Sparks of inspiration April ’25

Some good things for the month of April!

Quite a lot of new people joined Art as Home since the last issue of my monthly inspiration, so I just want to say hello and welcome! Thanks a lot for joining my newsletter, I appreciate every reader’s valuable time spent here. This is the type of post that I try to send out every 1st day of the month with some lovely art things that inspired me lately.

Magnolias are about to start blooming, winter coats are about to be put away until later in the year. It’s definitely much sunnier and warmer here in my corner of the world! I am someone whose creativity (and mental health) depends on both internal and external factors, and weather is one of those factors that can affect me strongly. The warmer it gets, the more inspired to create I become (until it’s too hot!!), so I am currently working on my 100 days project and also on some new experiments with my magnolias.

This year I ventured into small-scale gardening on my balcony, so watching how my tomatoes & herbs grow also adds to the spring creative experience.

Here are some inspiring things from me to you:

Joyful painting inspiration

• Transform your art by combining different ideas - Helen Wells. Helen is always so generous sharing her process and the thinking that is behind her creative practice. Looking at old work is a big part of my process too, it really helps to find new ideas and hone your own unique artistic voice.

• Still Life Painting Process: Setting Up, Techniques & Problem Solving - Sandi Hester. Lots of great advice from Sandi in this one!

Creative process

• Building Bodies of Work with Jennifer Balkan - Learn to Paint Podcast. Jennifer shares a lot of insights in this interview, from technicalities of colour mixing to the process of how ideas develop.

• Developing Ideas with Sally-Anne Ashley - Art Juice Podcast. This conversation is packed with great thoughts on an artists creative process:

“Let's face it, we live in a world where we're constantly saturated with information, with other people's beliefs, ideas, with the news, with, you know, there's so much and it's like sometimes do you even hear your own voice?” - Sally-Anne Ashley.

Colour mixing

• How to mix interesting neutrals and greys with watercolor - Julia Bausenhardt. A very useful and detailed post on mixing neutrals vs using pre-mixed or single pigmented grays and blacks.

• Colours in my Palette: Green and turquoise - Liz Steel. I love mixing greens a lot and I agree with Liz’s idea of having a green on hand for convenience (I have several greens in my palette right now). This article provides nice colour mixing charts with sap green and turquoise for reference.

That’s all for this month, I hope you enjoyed the list!

Thank you for reading and being here, everyone is greatly appreciated in this space!

Feel free to share this post with a creative friend and I’d be happy to hear from you in the comments.

Until next time!

Lisa