and fun. Below is a painted background waiting for some new discoveries in mark making.
