Ice Storms

Snow and ice cover almost everything...it is so cold that the animals are all hidden away. The scene is set for lots of cuddling and bundling in front of a nice fire with a great book, or my favorite, a new sketch pad!

There are lots of inspirations on wintry days and nights. One only has to look at the etchings on the window panes to start seeing patterns dancing across the surface. The trees hold onto their charm year round by playing Mother Nature's canvas. On this coldest of winter days the trees seem to turn gray in preparation for the frosty coating that will no doubt be in place come morning.

So get those sketch pads out ladies and start rendering nature in her frozen stillness and ignore the numbness in your fingers! Be inspired anew by the bitter cold to paint a scene of perfect suspension and resist the urge to complain.

Yes, it is frightfully cold. But even ice has it's beauty. And if those lights go off, use that as the trigger to try something new.

When you are creating by candle light, hopefully by choice, try a new medium...wax. It has been used to grace envelopes for centuries, but it is beautiful on it's own as well.

Buy a cheap pack of crayons and a lighter. Get a blank art card or any size you like and start melting the crayons in patterns or designs all over the surface. Use old paper clips and rubber stamps to add texture or words before it hardens.

Let your creativity soar and feel the heat as the weather lets loose with it's worse. i hope you are inspired and show off what you have discovered!

Crystal Belle