Somebody (Fred, if you want to know) called an earlier version of this piece “Anteater Convention.” Now that’s all I can see. I always had a soft spot for anteaters.

#workinprogress #originalart #organicart #doodleart #blackandwhite #willbeacoloringpage #abstractart #livingacreativelife #creativesandbox #fullcolorlife #pittartistpen #makestuff #gogetcreating

20 more minutes on this drawing today, but for the rest of the week, I’ll have a lot more drawing time, because in a few hours I’m headed to the Friends of Calligraphy Annual Spring Retreat!!! I am giddy with excitement! This will be the 14th time I’ve gone — I’ve missed only one retreat since 2002!
Arriving at Santa Sabina Center is like coming home. My blood pressure drops about ten points just pulling into the parking lot.

For five days, 30 of us create together in companionable silence, in a big room we call the Scriptorium (though usually only a fraction of us actually do any calligraphy ?). There is dedicated table space for each person, and it is indescribably delicious to be in that room, working on your own project, hearing the small sounds of other people creating: pens scratching on paper, brushes swishing in water jars, book pages turning.

I like to sit in the back, so I can look up and see everyone else at work.
Being surrounded by other creators at work has a way of supercharging your own creativity. As does UNINTERRUPTED CREATE TIME!

None of the distractions of daily life are tugging at you: no laundry, no phone calls, no computer… And no cooking! Delicious meals are prepared for us three times a day (plus there’s the snack table–Friends of Calligraphy is also known as “Friends of Food,” and it shows in the overabundance of goodies on the snack table! From the piles of food people bring for the snack table, you’d think they starved us at Santa Sabina.) I love this retreat so much that four years ago I started hosting my own, Create & Incubate Retreat, every August, at a retreat center closer to where I live. So now I get to retreat twice a year!

Join me and work on your painting, your novel, your scrapbook, your poetry, your photography, your mosaics, or whatever (quiet) project you wish! You can read all about it at http://bit.ly/1RjktHI ?

#originalart #organicart #doodleart #abstractart #blackandwhite #creativesandbox #fullcolorlife #livingacreativelife #workinprogress #drawfirstthing #makeart #makestuff #morningart #gogetcreating

Starting a new doodle. Not my full 20 minutes this morning, because I have a doctor appointment to check out this weird abdominal pain I’m having.
Not how I’d planned to spend Leap Day!
#originalart #organicart #doodleart #dailycreating #blackandwhite #pittartistpen #gogetcreating #makeart #workinprogress #livingacreativelife #fullcolorlife #creativesandbox #abstractart

This one may be done. It needs a title, though–what would you title it?

#titleme #originalart #organicart #intuitiveart #doodleart #pittartistpen #blackandwhite #artnouveau #swirls #spirals #creativesandbox #fullcolorlife #livingacreativelife #makeart #gogetcreating

30 minutes of Saturday morning doodling, and this piece is 50% bigger.
#workinprogress #originalart #doodleart #abstractart #blackandwhite #pittartistpen #gogetcreating #makeart #livingacreativelife #fullcolorlife