Good Morning!

My studio purge has continued

and I finally have space to breathe

a bit.

I have a thousand paintings dancing in my head

and

a thousand tales to tell about each of them.

I have been writing as much as painting.

this art business is a funny thing

that way.

I think it may be one of the reasons I love art journaling so much.

It seems to bring things together

in a way

that combines the best of all worlds.

An amaryllis,

now long gone, still inspires me.

This new journal, designed with a focus

on icons.

Icons are doorways to a

spiritual  place.

Both contemplation and creation

open those doorways.

Usually an icon holds a face or figure.

This one has a flower.

A winter blooming flower,

bright and red,

a promise of more color and life in this

grey, chilly January.

a feather holds even more promise.

this opening page was not what I expected,

but life is seldom that.

It is a reminder that being open

in your heart,

your creative spirit,can lead you to places you hadn't planned on at all.

Those new places can be much better than what we had originally wished for.

I didn't crop this image. You can see the opposite page,the edge of the book,

my easel,

a bit of my studio.This was a bit more of a reveal than my usual.

I am getting braver.