Welcome to my weekly blog. I hope you've all had a good week. It is time for our August polls so please check out the offerings I have for you and vote for the one you would like to do next. I've got two new choices for The Hands of Paint class on August 24 where we are inspired by an MST3K film and one new choice for Jackey Neyman Jones’ Paint Parties.  

Hi painters! Welcome everyone. Some of you have been with me since we began our classes and I'm truly honored that you keep coming back to create more art.  Welcome to those who have joined more recently and thank you all for sharing yourselves the ways you do. Seeing your interpretations of the ideas I share with you expands my own willingness  to experiment with new ideas. I am finding it all spilling over into other areas of my life in beautiful ways and I have you to thank for it. I love the new friendships that have begun from our time together and am so happy to be part of something that continues to grow in our support of one another.  Please feel free to share yourselves and your creativity in our Facebook group. 

Welcome everyone. Welcome new subscribers to our painting classes. We are growing nicely and I love seeing new names every class. We seem to have more people joining live every time. I've also noticed more of our previous paintings being added to the student art gallery as you go back and do a few of the ones you weren't able to attend live.

Are you ready to create with me again? I'm ready to create. This Saturday we will be finding joy in the chaos. You may use any medium that suits you and on any surface you choose. I will be painting in acrylic paint on canvas and will use a black sharpie for many of my design lines but I will have other colors at hand as well. I like this style on bottles with an all-surface craft paint, and I like it on rocks that I paint and release back into the wild for someone to find.

The polls have selected our classes for July. Get ready for "Find Joy in the Chaos" on July 13th. This one will be a relaxing and meditative release of all that interferes with our sense of peace. Since I discovered the Neurographic style and the idea behind it of reconnecting my neuro-pathways in healing, I have been experimenting with doodling. It helps release stress and reset my mind to more positive thoughts. Yesterday, I went to the river and waterfall with Shanka where we regularly collect rocks to paint. This time I brought a set of colored permanent pens and drew designs on a couple of rocks while soaking my feet in the cold water. It was wonderful  I then left them behind for someone to find.  

We've got a couple of paintings added to our polls for July. Be sure to get your votes in! I was going to paint a small human in the giant crab's claw for scale but decided to leave it as is and see what you all do with your Island Claws piece.  I encourage you to add anything you like when we do that one. I seem to be on a doodling sort of thing lately. The Neurographic work we did recently has me experimenting with different ideas. I like the new one I titled Find Joy in the Chaos and found that while creating it, it had a calming effect that helped me see the things I've been experiencing as overwhelming from a different perspective. Very interesting. Just in the last couple of days, I've had several other inspirations for new paintings to do for our next poll, and look forward to sharing them with you for next time.

Are you ready for The Sword and The Dragon? As always, I will be demonstrating how I create my version, and as always, you are encouraged to do your own version and in your own style. I will be your inspiration. Join class early at 1pm ET / 10am PT for a special student screening of The Sword and the Dragon for even more inspiration!

You all came through on our Neurographic art project as amazingly as I have come to expect by now. I love how unique every single piece is. I hope it leads you on a further journey of the power of doodling, and I hope you share some of it with us here.

The votes are in and you have chosen our June paintings. For this Saturday June 8th we are creating our unique Neurographic Art pieces. I am really interested to see what comes out of you in this one. If you haven't tried this before, I think you may surprise yourself. I know I was surprised when I created my first neurographic art. Lately I've been painting rocks with it and it continues to inspire different ideas.

May is already over and I'm looking forward to June. Check out the polls for our next classes on June 8th and 22nd. I've come up with two more choices for each class that I hope you will like. I've enjoyed playing with the style I learned since teaching our online classes. I've always been most comfortable painting in acrylics but didn't use Sharpies much until going online. I needed to find a way for you to see what I was drawing and pens seemed the best for that. Now I'm using them more in all my work, and really like the look. The new selections I've added to Hands of Paint are the Summer Tree and the Neurographic art.  Check out this YouTube video about Neurographic art.

I hope you didn't miss me last week. I completely forgot to write a blog post. I didn't have a whole lot to say on the art front and the weather was nice here so I got absorbed with building my new garden space. Just in the last two weeks I have started to feel like I'm healing from the seizures and car accidents because of the opportunity to get outside and move dirt around. It is quite the workout. The warmer weather and the desire to get my garden  together is a big inspiration. I've also been teaching 1st and 2nd graders at a local school for their after-school program twice a week. Those little ones are quite a challenge and keep me on my toes.

The poll votes are in for May. Our Painting with Jackey class coming up this Saturday, May 11th will be Rainbow Flower, and the Jackeys Hands of Paint class on May 25th is inspired by the MST movie First Spaceship on Venus.  

Welcome to May. It is my favorite month of the year. Everything is growing. The sun is out and it's not too hot. Our next Painting with Jackey class is on Saturday, May 11th and our MST-inspired Hands of Paint class is on the 25th. I have added a couple of new paintings to our choices and took out a couple of others that will get a break. If you haven't voted in the poll, please do. I had planned to announce the winners for May in this post but as of my writing, we have a 3-way tie for the May 11th class, and currently, First Spaceship On Venus is in the lead for May 25th.

Join us in painting the monster Megalon this coming Saturday April 27th. Arrive early for inspiration in watching Godzilla vs Megalon with some of your classmates. I may need to watch the movie again since it's been a while and you all keep me on my toes in these classes with your phenomenal creativity.  

How did you like our last painting class on Stained Glass Trees? It may have been our most serene relaxing class yet. I learned of the neurographic style of art a few months ago as I was searching for ways to help with my healing that didn't include more prescription medication. I have been exploring sound frequencies to aid me in reducing anxiety and to help me sleep more restfully. When a video popped up on YouTube about neurographic art, I got a canvas, a Sharpie pen, and watercolor pencils together to give it a try. I was intrigued and instantly hooked. The painting of trees we did last week was a version that seemed to have many of the same healing attributes. The style has a meditative quality that allows your mind to focus and not focus at the same time. 

Are you ready for our next class coming up this Saturday, April 13th? We are creating Stained Glass Trees this time. I did this one a few weeks ago for a small in-person group. Each one came out so beautiful and now that I've taught it once, I have a few more tips and hints for success. I hope you can join me for this time. I have colors I like to use and encourage you to choose what you like best for yours. No straight lines or extra tools needed here. I always wonder and look forward to all your choices. Surface, materials, styles. Every class is like magic in the variety we all create.  

Fantastic Trumpy paint class on March 23rd. My little Trumpy came out so much better than I expected he would. You all created quite a range of Trumpy's in style, color, and ideas. Always a good time on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays in my studio.

I'm running late on this week's blog and I'm keeping it short. There's been so much going on lately. Good stuff, but challenging and time filling. I began teaching after school art at our local Elementary school two days a week this year and recently began another series of classes at a neighboring school two days a week. Yesterday, I taught 3 back to back classes for a monthly "Project Day.” I had 12 first & second graders in the first session.

I sure loved doing mushrooms with you all last Saturday (I stole that joke from Bethany Wells McCraw). I knew the Magic Mushrooms class was going to be really great but you all still blew me away with all your fantastic variations. Check out the student gallery if you haven’t yet. Just beautiful. 

I sure enjoy our time creating together. It's great to see our paint family growing and I can see the expansion of ideas as we grow. There is just something about people with common interests coming together.  Magic Happens.