The ‘Fall’ Before the Storm

| Patricia

17th-century play, ‘The Dumb Knight’, a character exclaims, ‘… but hush, no words; there is a calm before the tempest.’

This recent Daily Sketch implores us to get out and enjoy the sun as the cold winds will blow soon enough.

In Canada the winter winds can be brutal so, it is now that we must walk outside and turn our faces to the warming sun; and to revel in the bright reds and yellows of the changing colours of our magnificent native maple trees (the tree that inspired the design of Canada’s National Flag, inspired by the red and white stripes of the Canada General Service Medal (1866-1870).

Walk the trails, wander the sandy shores, visit the shops up the street and move the warm sweaters and coats to the front of the closet.

What are you looking forward to with the changing of the season? Hiking a snowy trail? Shushing down a gentle slope on aged-honed wooden skis? Bundling the dogs up in their snowsuits and booties for their daily walks? Or perhaps you prefer to curl up near the fireplace until Spring with a spiked cup of hot cocoa.

Please leave a message in the comments.

Thank you for reading.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Capturing the Colours of the Season

| Patricia

“Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.” ~ Delia Owens (American author, zoologist, and conservationist)

I have always loved using bright, pure colour for quick nature sketches. Much In the vein of artists like Vincent van Gogh (Post-Impressionist) and Claude Monet (Impressionist), who both took the concept of unblended landscape colours to a peak never before imagined.

This quick sketch was painted a few years ago trying out the Infinite Painter app on my iPad Pro. My osteo-arthritis was beginning to affect my art-making even back then. Being able to find a way to create was such a godsend. Note: Infinite Painter is available on Apple and Google platforms.

Now, several years later, I am also battling Rheumatoid arthritis, further making working with analogue materials even more challenging. (Tho I still do small works using watercolour, acrylic paint, pastels sticks and coloured pencils, see a couple examples here, here and here.)

Are any fellow artists dealing with disabilities or other challenges? What are some ways that you have found to keep creating art?

Jot your suggestions in the comment section. Thank you for reading.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Autumn is the time to gather ideas for winter creativity

| Patricia

“The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In countries like Canada, the winter can be an inhospitable environment for plein air artists and writers who take inspiration from nature.

Whether you hike on a forest trail, walk to the local park or snap pics of colour in your own backyard, now is the time to collect images to use through the winter as inspiration for making art.

You may choose to take your paints on your hike and create colour studies en plein air (en plein air is a French expression that means in the open air or outdoors, to describe the act of painting outside on location.)

Images can be colour corrected on your computer or tablet and reflected on to a large tv screen, as inspiration, on days when the icy winds are blowing in January. Writers can also find that images work as inspiration for writing a verse or describing a scene.

How do you like to work during the long, cold winter months? Do you brave the temperatures and go out on location, perhaps finding a sunny spot out of the wind, or do you prefer to work with photographs or rough sketches captured in your travelling sketchbook? Or both? Do you have an unusual process that others might try? Please leave a comment. Thank you for reading.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

What will YOU do with YOUR 168 hours?

| Patricia

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

What if one week, 168 hours, was all that was left of your life. What would you do differently than you are doing now? Are there amends you would make with estranged family or friends?

Would you spend it hiking a well-worn trail through an old-growth forest? Compose an opus for the generations, paint a masterpiece or write a biography of your life and times? Would you teach a language or craft to underprivileged youth, or perhaps volunteer to work in a food bank?

Much has been written about the impermanence of life. Love ballads, songs of sorrow for missing times and people. Grand epics, from The Lord of the Rings to Asimov’s Robot series; Shakespeare’s Othello to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

The saying “youth is wasted on the young” may be true in the respect that we have no foreknowledge of the impermanence of life when we are becoming who we are, whether it is who we are ‘meant’ to be or who we become as a consequence of our life experiences.

Jot your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading.


All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.



How Do You Define Creativity?

| Patricia

“Creativity is intelligence having fun. ~ a quote from Albert Einstein”

How do you define creativity? Most people likely think of ‘creativity’ as artistic. Painters, musicians, actors, writers — all use creative methods.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the ability to use imagination to produce original ideas, objects or solutions to problems.”

Creativity might be an idea for a new product, application or process. A solution to a problem. A unique process. Devices such as the phones and tablets most of us use today instead of bulky computers. New ways to help clean the earth’s air and water pollution. Limit sickness.

I would argue that the home cook who experiments with herbs and spices to enhance the taste of the food she serves to her family is being creative. The gardener who employs his hedge clippers to create a giant rabbit or a sailing ship topiary from the yew bush in his yard. The new mother who knits booties for her newborn child. The aging senior who prepares a memory book for the generations that come after. All are using creative methods.

What other creative examples can you think of? Add them to the comments section. Thank you for reading. ❤️

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Goodbye Summer Segmented Landscape 8.25.2026

| Patricia

“August is like the Sunday of summer.” — Unknown 

GOODBYE SUMMER: As summer winds down, the fields are filled with wildflowers and dandelions morphing into cottony white feathers that disperse like a swarm of butterflies riding on the wind.

Lately I have enjoyed creating NatureScapes with various elements contained within their individual segments. It’s like a way to honour the feature by calling attention to it on its own.

WET WEATHER AHEAD: Ontario’s fall 2026 weather forecast, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, predicts a cooler, wetter September and October for southern Ontario with above-average rainfall. Chilly weather is expected to hit during the last week of September. So, fellow Ontarians, get out there and enjoy the waning days of Summer and dig out your boots and slickers for the coming deluge.

HOW HAS YOUR SUMMER BEEN? What is your favourite spot to sit outdoors and ruminate on life, love and all living things? Put your thoughts in the comment section. Many thanks for reading.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Modern Technology: A Not So New Paradigm for Creating Art

| Patricia

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Modern Art 2022

I resisted creating digital art for a long time. I was wrestling with whether it was ‘real’ art if actual materials were not used. For example: paint (acrylic, gouache, watercolour), pastels (soft and oil), graphite, coloured pencils, as well as other materials.

Although I still mostly work in analogue art (click links to see a couple examples: link, link, link), as arthritis worsens in my hands and arms, I might work digitally. At times creating concepts to be reproduced later with brush, paint and other materials.

I created this 2022 screenshot of some of the devices I utilized (iMac not pictured) to try out concepts as well as to create fully digital works. Note: a flat-bed scanner is also a useful tool for incorporating analogue work.

Procreate is one of the applications I find most useful, along with Adobe Fresco and, for a time, the Affinity Suite of apps, though I have not used them since they added ai (artificial intelligence). Call me old-fashioned but I want my art to be my work and mine alone, not taken from other artists without their permission. I ran a design agency for many years and we took copyright issues seriously. Nothing has changed in my attitude to using work that is someone else’s, without payment and/or attribution.

Thanks for reading.
How do you like to work with new tools?

Leave a message in the comments.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Strokes of Paint Define the Artist’s Story

| Patricia

“That a work of creation struggles and insistently demands to be brought into being is a fact that no genuine artist would think of denying.” ~    Dorothy L. Sayers, Author

What happens when a painter or writer or other creative person sits down to work?

Does she know what the end objective will be or is it an exploration into the unknown?

Does the sculptor look at the lump of clay before him and envision the finished work?

For me, in these later stages of my lifetime of creating art, I tend to sit down with materials spread around me, zero in on something that catches my eye or my imagination—a paint colour, a shape, a few words or a snippet of verse that pops into my head—and I begin. I try not to censor any idea at this point, allowing all zaps of inspiration to take their place in the beginning lineup of inspiration.

After all, what is there to lose? A bit of time? A few materials? For me, the experience is the thing, the equity, the purpose of the entire process of creating something that wasn’t there before I started.

The verse included in today’s post came all at once with only a few improvements made after the fact. I popped the text over a digital watercolour I painted months ago to create this piece.

What is your creative process? Please add your thoughts to the comment section.
Thank you for reading this post.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright © of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.