Keeping a Sketchbook

Keeping a sketchbook helps to keep track of creative ideas that can be used in other works of art. It is also a good place to practice drawing or new techniques.

It doesn't have to be pretty or perfect it's a great place to make mistakes and just experiment. If you don't draw you can cut out pictures or fabrics and stick them in. If you like to write you can journal or try different lettering ideas.

You don't even have to finish everything it's a place to loosen up and be free to do whatever you feel like doing. It's good to have a smaller sketchbook that you can fit in your purse or laptop bag and take with you wherever you go, even if you just doodle in it every day it keeps the creative juices flowing.

You don't have to show your sketchbook to anyone you can improve your gifts and talents in secret.

 

 

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CREATIVITY

 

Kevin “You know that mustache stamp you bought recently.”

Me “yes”

Kevin “well it's now part of the car door”.

It turns out that the window of the car had fallen inside the door and the mustache stamp was the perfect fit to hold it up again. A $1.50 short term fix for a $400 job that's what I call CREATIVITY.

CREATIVITY – The use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.

Notice creativity isn't limited to artistic work, we all have creative ability it may be that we just don't recognize it.

 

 

 

 

 

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Create time to Create.

Something I have learned in recent times regarding creativity is ” You don't have to wait for inspiration before you begin. Inspiration comes when you begin.” For me once I make a start whether that might be cutting out pictures from magazines, painting a few canvasses with background colors or looking through my art materials the inspiration begins to flow.

Another thing I have come to realize is that not having enough time to create is an excuse. If I just take half an hour a day and do something toward the finished article, even if it's clearing up my workspace then I have done what Michael Nobbs calls My Important Work. His blog has some great tips on Sustainable Creativity like, what could you say “no” to today to free up energy for something more important?

I would like to encourage you today to spend 30 minutes on that project you haven't picked up for a year, maybe it's a blanket you were knitting, or a short story you were writing don't let the Big Picture overwhelm you break it down into bite size chunks and watch it unfold.

 

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How sweet it is ………

 

Here is my latest picture most of it is a painting and collage on a canvas but then I finished it by taking a photo and importing it into the Sketch Club App. I colored in the letters and added some finishing touches.

 

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Hiding Place

Woke up with these words in my ears yesterday, “Hide yourself in Me”.

As I was pondering this I thought about the purpose of hiding places, to hide from an enemy, to hide from a storm, to hide from distractions in order to focus. God wants to be this kind of shelter for us all.

After praying for a little while I focused in on hiding from an enemy and how vital it is to be quiet and still in that situation, my imagination wandering to people hiding from soldiers in wartime. I sensed God say to me that I need to be silent and give up complaining and murmuring about issues in my life because by doing so I continually give up my position to the enemy. I confess to be trusting God on the one hand and then reveal my lack of trust on the other.

So I have decided to hide from distractions in order to focus on God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness for a while so that when the storms of life come and the enemy is prowling I will have my place of safety.

“You shall hide them in the secret place of Your Presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues”. Psalm 32:20

“You are my hiding place You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance”. Psalm 32:7

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Autumn Morning

 

 

 

“Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn–that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness–that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.”
― Jane Austen, Persuasion

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
― George Eliot

 

“After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth…The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her…In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.”

― Elizabeth George Speare

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.
Stanley Horowitz

 

 

 

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Grace

I am thankful to God for so many things. First and foremost that He should humble Himself to take on human flesh and live a sinless life in this sinful world. That He would suffer and die on a cross so that we would receive forgiveness and be given a new life. That He (the creator of the universe) would come to live in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And all of this not because we are worthy or deserve it but because He loves us and His son Jesus is worthy.

What an amazing privilege it is to be a Christian. God’s grace is wonderful it’s beyond comprehension.

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Inquire Within

Why do we often make decisions in a hurry, and even when we have a nagging sense that we are making a big mistake we rush ahead. Usually it’s because we want something badly and we are not taking into consideration the big picture. We should listen to our intuition or the small voice on the inside of us.

God speaks to us in our spirits and He is trying to guide us with His peace. If we feel really stressed out about choosing a path ahead then it’s best to take time to listen.

The bible says that David inquired of The Lord to see if he would have success in his pursuit of his enemy.

The Lord gave him permission and ensured him that he would be successful. God doesn’t change and He has no favorites, if we are facing decisions He wants to help us to make the right move too.

And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state]

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Venice

There is something so different in

Venice from any other place in

the world, that you leave at

once all accustomed habits and

everyday sights to enter an

enchanted garden.
Mary Shelley

To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius.” ~ Alexander Herzen

Photo’s courtesy of my daughter and son in law, Kerry and Ray who loved there European trip especially Venice.

Shadows

I took these photo’s while I was on vacation in St Maarten. As I was looking at them I realized it would be very difficult to capture the identical pictures again. The weather conditions would have to be the same and the sun would have to be in the exact same position for the shadows to appear the same.
God is not like this, no matter what the condition of our lives He is still the same. In good times or bad His character doesn’t change.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8