Summer Activities for the Writer and Artist

As a writer and/or artist, how do you schedule your summer activities? Do you try to plan vacation trips that will later enhance your writing or your art? Or do you want to get away from all of the craziness a creative life involves?

"Hotel Del Pool" ©Mary Montague Sikes

I have to admit that, good or bad, I can't seem to get away from using any trip, vacation or otherwise, as an opportunity to create a writing, photography, or art project. With the wonder of digital imagery, creating articles, stories, and paintings has grown far easier. I always enjoy having a picture to go along with a story. Even with fiction writing, it's helpful to have reference photos to remind you of details of a setting. Also, I have found that it's wonderful to have your own image to use for a book cover when the occasion arises. The cover for my Passenger to Paradise novel, Secrets by the Sea, is a beach photograph I took on one of those vacation trips.

Recently, I've started taking photographs of meals in restaurants. After all, you never know when you might need your own picture of crab cakes or quiche to go along with the story you're writing.

As a artist, you can never have enough good reference photographs to inspire a new painting. When I made a painting a day for Blogging A to Z, I was happy to have my own photos to use most of the time for that project. There are free photographs available on the Internet, but I always feel more comfortable using my own.

What about you? Do you really take a vacation, or are you, like me, always looking?

Reflecting on the A to Z Challenge - A Painting a Day

This year's A to Z Challenge was invigorating, exhausting, exhilarating, trying, fun, frustrating, and a little expensive. All of that's because I chose to make the Challenge the creation of a Painting a Day. I planned it all out ahead of time--most of it anyway. So I was armed with photographs to work from to paint the animals I chose for each letter.

The letter "C" was especially emotional because I painted our daughter Amy's beloved cat, Casey, that had just crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. While creating this painting I felt an immediate connection with her kitty. From the moment I painted the eyes, they followed me everywhere in my studio.

In the midst of April, I realized I wouldn't have enough small/medium-size canvases for the entire month. That meant placing an order for more of the 11" x 14" gallery wrap canvases from Utrecht Art Supplies. At the end of the month, I decided that the 6" x 6" canvas I had left for the X-Ray Tetra was too small, so I purchased a larger canvas and am glad I did.

The last full week of the Challenge proved more trying than I expected because I was in Boone, North Carolina taking a week-long mixed media workshop. When I first started the Challenge, I thought it might work out for me to use something created in class each day for my post. I realized immediately that would never work because I was so committed to my animal theme. That meant I had to create a painting every day that week after the class ended. When the class ran well beyond 4 p.m., I reached panic mode to complete a painting, photograph it, then re-size it for the Internet before the facility closed at 5:45 p.m. That meant some really rushed paintings--more of a challenge than I needed.

Although I wanted to make some of the paintings before I left on the workshop trip, I found that was an impossible task. Along the way I had to marvel at the wonders of digital photography. Probably 10 years ago, I couldn't have done this daily project because I was still dealing with film and waiting to get it developed. It's almost magic now!

I am delighted to have an array of new paintings that might create a lively and interesting art show, as some of you have suggested. I also am interested in the idea that they could be used for a book project, as others of you suggested.

Many of you followed my blog each day to see what the new art creation would be. Thank you. I gained new followers and am delighted to have crossed over the 200 follower threshold. Thank you for that.

In all, this was a good Challenge. I learned, grew, and was inspired. I hope everyone enjoyed this Challenge as much as I did. Thank you, All, for making it possible!