PrintingYourArt

Ok...so I took art in High School and a ceramics class in College eons ago and just scraped by.  I can see beauty from the lens of a camera, distort it if I want and make it into something it may not have been but can I paint? I see the beauty of the landscape and draw it into my mind but how do I get it to hands and transfer it to the surface of the canvas? I birth two children who have the natural talent of the arts and are painters in their own right.  It just flows natural to them.  Did it skip a generation? Could it be that I never really took the time to try?  I always seem to be in a hurry.  Never slowing down.  Some people would say that I have ADD!  I don't.  I use to be so ambitious that I forgot to take time for me and sometimes for my girls.  I was a corporate slave! Dare I say that?  Don't get me wrong.  I was just someone who had to be perfect.  Make the right decisions and do everything the right way.  I forgot along the way that it is ok to mess up....not

We found a quaint old watercolor in our crawl space in the attic that my husband's Dad acquired sometime in the 1950s from Norway. It was rumored to have been a wedding present to his Grandparents. It's called Ulvik on the Hardangerfiord. I believe the watercolor painting was made between 1870 and 1897. It was signed by Margaret Ruff. We found a Margaret Ruff who was an Artist and Etcher that was born and resided in Philadelphia, PA but traveled and studied abroad in Europe. She was a member of the Boston Art Club. She was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and had exhibits at the Boston Art Club, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, National Academy of Design, Paris Salons and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She had also studied under Thomas Eakins. We believe this is the same Margaret Ruff who painted the watercolor. If anyone knows anything more about this work of art or the Artist please comment. Thanks!

I recently went to an Art Show and met a lady there who teaches Art. She said the misconception in learning Art at any age is that the lines or details have to be perfect instead of how the Artist sees the image in their mind or in person. Forget perfectionism and just flow with the creativity that you the Artist conjure up! She told me not to worry about perfect lines or edges or even having things perfect at all...the artist abilities lie in how they see the world NOT how the world controls them. Do you get that? I did and now I have an easier time in letting out my artistic concepts. They don't have to be perfect! Next time you see a painting or a drawing would you draw it the same or different then ask yourself why?