Inspirations and art!

So nothing like going to pick up paintings from a group show and find that one has been replaced with a nice check :-) Seems my "Tobacco Barn" sold at the month long regional art show at the Mims Gallery at Wesleyan College (NC). Very cool!

Tobacco Barn- A 16 x 20 pastel by M Theresa Brown 

So where do artists find inspiration? I took this photo frpm my photo after a huge thunderstorm had wreaked havoc on the area. I pulled by car over as to my right was the golden light of the sunset, and to my left was the dark, ominous gray of a storm loving east. But oh what it left behind! The bright arch of a half moon rainbow (which I could not capture with my phone camera) and the tops of these trees touched with gold. 

And finally, we returned from 2 weeks of shows in the NC mountains near the towns of  Blowing Rock and Boone. Who has not traveled the Blue Ridge Parkway and savored it's coolness and breathtaking views? Sometimes I think the mountains are in my DNA. I know they are in my ancestral past as well as my past (The Catskill,  Berkshire and Adirondack mountains of NY) The sea also calls to me but it is different. With the ocean it is the sounds and rhythms of waves and seagulls. Mesmerizing.  With the ancient Blue Ridge mountains, there is more-the winds, cool breezes, wildflowers and above all else, the stunning vistas where I stand and gaze at every detail of range after range of mountains. It is easy to get lost in them.  

I love being inspired!

Inspired by Nature and keeping it all simple!

Inspired by Nature and keeping it all simple!

I am one of those artists and art journal individuals inspired by simple pleasures :-) It can be as spectacular as our recent art show location near Boone, NC or the light bouncing off a hanging basket of flowers on my front porch.

My husband absorbing the wildflowers on top of an NC Mountain

An art or travel journal is supposed to be fun! It is not all about new techniques or the latest fad.  Make your journal as creative as YOU want to make it.

There are so many magazines now out there with a gazillion "do this" to be creative articles that it is easy to be overwhelmed. Remember that most of the authors are paid to come with new ideas! Do what comes naturally and creatively to you.  If a new method or idea "despires" instead of "inspires" then
wait for another day!

Traveling light-markers, white crayon, couple of brushes and water bottle! 

Often while traveling your supplies are limited by what can be easily carried and used. Stick with the basics and keep it simple!

 

Carry a camera (this from my cell phone) to catch a moment, then enjoy being in the moment!

 

Grabbing inspiration from the mountains!

Watauga River near Boone NC

For landlubbers there is nothing more inspirational than mountains!

Coming from the northern reaches of the Appalachian, Berkshire and Catskill mountain ranges, I find a little of them all along the Blue Ridge mountains in NC. 

We explored the trails along the parkway, rode horses on top of a mountain with views to the heavens and tubed down the rocky river of the Watauga!

Standing on one of the many boulders strewn around the river!

The incredible views from the mountain top riding ring!

Life is good!

Now I am refreshed and ready to paint!

It gets crazier!

Oh my, Thanksgiving came and went and I am thinking only of how behind I am! Running a business of any type requires self motivation and above all, discipline....OK maybe I shouldn't have played 5 games of Spider Solitaire, but I was determined to beat the thing!

I am painting, painting and Thank God that if I have anything to whine about, it is only being busy!

So what have I been doing?

Well first let me say that we hiked NC mountains Thanksgiving Day in Brevard! A beautiful day (started with rain) and my son was with us...many families enjoying the great outdoors in this land of the waterfalls!  

So I have added a photo of the stunning Triple Falls in DuPont Forest and one of my latest pastel cameos. Enjoy! Now, back to my studio!

9 x 11 cameo Christmas portrait

Triple Falls, Brevard, NC

Blowing Rock NC Charity horse show

Hooray! I have completed the second of two pastels which will be sold at the two Blowing Rock NC Charity Horse shows this July. The images used on T-shirts . The first represented the Saddlebred show and the second is the Hunter Jumper show.

We LOVE this show. Held just off the Blue Ridge Parkwayin the NC mountains, it is wonderfully cooler than the Piedmont. There is something in everyone's DNA where some ancient connection to mountains manifests itself. Looking out over the incredible vews, we tend to drift into a time warp and we become our ancestors for a short period of time!

It just doesn't get better than that!

Saddlebred Horse show at Blowing Rock NC

It's been fun creating a collage for the both the Hunter Jumper and Saddlebred portions of the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show held each year in the incredibly beautiful location in the NC mountains of...Blowing Rock! The show has been an annual event for many, many years and we enjoy being there for the activities. OK, maybe the climate has something to do with that too!
I have completed the Saddlebred collage which will be auctioned off at this year's event and also used for the T-shirts. The Hunter Jumper collage that I am creating will be for next year's show. They are held in the same location but on different days. This pastel is 18 x 24 in size.

Blue Ridge adventures

I love a gray horse! This beauty was a commission from the Blowing Rock, NC shows this past August.

Beautiful horse, beautiful mountains and wonderful memories of dirt road adventures. And of course, the Blue Ridge Parkway! Built in the 1930's with young men from FDR's programs, I often marvel at how little has changed on the Parkway. It is like a time capsule. Year after year we, along with thousands of Americans, stop at the overlooks and marvel at the views. For over 70 years, travelers have stopped where we have stopped, looked at what we look at, and continued their journeys down through time. I think of the Blue Ridge Parkway like an Alma Mater, a college campus where ghosts of one's past pop up here and there! Once our stops included little children, then teenagers with camping gear, now they are just the two of us trooping along in our camper and enjoying the sights still! Hey that's what memories are right? Ain't life grand?