10 Important life lessons to learn from art

Most of us pursue art at some point in our lives. As parents, we encourage our kids to create art, we give the gift of crayons and markers to our grand children, or might surprise our siblings with prepaid music lessons and the list goes on. But art is not only a fun past-time or hobby rather it can also be such a gentle guru that opens our eyes to many crucial life lessons. and here is 10 most important ones that I have learnt from it:

1. Rome wasn't built in a day. You need to put the time and effort; some more, some less but there is no way around it. Don't wait for it to happen - make it happen.
2. You have to take risks in life: step outside your comfort zone once in a while and life might amazes you.
3. There is no such a thing as "perfect". Nothing is perfect. There is no one definition for perfection. Make your best effort and enjoy it.  
4. Not everything comes easy; Challenge yourself to become better. Make today slightly better than yesterday. There could be a time in life that you have to shorten your horizon to the achievements you make in one day and the benefits will compound. 

Christmas - Santa Wish List Printable

It's mid November and that magical time of the year is just around the corner. Time for our kids to start thinking about their Christmas wish list and here is a printable to make it easier for Santa to read:

Pumpkin Watercolor and Ink Illustration

Fall has officially started here in Canada and I think it's the best timing for a pumpkin painting/illustration tutorial that will be extremely cute as a print or a card....or even on a mug!

Pumpkin Watercolor & Ink Illustration

Let's just jump right into it, shall we? 

Book Review: Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines: A Positive Approach to Negative Painting

Title: Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines: A Positive Approach to Negative Painting by Linda Kemp.

About the author: Linda Kemp is a full-time Canadian artist whose home and studio is in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. She is internationally recognized for her unique contemporary watercolors and acrylics and innovative use of negative painting. She is elected member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor.

Linda has another book by the title: "Simplifying Design and Color For Artists - Positive Results Using Negative Painting Techniques". 

You can check more of her amazing art at her website.

About the book: I picked up this book to learn about negative painting as I think Lina has pushed the limits of this approach to such a mesmerizing outcomes and I was curious to know more about her techniques. Although I wasn’t clueless as to what the negative approach is, however the exercises in this book are very detailed and helpful. I believe the author made her best attempt to teach her approach in full and she explains her methods in details.

Pros:

Spring and why you should celebrate it

Most of us with our busy “modern” lives, rush hours and packed calendars barely notice the seasons unless maybe it is beginning of a sport season. However, celebrating change of seasons is a great excuse to create memories for our children, to take a step back and ponder, to practice gratitude and most importantly to enjoy life.

Finally, comes spring equinox; Time to shake off those winter blues and celebrate when Mother Earth gets ready to give birth to new crop of plants, when trees start standing tall and breathing again and migrant birds come back from far away places to make their nests and find love.

My favourite season of all is spring. To me it is the time to celebrate growth, hope, femininity, fertility and beauty. No wonder egg plays an important role in many spring rituals, as it is universal symbol of fertility and rebirth.

Many cultures around the world has some sort of ritual to celebrate beginning of longer days, blooms, blossoms and the promise of spring:

Nowruz with Haftseen in Iran, Holi - Festival of Colors in India, Songkran Water festival in Thailand, Singing in the Streets of Spain, Qingming Festival in China, Pancake week in Russia, Marzanna in Poland, Baba Marta in Bulgaria, and even here in Canada comes Tulip Festival in May, although no surprise that it’s a bit later than most countries…lol.

Do you celebrate any spring festivities? Share it with me, Send me pics and tell me about it and I will share it on the blog :)

If you want to read more about these celebrations view links below.

https://blog.alexandani.com/how-different-cultures-celebrate-spring/

http://www.socialmoms.com/know/news-commentary/the-world/culture-the-world/spring-traditions-world/

https://www.thecultureist.com/2014/05/01/5-spring-celebrations-around-world/

Inspiration - Artist Project Toronto

Have you done anything to get inspired recently?

I went to Artist Project Toronto and I wanted to share a bit of my experience with you hoping that it might sparkle an inspiration for you as well :)

Saturday morning came with all its glory, Hubby was nice enough to baby sit while I treated myself to a day of indulging, day dreaming and getting my artist soul pampered. A chance to see great pieces of art and having the opportunity to chat with the creator of those master pieces was unbelievably satisfying.

Although I expected to see only paintings (not sure why!) and for sure there were lots of paintings but also there were live performance, sculptures, glass work and even a big wall was dedicated for kids to paint and have fun :)

Can't believe that it's been a month already but even till now every time I scroll through my camera roll, It makes me smile. I didn't photograph everything that I loved cause then I had to pretty much snap the whole time but let me show you some of the pictures I have.