Simply Draw & Paint it
Hi !
Here I share my thoughts about living a creative life, about how I found more and more fun and joy in making art and looking for creativity by getting rid of my demons like fear, perfectionism, what-might-other-people-think, ugliness (what’s that anyway?), Art with a big A, dogma’s …. Everybody is an artist and everybody is creative!
Please feel free to share your story in the comments in my posts! I read all the comments and I would love to hear from you!
Tell me your story here: info @ barbaraluel.com
How to quick sketch cherry blossoms
It's that time of the year again: cherry blossoms are blooming.In Brussels we're lucky to have several varieties of blossom trees: some blooming earlier then others. So we have a large time lapse to go sketching.I went sketching last weekend and my darling...
Where do your ideas come from?
My head is empty and my hand is not doing what I want. And I don't know what I want. The result is not OK. I lost it, it seems...I make drawing after drawing since last week and an empty feeling invades me and a warm shame washes over me: I hate what I...
Simply Draw & Paint it – NEW DATES
For those interested : here we go again with the "Simply Draw it" workshop, springtime version :-DAUSSI EN FRANCAISOOK IN HET NEDERLANDSAn introduction for those who don't know the workshop:Being a child I always wanted to become an artist, but my parents...
How to have a great 2019, and be ready to register #uskamsterdam2019 😊
♥ A very happy new year to you all ! ♥ I wish you a lot of creative challenges, and time for what’s important in your life! Personally I try to disconnect from my phone and computer even more, to be able to draw and paint more. I’m working on...
Thank you so much !
It's that time of the year again...The year is stumbling across the finishing line, which is always a great time to reflect on how things are going, and planning for the year ahead. How was your year 2018?It has been a quite violent year again: terrible...
It’s all about looking, looking, looking
"To make art you need your eyes, your hands and your HEART. It's your heart that makes you choose your colours. Your emotional side."This is the most important thing I remember from the workshop in Den Haag with Ian Fennelly on 27th october. It was a great...
Simply Draw it: Urbansketching workshop
Simply Draw it: Urbansketching on the right side of the brainAre you feeling uncomfortable drawing, or you think you can't draw enough to do urbansketching, or you don't know where to start ? Then this workshop is for you!Workshop descriptionIn this...
Create before you consume
"Create before you consume" "Create before you consume", I repeat myself every morning to push myself to make a drawing before going to work, ànd especially before grabbing my phone and browsing to social media or email. It's a phrase I heard Marie Forleo...
Love your mistakes
Hi everybody ! I hope you have a great summer and that your inner artist is having a great time as well! I'm fully boosted from the Urbansketchers symposium in Porto in july! I had 4 great workshops from which I want to share some "takeaways". To warm up,...
How to free yourself from the quality hack
Summer is here! With the summer comes an air of liberty, excitement and restlessness of Fomo (fear of missing out) : I'm finishing some deadlines in the office and planning what to do this summer, like preparing for the urban sketching symposium in Porto...
Remember rule number 6
“Life is too important to be taken seriously.” - Oscar Wilde Last week was mental health awareness week. The theme was stress. In a world where everything in appearance has to be perfect, we're quickly under a lot of stress... Have you read The Art of...
Embrace uncertainty
"Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won't have a title until much later" [Bob Goff, writer] Restlessness is invading me: I'm leaving again for Japan. This time to see the cherry blossoms. I'll make some new sketching tutorials there...
Why didn’t I read this earlier?
I'm wondering now why I didn't read this great book about "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" written by Betty Edwards earlier? It's sooooooooooo much of an eye opener. I've heard about this book several times, and finally bought it, bumping in it by...
Join the Urban Sketching symposium in Porto in July!
Excitement excitement! The whole Urban Sketching world is counting the hours left to the subscription time op this Saturday at 15:00 GMT for the next international symposium : The 9th International Urban Sketchers Symposium will be held in Porto, Portugal,...
Drawing from the beauty inside
"Cheer cheer cheer" ! ThriveGlobal.com published an article by Sara Lettieri about my artwork workshop with people with dementia 🙂 You can read it here: https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/20608-drawing-from-the-beauty-inside But I want to share it with...
Happy new year ! Or on creating a meaningful life 😉
On creating a meaning of life… Or should I say meaningful life? The year just stumbled out of the starting blocks, which is always a great time to reflect on how things are going, and planning for the year ahead. How was your year 2017? Mine was great,...
You’re rejected.
You’re rejected How many times have I heard that my work was rejected for this or that competition, … I hear “you’re rejected”, instead of “your work is not selected”. It hurts and I take it too personally: I identify myself with my work, I AM my...
Draw anything you want with twig and ink
In need of a creativity boost I organized a workshop with the great Malaysian artist Ch’ng Kiah Kiean on 20 & 21 October. It was a wonderful weekend. Ch’ng Kiah Kiean is a generous teacher. His specialty is sketching with dry twigs and Chinese ink....
How about more beauty in the communication with people with dementia?
21st of September was Alzheimer’s day. This September also I started a new art workshop in a second care home for people with dementia. It seems to be quite a success so I’m very happy about it. On the first day we had 4 enthusiastic artists, and this week...
The Plan is, There is no Plan
I rarely felt so happy to get home. What was I looking for, being five weeks in Italy? What was I looking for that I can't find at home? I was traveling to get out of my comfort zone. Yes I had a lot of fun sketching every day, feeling the sun on my skin felt great...
