Check out my new video of me painting this snow scene. I love my pastels! The color and softness is so much fun to play with.
Tag: art inspiration
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Happy New Year
Goodbye 2019
Happy New Year to my artistic friends! I am excited and sad to see this year go because I feel like I haven’t accomplished all I set out to do. It is a bittersweet thing. There never seems to be enough time. I struggle with making time for my art, I have so many responsibilities. Being a Mom has its rewards and I love my children and family. Maybe I need to start to try noticing what exactly it is I allow to steal my time.

I did have this piece in a show recently for a local library, this show was all about text in art and I was proud to have this piece in there. While I did other shows too I want to do more and interacting with more artists would be something I want to continue. It is fun hanging out with them for the most part, I will not let negativity intimidate me.
Just get your canvas here 8 x 10 Inch Stretched Canvas Value Pack of 10 and get going experimenting, it is lots of fun. Be creative and find your tribe.
Hello 2020 Happy New Year!
There is so much art I want to explore and I may struggle to find the time but onwards I will go. There is abstracts, landscapes and creative things to delve into. I want to do more oils, acrylic, sketching, watercolors and pencil. My first love was pastels and I wish to return to them because I miss the qualities they have, nothing really compares to them although oils come close.
I am so excited to build upon what I’ve learned and to keep learning. I want to be more prolific, so I am going to try to plan my days out better.
Hope for the New Year
My hope is for my art to really mean something in the end. I hope to touch people’s hearts and minds, but who am I? If someone gets something out of my art I am happy. Looking forward, watch for new additional art for sale here https://den-of-art.com/shop
If you didn’t get what you wanted for the holidays, maybe now is a great time to invest in yourself. This set would be great for any artist.
This set would be great for on the go. I think I have an addiction to art supplies, but they do help to get the creative juices flowing.
So, for now we celebrate this old year and the new with everything that it means to each and everyone of us filled with hope, peace and love. There will be work that has to be done and things to experience. Never give up.
Amscan Black Tie Affair New Year’s Party Kit for 50, Includes Top Hats, Cone Hats and Tiaras
To purchase my art on a variety of cool things visit my other art stores.
My Favorite Art Quotes
My Favorite Art Quotes Are very diversified.
One of my favorite art quotes is about having no fear, or creating with no fear. Stephen King has written so much as to become part of our collective consciousness. He has helped me to become better at creating, I repeat some of what he says like a personal mantra. While I used this for writing, it naturally went over to all my art. Picking up a book like this can help.
”You can approach the act… with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness or even despair – the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because… you want to change the world. Come to it anyway but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.” – Stephen King
I am such a fan of his writing, that I have several quotes I like from him. Can’t tell you how many times I hear his voice in my head.
“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”
“You can, you should, and if your brave enough to start, you will.”
“The most important things are the hardest things to say.”
“Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.”
There are more things to consider besides my favorite art quotes, there is poetry and music.
Poetry
Maya Angelou is another person I love to remember with special quotes.
“I’ve learned that people forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.”
Getting a book like this can provide some very relaxing time for yourself and provide meaning to your search for motivation or inspiration.
Some of my other favorite art quotes
Bob Ross, I remember listening to him many years ago, his tone and cadence was very relaxing, it was part of what made him interesting.
Aquarius Bob Ross Quotes Multi Image Playing Cards Deck
”We don’t make mistakes, just happy accidents”
“Let’s go crazy”
Leonardo Da Vinci is also a favorite of mine, not just for his art, but that his creativity ran so deep. He was an engineer, a doer, blazing his own trail.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”
“Learning never exhausts the mind.”
“You have unlimited power on this canvas – can literally move mountains.”
Whenever I get down I look for quotes to help lift me up, it thoughtfully and cheerfully changes my attitude. This gives me energy and a new beginning.
“Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.” – Frank Liszt
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
“For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” – Wallace
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van gogh
“ …the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – FDR
“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” Gospel according to Mathew
What are some of your favorite motivational quotes?
Song Lyrics
Oh my, the song lyrics. Do you listen to music when you are being creative?
“I hear babies cry, I watch the grow. They’ll learn much more, than I’ll ever know. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.” – Louis Armstrong
“Sing with me, sing for the year, sing for the laughter, sing for the tear.” – Aerosmith
The whole song by Don McLean – Vincent
What wonderful inspiration these words are. I find myself meditating on these and others and it helps bring me peace, excitement and wonder at our world.
What do you listen to?
To purchase my art on a variety of cool things visit my other art stores.
What am I currently working on?





Projects in the new future
I am currently working on a lot of stuff at the same time and looking forward to doing some acrylic atmospheric abstract scenes with a palette knife and cannot wait to start this series. I would love to have this set because it looks so inspiring. Ationgle Palette Knife 9 Pieces Paint Knives Set Palette Scraper Basic Painting Tools Kit with Stainless Steel Blade and Wooden Handles for Oil Acrylic Painting. I have lots of reference photos and ideas for these. In the back of my mind I’m thinking about trying to turn some acrylic pours into something more. There has to be more to it than just a pour. So many ideas come and go or are simmering.
Plein Air Painting
Summertime is my time for plein air and travel because I love the warm weather. I don’t like lugging too many supplies around so maybe this year I will look into lightening my load. My palette of color I believe is small enough but it is all the other things. Sunscreen, water, turps, brushes, hat, bug spray, oil, garbage bag, easel, sketch pad, palette, camera/phone, snack, paper towel, wet wipes… this list seems to go on forever. I have started to try acrylic on site because of the quick drying time but am so used to oil. I can’t seem to make up my mind which Medium to use. Hopefully I think I have a plan to do several trips in the same location and use different mediums. Practice makes perfect so I think I will go do that! I kinda wish I had a whole separate set-up just for plein air painting, something lightweight maybe like this Sienna Plein Air Pochade Box, Artists Adjustable Easel and Palette Box (CT-PB-0910) – Medium.
Currently Working on On these projects
I will be working on all my sale sites and website such as https://www.zazzle.com/s/jacyncas cleaning them up, updating and adding great new art. Using all these will hopefully bring me to a point that I will have more time for creating if I set things up right.
I also have a few paintings that I consider unfinished, so I am hoping to pull them out and see what I can do. It would be nice to finish them or start all over or just decide to totally abandon them. I develop a personal relationship with each work and I need to be able to let them come to fruition and let go.
Cyn
To purchase my art on a variety of cool things visit my other art stores.
My year in review
My year in review
My year in review is not really a year, it is more like 6 months since I have started my website. I have had an online presence on various social media sites and others like Redbubble and zazzle. therefore it will be interesting to look at this post in another 6 months. Maybe I should do a review every 6 months instead.
I continue to learn and experience new things at every corner, never getting bored. Making new friends in the art circle is absolutely essential to me and this helps a lot to avoid feeling alone. Sometimes being an artist can be isolating. It is great to have the help of peers to review my work. Old friends and new always seem to come up with great ideas and suggestions. Of course trying to get and keep a thick skin can be tough sometimes, but true friends help. They don’t tear me down, but bring me up, elevating my work in the process. Friends help teach me and I hope to discover more friends continuously.
I am happy with my progress although I wish it was faster and further along. Some progress is better than none. I certainly look forward to the future. This is partly due to the constant instant gratification we get from perusing the internet, but it is also due in part to the amount of finished pieces I have. In the future I wish to actually finish more of my pieces.
Organization
I did start the year being fairly organized and still make progress organizing more. I am hoping to make my online presence more noticeable, get more followers and learn how to wield that weapon. Making more posts on the various social platforms makes me realize I need to have more material to post.

My year in review causes me to post a picture here of an old transistor cabinet remade into an organizational tool for my tubes of paint and other odds and ends. It was exciting to be able to do this and I think it will be very useful. I can find out at a glance where each color is and what I may need to replace.
Going forward, I hope to have a larger online presence and maybe travel more. I do think travel is very good for an artist.