April 1′st Joke!

Mother nature is playing a joke today on me! In my quest to paint in my studio, the weather has turned hot and humid making it rather difficult! But I am going to push on and do it anyway. Because of my love of painting, I am determined to stick to my goal of painting daily…So I was wondering:

How many of you artists or non-artist out there have all kinds of “blocks” that get in the way of  accomplishing your goals? What do you do to “unblock” yourself? I would love to hear from you…

Art Instruction Book Review

Hi all,

With so many art instruction books published it is hard to know which ones are great and which ones are not so great. So I thought I would give my opinion as a collector of art instruction books. As I am an art instructor, I frequently bring in to my classes art books that I recommend. I now have an enormous collection and so it naturally came to me to do book reviews on my blog. So here we go!

To begin this journey, there is one book that I notice that I return to over and over again and this is “The Art of James Christensen – A Journey of the Imagination.” As Told to Renwick St. James. This book gives the beginning and advanced artist the inspiration to explore their own imaginative side.

In his first chapter, James gives us his view of how to tap into your imagination and he does it in such a beautiful way! He believes that “anyone at all can make the voyage. No one is born without an imagination.”  He believes that by using visual metaphors, symbols and allegory are ways to better communicate between the art, the artist and the audience. The rest of the book is based on examples and descriptions of how he uses these ideas with great art and inspiring notes.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to not only be a better imaginative artist, but to anyone who would like to use their imagination to improve their life.

I have to go now, but please return as I will be reviewing more of my favorite art books. Bye now…..

Pamela