Take a look at your hands. Stretch your fingers wide. Ball them into a fist. Rotate your wrists. Wiggle your fingers as fast as you can. Just look at them go – like horses chomping at the bit eager to get out of the stable / up off your lap.
A hand-made gate at nightfall on the farm.
What it takes to be handy seems to be starting and trying and then accessing, researching, and improving. Kind of like making art, right?
This week think of a project where you can employ your hands. Look around. Pick anything that will result in a more inspiring or beautiful environment – a project that will help your creative process. It doesn’t have to require any money. It will require spirit and determination. Start by creating the DESIRE for the change.
You can’t just dream of the change or complain of not having what you want, the assignment is to put that team of fingers to work for you. YOUR CREATIVE LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS. You can bend parts of your life into the shape that you want if you work at it bit by bit. Maybe your project will be painting a wall that you have never liked. Maybe it will be moving the furniture for better flow and use. If you make a mistake, you can change it again.
This post was inspired by the friends that we visited on our drive to North Carolina. Let me introduce you to them, so that you can see how “done by hand” has shaped their lives in soul nourishing ways:
Marion Stephenson putting the final tweaks on a portrait in one of her five studio rooms.
Marion showing a commission. Note the portrait of Lt. Hannah Feuerstein on the wall above.
When Marion and Gerry Stephenson moved into a huge “handyman special” in downtown York, PA, I was aghast. But my idea of a nightmare was their idea of potential.
Each time I stop by, more transformations have occurred. Their home is a joy to experience, and everyone always wants to return. Taking one wall, floor, roof, etc. at a time and working on a small budget, they now have a home where all details are rich with beauty and personal meaning. Em’s studio has been a model for mine in many ways.
Throughout the studio textures result from saving old layers and creating new ones.
Please stop by Marion’s website to see her paintings. One of her pottery vases in shown in a photo on the lesson on drawing roses.
- One of Marion’s teaching studio rooms where the utilitarian mingles with the hand-made and the original features of the old house.
In the mountains near Elkins, West Virginia the Proudfoot farm glows and grows. So much is done by hand over so many acres, and still there is time for jug bands, stained glass, watercolor painting….
Evening on the Proudfoot farm in West Virginia. Photos: Lillian Kennedy
A visual feast of textures is the natural result of their healthy and artistic farm life. Here is a storage room above the root cellar.
David and Cindy Proudfoot having a coffee during a morning check of the gardens.
Settled in at Cedar Point, NC, we are eating their organic veggies, looking at their bouquet, drinking their hard cider, and spreading their honey.
What a delightful time you must be having! It made me wish I could tag along. I LOVE rustic things, handmade things, and beautiful useful things! More than once, I have wished I lived on an old farm, but seeing as my hubby is not really a “handy” sort of guy, I gave that dream up long ago…and yes, it IS time to repaint some walls in our house–but at this point, I’d rather spend my time painting canvas panels plein air! LOL…today I’m going to Denver to do a little painting of something on the 16th Street Mall. YAY! I think everyone in Club Tuesday is glad you will be home soon! Oh! …and will you be bringing back that portrait of Hannah? I hope so! I’d love to be able to study it. Take Care in your Travels and come Safely Home!
p.s. I check out Marion’s site. She does lovely work. There is something about her style (in the oils) that *slightly* –only slightly, reminds me of someone else’s beautiful work I know…..yours! Did you have some of the same teachers? I would have left her a note, but I did not see anyway to contact her through the site. If I missed it, I apologize.
Wasn’t Marion in Provence with us on the retreat all those years ago – 1995, I think?
Lillian, it was wonderful talking to you and getting your superb advice, and now this incredible blog! I feel as though I’ve hit the jackpot!!! Your paintings look great, and I hope to see you soon.
Thank you sooooo much.
I’ve enjoyed sharing your travels vicariously, and the lessons on creating art. Do let us know when you will be back home in Boulder and ready to teach again – I’ve missed your very helpful critiques, but have been painting as much as I can so I have new paintings to show you!
Charlene
P.S. I’ll be in New Hampshire Aug. 31-Sept. 8 at our cottage, and have lots of watercolor/gouache sketching plans.
Beautiful photos of our farm. The light in the evening was awash with purples.
Come back any time.