5 Years of Blogging

This past week marked the 5th year anniversary of my very first blog post.  Since that realization, I have been considering what that means to me and how much my life has changed in that short time.  I know that I have learned so much as an artist and yet I hope to continue to learn in the years left to me.  

As I read these words, I am mindful that they may have been penned some years ago but they still ring true for me and affirm the desires of my heart.   I want to continue to develop and discover the creative gifts that are God given and keep them burning strong in my life.  It has definitely been a journey and blogging has been an additional creative outlet for me.  I find that writing entries for this blog, sharing my art with you are ways for me to record that journey and hopefully inspire and encourage others to find their creative passions.  It's never too late to become and artist!


My first blog post from 2011....

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.  Colossians 3:23  I think as I get closer to my soon approaching 50th birthday, I am mindful about legacy and mission, purpose and value of a my life.  What have I done on this Earth with the time that God has given me.  Will I be remembered for how well I balance the church checkbook or for how clean my house has been?  

I don't think so...It is the creative part, the passion in your life that brings impact to those that remain after you are long gone.  I think that is partly why I am so driven to improve my artwork.  Besides my influence of others by my Christian example, it is my art that I believe will define me in the memories of those that are left to eulogize  my life.  There is an urgency in my heart to take my work to the next level.  I want to leave little pieces of my heart framed and hanging on a wall for everyone see it, appreciate it and remember me by.  Will my grandchildren stop and tell their children that this is one of your Grandmother's beautiful paintings?  Will they say that "She loved the Lord and honored His creation by painting beautiful pictures?"  Time will only tell, but in the mean time, I need to keep practicing."

Designated Drawing Spaces

Just in these past few weeks, I discovered a new artist friend that I have found to be very inspiring.  It is Katherine Thomas and her whimsical drawings immediately caught my attention.  She is also an successful blogger and uses a number of social media platforms to promote her art.  I find that combination very cool and something I want to work to improve in my own quest for self-promotion.

Last week I saw a picture that she posted on Facebook of her sitting at her drawing table and that was when I decided I needed to reorganize my studio and make a designated drawing area along side of my easel. Drawing has always been my first love in art and I passionately believe that you are a better painter if you spend time actively drawing on a regular basis.  

So, I spent a good portion of my day on Sunday organizing and cleaning the studio and  I am pretty happy with the ending results.  Even though it was getting late in the day when I finally finished and I was a bit worn out, I just had to try out my drawing table and do some sketching.

Here are the results of those efforts. My subject for my sketch was a little selfie of my husband and I.  Portraits are always a challenge and drawing a self portrait compounds that challenge.  I drew this on Canson 96lb Bristol paper with my Prismacolor Fine Line Markers and Prismacolor Colored Pencils. 

Looking at my little sketch makes me smile.

I guess you could say I'm a Prismacolor girl since obviously  I own so many of their products.  

I am a Blogger-Come on in and Sit a Spell

Yesterday, I was in deep thought and came up with a profound comparison that I just had to share today...I was considering the differences between my website and my blog as many people don't understand and think they are the same.  It came to me that my website is like visiting and being brought into the formal living room that is reserved only for company.  The room isn't used on a daily basis and once you have it decorated just they way you like it you just go in there periodically and fluff the pillows and dust the furniture but you're not spending great deals of time in there. julietownsendstudio.com

My blog on the other hand is like the front porch.  Sitting on the swing with a big jar of fresh sweet tea waving at all the neighbors as they pass by on the sidewalk.  Maybe some of them stop at the gate and exchange weather and local gossip, while others come on up and sit a spell.  JTownsendstudios.blogspot.com

Ice cold sweet tea with a sprig of mint from my herb garden ...It is Las Vegas so remember to bring your sun hat!

A blog is personal and it is a forum to share you passion with people all over the world that for some reason took a few minutes out of their lives to stop in and pull up a chair.  We can chat about my artwork, my latest Nevada adventure or a recent lesson I have learned about composition or color.  Whatever the reason for the visit a blogger is driven to make a contact.

I am fascinated with my statistics and audience synopsis.  The fact that so many of my visitors are from far away exotic places just blows this Missouri girls mind.  I'm still remember having a high school pen pal that lived in the Philippines and how each letter took weeks to arrive at the posted destination and within minutes of me pushing the little orange PUBLISH button I have an audience thousands of miles away checking out my thoughts, musings and maybe even my artwork.  Amazing time we live in

A screen shot of my audience statistics for this week so far....Just blows me away!

Passion, Purpose, Persistance and all those other "P" Words

“Passion" hasn't been a word that I would think many of my friends would use when describing me.  When I look up the definition of the word in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary I find one of the definitions listed as “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction”.  Obsession would also be a synonym of the word I think.  Remember, if you have read my bio you know that I’m not an art major but rather have a business degree.  I have also spent the last 27 years working as an accountant for a church and Christian School.  You can’t get more conservative than that.  So I have always used adjectives when describing myself with words like detailed, accurate, organized and honest.  While I hold deep convictions about my faith and principles, outward displays of passion have not been very visible. 

I picked up a paintbrush again just a little over two years ago after a 30 year break.  From that point I have felt a change in the way I viewed things around me.  I call it “Looking through my artist eyes.”  I began to view my surroundings in heightened detail and appreciation because I was always thinking about how I would paint that or what colors would I mix together to get that shade.  It is as if my thought processes have been transformed.  I look at this amazing world that God has created with a new wonderment and for that I am so happy to have opened the doors once again to my creative self.

Today, I was looking around some artist blogs for inspiration and ideas to improve my own blog and I came across this quote by an artist named Cheryl Anderson.  I felt her words accurately described what painting has become for me in my life and I wanted to share it.  “Painting is truly an obsession for me. Almost every thought I have is never more than two steps removed from painting.” (http://cherylandersonart.blogspot.com/)

I am on the very edge of my retirement and so here I am within a month of starting a new journey and I have no idea if my art will ever be more than a hobby.  I dream that it will,  but the important thing is that I give it my best effort.  I believe that Purpose in your life comes when you follow Persistently the Passion that God has put in your heart.  

Enjoying a beautiful Nevada morning

Blogger in training

I've felt a tugging in my heart to take blogging seriously and begin in ernest to regularly record my thoughts and things I have learned in regards to painting and my Nevada adventures. Of course one has to get out of the house to experience adventure. This isn't an easy task for me because I'm such a home body. So to get me better informed about the whole blogging process I've been reading books on the topic. I've skimmed the book "Blogging Bliss" by Tara Frey and also "Problogger" by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. Both books had really good information but the non-techy person that I am finds a bit of struggle with all the information. The one really tecky thing I had previuosly accomplished was getting this blog to link right over to my Facebook notes but this week Facebook announced they were ending this feature. Go figure.

Small World

I was just thinking today about when you are almost 50, as I am soon approaching...you have an interesting perspective on the world.  I have clear memories of my youth when technology hadn't yet expanded our neighborhood to include the entire planet.  Yet, I'm young enough to be somewhat comfortable with today's technology.  For example.. I love my smart phone, my social media connections like Facebook and twitter and of course, as you can see here, I am trying to be a blogger.

What a contrast to the the days of my youth when I traveled to school in a horse drawn wagon...(Just kidding) but in the minds of today's youth it might as well have been because they just can't imagine a time when the main communication consisted of mailing letters and waiting weeks for a reply.  And who can forget the telephone party line.  In Eldon, Missouri we didn't just share the phone line but we also shared phone rings.  At my house we answered the phone if it was a long and a short ring, but we could also hear the neighbors phone ring.   Maybe it would be two long rings or two short rings.  Believe me when I say, there were no hour long teenage phone conversation allowed.  The world at that time was small and the ability most of us had to impact that world was equally small.  

Today, I'm at lunch, when I received an IM from my Facebook account from a young girl in Saudi Arabia that likes my paintings and is anxious for me to see her newest piece.  Can you believe it... I'm actually encouraging a young artist in a completely foreign culture to my own, with thousands of miles separating us and many years between us and yet... there she is talking to me excitedly telling me about her new painting...Yasmeen, you did a beautiful job on your painting and without knowing it you have greatly inspired a middle-aged, American woman learning to fire that passion for art in her own life.