Winter Slump
A Few Small Projects and a Few More Ideas
At a recent family art night, participants chose between one of these scenes. Both photos were taken in Iceland by a family member.
I originally chose the dock scene, but after attempting to sketch it decided to switch to the grassy church scene. The details and tricky perspectives required a bit more time than I had available during our call.
Final Painting
Recently I’ve found myself in a bit of a winter slump. We’ve all been rotating through one sickness or another, and with so few hours of daylight already, I basically just get the kids to bed and crawl into my own bed by 8pm.
With many factors working against me (sickness, cold house, early sunset) I’ll need to find a way to change my evening habits if I want to get back into making art.
Here are a few ideas for myself:
Drink less coffee - switch to tea or even just hot water (I love coffee, but I’m pretty sure it’s making me feel worse)
Drink more water
Prep warm clothes for when I need to head to the basement - have a basement uniform
Prep tea or other hot beverage for the basement (I just invested in a new hot water kettle and I can’t wait for it to arrive!!!)
Wear warm socks, employ fuzzy slippers
Do a pre-basement routine - make tea, warm a heat pack, do a hype dance or jumping jacks, etc.
Have a specific project in mind that I want to work on, make it fun
Have a folder or list of projects I’d like to consider trying - make it easy to jump right into them (keep the list accessible, desk clean, and the supplies ready!)
If I need a breather right after the kid bedtime routines, consider sitting on the couch with some easy reading.
Or from another angle:
Go to bed as early as I want! It’s winter and the body operates on different rhythms.
Switch my painting routine to either the early morning or during the workday.
Maybe this will be a season of less painting and more reading? More photography? Or I could bring much smaller projects to a different space in the house.
Any ideas or inspiration welcome.
In other news, we are considering a small guitar or ukulele for our daughter for Christmas, who has showed interest in the subject. She’s not interested in being instructed about notes or chords, but she likes to strum and sing along to her strumming.
We’re borrowing a ukulele at the moment and I found some easy songs and tabs online. I’ve tried learning guitar before but lost momentum quickly. I picked up the ukulele today after she went to bed, and it immediately felt a lot easier to get started. It felt good to bring some music back… Perhaps winter’s creativity will be music-based? (If you know anything about guitar vs ukulele for young children or if you have brand advice, please chime in!)
More words than art today. Here are a few photos for you.
Ruby Red
New Sketchbook
First page, a few doodles.
Spilled Milk
The above sketchbook page was inspired by the following bird. MAB spilled milk all over the kitchen table and it soaked through my art magazine. I tried drying and pulling apart the milk-soaked pages. Despite my initial annoyance that the new magazine I hadn’t read yet was “ruined,” in the end, I liked the new warped and imperfect feeling of the magazine better than the original smooth, glossy, perfect feeling. I haven’t solidified the theme for the new sketchbook yet, but it’s definitely going to be something around the idea of “mistakes” and imperfection. Experimentation.
Three Eyes
Our pumpkin had a hole in it thanks to a squirrel. We carved a second hole to make the second eye. Later, another eye appeared.
Card Doodle
Trying more looseness… maybe that can be my winter theme?
-Lana
I like the colorful "looseness" theme for the new sketchbook. Loose is always good, of course, and also is super-forgiving of any "mistakes" you think you make (which the viewer would never guess, of course). Give yourself the gift of loose for the rather tight winter months.
Your attempts to winterize remind me of the Danish concept of "hygge" for getting through their long, cold season. I wrote about it a few years ago for a friend's travel blog, and she just reposted it, because it's that time of year again, I guess: https://www.moretimetotravel.com/who-can-resist-hygge/
Such a nice leaf photo! and pumpkin, etc! Thank you for sharing. I've also slowed down a bit on painting in the last few weeks. I started reading a novel, but I want to keep doing art projects, probably at a more relaxed winter pace like you're suggesting. I want to do some loose things and collage mixtures. Experimenting for fun. Now I finally have glue sticks so I can be in business!
Last year I was drinking a lot of hot water with lemon, ginger, and honey after my friend told me she just drinks hot tea in winter to stay warm from the inside out.