Hi again, spring has it's perks but trying to keep outside planting and upkeep and be creative is hard. I love the spring through because it is a renewal of spirit, with everything around growing and budding.

Look at the greens in your yard. Maybe write down how many do you see. There are yellow greens, deep and medium greens. This is a good exercise in learning and truly seeing color. Then when you paint, you know how many varities of greens there are, and it adds life to your work. Not monochrome and boring.

My stamping these days is so varied. I like the stamps that I can do my own color variation and usually paint them after initial stamp, with watercolor paints. The one shown, is a large stamp with many squares. It took a couple of hours to paint, after stamping. But this can be done with other colors and make it look totally different.

I think if you are a beginning artist, try stamping, say flowers, boats, what ever you really like and will one day paint. Stamp a picture, even on a small card. Lightly fill in with watercolor and it will give you experience on color, choosing color, blending, and good training. It is not like looking at a blank piece of white paper and wondering what to put there. That can be overwhelming for a new inexperienced artist. I wish they would have had stamps when I wanted to paint, but didn't know how.

I studied under a well known artist, from Buffalo. He made me see things, really see things. That was painting in oils. Later I took drawing and watercolor at a Northern Virginia Collage, which really helped understand the workings and difference of watercolors from oil painting.

If you have any questions, and have this urge to create, paint, but don't know where to start, please comment and ask on this blog. I will be sure to answer all questions.

thanks