Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

     Spring has finally sprung, and that means flowers, green grass, blue skies and beautiful weather. This kind of beautiful weather means the opportunity to get out and paint something wonderful. The apple tree in my front yard has been a great inspiration for many of my works in the past, and recently the apple blossoms have been in full bloom, making it a perfect subject for my newest painting. The sky was an awesome blue, and I was so eager to get out and paint that I forgot sunblock until it was a bit too late (big mistake...ouch!!) but I had a wonderful time, and in the end it was all worth it. I didn't realize how much I had missed my acrylic paints!! They lend themselves perfectly to painting outside, I just kept a little water on hand in case it got too breezy causing the paint to dry too fast on the pallet. Sometimes the perfect subject can be right in front of you, in your own yard. I found a day of painting outside was very therapeutic, and fed my soul. The finished p

Just Me © Shana L Rowe Jackson Phew...Time really flies!! It has been far too long since I have written. I have had a lot going on lately and it has been a whirlwind. Most recently I have been getting myself prepared to go back to school. I will be starting in the fall to get my Bachelors in Art, very exciting and nerve wracking but I am ready to start this new chapter in my life. In between work and preparing for school I have been falling deeper in love with colored pencils! May 8th was my one year anniversary with this medium! I have been delving into realism, and my skills as an artist have really grown. My interest lately has been portraiture, but I really love drawing anything that comes up. I think I have found my medium of choice! As an artist I am always growing and experimenting though, so check back in a few months and that may change :). It's funny because I went a very long time always painting and never drawing, and now it seems I always draw and never

"Caution:Artist at Play" 10"x10" Acrylic     Art, in itself is fun. It is it's own rewarding adventure from day to day, it's relaxing, and therapeutic. I absolutely love being an artist!! It's also a lot of work. I'm not just talking about challenging myself to be better at my craft, reading and learning, pushing myself, experimenting, and the years of work and personal growth. That is a factor but I consider that to be the fun side of art. What I am talking about is the menial things that most people don't think about when getting into art. The things behind the craft to make it possible. There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes, and not all of them are fun. Here is my list of top 10 tedious things that I do for my art, in no particular order as they are all in the same boat in my eyes. 10. Cleaning my brushes. This is a simple task, but it bores me to no end. It can also be time consuming depending on what medium I have been

  I have been in the throws of inspiration this lately, and have created SIX new pictures since last week. One was a landscape strait from imagination, the next was inspired by a photo my husbands friend let me use,  then a heartwarming photo of my dog Max, a sketch of my cat Puff and the other two were additions to my "Revival Series" I think I pretty much covered every medium this week. :)   On Tuesday the 9th I had the opportunity to paint with a local painting group called the Tuesday group. It was nice to paint with others for once, and after we took sometime to critique, which was a really nice change for me and I learned a lot. I didn't really know what I wanted to paint, so the night before I did a quick landscape sketch from my head, and that's what I ended up doing. It's called "Daisy Lane" it's 11"x14" acrylic. I finished most of it there, then did a couple updates that were brought up during critique when I got home. I can'

"Love and Be Loved"-Mixed Media © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2012    Sometimes, I get so enthralled in my artwork that it consumes my whole life. I can't sleep, I have hard time concentrating on other tasks and it makes it difficult to find time for day to day tasks. Often times this feeling comes along with a natural high, when I am crazy inspired and doing some of my best work ever, and whipping out paintings like there is no tomorrow. Other times, it comes with lows, where it seems that my hard work isn't paying off as fast as I would like, I'm not getting many sales, or I don't feel I am getting the recognition I deserve. These lows can be detrimental to creativity, so when I feel this way I know it is time for me to step back from art and let myself re-vamp before coming back to it.    I recently went through one of these lows, and realized that I was too consumed with my art and marketing it. I love my art, and most of the time painting is very therapeut