Glow by Lady E

  I found this little box of Mont Marte watercolor paints for around $4 at KKV. Twelve tubes. That comes out to about 30 cents per color, which made me wonder how good they could possibly be. Turns out, pretty good. 😆 I believe these are student-grade paints, and they don’t bloom quite as beautifully as my Koi watercolors, but they bloom enough for the way I paint. The colors are pleasant to work with, they’re easy to control, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed having them in my collection. I especially like the tubes. I can squeeze just a tiny amount onto my palette when I need it instead of disturbing an entire pan of color. It’s convenient, surprisingly neat, and somehow makes sitting down to paint feel even easier. And maybe that’s why I like finding inexpensive art materials like this. Not everything in my atelier has to be precious. Sometimes I just want paint I can squeeze onto a palette without thinking too much about it and start making something. For around $4? I’m ver...

Hey, Glow Girls! I was busy at the atelier yesterday, so part 2 was a little delayed.  Let’s get the show started then.  Our next stop was another favorite - Art Bar! (I wish we had more Art Bars near my place.) This set costs about $180.  I have been manifesting this Caran d’Ache Neocolor II.  I was so surprised to find them here!  From what I remember, they weren’t there the last time I went to Art Bar.  There was a whole display dedicated to them!  This set costs $80 They also had the Neocolor 1 but since I’m a watercolorist, I chose Neocolor II Oh, these pastel colours are so lovely! But I don’t do a lot of acrylic painting. My son is the acrylic painter.  Mont Marte acrylics are pretty good though, if you’re trying out acrylic for the first time. I highly recommend them.  I will probably get these next time. I may not paint with acrylics, but I’m slowly getting obsessed with acrylic markers.  Oh, how I wanted these glitter pens, but...

Lately, I’ve been painting. Not because I decided I needed to become more productive with my hobbies. Not because I set myself a challenge to complete a certain number of paintings. And certainly not because every painting needs to become something useful. I’ve simply been reaching for my watercolors more often. Somewhere along the way, I realized that painting has become a quiet record of how I’ve been feeling. I don’t always sit down knowing what I want to paint. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m feeling. I just know that I want paper, water and a brush in my hand. And apparently, my emotions know what to do from there. Sometimes, I Just Want to Play One day, I painted strawberries. There wasn’t some grand artistic concept behind them. I put blobs of paint onto the paper and let the blobs decide what kind of strawberries they wanted to become. Some were plump. Some were wonky. Some looked like they had absolutely no intention of conforming to proper strawberry geometry. ...