The color of everything

I finished the second pink scarf and an earth tone hat so my right hand and arm are done for a while and /I'm back to exploring what I can  and can't do left handed.
As I'm doing that I'm still thinking about color.
I've been so busy creating art for the last 45 years that I never noticed when colors acquired so much baggage. I choose colors that make me happy or suit my mood and not because they support a disease, war or sexual preference.
Does anyone remember when a rainbow was just a rainbow, pink wasn't the theme color for cancer and a yellow ribbon was just something you tied on a package?

The Devil is in the Details

 When I can't quite decide where a painting is going, I step back and grab my camera.

 Taking detail photos of various sections of a painting can help you look at it in new ways.

 Some bits look more promising than others but I've already got a number of ideas to pursue when I go back to work.

This shot was a bit too close up to be useful for much other than an indication of how heavily textured the painting is so far.

Springing into my day

The calendar says it's spring but we woke to snow and ice. Hot Coffee and fresh baked caramel rolls cheered me up and made the house smell wonderful ...which of course is a pretty good trick as those of you that have been here know.

 It's hard to believe that just a few days ago the birds were back at the feeders outside my dining room window. Just a few feet from this window hangs a painting that I did of summer at the lake so I shot photos of that to take to work this morning at http://www.zazzle.com/julia_art*

I'm not sure what I can do with this but I had a lot of fun putting yesterdays watercolor on a lot of things before dropping it in the mail and sending it to a friend.

Something interesting happened after I posted about using both hands to draw yesterday. Later that evening (or early this morning, depending on how you look at things) I read issue 3, March 25,2011 all*you magazine which ran a section called "Power your brain" and there, on page 54 it said "mix it up. if you're right handed, use your left hand...changing your habits can strengthen the pathways that deliver information to the brain and sharpen your thinking. The same goes for learning a new skill..."
It didn't mention art or using BOTH hands at the same time but I seem to be on the right track with all of this and I'd love to hear your comments on the subject.

BOTH hands at once! pencil drawing and right hand watercolors

I did a bit of scribbling with both hands and as many pencils as I could hold. Today that was 2 in the left and 3 in the right. It's relaxing and boosts your creativity by stimulating different sections of your brain plus it's just FUN!!! After that I decided to see if I can still do 2 drawings at the same time with just one pencil in each hand. It's pretty easy to see which one was done with the right hand and which was done with my left. I think it's funny that my left hand is younger because it hasn't been used as much. I may explore this idea further but in the meantime I found some more of those watercolor note card and envelopes so I went back to using my right hand and tried to teach myself to paint poppies from a book. You see the results here and I'm sure someone will be getting them in the mail soon. Well, I'm going back to a bit of design work and plan to post some other projects for you in the morning.