HowToPastel Archives

Showing Results for: Mindset

Taking Small Steps: The Key to Achieving Your Art Goals

We all know that, for us, art-making is our way to express ourselves. It’s how we explore our creative side. But, for many of us, finding the time, motivation, and skills to make art can be a challenge. That’s why taking small steps is so important. It’s by taking small steps that we travel our

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Gail Sibley, "In Unison," Dog Walker series, Unison Colour pastels on UART 400, 7 x 7 in

The Art of Procrastination…Can Procrastination Be a Good Thing?

I’m an expert procrastinator. I freely and utterly admit it. I have procrastination down to an art! And yet, I’m often congratulated on how much I get done. A paradox yes? What is procrastination? It’s simply the act or habit of delaying or putting off something. There’s nothing negative per se in this meaning and

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Putting Yourself Out There: Gail Sibley, "Love That Frame!," Unison Colour pastels on UART 270, 6 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. Available. $195

Putting Yourself Out There – Demoing in Public

One of my HowToPastel subscribers recently reached out to me. She’d been invited to demo in an open space, with COVID-19 precautions in place, but was feeling too afraid to do it. (Her fears weren’t related to the pandemic.) Because I’d recently demoed at Peninsula Gallery where my mini solo show was hanging, I knew

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Prioritize art-making: Day 22 - Gail Sibley, Past Meets Present (Gallery Goer series), Unison Colour pastels on UART 500, 6 x 7 in

Six Ways To Prioritize Art-Making

We’ve just finished HowToPastel’s 5th Annual 31-pastels-in-31-days Challenge held throughout October. The Challenge is always an opportune time to prioritize art-making. A few days after it ended, however, I began seeing the odd post that expressed feelings of withdrawal and a bit of anxiety and sadness because someone is missing painting every day or they

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Action is the antidote: A wee break and when I came back, I could see that the light patches with darker purples surrounding them gave a feeling of sunlight coming through even though the light was showing cool. As it was this coolness of an overcast day that was the main attraction, something that made the distant light patches stand out, I wanted to make sure we could feel it wasn't a sunny day but rather, a bright overcast one. And I could fuss this to death so time to call it quits!! Gail Sibley, The Light in the Distance, Unison Colour pastels on UART 320 grade paper, 6 x 9 in.

Action Is The Antidote To What Ails You!

I don’t know about you but for the past few days, weeks even, I’ve been feeling a bit listless, a bit blah, a bit draggy. Sure I have work to keep me occupied, for instance, the work I need to do preparing classes, critiques, and demos for my IGNITE! membership, and the work I’ve been

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A slice of the final painting, "Grumpy Me In Red"

Trust Your Impulse!

You know when you’re painting and it just isn’t working out? Then perhaps you get a sudden impulse to do something, make a mark for instance, but your mind stops you saying, “No, no! not a good idea.” I want to encourage you to trust your impulse!  Let me tell you my story of doing

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Shows a detail of a demo painting I did

Focus On Process Not Outcome

Before every workshop I teach, I have students read a blog I did some time ago called the 14 Ways To Get The Most Out Of A Workshop. I ask each participant to choose one of the points that they know will be a struggle for them. At my most recent workshop (in Gibsons, BC,

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Show Up and get to work: cover

Show Up And Get To Work!

I’ve been away from my studio for far too long so in the next few months, I plan to get into my studio on a regular basis and for longer periods of time. Show up and get to work right? That’s my plan. So a couple days ago, I headed into the studio with vim

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