Day 17 of Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 day challenge and I am almost finished with painting 7! Yes I could have worked smaller but I just wanted to see how many large and medium size paintings I could get going on.  SWELLS reminds me of the glass waves that come a day or two after hurricanes including the last Hurricane Florence.  The calm glassy waters after a storm is a metaphor for the calm after the storm! 

Greetings Creative Friends,
As the weather finally begins to get cooler and the season becomes busier, 
self-care becomes a necessity to balance out the activities of the season.

Here are some healthy creative prompts in easily managed time slots for busy people

•  5-10 minutes of meditation/yoga/stretching with deep breathing
•  5-10 minutes of daily writing
• 5-10 minutes of art journaling (doodling, collaging, writing, quoting, ,painting). 
• 5-10 minutes photographing nature 

For this Workshop 

• We will do a five minute deep breathing meditation on self-care
• Create a personalized tin as either an alter or treasure box.
• These tin cans contain self-care cards which we will create
• Or the Self Care cards can stand alone and fill your tin with personal treasures or make an alter. 

   Email Laura Bohn to reserve your spot!  bohnlaura1@gmail.com 
   Details and payment deadline will be emailed to you when minimum participants has been            met.
    
      If January is a better option for students, let me know and I will decide which month is  better for the workshop.

​Thanks

Taking photos on your phone of nature can be a therapeutic and creative use of the phone.
The above photo was a photo I took while kayaking on Lake Disston.  I then used a filter on my phone to age it and added a Robert Frost quote.  

The last Spirit Doll Workshop for 2018 was a wonderful workshop!  (Stay tuned for one in 2019) 
The participants made so many amazing personalized figures! To view photos check out
my artist's page on Facebook.  https://www.facebook.com/lauraknapikbohn/

So, this is number 5 and 6 for the 30 paintings in 30 Day challenge.  Day 17 and I am on painting 7! Yes ten behind but alas, these art two large paintings I began for Day 16 challenge. I won't be finishing these just yet...so untitled and unfinished while I move on to painting 8 tonight after work!  
These two paintings are created by following lines and mark making intuitively, working abstractly.  I can't wait to see how these turn out when I have more time to work on them.
Please feel free to comment! 

Day 15 of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days ( September challenge) and I am on......wait for it...........
Painting 5! Yikes this is the fourth painting I have done for the challenge.
For THE WATCH, I began painting with a brush since I was feeling burnt out on painting with the trowel knife.  I loved painting the first few paintings with a trowel tool but then I needed to switch it up a bit.
So I started this painting with huge brush-strokes and in the lines I saw what looked like an anhinga start to form. intuitively. I followed what I saw by outlining it a bit and decided that the anhinga was worthy of painting.

The anhinga can not fly until her wings are dry so she must exercise quite a bit of patience.
This anhinga is on the watch possibly with wings that have just dried and now she is ready to fly. Or perhaps she is getting ready for a swim.  
This bird is an astute swimmer and swimming is one of my favorite past times when it is hot out.  I can relate to the traits of this bird so the patient, flying, and swimming bird is a metaphor for a lesson in patience and recognition of the wonderful traits of this bird. 

Well, with my classes and life getting in the way, I only have 3 paintings so far! Can I blame it on my puppy?
 Instead of starting my fourth painting the other day, I kept working on this 3rd one.  I know the Leslie Saeta 30 day 30 paintings challenge explains you don't have to finish each painting but I got carried away trying to figure out what I like and don't like about the above painting.
It is not finished but I am finally stopping for now and moving on to my fourth!
It is day 14 and can't imagine making it but still trying! So here I go! 
​

I am taking Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge for the month of September.
It is day 10, and I only have two paintings!
Alas, I am only beginning my 3rd painting today before I teach classes.  I don't think I will make the challenge but I have already almost finished two more than usual!  So, that is the purpose of the challenge! As a professional artist, art teacher, and art therapist, sometimes I do not paint as much as I should because of other work,
but when you squeeze in some more time for yourself it is amazing what you can accomplish.
​ I am creating a series of trowel knife paintings for this challenge.  More to come.  Check out the other trowel knife paintings here

Have you ever taken a challenge and then forgot about it when it started?
 Well, I am late on this challenge as reminded by the podcast Artists Helping Artists.
I am still going to take Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge to see how many paintings I can do for the rest of September. 

I started this painting ahead of time in August but kept working on it Labor Day weekend. this trowel knife painting of the inspired ocean and I did not start out with waves in the water but a little of the white paint looked like a wave so I kept going with waves and then a shoreline.  
I have a few of these ocean trowel knife paintings so am continuing these in a series.
Busy from teaching art classes, workshops and working as an art therapist, this challenge is what I need.  
I am a professional artist who has sold artwork online, art shows, and galleries, but honestly don't have enough time to paint at present.  
So I love this challenge! 

Greetings Creatives,

I am back at teaching art at Casa Montessori school
both in adolescent and upper elementary classes, after school art programming,
and art therapy!
To be a good art teacher and art therapist I do have to have time for my own creativity,
​as you know I consider that self care!
How do you fit in creativity in your busy lives? Feel free to comment below.

When I don’t have much time, art or visual journaling is still the best option to explore with different media choices all within my art journal. Of course since I am also a professional artist, I have to find time to paint large also!
Here is a glimpse of the trowel knife paintings I am working on featured below.

In Other News, I will be facilitating more Arts and Wellness workshops at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2019 after I finish researching new classes to create!
If you have missed previous workshops there I have one of my repeated workshops coming up at Fabrications in Deland, Fl! Click here for link to class info https://www.facebook.com/events/337196503687614/