Photographer David Mollenhauer Visits the Studio

One of the things I love about making art is that it allows the rest of us to see the world from the artist's eyes.  Only you will see a scene from your unique viewpoint, and your art reflects what's important and beautiful to you.

That's one of the things that makes these photos exciting to me; they allow me to see my familiar art studio in a new light -- through the eyes of photographer David Mollenhauer.

If you'd like to see more of his work, visit his website here:

https://www.mollenhauerphotography.com/

David shot these images with a Nikon Z8, using a Petzval lens.

The images below were photographed with a 70-180 mm lens on the Z8.

I'm blown away by these images.

Part of that is due to David's artfulness in the composition, lighting, and treatment of each scene.

I think it also has to do with the fact that I spend time in this studio every day.

This room was transformed over the last four years from a living room to an art and photographic studio. At first, everything was stripped away. Slowly, artworks and artifacts have accumulated, building the energy of the space from a mere room into a place of discovery, exploration, and creativity.

I see the result of all of this effort with new eyes when I flick through David's photographs in a way that I never noticed over the gradual transformation of these past four years.

Isn't that the beauty of each of us sharing our own unique viewpoint through our art?

Many thanks to David Mollenhauer for his visit, his photos, and for allowing me to share his work on my blog!

Nature Journaling: Finding Color in Winter

A cold winter morning brought colorful birds to my feeders.  I grabbed my watercolor crayons and a black pen, and felt happy to get to splash bold colors into my nature journal.

I find that in winter, my eyes hunger for hues more vibrant than the lead-gray skies and burnt umber tree branches.  As I hike, I seek out splashes of blue, green, red, orange, purple & pink.

Where do I find these rich colors? Often in tiny pockets here and there. Here are some of my recent photos of nature's splashy colors tucked in the winter landscape.

Turkey Tail fungus boasts rows of indigo and vermillion.

Sunrises and sunsets will fill your eyes with color if only for moments.

On the rare sunny days, notice how blue the shadows are on snowy ground.

Even dead wildflowers still hold warm tones, even if they're muted.

Moss always seems incredibly green to my winter-weary eyes, but finding this fern growing out of a hole in a cherry tree lifted my spirits on a January hike.

I couldn't believe that these tiny mushrooms were still upright and not withered by the cold when I found them on January 12th.

As colorful as these scenes are, the birds at my feeder bring a special vitality.

A female Downy Woodpecker.

A Tufted Titmouse.

I hope you will take inspiration from one of these nature scenes and create art from them!

Happy Creating!

Wanderlust 2024 with Kasia Avery

If you've read recent posts, you'll know I've been taking inspiration from UK-based artist Kasia Avery, through her Care December and other online classes.  Her enthusiastic & encouraging teaching style makes art journaling exciting.

 I signed up for Wanderlust 2024, a year-long series of weekly art journaling lessons & downloadables, to keep the inspiration coming.

Here's a step-by-step look at my first Wanderlust class with Kasia!

We began by selecting a color scheme for the first spread.  Kasia provided a great deal of background information and tips on picking colors to make pleasing art.  She went into depth on brushes and techniques for each step of the process as well.

Once we had our materials and our color palette, we began with a relaxing technique for writing our word of the year in India ink all over our blank page spread.

As soon as the ink was dry, we added acrylic paint in big, sweeping strokes over top of the first layer.

We selected an area of the spread to make our focal point, and added more intuitive brush strokes.

More paint, some scratching back into wet paint and a little collage came next.

As I added more colors and marks, I kept some music sheeting and junk mail scraps on hand to spread excess paint onto rather than rinsing it away in water.

Acrylic paint is basically plastic, so it's best not to flush it down your drain as it can build up and clog pipes.

I found that having extra papers painted in my chosen colors made it easy to add collage bits to the spread to create texture.

I finished with some hand-stamped words.

I'm learning and enjoying the unfolding process of art journaling.

If you're interested in joining Wanderlust 2024, there's still time!  

Follow this link: https://www.everything-art.com/p/all-courses-everything-art

Scroll down through the courses to Wanderlust 2024.

Of course, you don't have to join this class to create an art journal. Art journaling can be as simple or complex as you want to make it.  You can tear pages out of old magazines and glue them down, paint papers, and layer on different media from watercolor pencils to ink to acrylic paint. Simply follow what interests and inspires you in the moment.

Happy Creating!

A Nature Hike Revisited

When I made the first rough sketch of this lake scene (below) the weather was warm and lovely. I had only brought a waterproof black pen and my nature journal on the hike.

I wanted to include more color and details, so I took a photo with my phone and planned to finish the page later.

This latest cold snap, had me thinking of that sunny warm day and how I wanted to finish my sketch.  

Cozily tucked in my studio listening to music, I added color to the scene using 

Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons.

Just looking at the blue sky and puffy white clouds in the photo felt uplifting on a gray day with wind-driven snow flying through the air. Adding color with the crayons worked its usual magic, and I dropped into that relaxed, timeless state of art-making.

I invite you to make artwork using this photo as a reference.  Find the most interesting part of the scene to you, and let that be your focal point. I hope you'll use your favorite media to create your version of this scene. 

Happy Creating! 

Nature Journaling with Pen & Ink

On a recent afternoon, I took a little time to sketch the simple things in my life around my home: my cat drinking water from a bowl, bare mint branches, and the birds at the feeder outside my studio.

David & I went out for a hike, and on the way down our long driveway, we had to stop to remove this dead spruce tree that had fallen over the drive.

Out at the park, we hiked down to the lake, and I took a few minutes to sketch the scene at the water's edge. Perhaps I will add watercolors or gouache to flesh out the scene.

Back at home, I brewed up a mug of tea, and sat out on the kitchen stoop in the 45 degree F weather.  I have an old, battered cushion retired from use on our wicker sofa. I pull it out of the closet and plop it down on my welcome mat to make a comfortable seat down at earth level.

 As I sat down to sketch, the weeds caught my eye, and slowed me down.  Why is it that simply following the contours of last summer's wildflowers and grasses makes me feel calm? 

My cats kindly posed for my sketches.  They seemed happy to take in nature's balm, too.

I hope you get the opportunity to feel nature's balm, whether by a window with a mug of tea or out on a hike with your nature journal.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024.

Pet Portraits in Colored Pencil Workshop!

In just one week, I will be teaching a workshop on drawing portraits of your pet using colored pencil at the Community College of Beaver County.

Wednesdays, January 10th & 17th, from 6-9 PM

on the CCBC Monaca, PA campus.

This class is designed for beginners, and all you need to do is bring a photo of an animal you'd like to draw, a sketchbook, and a pack of colored pencils, and we'll take it from there!

You can find more details & register for the course here:

Register me for Pet Portraits in Colored Pencil!

I hope you'll join me for two relaxing evenings of sketching the animals you love!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024.

Happy New Year Art Journaling!

Even though December is done, I continue to enjoy Kasia Avery's Care December 2023 art journaling class.  You can access it for free anytime here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/care-december-23

The prompt that I loosely followed was the New Moon prompt from day 4. 

I picked out a page spread, gathered some Prismacolor colored pencils in shades of blue, and began intuitively making swirling lines across the page. 

I had just been flipping through old nature journals made when I lived in Ohio, and revisiting those journals allowed me to revisit my favorite park there, Oak Openings Preserve Metropark. Going out into nature then, as now, helped me to relax, feel grounded, and to connect to nature and my creativity.

As I recalled my afternoons wandering the park with my nature journal and Prismacolors, my art journal page organically grew into a representation of the Oak Openings sand dunes that I loved.

I found that as I listened to the quiet, tiny voice of my intuition, that inner guide suggested colors (yellow ochre) and ideas (draw winter grasses & dead weeds).

I listened and sketched, all the time remembering the joy I felt in nature hiking the Oak Openings trails, reliving the gratitude I felt for time to spend in my favorite park.

The memory of a nature escape brought up the same feeling of refreshment that I felt all those years ago. 

What a powerful practice nature journaling is to provide a well of renewal to dip into again and again!

May the new year bring you opportunities for renewed creativity!

Copyright 2024 Betsy Bangley. All rights reserved.