A unique system for jump-starting artistic creativity, encouraging experimentation and growth, and increasing sales for artists of all levels, from novices to professionals. Have you landed in a frustrating rut? Are you having trouble selling paintings in galleries, getting bogged down by projects you can’t seem to finish or abandon, or finding excuses to avoid working in the studio? Author Carol Marine knows exactly how you feel—she herself suffered from painter’s block, until she discovered “daily painting.” The idea is simple: do art (usually small) often (how often is up to you), and if you’d like, post and sell it online. Soon you’ll find that your block dissolves and you’re painting work you love—and more of it than you ever thought possible! With her encouraging tone and useful exercises, Marine teaches you to: -Master composition and value -Become confident in any medium including oil painting, acrylic painting, watercolors, and other media -Choose subjects wisely -Stay fresh and loose -Photograph, post, and sell your art online -Become connected to the growing movement of daily painters around the world
'I always keep a copy of Art & Fear on my bookshelf' JAMES CLEAR, author of the #1 best-seller Atomic Habits 'A book for anyone and everyone who wants to face their fears and get to work' DEBBIE MILLMAN, author and host of the podcast Design Matters 'A timeless cult classic ... I've stolen tons of inspiration from this book over the years and so will you' AUSTIN KLEON, NYTimes bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist 'The ultimate pep talk for artists. ... An invaluable guide for living a creative, collaborative life.' WENDY MACNAUGHTON, illustrator Art & Fear is about the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. Drawing on the authors' own experiences as two working artists, the book delves into the internal and external challenges to making art in the real world, and shows how they can be overcome every day. First published in 1994, Art & Fear quickly became an underground classic, and word-of-mouth has placed it among the best-selling books on artmaking and creativity. Written by artists for artists, it offers generous and wise insight into what it feels like to sit down at your easel or keyboard, in your studio or performance space, trying to do the work you need to do. Every artist, whether a beginner or a prizewinner, a student or a teacher, faces the same fears - and this book illuminates the way through them.
Roger Hope is one of Canada's foremost artists. His current situation has been brought to the attention of the Senior Guardian Angel Council. He requires assistance in the form of an intervention that will allow him to resume the use of his God-given talent. Angel Angie is best for this type of assignment. She is given a dossier of information about the man which will enable her to aide his recovery. The council informs her that ultimately they want him back in front of his easel and wielding a paint brush. Angie struggles alone to help her new client and decides to recruit her closest friend and senior angel, Nigel. At his suggestion, she agrees to request additional backup from the Senior Guardian Council. Senior council, however, has just been presented with a crisis from the canine unit. That situation is a need to immediately extricate and relocate an at-risk senior canine angel. Currently, working in a South American village, the incoming details are dire. A decision is heatedly debated until Nigel brings forward a suggestion that a mature canine could be a helpful addition to Angel Angie's mission. Maybe transporting him to Canada would keep him safe? The motion is quickly moved and passed, and the Labrador is located, evacuated, and whisked north. As discussion continues in the council chamber, it is noted that a recently vetted human woman, Caroline Lansdowne, could also use a hand from the angels. Coincidentally, she resides in the same city as Mr. Hope. This piece of news brings chuckles from the council. They are confident that Angel Angie will find a way to potentially unite a perfect trio.
When Denton, the famous American author and expatriate in turn-of-the-century London, receives a letter from a young woman saying she’s in danger and needs his help, he doubts there’s anything he can do. The letter is months old, and was only forwarded to him when the buyer of a painting found it stuck behind the frame. But why did she hide the note instead of sending it? The search for answers leads Denton into the heart of Bohemian London—the world of artists and their models, of brilliance and depravity, where the border between genius and madness is hard to discern but easy to cross. And before he has learned the shocking truth, Denton will discover what it’s like to be the object of a lethal obsession and endure a terrifying confrontation with his own demons.
With a picturesque black and white lighthouse, pebble beaches and stunning views of sea and mountains, the island of Anglesey off the coast of North Wales is the perfect place for an idyllic mid-summer painting holiday. And watercolour artist, businesswoman, and amateur sleuth Penny Brannigan is enjoying the retreat enormously - until she discovers the body of a New Zealand journalist on a secluded beach just as the tide is going out, threatening to take the body with it. The post mortem reveals the victim died from injuries "consistent with a fall from a great height," and the death is ruled accidental. But Penny thinks there's more to the story. Curious how the victim came to such an untimely end at this most inhospitable spot, she uncovers a link to a mysterious disappearance several years earlier. And as her holiday romance with a wildlife photographer turns to love, she learns some truths about herself, too, that surprise her. As the winds of change blow through Penny's own life, she sets sail on a friendly tide for a future she never dreamed possible, in a beautiful place she never imagined
CIA Director Margaret Winters attended the morning intelligence briefing in the situation room as she'd done every day since Iran's president made public his threat to wipe Israel off the map. Facing her was the very real and complex nature of her nearly impossible task to provide the president of the United States, who was under pressure to intercede, with actionable information. The president makes it clear that no American combatant will set foot on, fly over, or park a naval ship off the Iranian coast until absolute and irrefutable proof exists that Iran is an imminent threat. What happens next is a grueling, dangerous, and heart-wrenching quest for intelligence that could cost lives but stop a world war. Winters has her marching orders; trouble is, a senior CIA official, along with an overly ambitious congressman, wants the director to fail. Aware of her detractors' wishes, Winters crafts a plan to secure proof the president needs that bypassed the customary collection and analysis of raw intelligence. Her proposal shocks everyone in the tight circle of those with a need-to-know, and when the plan appears to go terribly wrong, she must take matters into her own hands. With the lives of a patriotic few caught in a clandestine mission, those keeping us safe, people whose stories will likely never be told, face dire straits in hopes of preventing the unthinkable, a war unlike any seen before. Hope teases all involved with the birth of a plan so incredible it just may work-The Moriah Ruse.
What does it take to be happy? How happy is happy enough? And what does “happy” mean, anyway? So asks Sally Farber–wife, mother, daughter, friend, working woman, and lover–in this wise and funny novel about a woman’s search for happiness in some of the right, and a few of the wrong, places. Summer in the city looms long for Sally Farber when she sends her two daughters off to camp for the first time. Suddenly freed of her usual patterns in a city that becomes a grown-up’s playground,, she embarks on a journey unlike any she’s ever had–filled with guilty pleasures and guilty pains. Caught between the past (cleaning out her childhood apartment as her demanding mother offers edicts from South Carolina) and the future (facing her first semi-empty nest), Sally finds herself unexpectedly involved with a powerful, unpredictable man. And as she researches a book whose very topic is happiness, she must weigh the relative merits of prescriptions for its attainment offered by Aristotle and the Dalai Lama, Freud and Charles Schulz, scented candles and Zoloft, her mother and her best friend. The answer comes, in the end, from a surprising discovery, in this rich and original novel about how we can find, and ultimately embrace, both happiness and love.
Sarah Bartlett was an Academy Award-nominated film star, an Emmy-nominated television actress and a Tony-nominated stage performer. She was also awarded her very own Varsity Jacket by the former director of the US Department of Music’s Federal Hip Hop Administration. Appearing in over 20 films (including Hearts of Sorrow, Hearts of Celery; Perkwit’s Secret Bramboráky (the fourth installment of the Blurg movies); and Shadow of the Fish), she also starred on stage in such shows as Howling at the Moon: The Dog Musical; Billiard Balls of Death; and Dreadful About Those Shock Treatments, Eh? The woman was also an accomplished musician who performed guitar and baglama not only with her own group (Zooey’s Lampshade) but also with the Hattiesburg Symphony Orchestra and Industrial Pole Bean Outlet; with the Palm Frond and Banana Spider Symphony Orchestra; and with the ’56 Elvis Quintet at the Memphis in November: From Too Cool to Too Cold Music, Art and Law Practice Festival). There were other sides to Sarah, sides that she preferred people not know much about, sides involving Queen Victoria costumes, drinking way too many sodas at one sitting, and that whole ceramic curry serving bowl (from 2400 BCE) incident, which she knew would greatly upset anthropologists all over the world. Here, for the first time, is the entire story of Sarah Bartlett’s life, including her children, her husband, her boyfriend, her shoes, her Toyota Cadberry, and her dreams (some of them involving picture frames made of cheese; some of them involving the Poky Little Puppy; some of them involving Gloria Swanson wearing a miniskirt, a pair of orange flip-flops and a T-shirt with a picture of Andy Warhol and the phrase “Hey, look, I’m a can of soup” on it; some of them involving cats with lobster claws for legs; and some of them involving copious amounts of Ranch Dressing). The book also includes over 150 illustrations, and some of them actually make sense. If you’re looking for a book that offers the best ratio of cost per laugh, look no further. Further? Farther? Wait, let’s think this through. Uhh, farther has an a in it, and measure has an a in it, so farther relates to distance. So, yeah, further is the right adjective to use. The Seattle Drainpipe Gazette says, “Rigatoni is to books as cat hair is to dogs.” The Farmington Inquirer calls Rigatoni “unobtrusive,” “mildly trapezoidal,” and “looks great under some flowerpots.” And the Tucson Rock Trader says, “If we crowdfund, we can raise enough money to get this author the serious help he so obviously needs. This isn’t a cry for help, this is a sustained scream through a set of Peavey Dark Matter DM 118 Powered PA Subwoofer Speakers.”
About the Book Just Another Love Story centers around Brian, recently divorced, who is looking for a fresh start. Looking to start over in a new town in a house with no furniture with no guidance for his future, he heads to a hardware store to fix a broken toilet. There, he finds a woman named Janie, the complete opposite of his ex-wife in every way, who helps him with his plumbing issue as well as his lack of direction. He starts to fall hard for Janie, but she has her own history that she must face. Will they overcome all the barriers that their past hurt has put in their way and become Just Another Love Story?
