Tandem For Two

June in Michigan has its own color palette, and I cannot seem to get enough of it. The farmers' market is full, the gardens are going, and summer is just getting started. This painting came out of all of that. The pinks and reds and blues that make June look like June. If you have spent a summer in a Michigan beach town, you already know what I mean. Share this one with someone who needs a smile!

We tend to remember the bigger moments, but it is the regular evenings that build the overall feeling of it. For me, that is what summer brings.

Not a complete change, but a shift in how the everyday feels. And that is pretty wonderful.

Read for more evening ideas at
https://tandemfortwo.com/blogs/news/evenings-i-look-forward-to

I've always been the person who buys art for my walls. Then I painted something for my own home, and I haven't quite looked at my house the same way since.

I didn't know if it would work out. That was kind of the whole point.

There's something about making a thing and living with it every day, seeing your own wonky lines hanging on your own wall, that quietly changes what you think you're allowed to try next.

Swipe through and tell me in the comments: what's the thing you've been putting off trying?

The analytical brain never went away when I became an artist. It just found different problems to solve. A fern, it turns out, is basically a math problem on canvas — same shape, scaled down, branching in a pattern that repeats with just enough variation to keep it interesting. I find that genuinely satisfying in the same way I used to find a solved equation satisfying. If you have a practical brain and keep telling yourself you're not the creative type, I'd push back on that pretty hard. Pull up a chair. Tell me in the comments — what kind of brain are you working with? Engineer, scientist, accountant, teacher? I want to know who else figured out they were also an artist, later than expected.

The lily pad painting started as a bunch of overlapping pencil circles on a piece of paper. That is usually how it goes. You rough out the shapes, do a small study to work out the color, then commit to the full thing. I always used to be scared of drawing - I could never get what I pictured in my head the right way on the paper. Then I (finally!) realized there is no right way! The pencil sketch is now one of my favorite parts of any painting because it looks messy enough that nothing has been wasted yet. Everything is still possible. Did you find the tiny pink lily bud just waiting to bloom?

Save this one for when you need a little summer peace on the pond!

Not every painting has a destination. Some of them are just for the joy of putting paint on paper and seeing what happens. This is one of those. Rose and mustard and olive. A lot of circles and I cannot explain why it works but it does. I love it. Now I need to painting on a bigger canvas and hang it in my home. Have you made something lately just because you wanted to? No plan, no product, no reason except that it sounded like fun?