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
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...
Get out of your comfort zone
Last week I organized an urban sketching event for the local cultural center, so some students never had been urban sketching. There was a lady who hadn't been drawing since years. Actually to be more precise: since she was a child, some 30 years ago... It took her a...
How creativity works : just “DO” and show up, show up, show up
When I'm in a creativity dip, I read Sol Le Witt's very funny and inspiring letter to Eva Hesse, suffering from creative block and self-doubt. Usually I'm in a creativity dip because I don't manage to make time for drawing and painting. The same goes for everybody:...
What action can you take right now to bring your creative work to life?
Still drowned in work at the office, so I don't manage to draw every day... because I'm tired in the evening and I get caught by "screen-sucking" activities... (Facebook, email, instagram,...) So I crawled up again from work two weeks ago seeing a video from Marie...
Magic creative flow !
What a strange week... Bombs were thrown in Syria and Afghanistan, and billionaire world leaders are making laws to make the rich more rich and the poor more poor... Power, brutality, starvation, miserable working poor... Depressing. But did you make some art this...
Let go of stress and reconnect with your creativity and daily life
How much I would like to be "an untroubled wholeness with the world"... [Sarah Kaufman] These last two weeks I have been again much too busy : I feel I'm being lived, rather then living enjoying life. And the first part of me getting lost is my creativity and my...
Urban sketching in Kenrokuen garden in Kanazawa, Japan
Here's another video about Urban sketching ! This one was made in the beautiful Kenrokuen Garden in Kanazawa. It's one of my favorite spots in Japan. Kanazawa is a very beautiful city, and the Kenrokuen Garden is one of the most beautiful gardens in Japan. I painted...
Painting autumn colors in Kyoto – give it a try!
This video was made in Kyoto imperial park in november (yes I know.... long time ago! We don't find much time to edit the videos... I still have 5 other ones waiting to be edited!). I wanted to paint the beautiful gingko trees. I hesitated to post this video because I...
When in doubt, make art !
When in doubt... The monkeys in my head have been very active lately, making my self-doubt grow, telling me "I make crap and nobody's interested, telling me I'm boring or ugly, telling me I'm too old for this and that... And look at those younger ones that are...
How to get out of an inspiration dip. Try something new!
Where have I been lately? So it's true what "they" say: from the beginning of february on, the good resolutions of the new year vanish? I was going to draw each day, but it didn't work out. I got sucked up in work again, too much work in the office and too much other...
It’s all about fun, focus and practice. For all of us.
There's no magic trick and it's not about talent. It's about time to focus and practice. So what did you do with your first month of January? I had loads of work, so I didn't take the time enough I was writing about on the 31st of December in my previous post....
Let’s take the time… but which kind of time?
Let’s take the time in 2017... “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” [Mary Oliver in “The central commitment of creative life”]...
