Calm Before the Storm
24×24 inches
Acrylic on gallery wrap canvas
©2016 Lucinda Howe
Collection of Barnwell (SC) State Park
This week I’m celebrating the 10th anniversary of my weekly blog and newsletter! When I started my blog in 2010, I intended to post once every week. Over the years, I missed a few weeks and I took a sabbatical around year 8. Even so, I keep returning to the practice and accumulating posts.
Over the years I’ve learned a few things. As I expected, writing about my art is hard. Like most artists, I think my work should speak for itself. As Georgia O’Keeffe said, “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.”
But most of the world communicates with words in addition to images, and I know it’s necessary to use words to explain my art.
What I didn’t expect is how much I have learned in the process. Five reasons I keep up my blogging habit are:
- The more things change, the more they stay the same. I love learning new things. I’m attracted to every new material and technique that I see. I’ve experimented with watercolor, acrylic, gouache, and oil paints. I paint on paper, canvas, and panel. I use brushes, scrapers, stamps, stencils, and miter saws. But, I always return to the garden. Brilliant flowers, verdant foliage, and sepia structures appear in my images regardless of the media I’m using.
- I have had to learn about the technical aspects of maintaining a website, blog, and newsletter subscription list. And I’ve had to learn about social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. There is just enough computer geek in me to think this is fun.
- A commitment to blogging keeps me painting. Sometimes I don’t feel like painting but wanting to post fresh work on my blog motivates me to put in my time in the studio.
- Blogging connects me with the larger art world. My blog is a place to exhibit my work and communicate with other artists, especially important in the time of COVID.
- Little bits add up. Blogging accumulates content. By owning the information on my website, I’m able to build a body of work in works and images. I’m documenting the development of my work and sharing information about painting techniques. It’s hard to believe I have kept up the practice and accumulated 442 posts after 10 years.
The painting at the top of this post is from one of my favorite posts from the first week of October 2016. I was a resident at a South Carolina state park during the approach of Hurricane Matthew. Read about my experience here.
5 Comments
Congratulations on sharing 10 fun, informative and colorful years.
Cindy, I have benefited from your blogs through the years. Thank you for sharing. As an inquisitive artist in love with experimenting and reading/studying all things creative, I’ve especially profited from your technical knowledge, (An area where I am a Neophyte). Thank you for sharing through your blog and through our Artists’ Zooms. Thank you Friend🎨
Looking forward to discussing all this with you during zoom tomorrow. Your reasons for blogging have hit home. Thanks for sharing them.
I too have enjoyed your many talents. I am impressed how you are using the tools and knowledge you have learned to enjoy the skills you have acquired.Maybe one of these days you could meet my granddaughter who is very artistic and has a good understanding of technology. I can see how art is just expanding in so many ways.
Has it really been 10 years? Keep them coming, please.