Book Review - Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed Media Artists

Creative Paint Workshop Review

Welcome to Inspirational Shorts Review - Each week I review an art supply, tool or book and today I will be looking at Creative Paint Workshop.  

You can check out the book on Amazon and join me in the video below to see inside the book.

Check out the video below

Stay Blessed and be a blessing!

Join me on Patreon

Inspirational Shorts - Poet - Gwendolyn Brooks, Product Review - Neocolors Pastels

Welcome to the post today.  You are in for a double TREAT!  Inspirational shorts will be changing slightly, I will be sharing on the podcast a poet.  This month the poet I have chosen is Gwendolyn Brooks.  Each and every month I will either feature one poet or more and on the blog give you a bit of information about them.  On the YouTube channel Inspirational Shorts will be a short product/art supply or book review.  I hope that you are staying blessed and inspired.  Let me know who your favorite poet is.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on May 1, 1950, for Annie Allen, making her the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize. Throughout her prolific writing career, Brooks received many more honors. A lifelong resident of Chicago, she was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968, a position she held until her death 32 years later. She was also named the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress for the 1985–86 term. In 1976, she became the first African-American woman inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (Wikapedia page)  More Information HERE

The poem that I will read today is called a Song in the Front Yard and you can find the words HERE while you are there check out the Poetry Foundation, they have information about a wide range of poets.

Inspirational Shorts - Review

Weekly reviews on art supplies, tools and books to inspire and encourage.

Neocolor Water soluble Wax Pastels

In this video I share a review of the water soluble wax pastels known as Neocolor.  They are lovely to use and can work well on a variety of surfaces.

You can check out the variety of sizes that they come in HERE

Agrofest - Yearly Agricultural Event in Barbados

Agrofest is an annual agricultural event held in Barbados

Join me in the video below and check out some of the other videos available if you would like to start 'Growing Your Own on a Budget.

I only got a snippet of Agrofest as my main focus was getting some plants which I did.  Namely - Breadnut, Pommerac, Red Ginger Lilly and Sea Grapes.  All apart the breadnut is doing well - (those pesky slugs)

Recycling initiative taking place

Lots of different animals and plants on display and it is definitely well worth visiting over the 3 days of events.

Come and check out some of the other videos that I have available HERE

Art Supplies Review - Inspirational Shorts

In this post I share with you a selection of product reviews as part of Inspirational Shorts, to share with you the way in which I use a range of supplies and also how I have found using them.

I would love to hear what your experience of these supplies are.  You can also check out my Amazon page to see other supplies and resources you will be able to see.

Conte Pastel Pencils

Bees Wax Review

Apple Barrel Review

You can also Listen to the Podcast to hear about the Inspirational Shorts reviews as well.  Click on the link or the image.

Thank you for joining me, stay blessed and be a blessing

Happy New Year - What You Got Planned for 2020

Happy New Year - So we are into the New Year and we have to hit the ground running so that we can get the things that we want to do done.

This was my message last year, a call to reflect and look at what we are going to do as we take the next steps.  You have an amazing life ahead of you and you just need to start taking the steps, start small, cause you have got this!

I hope that you have already started and not waited until the 1st January to get things into gear, but that you have been thinking over the past few months what your new direction should be.

Listen to the video and see what you think, join me on the journey, your journey to making the changes you want to see in your own life.

Let me know what you have decided to make your priority for 2020, it doesn't have to be a long list, just start with this month or even this week

If you have not yet checked me out on Patreon I would love you to come and see what I am working on over there

Join me

Stay blessed and be a blessing

Creating in Faith - Sentiments - Episode 177

Listen to the Recording

There are certain things that we can hold on to because it reminds us of another time, or brings back memories of when we used to, could do and that warm fuzzy feeling as you go down memory lane recalling the incident.  There are those memories that you also maybe don't want to bring back into the present day.

How often do you think of something you have done and remembered some of the amazing things that you have done to get you to the exact point that you are now.  You are amazing and It brings a smile to my face when I remember those times you used to do those amazing things all those years ago.

You remember, you could and did light up the room with your energy and laughter, your fantastic sense of humor and you would make everyone feel so special, though you didn't realise it.

It is easy to remember the times other people impacted on our lives, now think about the impact you have on other peoples lives, think about your gifts and talents, and how you have made use of them.

As you go about your day be reminded of how special you are and when people think about you they hold you in high regard!  So from time to time, begin to think about yourself in the same way.  

Have a blessed New Year - I hope that you have been working on your focus for 2020.

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Creating In Faith Encouraging Recordings are to bless and inspire you to be the best of yourself. It can be really great to pull out your art journal/Journal and express what comes up for you either with images and colour, with words or with both. Check out the weekly and monthly videos to help you spend more time in your art journal.

If you would like to see some behind the scenes, images and additional tips HERE

You will find the 2 art journal videos available to consume at your leisure - the Making of the art journal for the month and an art journal page process - Check these out HERE

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There are so many FREE ways in which you can support the podcast and the work that I do on some of the other channels and it is always a blessing when you connect -

• listening each week and leave a comment,
• Subscribe to any or all of my channels, visit the
• YouTube channel (remember to hit the notification bell)
• Let me know how the content impacted you and if you were inspired to make changes/additions to your work or life.

YouTube www.youtube.com/amandatrought

Blog - http://realityarts-creativity.blogspot.com

Patreon Blog - http://www.patreon.com/realityarts

Twitter - www.twitter.com/Realityarts

Instagram www.instagram.com/realityarts/

Facebook www.facebook.com/realityartss/

Check out some encouraging boards on Pinterest

Artwork available from the title image HERE

I also have an Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and connect with others who are passionate about the arts in health too.

Creative Encourager - If you want to talk about creativity and the direction you are going and need a listening ear, sign up for a FREE 30 minute call http://bit.ly/Encoura

Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Season 2 - Creating in Faith - Happy

Happy

What would you say your general mood is from day to day?  Sometimes there are external things that can allow to have an impact on our overall mood and we then respond to things in a negative way.  Does that mean that we scan not be happy despite what is going on around us?  Can you have an argument about something and still be in a happy frame of mind?  Listen to the Podcast

Going through an electrical and water outage at the same time over a period of 8 hours really helped me put things into perspective.  It isn’t until these things are gone do you really appreciate what you could do when you had them, how much you depend on them and what impact not being able to do the things that you took for granted would have..  All of our appliance ran out of charge and we were then faced with reading, writing and having a conversation rather than all having our heads in a screen of varying size – which despite no lights I appreciated the pause.

I was reminded that I love writing and it is something that I have kept up, but I was also able to get on with some writing that I really needed to focus on but never found the time.  We just had to find a way to make it work for us, without getting annoyed that the lights went off, as that wouldn’t have solved anything and we would still be without light and water.

It brought back memories of being a child and the lights going out and our big sister would make it fun, - back then you did more things together as a family, without the distractions of the computer screen and the tv (which only had 4 channels)!  We were always able to look at things from a different perspective which didn’t have stress attached to it.  We knew the lights would come back eventually so we did something else until it did.

Is happy your constant state of being, happy within yourself, your state of mind, not looking at what you think things should be, knowing who you are and what you stand for.  Things don’t always have to go the way that we expect -and we know that we are the creators of our own reality. Don’t expect others to ‘make’ you happy or feel that it is your duty to ‘make’ someone else ‘Happy’ – it is not your responsibility to make others happy. 

Take a moment and consider how you are feeling at the moment, think about whether you are in a happy state of being, check out the Art Journal page video, and the monthly Journal that you can join me in making and see if you are further inspired in your journey.

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Realityarts Podcast - Creating in Faith - Happy

Creating In Faith Encouraging Recordings are to bless and inspire you to be the best of yourself. It can be really great to pull out your art journal/Journal and express what comes up for you either with images and colour, with words or with both. Check out the weekly and monthly videos to help you spend more time in your art journal.

You can get additional information by showing up on my blog, you can see the show notes HERE

If you would like to see some behind the scenes, images and additional tips HERE

You will find the 2 art journal videos available to consume at your leisure - the Making of the art journal for the month and an art journal page process - Check these out HERE 

**************************************************************

There are so many FREE ways in which you can support the podcast and the work that I do on some of the other channels and it is always a blessing when you connect -

• listening each week and leave a comment
• Subscribe to any or all of my channels, visit the
• YouTube channel (remember to hit the notification bell)
• Let me know how the content impacted you and if you were inspired to make changes/additions to your work or life.

YouTube www.youtube.com/amandatrought

Blog - http://realityarts-creativity.blogspot.com

Patreon Blog - http://www.patreon.com/realityarts

Twitter - www.twitter.com/Realityarts

Instagram www.instagram.com/realityarts/

Facebook www.facebook.com/realityartss/

Check out some encouraging boards on Pinterest

Artwork available from the title image HERE

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I also have an Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and connect with others who are passionate about the arts in health too.

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Creative Encourager - If you want to talk about creativity and the direction you are going and need a listening ear, sign up for a FREE 30 minute call http://bit.ly/Encoura

Arts and Wellness Wednesdays - Episode 124 Podcast

Welcome to the Episode 124 of the Podcast and the Arts and Wellness Wednesdays, and the show notes.

Today I am giving you tips on working with your art journal. and ways in which you can get over the initial fear of working in a book with loads of blank spaces, and get over it you will. Art Journals can also be used where words are hard to find or you want to express yourself in texture, colour, or what ever else you decide to create with in your art journal. If you give it a try you will soon be making your own designs, or even using those ones that you brought that seem so precious on yourself.

31 Art Journal Series

Check out some of the videos that I have created to help you with backgrounds HERE and also looking at a series of art journals I created HERE

On Wednesdays we focus on the Arts and how it can impact our health and well-being. I will be talking with artists, looking at activities that you can do to be more creative across the board and for those who are carers tips and strategies that you can use. I will also be sharing reviews, resources and other insights. I will be looking at the nuggets that the artists share and see how we can apply it in some way to our own lives, what ever your interests.

Check out the Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and interact with other organisations and individuals working in and around the NHS.

For information on arts events in Barbados check out the Barbados Visual Arts event online Magazine Published by Corrie Scott, and also check out the artists, pop up exhibitions and events listed on Bajan Art - https://bajanart.com - also has Exhibition details for Season of Emancipation at St George Parish Church. 9am - 5pm.

You can also find me in other places on social media:

YouTube Instagram Pinterest Website Blog Twitter Facebook

Also take a look at my page on Amazon where I recommend some Art Journal Books for Beginners for you to take a look


I look forward to having you join me, stay blessed and be a blessing.

Inspirational Shorts Episodes

Welcome to the Blog today where I share with you my latest podcasts.  I thought I would share with you some of the recordings from the most recent Inspirational Shorts.  Of course every episode is note worthy, but I wanted to make sure that you got your inspirational shot for the weekend.  We have such fast pace lives that it seems as if we only have minutes to 'Get the job done'!

Inspirational shorts is a 2 minute inspirational creative snack, that you can have on a weekly basis.  When you have more time, stop by the podcast on Mondays for some 'Creating in Faith, touching on why we do some of the things we do, and the Arts and Wellness Wednesdays, putting creativity in our lives, looking at what we can do/are doing as artists.  Let me know which one speaks to your creative spirit.

Episode 110

We all have something to be grateful for, and often those very small things that go unnoticed can mean the world of good for others.

Episode 109

Within this episode I talk about Forgiveness, the way that we move on, and sometimes the one that we find the hardest to forgive is ourselves.

Episode 106

The topic for this one is something that I am constantly reminding myself about and that is investing in my health.  We ask our bodies to do so much for us and we can treat it rather shabbily.  What have you done today that invested in your health?  I went to the beach, and it was a long time coming.  One of the bathers remarked that it looked as if I was in heaven, and for that moment It felt so good being in the water, it came close to heaven as I gazed out into the blue waters.  Think about what you are doing to invest in your health on a daily basis and let me know.  You can listen to the recording below.

Episode 103

In Episode 103 of the Podcast I shared about courage, and it is a gentle reminder, each week to step out of your comfort zone and just start.  You can listen by clicking on the image

What do you need courage for - where should I begin now?

Let me know how you get on and while you are at it you might choose to listen to some of the other episodes.  Do you have a creative topic that you would like some information about, are you stuck trying to find which creative turn to make.  Connect with me and I may be able to create a video or episode that speaks to an area that you are passionate about.

Take care for now and stay blessed.

100 Pastel Paintings - I Did It!!!

I have got to the end of the 100 Day Project, where I posted daily pastel paintings on my Instagram.

Check out the video below and see all 100.  I also share about the course I will be running, register your interest HERE to be notified.  And I also have the link to prints below if you would like to order prints, cards and more

It feels weird coming to the end, though in comparison to all the things that I had to do it was a small percentage, it actually feels like a big chunk has gone.  Anyway, the work continues.  I had a lovely time working with the pastels, and would love to try some other brands at some point.

The pastels that I worked with were:

Conte - hard pastel pencils

Rowney - soft pastels, Nouvel Carre - hard pastels

Rembrandt - soft pastels

Royal Langnickle - hard pastels

You can check them out on Amazon and see a range of other brands of pastels there as well.  Here are the paintings in the Series. 

I am very proud of the paintings from the very first one where I was just playing to the last painting where you can see the confidence in the pastels. 

I am working on a course for those who want to learn some beginning hints and tips for working and playing with pastels.  Register Your Interest HERE and I will let you know when the course will be ready.

 I have Prints available of the images, so you can get the images in a variety of forms to suit all price points.

Check out some of the designs this is the print, which can be different sizes

Pastel Prints

On some of my art I have created prints on clothes and other merchandise.  Check the link above.

Moringa Seed Design 

This is a new journey for me so I look forward to welcoming you along with me.  Stay blessed and be a blessing.