Why I Love Abstract Art

Abstract art uses shape, form and colour to create composition. For me, abstract art is a way to connect to my intuition and feelings. For each piece I create, I focus on how I want the painting to make me feel.

I paint slowly, taking breaks each time I add a new colour to the page. I ask the canvas to reveal what it wants to show me.

Here are some of the paintings I’ve done in the last six months:

If you are looking to start painting this year, join my weekly peer support group for “Art & Mental Health.” We meet Fridays and Sundays on TikTok Live. Join us with your art supplies from the comfort of your own home, learn more here.

Painting EVERY DAY

When you paint every day, you may not like a lot of what you paint. I remind myself of this often as I’m learning to push through the “ugly phase” of painting. Pushing through, has helped me learn new techniques in watercolour and acrylic painting.

By pushing through the “ugly phase” you get to the beautiful phase.

Here are some pieces I pushed through to make:

If you’re looking for community to support you in your creative endeavours, check out my new “Art & Mental Health” peer support series on TikTok, happening Tuesday and Friday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30pm EST.

Our first session will be Friday, March 17 at 7:30pm (Eastern Time). Join us here.

How to Keep a Journal: Cultivating a Daily Practice

I’ve kept a daily journal since the age of 7, that’s 25 years. I have boxes of chicken scratch and teen angst boxed up as a result. I’m sharing some pictures from my first journal here:

I get asked sometimes how I stay on top of journalling, what brings me back to the empty page each day. Over the years, I’ve tried lots of different techniques from “junk journalling” to “bullet journalling.” I’ve learned what I like and what works for me. I’ve also learned about 100 things that don’t work for me. I’m sharing my best tips here for keeping a journal:

How to Get Started: Actually like your journal

Pick a cover pattern or design that inspires you.

As a child, it was always important to me that my journal reflect my personality and interests. I always picked a cover I could relate too, whether that was puppies, paisley print, or flowers. As an adult, this preference still serves me – though my prerequisites for a journal have changed. As a child, I wanted fun patterns and colours. Now, I’m OK with plain black covers, as long the notebook fits my next two criteria:  

Here is a simple dollar store notebook I collaged the cover of. It helped me feel inspired to write more!

What binding will best fit your needs? Are you a coil or book-bound kind of writer?

Don’t overlook this simple yet important question! If you like to rip pages out frequently, a coil bound notebook is your best bet. If you like an accurate records of everything you’ve written, a book-bound notebook is your best option. If you’re not sure what your preference is, that’s OK, you will figure it out as you go. For example, if you’re a page ripper and end up writing in a book-bound notebook, you will notice the thickness of your book will deplete.

Use a pen that makes you want to write.

I can be so picky with pens. When I don’t have a pen I jive with, I’m far less inspired to write by hand. I find myself scrolling on my phone instead. If you have a preference for blue or black ink, use the colour you prefer. If you like craft markers or gel pens, use those. Use your fancy fountain pen. Writing in your journal is a restorative and healing practice and it’s OK to use the “good pen” as a result. 

Determine your preference for paper style.

Many years ago, I found myself in a daily funk when I went to write in my journal. I’ve always had very tiny hand writing and this journal had very tall lines. I found my words getting lost in the blank space between the lines.  I switched to writing in blank pages and found myself inspired to write again. I felt “constrained” by the lines. Others need lines. Do what works for you.

I always use blank pages so I can set up my own layout.

How to Keep Going: Tips for Returning to the Page

Write when is convenient for you.

You don’t need to write first thing every morning or right before you go to bed. You can write at the same time every day if that will help you stay in step with your habit, but there is no requirement to do so. I often write in small moments I carve out during the day: coffee breaks, before dinner, after a workout.

Train your brain to find joyful moments.

Our brains have a negativity bias, but we can train our brains to look on the sunny side. Often it’s recommended you think of 3-5 things daily that bring you gratitude. This is a great place to start, but I find this exercise can get stale in time. What I’ve started doing instead is capturing moments of surprise. I look for them throughout day, then write them down at the end of the day.

Use more than words.

You don’t need to be an artist to decorate your journal. Stickers, washi tape and paper mementos from your day (gum wrappers, news paper clippings, etc.) are all fun to glue into your journal as a visual record. You can also doodle or use pencil crayons or markers to decorate.

Use bullet point when short on time.

Don’t have time to write out your day? Use jot notes. Writing just few words can help keep a record of something you’d like to return to later. Short on inspiration? Jot down just three words to capture your day and it might prompt inspiration to write more.

Here is an example of a “bullet journal” where I tracked my week in a series of check marks and jot notes.

I hope these tips help you develop a daily ritual of journaling. Let me know in the comments below if you decide to start journaling and how it goes!

How to Find your Passion

Our society puts a high premium on finding your passion and dedicating your life to the pursuit of that passion. 

This gives rise to stress and social pressure. We all want to know what our “passion” is so that we can be successful at that passion as soon as possible. 

This societal pressure also fosters many harmful misconceptions about the pursuit of passion. One of the biggest misconceptions on the pursuit of passion is the idea that your greatest passion should be your favourite activity. 

Here’s why I think this conflation is problematic. 

Passion is a feeling

Passion is a feeling characterized by fire and fervour. You can feel passion towards many things in life. You can even be passionate about lots of different things all at the same time: sports teams, television shows, the stranger you made out with at the bar last week.

Pursuing these particular passions though will not necessarily lead you to a “life of passion.” 

Living with passion, or living fervently, means that you’re not only inspired to act but you’re also excited to act in ways that ignite the fire of your heart. Your actions, dreams and direction in life are aligned and guided by this inner fire. Feeding this inner fire is how we find fulfillment.

That fire in your heart is your greatest passion. This is why our greatest passion is often more than just one of our favourite activities. I personally really like singing in my car. I like to dance at red lights and switch between radio stations until I find a song I can sing along to. I’m not going to pursue singing though. I know that pursuing singing as a career or even as a hobby wouldn’t make me happy. It’s okay to like things and for those things to not be your capital “P” passion in life. 

Passion & Resistance

I sometimes think the reason we “can’t find” our passion is that we believe our “passion” should be our favourite thing. We believe we should want to spend every waking moment working on our craft. The adage “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” is harmful for it makes us feel like frauds when we meet challenges or obstacles in our craft.

Obstacles, whether they're external or internal, are a natural part of the creative process. Whether you’re a painter, an engineer or a community organizer, if you’re doing creative work, you will one day encounter difficulty. It’s important to know that’s part of the process. It doesn’t mean you have to quit what you’re doing and find a new passion. 

As a writer, I know writing is not my favourite activity. I’d much rather sleep or watch Netflix. Watching Netflix is relaxing and entertaining but it does not provide me with a sense of accomplishment. That’s how I know it’s not my capital “P” passion. I don’t finish a movie or TV show and find that the fire in my heart has been fed. In fact, after watching TV, I often feel a great nagging to get back to work. It’s as though that fire knows I’ve been procrastinating, it can tell I’ve been resisting it. 

In his book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield examines creative resistance. Pressfield argues that “There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.” 

So when you do find your passion, and you face resistance or difficulty, take heart. Know you’re going in the right direction. I know that for me sometimes this reassurance can give me the strength I need to persevere.

Follow Through

Living a life of passion is following through on your craft even if it’s hard. If you long to do something and day-dream about something but something else is stopping you from sitting down to do it, what’s stopping you is resistance. That resistance is a clear sign that what you’re dreaming about is your passion. It’s your calling and you need to be brave, sit down and work. That's how you'll find fulfillment.

With that in mind, if you’re still trying to figure out what your passion is, take stock of what activities you dream about. What’s an idea or activity that you feel strongly about but you keep putting off? What are you resisting? Resistance exists because pursuing our passion or acting on our feelings, can be a really uncomfortable process. Resistance in our creative and emotional lives is actually there to keep us safe — that’s it’s function. So next time you find resistance, call it by its name. Tell it you know it’s just there to look out for you but that you need to overcome it to feed the fire in your heart.

Passion may be a feeling, but we won’t get anything out of that feeling unless we act on it. 

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Originally published on Lamp in Hand on February 14, 2016.

What to Paint when You're Blocked: Token Tile Mosaics

This exercise is the perfect combination of repetition and inspiration. The grid pattern makes it easy to replicate on any size paper. I find that by using simple combinations of symbols, I can see things differently. After completing this exercise, I’m often inspired to paint after experiencing a creative block.

Follow these simple steps to create your own token tile mosaic.

1. Use a pencil and ruler to draw a grid of even-sized boxes. I used the width of my ruler to make the squares the same size. Draw the grid right to the edges of your page or leave a 1/2 inch border to decorate later.

2. Pick 5-7 symbols at random and fill your squares with the symbols in pencil outline. Here are some examples of symbols you can use:

   • Apple

   • Flower

   • Clover

   • Spade

   • Heart

   • Palm tree

   • Maple leaf

   • Sparrow

   • Flame

   • Sun

   • Star

3. Add colour to the symbols. For a cohesive design, limit your colour palette to 3-5 colours that coordinate with each other. In the both the examples below, I did not limit my colours and had fun using as many colours as I wanted.

4. Colour in the background of each symbol’s box. Match complimentary colours to each other.

5. Fill in finer details with a black marker or pen.

6. Decorate border with stripes.

Let me know if you try this exercise at home. I’d love to see what you create. For more ideas like this, sign up for our newsletter:

Trying Pencil Crayons: Planning for a 3 day trip

Painting has become a daily habit for me, I come home and instead of turning on the TV like I used to, I decompress by painting for 20 minutes.

As a beginner painter, I have a basic home setup for painting. I keep all my art supplies in a storage caddy next to my desk and use my desk as both a home office for work and a home studio for this blog. I’m also still learning what I like to use when it comes to materials and techniques and like to experiment each sitting.

I can honestly say that my mess of random art supplies riddles me with decision fatigue when I think about packing it up for any length of time away from my apartment. For me, I think packing my paints for a short trip would take longer to plan than the trip itself.

I’m heading out of town for three days and three nights. I will have some down time each day and want to maintain my creative practice when away but will not be packing paints. Instead I’m going to try pencil crayons in a sketchbook. This means I will only need to pack the following:

Packing List

• 1 tin of pencil crayons

• My blank page journal (which I carry with me anyways)

• A small eraser and a small sharpener

• Some coloured pens and a fine-tip black marker

Trying a New Medium: Coloured Pencils

I think everyone with an artistic itch has used coloured pencil crayons at some point in their life, likely in elementary school.

It wasn’t until I discovered the work of Montreal artist Julie Delporte that I realized the versatility of coloured pencils and became interested in learning more about illustration.

In this way, graphic novels, especially those by the Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly, become a gateway for me to fall in love with illustrative styles of art. Many of my favourite graphic novels are drawn in pencil crayon or ink.

Spending time admiring graphic novels and illustration lead me to also admire surface pattern design (the design and art for the surfaces of mass-manufactured products) and seek out new forms of inspiration on Pinterest, in shops and online. I fell in love in particular with botanical prints and this inspired me to try watercolour painting myself. I was initially very intimidated by the traditional fine art style of watercolour landscapes. When I learned that illustrators used watercolour and goache it made the medium approachable for me.

After admiring the work of other illustrators using pencil crayons, I’m excited to give them a try and my weekend away is the perfect opportunity.

Drawing with Pain in your Hands

I have rheumatoid arthritis in all the joints in my fingers. This means I have intermittent pain and stiffness in my hands which can affect my ability to hold and work with pencils. One thing that has assisted me with trying coloured pencils, has been using ones with softer lead centers. The softer the lead of the pencil, the less pressure you need to apply to the paper.

Soft lead pencils can be expensive though. If soft pencils are out of your budget - markers might be a better fit. Markers require less pressure to apply, and have big colour payout.

If gripping is your main issue, you can also wrap foam or other soft materials around the hard wood to cushion your fingers. This is a technique I learned from my occupational therapist growing up. You can also purchase pre-made pencil grippers like these ones pictured here:

I have also noticed that the brand of eraser I use affects my hand pain. If the eraser is not strong enough, I find myself rubbing too hard and hurting my joints. I have had good luck with the “Prismacolor Magic Rub” eraser.

Why Try Pencil Crayons

Here are the main reasons I’m so excited to try pencil crayons on my upcoming trip:

• Portability - Pop them in a tin or pencil case and you are good to go. Easily use them at a cafe, park or on the train (not including the subway lol).

• Accessibility - There are many brands of pencil crayons to try in different price ranges and you can use any paper you have on hand. There is no need to buy expensive or weighty paper pads or special sketchbooks like when you use watercolour or acrylic paint.

• Easy to practice - The portability and accessibility makes this medium easy to practice. This also makes it a fun medium for kids to enjoy as well.

Let me know if you try out pencil crayons yourself. I’d love to hear how it goes, and would like pictures of what you create even more.

Living to Create & Creating to Live

We all create for our own reasons, whether for work or pleasure. When I was younger, I saw a dichotomy between artists who worked for pay and artists who created for other reasons. I've realized this is a false dichotomy, that looks at art through the lens of capitalism. Author Sunny Taylor expands on this notion when she describes her experience with the question "Do you sell your art?" She explained that this question positions itself as a "test to see whether my lifestyle and hobby are legitimate."

Now I see the creative process in two ways, when we live to create and when we are creating to live. 

Living to Create is when you are inspired to create and follow through on that inspiration. A flash of an idea has you running to capture it with a pen or a brush. The idea may seem like a fever, coming to you fully formed but hot and hazy.

Creating to Live is a state I previously had no name for. Creating to live is when you create because you need to, on a spiritual level. While both styles of creation involve experimentation, when you create to live you are creating for creating's sake. There may be no finished product or canvas; what you create could be  "ugly" or "terrible" but when you finish you may feel a lightness, or calm. 

Both types of creation can be healing. Both types of creation can be celebrated as valuable and necessary.

I've recently been thinking about the spiritual need to create in life. For the past 6 months, I've painted (almost) every day. At first, I was trying to develop a habit and honestly just learn "how" to paint, now it's my favourite ritual: sitting down to paint one page a day in my sketch book. Read more about how I learned to paint here, from paint swatches to flower scenes.

Let us know your thoughts on this idea of Living to Create and Creating to Live.

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Paint it Black

The most meditative practice I’ve found recently has been painting everything black.

I’m a new painter, and advice that comes up all the time in beginner watercolour instruction is “not to use black.” Many instructors recommend using a colour’s opposite (on the colour wheel) to mix your own black. The argument is this technique brings more nuanced colours into your palette, where as using traditional black can be considered too “harsh”.

I’ve found that abandoning this advice and using more black in my work has been liberating. Sometimes I think a painting is not salvageable and then I paint it black at it brings new meaning to the piece. Here are some examples:

When I’ve finished the coloured parts of the piece, I take Chinese Ink and carefully outline my piece in black. It takes time painting the background last, I’m careful not to paint over what I’ve already created. It’s meditative and relaxing though time consuming.

You can use this exercise as art therapy or a simple meditation: keep bringing your attention back to your brush and the small strokes of black ink. You can use old pieces you haven’t finished and paint them black or draw some basic flowers in colour and try this technique. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Use art to "traffic calm" your day

On my drive to work, I hit anywhere between 5 and 10 red lights. In my parents’ neighbourhood, they’ve installed speed bumps as a new “traffic calming” measure.

In our own lives, we don’t have time to do the creative practices we love in the middle of the day. I’ve recently tried to integrate small pockets of creativity into my day in small ways; I think of these reprieves as traffic calming for my nervous system.

Examples of activities that can be calming under 5 minutes:

• Doodling or colouring with pencils or markers

• Writing in a journal or diary

• Guided or Walking Meditation

It can sometimes be overwhelming thinking of what to draw or doodle beforehand. One practice I find helpful, is sourcing inspiration in nature or online and saving references to an album on my phone. Recently, I’ve found doodling paisley pattern meditative and relaxing.

Not sure what to draw? Try the paisley pattern prompt:

1. Cover your page with “leaf” shapes

2. Fill in each leaf with its own design:

   • Repeat motifs like flowers, stripes and swirls

3. Enjoy your day

Learning to Paint: A page at a time

I dream of painting and then I paint my dreams

Van Gogh

I’ve always wanted to learn how to paint flowers. I’ve tried painting before and never got the hang of it. This year, I wanted to try to learn so that I could illustrate floral designs, just for myself. To have a small dream and accomplish it.

I decided to paint one page a day in my sketchbook. I could commit to one page a day. I used the small Windsor & Newton travel kit I already had and an empty sketchbook with thick pages I bought by accident when I thought it was a journal.

When I started, I felt really uncomfortable painting shapes. I started by swatching colours with the same brush in small patterns. Each day I’d fill a page in my sketchbook or a small postcard sized block page with bright coloured tiles of paint. I did this for many days, just painted swatches. It was relaxing but also helped me feel more comfortable. I played with different brushes, paints and mixing colours.

Sappy love lyrics for good measure and to practice using a flat tip pen ;)

From tiles and colour swatches, I moved on to abstracts. I played with shapes and wet on wet techniques with watercolour.

After a few weeks of abstract painting, I felt ready to try flowers and plants.

I started small, watching videos online and flipping through some books from the library. My favourite is the pineapple tutorial from Emma Block’s book “The Joy of Watercolour” and simple flower tutorials on Skillshare or Youtube.

I wanted to share my process in the hopes that it inspires you to try something you’ve always wanted to try. Every day when I come home from work, I’m always excited to paint my page of the day. I’ve filled three sketchbooks now.

In the past 4 months, I’ve gone from feeling uncomfortable with a paint brush to feeling relaxed and restored each time I sit down to paint.

I keep it simple, I paint in the same spot every day: my home desk. I keep a large jar for water and my brushes and paints in the same place. All I need to do is show up.

Learning to Cross Stitch: A stitch at a time

Cross Stitch Gallery

I’ve long admired the work of embroidery and textile artists. When I was a born, my Mom’s friend embroidered me a scene from the fairy tale the Princess and the Frog. The framed scene was in my bedroom until maybe high school. I’d admire the neat, colourful stitches wondering how she had made it. Whenever I’d see embroidery or textile art, I was filled with the same sense of wonder and would think that’s “not something I could ever do.”

One day, early in the pandemic of March 2020, I was alone and anxious in my apartment and decided to sew some patches on my jean jacket for the first time. I wasn’t really sure how to do this but had learned a basic stitch from my Mom and grandmother as a child. I took the small mending kit I had in my apartment and slowly starting sewing the first patch on.

The sewing took a lot of time. The machine embroidered patches and jean jacket material were both thick and it sometimes hurt my arthritic fingers to push the needle through. I took lots of breaks, and had the TV play sitcoms in the background for company. By the end of the spring, my jacket was complete, covered in the patches I’d been collecting and “saving” for years.

Every time I wore my jacket that first summer, I felt such a sense of satisfaction knowing I had sewn each patch by hand. It felt like I was wearing the magical coat of many colours from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

When it was time to hang my jean jacket up for the season, I took note of a beautiful cross stitch I’d bought from Guelph artist Hoops by Han. It reminded me that each pixel of colour in a cross stitch is compromised of just two stitches. I realized that although I could not recreate what was in front of me I could theoretically cross stitch if it is two stitches, over and over. This inspired me to start looking up what I would need to get started and watched some tutorials.

The first hoop I ever finished was completely improvised. I wanted to practice stitching and get a sense of what I liked. My first hoop is the abstract one below. Once I had completed that one, I felt the same satisfaction and confidence I felt when I finished my jean jacket. I felt inspired to keep stitching and am still stitching today.

In my first year, I made 10 hoops - mostly small ones, but one that sadly did not survive as I ended up cutting it up in frustration lol. 8 are pictured here, the 9th was another 4 inch Christmas ornament.

The best part of this journey, has been that I was recently asked by two girlfriends to stitch scenes for their new babies and nurseries. To think that all those years ago, I looked up at the embroidered Princess and the Frog and thought I would never learn to use a needle. Now I’m stitching for my friends’ babies just like my Mom’s friend embroidered for me when I was a baby. I still can’t embroider but I sure do love stitching and I will never say “never” when it comes to trying new mediums now.

If you want to buy hand stitched hoops, visit Hoops by Han on Instagram or Etsy. 

For free cross stitch patterns, I started with the D.M.C. website. When I was ready to buy patterns, I opted for ones by Montreal artist Samantha Purdy.