Category Archives: creative challenge

October Sunset After a Storm: How Small Beneath the Sky

The many-faceted history of “How Small Beneath the Sky” I don’t know what it was about this image as a photograph in 2011 that stayed with me from the time I took it. It’s that sense of my tiny self, smaller than one of those dots in the valley below, one of which on the […]

Familiar Details on a “Dead End” Street

Dead End, pastel on prepared board, 8 x 12 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

I love snowy winter scenes, blue morning shadows or brilliant sunsets, snowfall, surprise bits of color. Winter has long been my biggest inspiration for landscape painting. And I also love a row of houses in the sun without snow, the bare trees, the long shadows, and this dead end street has so many familiar elements. […]

Stark Winter Sun on a “Dead End” Street

“Dead End”, Late Afternoon, Winter

After yesterday’s snow, today was cold but sunny enough to melt the snow, with big puffy clouds slowly meandering overhead. I painted this little dead end street in my home town on just such a day. I love a row of houses in the sun. This street dead ends at the top of the bank […]

February 2020 Personal Creative Challenge, Day 27: Poem, Winter Bouquet

My daily photo today unexpectedly inspired some verse. It just began writing itself in my head so I thought I’d bring it here and work on it. I knew I probably wouldn’t have a chance this week to post anything new for my creative challenge. Though I’ve been plenty busy with creative work nothing is […]

February 2020 Personal Creative Challenge, Day 22: New Purse and Bag Designs

Three new bag designs, Blending, Evening Wildflowers and Market Flowers

I’ve purchased premade tote bags of various sorts and imprinted on them for years, but I can’t always find consistent bags, or sizes I like, and I often can’t work out a design that I want. Last autumn I decided I was going to start making my own bags so that I could both be […]

February 2020 Personal Creative Challenge, Day 18: Curious Fawn

I’m back to a painting for this day of my creative challenge. For this painting I once again used self-prepared smooth deep charcoal matboard coated with my favorite transparent pastel ground, Golden Acrylic Ground for Pastels, so that I would start with a dark background. I painted it without any guidelines, just hitting the surface […]

February 2020 Personal Creative Challenge Day 17: Poem, The Blush That Rise

The blush that rise at end of a winter’s day to meet the early falling darkness,… I have a Monday prompt for writing and an image and words immediately began building in my mind. Though I began a painting today, I decided that I would work on my chosen painting subject for two days and […]

February 2020 Personal Creative Challenge, Day 15: Poem, One Chance to Be

Cycle turning biology undeniable tender green pushes through soil hard and frozen, offers budding violet hope as bitter storm roars in, opens to adversity hesitate, hide, wait, unthought for only one chance to…be. The first flowers of spring in bud as a cold front comes roaring in, yet they stand tall and follow their path. […]

February 2020 Personal Creative Challenge, Day 13: Update on Amy’s Portrait

My goal with Amy’s portrait today was to get the values settled, the dark areas and the light areas, and to get the plant as finished as I could get it. I posted this challenge update on The Creative Cat: February 2020 Personal Creative Challenge, Day 13: Update on Amy’s Portrait