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Bex Hall

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Bex Hall > creative life

creative life

Cultivate creativity with this book

March 11, 2021

New workbook gets the creative juices flowing

The Art of Connecting workbook

A workbook for cultivating creativity? Why, yes, thank you!

Megan Murphy, of The Kindness Rocks Project has created a wonderful workbook full of hands-on exercises to get anyone’s creative juices flowing.

Blind contours
Such funny results

I tried some of them yesterday like the blind contour drawing, the doodling and tangles, and shadow art. But there’s so much more. Like cultivating self-awareness exercises, creating calm, and making mandalas. Playing with nature, vision boards, and gratitude practices.

Best of all, it’s full of fun. A great guide for anyone looking for ways to get creative.

Get your copy here!

Shadow art

Day 40/100

Filed Under: Art Projects Tagged With: creative life, the 100 day project, the kindness rocks project

Grateful for gifts

March 9, 2021

New art supplies bring enthusiasm

Watercolor play

Look what arrived yesterday! My kind and supportive cousin, Nick Nickerson, gifted me a set of Daniel Smith watercolors and I can’t thank him enough. The quality is wonderful. I love them!

A morning of play this 38th day of the 100 day project and one step closer to a finished Artist’s Blessing piece.

An Artist’s Blessing prototype

Filed Under: Art Projects, Miscellany Tagged With: creative life, the 100 day project

Honor your quiet

March 7, 2021

Meditation comes in many different forms

Watercolor practice and reflection

A message from Brianna Wiest was my focus and reflection during watercolor practice and play this quiet Sunday morning. Her letter really spoke to my heart.


I know you are ready to be finished.

I know how much work you’ve done, how far you’ve come, and how much progress you’ve made. 

I know that you can see a breakthrough on the horizon, and the closer you get, the more frustrated you become that you have not yet arrived.

I want you to remember the simple fact that there are beautiful things to be found in the process. There is something here, in this moment, at this phase, that you were meant to feel.  

Everything you’ve been through — every dead end, every lost love, every heartache, every night of sadness, and of grief, every moment of confusion, every chance, every failure, everything that has ever lead you to where you are standing right now — it has not happened by chance.

Within every single one of those experiences was a lesson. Within every single one of those moments was a seed of your future that was being planted.

You see, you often have to learn what love isn’t to know what it is. You often have to do what you dislike before you realize what you love. You often have to become the person you are not in order to understand the person you are. 

We interpret this as failure, when it’s actually an essential piece of the growth process.

What I want you to know is that the very moment you’re ready to throw your hands up and give up is also the very moment that you’re closer to a breakthrough than ever.

Please keep going. 

Your new life is already here. 

Day 36/100

Practice, practice

Filed Under: Art Projects Tagged With: creative life, the 100 day project

Create your own view

March 6, 2021

Or ask a friend for help

A dear friend asked me to paint a scene on a roller shade blind she hangs in the window above the sink.

Diane, Wonder Woman
Diane, Wonder Woman and Creative Genius

She has a grey kitchen with aqua accents so I played up the mists in the mountains and added tiny touches of aqua to the cherry blossoms. I used medium body acrylic paint.

Installed

Thank you, Diane, for this project and for pushing me outside of my comfort zone. 😘

Day 35/100

For reference, I used a print that had no artist attribution.

Filed Under: Art Projects Tagged With: creative life, the 100 day project

One thing leads to another

March 5, 2021

Why it’s great to listen for the gifts

Yesterday’s art is today’s prototype

A couple years ago during the @melissadoty.art Squareathon challenge, I created a square with painter’s tape and watercolor. Tape removal revealed some bleeds and I wrestled with the imperfections. Since the square was “ruined” I jotted down some thoughts around the perimeter of the art and considered it finished.

But the words stuck with me.

I wrote them because of the mistake and the intention was to communicate from one artist to another. 

A kind of “the struggle is real” commiseration. But there were a few good wishes as well.

I kept calling it a “wish” or a “prayer” but that wasn’t right. It occurred to me to call it a blessing. An Artist’s Blessing.

When I created the color squares here, I didn’t know yesterday these would be today’s prototypes for a gift that’s been in the making.

Testing

I learned this is not the right paper to use but it gave me the perfect opportunity to use a brand new brush. @marisa_made showed us last week some of her favorite watercolor brushes and the Silver Black 3000s she showed particularly caught my attention. P.S. I LOVE IT.

Sweet brush I love

I practiced handwriting around the artwork and learned placing the text spaced away from the art, like a little border or frame, is a better design. 

It also feels important the actual art have imperfections, like a little tape bleed. I’m trying on different pen sizes and whether to use color text or not.

So I listened yesterday when I felt inclined to create these squares and I’m happy I acted on the whisper. Glad I let my curiosity play.

I’m much closer to the end result—an Artist’s Blessing created because it needs to be loose and in the wild. A fun, lighthearted gift to make your artist smile.

Rough draft

This is a work in progress and it’s important to remember creativity lies not in the done, but in the doing. And once this IS done — it’ll be time for the next thing. 

May your creativity lead you to happy surprises.

Filed Under: Art Projects Tagged With: creative life, the 100 day project

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About Bex

Bex is an artist who writes and a writer who arts. She creates in Studio BE overlooking the Ohio River.

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    Show up every day behind the pen, the brush, or the lens and share my work.

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