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Sometimes during its creation a piece of art is just NOT WORKING. It 's flat , too busy, too much going on, there's nowhere for the eye to rest. It might be that the composition is off, the pattern is boring, there's no contrast between the various elements or colours. Maybe there's no textural interest. Perhaps it's perfectly pleasant, but there's nothing to draw you IN, nothing to catch your breath and give you tingles. Sometimes life can be like this It's FLAT, too busy,

Ever heard of The Hero's Journey ? Every masterpiece of storytelling follows this arc. (You know them: Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars, Moana , Men In Black , even Kung Fu Panda !) Artists follow this story arc with every painting - you don't see the whole arc in a piece, but believe me, all the beats are there: Hero gets the call to adventure ( I have the coolest ever idea for a painting! ) Hero takes up the call, encounters challenges and temptations ( Starts painting, discov

Being an artist can be a solitary existence. It's way too easy to spend days on end holed up in your studio alone. (Ask me how I know!) What I also know is that I'm a happier artist, and happier human, if I remember I need connection. If you've ever felt isolated or uninspired, here's an artists guide to beating isolation with five ways to reconnect and reignite your creative spirit: Find that ONE friend. Who cheers you on? Loves your art? Is delighted to be the friend of an

A meandering book is the fun result of some paper engineering that looks tricky, but really isn't. The idea to use this tricky paper...

"I wish I had time to make art." Can I tell you a secret? I get a little snippy when someone says this to me. I know, life is busy. We...

Creating an art journal spread is one of my favourite Year End/New Year rituals. Here's the step by step process I use (and share with my...

For someone who considers herself creative, when it comes to naming paintings, I have felt like I have the creative moxie of a house...

Painting a power pole is one of the more challenging projects I’ve taken on as an artist. Our tiny town of Theodore in Central Queensland...

If you love Christmas exactly as it is, you can wander off to lick the roof of the gingerbread house - there's nothing here for you. For the rest of us, I offer a guided visualisation - Your Ideal Christmas . This is an adaptation of a coaching tool I learned from Martha Beck (go check her out, she's amazing). The idea is to tune in to your imagination and conjure up the most IDEAL day for you . We humans can create amazing things, but first we need to imagine them. As you i

"What Might Grow?", was started when I was working on an exhibition called “Fathomless” - exploring the things we sense but cannot see. I...

Why am I here? Might be the most ruminated upon question in the history of humans (though it may come a close second to the confounding...

It may not look like it to a casual observer, but more often than not, I don’t really know what I’m doing. Sometimes there's a vague...