Express Yourself With Art Archives | Illustration, Art Prints and Gifts, Art Classes

Last Minute Valentine’s Day Ideas

Valentine’s Day is such a fun holiday! I love that there is a whole day set aside to tell the special people in your life how much you love them. If you have waited until the last second and are in a panic, no worries! I’ve got you covered. There are lots of things you can do to show your sweeties how much you love them without breaking the bank. PRINTABLE QUOTES IN A CUTE […]

How to Paint Sunflowers Using Acrylic Paints

I’m so excited to announce that I have started teaching on skillshare.com! Skillshare is a membership site that is loaded with amazing classes and tutorial videos for just about any creative subject you can imagine. Here is a link to get two FREE MONTHS on skillshare.com to watch my class and any other classes you want for 60 days when you join! There’s no obligation and you can cancel at any time. So, what have […]

UNDERSTANDING VALUES IN PAINTING

If you have ever tried to draw or paint something and make it look like it is “real”, you’ve no doubt attempted to use “values” (whether you realized it or not). The term “value”, when used in art, is used to describe the difference in lightness or darkness of a color. Artists use light and dark values to create dimension or a focal point within a painting or drawing. Understanding and controlling the values in […]

5 Ways to Be More Creative

Happy New Year! It’s that time again when we all start looking ahead and thinking about how to make our lives better in the coming year. One thing I am working on is streamlining and perfecting a creative routine for myself. If you are looking for ways to be more creative in the year ahead, here are some simple tips and resources to get you started. 1) SIMPLIFY YOUR SCHEDULE There are a limited amount […]

5 Ways to Fill your Heart and your Home with GRATITUDE

Thank you… Merci… Gracias…Grazi… How do you say thank you? It’s a proven fact that expressing gratitude changes your attitude in very positive ways. Psychologytoday.com says this about gratitude: “Gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has—as opposed to, for example, a consumer-driven emphasis on what one wants. Gratitude is getting a great deal of attention as a facet of positive psychology: Studies show that we can deliberately cultivate gratitude, and can increase our […]

Get Creative this Fall with these UNIQUE PUMPKIN PAINTING IDEAS

I love decorating for fall! I want to adorn every corner of my house with fall leaves, painted pumpkins, owls, witches, and black cats. Now that I have my Halloween mantel ready to go (you can see examples here.) It’s time to get out my mums and do some pumpkin painting! One of my favorite things to do each October is to come up with cool and interesting new ways to decorate and paint […]