My Great Day

My Favorite Watercolors

2020-06-23T14:17:00.000-04:00

M. Graham & Company makes what I consider to be the very best watercolors in the world. Located in West Linn, Oregon, this very small manufacturer makes their watercolors by hand with pure honey, gum arabic, glycerine and the most lightfast pigments available.

The way in which M. Graham creates their color produces not only jewel-like color but a medium that stays moist in your palette for a very long time. I have never had one of their pigments dry up or crack once out of the tube, no matter how long. If I open a travel kit that's been on the shelf for a while, the M. Graham colors look as moist as if they were used yesterday.

Over the past few years I have worked with Daniel Smith, Schmincke, Windsor Newton and Old Holland and while each of these brands have unique qualities and I have certain favorites from each (and a lot of paint yet to use up!), my top choice, especially for basic or core palette colors, is M. Graham. By basic or core palette colors I mean Azo and Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Blue and Green, Quinacridone Rose and Alizarin Crimson. These are all rich, stunning and lucid colors with unique signatures. Their Cobalt Blue is particularly exceptional.

Until recently, M. Graham had a collection of 35 colors which you can view on their site. Very recently, they added 35 new colors which can be purchased through their main distributor artpurveyors.com who is hosting a sale on M. Graham through April 1st of this year. (Even when they're not on sale, M. Graham paint is reasonably priced.) The original collection of 35 colors is available at Dick Blick and at retailers throughout the US. I tried a few of the new colors and the Maroon Perylene is beautiful, but all of their colors are! You can tell I'm a fan.

But don't just take my word for it. I learned about M. Graham in 2003 from Handprint's Bruce McEvoy who just updated his high ranking review of M. Graham to encompass the expanded line of colors. To quote Bruce

"All in all, these paints reflect great care and craftsmanship, and I am always struck, when I come back to a painting I have made with M. Graham paints, by the clean, colorful harmony and unique mixing effects these paints create."

They post a thorough pigment list on the site and also have an MSDS document on their paints available for download from their front page.

The company strives to make many of their products as natural as possible. I can only speak for their watercolors but if you paint in oil, I urge you to go to their site and read up on Solvent Free Paining with their Walnut Oil and Walnut Alkyd.

Sleep on it

2017-03-29T00:21:00.001-04:00

You need more sleep.

That's the name of a book on the shelf in my bathroom. It's a bunch of good advice to humans from cats.

I'm going to make this post quick because I'd like to get to sleep, oh, right about NOW. But I'll sleep better if I write this post and publish it first. I've missed my regular weekly posts because I've been profoundly exhausted from a sinus infection and have used every ounce of energy to do only what was necessary. Although that also happened to include outlining and partially designing three new courses (one of which I created while teaching the first iteration).

Have you ever been so tired that you cannot sleep? That's the way I've been feeling. Laying down a lot but not getting proper sleep. That, however, is changing. Right now. Tonight, in fact. Because, hey... click here to read more...

How to gain perspective

2013-05-21T03:17:00.000-04:00

Suzanne McDermott

Time and Distance

Watercolor

Step Back

Perspective is not something we "get." Perspective develops, evolves. The need for perspective indicates a problem that requires a solution.

In my experience, I've learned that whether the problem I'm facing is emotional, technical, creative, or in relationship with another person, I am not going to find a solution by working at it head on, forcing my will, or figuring it out. I am only going to arrive at a solution by allowing myself time and space. Perspective requires time and space.

If you research the history of innovation and discoveries, you'll find that in many cases, if not by accident, they were arrived at while a person was not directly at work on a problem. I'm not talking about proven solutions to particular problems like one plus one equaling two. I'm referring to creative problem solving.

Creative problem solving is broken into four main categories: Mental state shift, Problem reframing, Multiple idea facilitation and by Inducing change of perspective.

So, how do we induce a change of perspective?

1. Step back. It's difficult to see the big picture when you're right on top of it.
2. Turn away. Engage in a different activity.
3. Move your body. Go outside for a walk.
4. Alter your sensation. Take a shower.
5. Take a nap. "Let me sleep on it" may be the wisest response in many situations.

“For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.”
― C.S. Lewis

Nonlinear

Ronn Davis, my most awesome drawing and painting teacher at Santa Monica College, once told us to look at paintings this way: Stand as far as you can from a painting and then move towards it until it "falls apart." Until you can see the marks themselves and not what they compose. It doesn't work with every painting but does with many. Perspective in art work is not just about lines and angles on a surface, it's about the way we look at things.

I do not teach linear perspective. In the reading list for my online course, I recommend a great little book written in the late 30's but it's supplemental reading. Linear perspective is a construct, good for architectural rendering and some conceptual understanding but, in fact, (as Alan Watts once said) the world is wiggly.

I use circles, ellipses and spirals in my teaching method. I find that it helps students understand better how to see and represent form and value in the changing light and motion of the natural world. It's a more feminine approach. Enough already with roads and railroad tracks and skyscrapers.

As a lifelong lover of all things architectural and having spent a good decade of my life doing architectural portraits on commission, I do include a 3-part lesson on drawing and painting houses with watercolor in my full online course and include a lesson on How to Draw a House in my Basic Drawing Book. In fact, you can grab a copy for your very own at the top of the sidebar to your right.

One of the most interesting things about perspective is that it is not constant. Because of light and time, position and the process of becoming, our perspectives are unique to each of us and constantly changing.

“The most fatal illusion is the settled point of view. Since life is growth and motion, a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one.”
― Brooks Atkinson

Do you have sure fire ways to gain perspective? Do tell.
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Get Truthful Behavior

2013-05-18T19:59:00.004-04:00

When you were the sky
Suzanne McDermott
watercolor

Learn to observe

I spent a large part of my senior year in college sitting in the dark next to John Ulmer in the Asolo Theater in Sarasota, Florida. At the time, John was the Artistic Director at the state theater and led the FSU Asolo Conservatory, Sarasota, acting program. Earlier in his life, John had been Sanford Meisner's assistant at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Meisner was a founding member of The Group Theater which was based on the Stanislavsky method of acting. Meisner said that

"Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances."

Although I was given credit as John's Assistant Director on a Pinter play, all I really remember doing is sitting still and quietly, watching actors rehearsing and working on stage. Every once in a while, John would lean over and whisper in my ear, "Did you see that?" and I would think "No, I did not see that. See what? I have no idea what you're talking about."

Eventually, through observation and exercises in his acting class, I began to get what he was after. I learned to notice truth in human behavior. Once seen, this cannot be unseen (though some people pretend better than others.) It ruined me for life.

Play partners

Acting exercises are partner affairs. I imagine that John used some of Meisner's exercises and that Meisner used some of Stanislavsky's. Meisner said that the exercises of his method were largely diagnostic tools. The exercise I particularly remember involved an actor about to board a train, never to be seen again, and the other actor having a final chance to share something important with the person boarding the train. It was a potential moment of truth.

Ulmer and Meisner often involved actors with props in exercises to distract their thinking enough to allow true emotional connection.

"Transfer the point of concentration to some object outside of yourself - another person, a puzzle, a broken plate that you are gluing."
—Sanford Meisner

Student and teacher relationships are partner affairs, too. Over the years, as I've honed the exercises in my drawing and watercolor method (a couple of which come from my best teachers), I've discovered that they are also diagnostic tools. I do not teach students to draw or watercolor in a particular manner. Rather, I see what each person brings to the paper.

As I help you learn to see what you are actually looking at (while correcting various technicalities), I help you become acquainted with and appreciate your particular style of mark making. It's a way to understand yourself on a pre-verbal level. Part of my training helps you bypass your intellectualizing and critical mind by focusing on the subject you're drawing or painting rather than your idea of that subject. It's a way of allowing your true line or stroke to be more easily expressed. It's a way of learning to observe.

“Success is transient, evanescent. The real passion lies in the poignant acquisition of knowledge about all the shading and subtleties of the creative secrets.” —Konstantin Stanislavsky

Must Life Be Messy?

2013-05-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

Chaos Rules

In my early 20's, I worked for a world famous guitar shop in Santa Monica, California, assisting with concert production part-time and trying to carve some sort of order into the owner, Bob Riskin's office the rest of the time.

Here's what I was faced with: piles of paper on every surface, two file cabinets so stuffed with yet more paper that the drawers had trouble closing, the first personal computer that I'd ever laid eyes on (home made by Bob) perched precariously on a wall shelf, packs of Merit Light cigarettes, ashtrays filled with ashes and butts of Merit Lights, a coffee mug that was never washed with a tuning fork for stirring, a motorcycle helmet, xerox machine, Bob in his chair next to the louvered windows opening to the exhaust from Pico Boulevard and me trying to make space to try to make more space. (Did I say it was a tiny office?)

When I would throw up my hands and say "Bob! How can you work like this!?" He'd reply matter-of-factly, "I know where everything is and can put my hands on anything I need." and then proceed to put his hands on anything I asked for out of one stack stuck behind another stack shoved up against the wall at the back of his desk. Then he'd say, "Chaos is the natural order of the universe. Why fight it?" To which I'd reply something to the effect of "Um... it's my job?"

"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order."
—Carl Jung

It may not look chaotic but, in fact, a blank piece of paper has no inherent order.

That's one reason why many people find a blank piece of paper intimidating. Especially if they have to write or draw on it.

Personally, I find it soothing to make a mark on a new sheet. I love the way that my fountain pen flows in my lined journal every morning. I love writing the date at the upper left corner of each new page before emptying detritus from my bleary mind.

It feels good to make strokes and scribble to make some sort of sense on the emptiness of the fiber ground. Whether I am satisfied or unsatisfied with the end result of my marks, I make some sort of order.

I think that the secret order Jung referred to may be what Michelangelo meant when he said “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

Beginners at drawing and watercolor are usually afraid to make any mark at all and then are embarrassed by the results. That fear and embarrassment block any experience of curiosity and joy in the process. What makes my teaching different is that I personally coach each student over the hurdles of fear and embarrassment so they can experience the joy as soon as possible.

Life may be messy but we can create order with a pen on a blank page. No doubt about that.

"Art is the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos."
—Saul Bellow

Click here for my Online Drawing and Watercolor Course.
Best tuition value of the year this week.

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Yes. You. Can.

2013-05-01T21:32:00.001-04:00

Who told you you couldn't?

Here's what drives me crazy.

On Monday mornings, I give a mini-spiel to resort guests about my absolute beginners workshops in drawing and watercolor, after which I must steel myself because a gang of them inevitably assemble after, barely able to contain themselves till they can tell me:

"I don't have an artistic bone in my body."
"I can't draw a straight line."
"I can't draw a stick figure."
"My 5 year old can draw better than I can."

What they are really saying is "I'm afraid." In fact, "I am so afraid to draw that I am preempting your or anyone else's attempt to suggest that I do so." (But I really want to.)

What? Yes. As Queen Gertrude once said, they doth protest too much.

I give an interactive talk/demo called "Drawing and Watercolor as a spiritual practice." While audience members are waiting for a chance to draw, I ask questions and listen to answers.

I say that many people experience some trauma from criticism at a tender age that closes them off to freely expressing their creativity. Now, as full blown adults, they ache to express a part of themselves that they intentionally sealed off many years ago as a result of an unexpected blow.

I ask the audience, "How many of you as a young person were told that you couldn't draw (or sing, or dance, or write), and were so hurt that you quit doing what you loved? Or lost confidence you didn't know you needed?"

Almost every time, almost every hand in the room goes up.

Someone told them they couldn't. Or that what they made (and were so thrilled with making) wasn't good (or good enough). These people — who otherwise seem like healthy, functioning adults — are in some ways the walking wounded.

I teach drawing and watercolor for a number of reasons. The main reason I teach is to help people re-connect to the creative flow of the universe and to express their own unique experience. I start with drawing because picking up a pencil to draw is one of the easiest, most natural starting points for reconnecting to your creative flow.

I'm here to tell you that you can.

"In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing." —Vincent Van Gogh

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How To Overcome Procrastination

2013-04-23T20:44:00.002-04:00

detail from new sketchbook, page one.

via iPod touch

Be Afraid

This past week I have been wrestling with procrastination. Big time. I've known all along what my problem is. Fear. Plain and simple.

I have a number of new projects on the immediate horizon. From a brand new blank archival quality, extra heavy weight paper sketchbook to the launch for my new online course in drawing and watercolor. Although I'm relatively accustomed to doing new things, like everyone else I have fear of the unknown, fear of failure.

The thing is, some of the unknown will not meet my expectations, but other parts of the unknown will exceed any expectations I might possibly dream up. And I will fail at some things. That's pretty much a guarantee. But I won't succeed at anything unless I feel the fear and do it anyway.

Do it anyway. Take action. Action is always the solution to overcoming fear.

The most awesome thing about overcoming fear by taking action is the element of surprise. By which I mean, once you set yourself in motion, you open yourself up to miracles. This makes the unknown suddenly very exciting!

Miracle
1 : an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs
2 : an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment
—Merriam Webster Dictionary

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Come to the edge

Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It's too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came
And he pushed
And they flew.
― Christopher Logue

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Listen to a wonderful interview with Marianne Williamson on love, fear and miracles.
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How To Make Space

2013-04-16T20:20:00.001-04:00

Landscape 2
Watercolor and pencil
Suzanne McDermott

Clean Up Your Act

Get rid of stuff

I'm sure that you've heard about the 1 year rule. If you haven't used something in one year, sell it, give it away or drop it in the trash. This goes for clothing, shoes, linen, electronics, tools, paper, kitchen items and, as you know, the list goes on. Of course, you'll say to yourself, But I'll use that someday. When? It's a waste to get rid of it. Why? Can't you donate it to someone who will make good use of it?

Clean

There's a reason that old adage, Cleanliness is next to Godliness has stuck around for so long. When light can find its way to clear surfaces, your place will gleam and you will feel more calm and collected.

Reorganize

Create better order. Are you always having to work your way around a chair that's been in your way for a year or more? MOVE IT. You'll create better flow in your space for movement, Qi.

There's a brilliant, very funny little book called Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life. Karen Rauch Carter presents Feng Shui in an entertaining and effective way. If you need über inspiration for cleaning up your life, I highly recommend this book.

“Organization isn't about perfection; it's about efficiency, reducing stress and clutter, saving time and money and improving your overall quality of life.” ― Christina Scalise

Spring Forward

It's the traditional time of year for physical cleaning.

Sweeping away the dark and dirt of winter, we clear the space for fresh air, day light, new beginnings. We make space for new possibilities.

In order to grow, we simply have to have room to do so. To make room, we simply have to let go of things we've been holding on to... for no particularly logical reason.

Personally, I can't stand living in disorder but running a couple of businesses, living a block from the beach with 3 fur producing entities forces me to accept not living in perfect order all the time. However, I take daily action and do my best.

Two things that force me to clean.

1. Having company over
2. Looking around for something to draw

I'll expand on Number 2. I think that the only time I really, truly see something is when I examine it closely enough to make a drawing. When I do spot something to draw, I choose to make space to set the object or scene in a relatively pleasing manner. A pile of clutter is not pleasant to look at and an absolute chore to draw.

Drawing heightens our attention, observation and awareness. For me, personally, it helps me clean up, too!

When new students start working with me, they usually have to clear a space in their homes to work. That's part of the beginner's exercise. Making space to create.

Now is your last chance to add your name to the waiting list for my next Online Course in Drawing and Watercolor that starts in June. Click here to learn more and add your name. You'll receive a special advance offer.

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Fight your way through it

2013-04-08T22:11:00.000-04:00

Crown
Watercolor
Suzanne McDermott

Fight your way through it

I applaud my students at the end of every workshop or course or tough exercise. Regardless of the particular results, it takes guts to make a new drawing or watercolor. Every time. It gets easier to summon the guts with practice. We get better with practice but it's not a straight ascending line. Improvement is more like a wave. And no matter how masterful you may become, creative disaster is always waiting just around the bend.

People rarely talk about how the practice of creative process trains our emotional behavior. With drawing, and more so with watercolor, we do not make masterpieces from the get go. Even when we master a creative form or medium, we do not always make masterpieces. What we make can be excruciating for us to look at and embarrassing to share.

We make drawings and watercolors that aren't so great at the beginning, while we're learning.

I've looked at so many beginner's drawings and watercolors that I can see, right away, the merits of each piece, no matter how crude. I see exactly what embarrasses the student, explain the particular problem that's causing the embarrassment, that it is totally normal and can be worked out — with practice — in what simply amounts to a matter of time and volume. I point out the underlying merits of what appears, at first glance, to suck.

If you choose to fight your way through the embarrassment and self criticism, I guarantee that, eventually, you will start to produce work that pleases you. Along the way, you will train yourself emotionally to fall down and get up again with increasing ease, to forgive yourself for short comings, to summon courage to make something out of nothing, to let go of failures.

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."
—Ira Glass

Click here to watch the original video interview with Ira Glass from which the above quote is excerpted.

You will be fierce. You will be a warrior.

My job as a teacher is to explain, instruct and shepherd you through exercises designed to allow you to understand what you are dealing with when you make a drawing or watercolor.

That's a part of my job. That's the easy part.

The sometimes challenging part of my job is to help you learn to love and appreciate yourself and your work through the early training process, through the embarrassments and discouragements and impatience. Like the fundamental elements and concepts of drawing and watercolor, that emotional guidance is designed to stick with you.

You need to learn how to pat yourself on the back. When you do, the process becomes much more fun.

My courses provide you with a rare foundation in drawing and watercolor. In the process, you awaken and develop a forgotten emotional and spiritual strength.

Visit my Online Drawing and Watercolor site for more details on my next course. Put your name on the waiting list for advance notice and special offers.
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Plant Your Seeds

2013-04-02T20:02:00.001-04:00

Wild Vines
Watercolor and Pencil, 22 x 30

Your Germinal Dream

31,800 years ago, an arctic ground squirrel buried the fruit of a little flower in his Siberian burrow. Russian scientists recently grew plants from seeds of that very same fruit.

Dreams and bright ideas of youth can lie buried for years. Life is demanding. We're easily distracted. There are only so many hours in a day.

Connect to the source of all life. Tend your neglected inner seeds of dreams. Get the flow going with water, encouragement, sunlight.

It's never too late and Spring is a good time of year to get going!

"And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read." —Alice Walker

Think in terms of one quarter of a year

Confucius said that if you think in terms of a year, plant a seed.

I teach half day workshops in drawing and watercolor, jam packed with exercises and information but they're just a taste.

The first part of my Online Drawing and Watercolor Course runs for 12 weeks. In one quarter of a year we build you a basic foundation. This is your soil If you've ever grown a garden you know how important the soil is. With really good soil, you'll have healthy, happy plants.

Here's the full Confucius quote:

"If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people." —Confucius

Preparing the soil

This is the first year in memory that I have not had a place for a flower garden. I'm going to miss it this year but with each student I help connect to drawing and watercolor I know that I'm helping to plant and nurture another sort of flower that will come to bloom with a little cultivation and commitment.

You do have to make a commitment to yourself that you are going to learn something new. Drawing and watercolor are challenging and require time, practice, encouragement and guidance. But the rewards are worth it and about so much more than making a pretty picture.

The biggest surprise for my students is when they begin to understand just that. That my courses are about cultivating their soul garden and about experiencing themselves and their world on an entirely new level.

I'll be sending out a special private offer for my next Online Drawing and Watercolor Course.

Contact me to put your name on the list for that private offer and I'll make sure that you're included!

Click here to read the full story about the 32,000 year old seed. ________________________________________

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Let There Be Light!

2013-03-14T20:24:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it feels as though life is one long series of adjustments. Some major, some barely perceptible.

I've been having trouble waking up early since Sunday morning. Still, I'm always thrilled at the change to longer days. Just as the time change takes some adjustment, our eyes need time to adjust to changes in light, our minds need time to adjust to new concepts and realizations.

We talk a lot about light (and darkness) in my Online Drawing and Watercolor Courses. We also make considerable adjustments in short order. For me, the most exciting teaching moments are those when students suddenly get it. When the veil of confusion is ripped away and they see something they are looking at as if for the first time. Enlightenment.

These moments or realization usually happen during drawing exercises when I help students train their eyes to see what they are looking at rather than what they think they are looking at. It's why I recommend drawing before watercolor or any other sort of painting.

Drawing is the through line, the figured bass. The practice of drawing brings enlightenment. Trying to paint without any foundation in drawing leaves you fumbling in the dark.

Once we have seen something, we cannot unsee it. As we learn to more clearly see the world around us, we learn to better understand ourselves.

"I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other doctrine whatsoever. I shall learn from myself, be a pupil of myself; I shall get to know myself, the mystery of Siddhartha." He looked around as if he were seeing the world for the first time."
—Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

Speaking of light and enlightenment, a personal favorite is Que la lumière soit! Click there and here to watch a few clips from Arthur Joffe's 1998 rare and joyful film, Let There Be Light! God writes a screenplay and seeks a director. I enjoyed every moment of this film in the theater when it was first released but, alas, have never again been able to watch in its entirety. If you ever have the chance, take it!

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The You Season

2012-11-29T02:42:00.002-05:00

When you were the sky

Suzanne McDermott

Watercolor

"For it is in giving that we receive."

—Francis of Assisi

It's all about you

During this gift giving season, a lot of emphasis is placed on obligation, reciprocity, competition, and conformity. As a result, we often worry about what other people might think rather than what other people might want or really need.

Other people might not want more stuff. Or maybe they do. It's difficult to know best and do right all the time, even most of the time. Still, during the holidays, most of us want to express ourselves to others with some meaningful, appreciated token. Often, it's really just the thought that counts.

What do others want? Love, time, attention, affection, appreciation. Think back over the best gifts you've received from others and I'll bet that those were some genuine, personal expression of love and appreciation.

Think back over the best gifts you've given. Now think about how awesome you felt giving those things.

If you find yourself stressing out to buy a gift for someone for the sake of buying something, take a minute. Are you thinking of yourself? Are you thinking of the recipient?

If you don't know your recipient well or know what they need, is there a third party that could benefit from this exchange? A local food producer or massage therapist or retail store or artist?

Gift giving is about you — your intention, your attitude, your thoughtfulness, love and appreciation. Expand yourself through giving.

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

― Mother Teresa

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Are You Afraid of the Dark?

2012-11-13T02:00:00.000-05:00

King of Night

Suzanne McDermott

Watercolor

The value of darkness

"Value refers to the use of light and dark, shade and highlight, in an artwork."

—Wikipedia, Elements of Art

One of the most difficult hurdles for a student of drawing and watercolor is to conquer their fear of committing strokes of dark value on the page. Sometimes, even when a bold stroke of dark value is finally made, the student will start erasing or trying to water the color down completely reversing the effect and usually ruining the piece.

As in art, so, of course, it is in life. Bold moves and decisions are often followed by second guessing, grief and remorse. But I think those reactions are part of regaining one's balance on new ground, adjusting to the new contrast in experience. This is new. I don't recognize this situation. Is it right?

If we're plunged into darkness, it can take a while for our eyes to adjust. Likewise, if we move into daylight after a long time in the dark. What allows us to discern our situation are the contrasting values of dark and light that eventually emerge.

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“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”

― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

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Total Solar Eclipse

My fabulous South African friend, Caren Levy is, yet again, managing a group of eclipse watchers in the best watching spot on the globe near Cairns, Australia.

This is a powerful eclipse wherever you are in the world and whether or not you see it. It's enough to just know that it's happening and that, if things seem dark for a while, the sun will show itself again.

The Total Solar Eclipse takes place on November 13–14, 2012. Click here for specific date and time where you live.

Click here to read more about astronomical aspects of the eclipse, and here to read Marcus Mason's article on more esoteric astrological aspects of the two 2012 eclipses.

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Shadows are the secret of light.

Embrace your shadow!

Read Phil Stultz's brief article on his shadow in Psychology Today.

Click on "The Tools" at the top of the article to read more.

"I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value."

—Hermann Hesse

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How Vulnerable Are You?

2012-11-07T14:07:00.002-05:00

Little Pond

Watercolor

Suzanne McDermott

We are all vulnerable

Wind and rain, fire and flood, sticks and stones, words.

I'm currently reading Sakyong Mipham's "Rulling Your World" because I would like to(rule my world rather than react to it.)

In his introduction, The Sakyong writes about his father, Chogyam Trungpa's escape from Tibet.

"My father...—who was born a monk and died a Sakyong—led three hundred people out of Tibet in 1959, with the Chinese Communists on their heels. They climbed mountain after mountain, often through deep snow and bitter cold. They ran out of food, so they boiled and ate their yak-skin bags. Some people in the group died; some were captured by the Chinese. They lost many of their possessions, including a thousand-page manuscript on the Shambhala teachings that Rinpoche had written, which was swallowed by a river. According to my mother, in spite of the suffering, they were always cheerful."

What with everything going on in the world right now and especially in light of the aftermath of Sandy, how many people are experiencing cheerfulness? I don't know. Cheerfulness doesn't sell newspapers or soap.

With each new challenge in my recent personal series of...amazing experiences...I have asked myself why I might react with fear or despair or upset rather than choose to accept each challenge as a problem requiring a creative solution that requires considerable and sometimes immediate re-prioritization of my time, attention and energy.

To be fair to myself (and if we can't be fair to ourselves, how can we be fair to others?), I have reacted with creative (sometimes radical) solutions but my learning curve suddenly shot straight up, and solving confusing and sometimes scary situations without the luxury of waiting till tomorrow or turning the solution over to anyone else has been exhausting. Because of re-prioritizing, putting off till a later date what I thought was most important to handle now has been unnerving.

We are trained to look at some experiences as bad and others as good. We are trained to protect our underbellies, mask our shortcomings hide our problems.

However, anyone who has lived and paid attention knows that what seems bad now might be the best thing that ever happened. Anyone who has ever been moved by a great novel, song, performance or other expression of creativity has recognized themselves in some shared and universal revelation of vulnerability.

The thing of it is, when we expose our vulnerability, we also open our hearts.

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In a forest in the north of England

“My crown is in my heart, not on my head;
Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen: my crown is called content:
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.”

― William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3

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Accept yourself

What do you really need to be content?

Let down your guard. Allow your basic goodness to shine through. What's the worst that could happen?

At a recent low point, I shared, oh, my deepest insecurities with a dear, dear friend who responded in part by saying that she thought I was very brave. It's not the first time someone has told me that and, frankly, my response (in thought if not in word) has been well, there's a fine line between bravery and foolhardiness. But that's not being kind to myself and certainly not very helpful.

What I strive for is courage.

The meaning of the word bravery is rooted in defiance, daring, boldness, related to bravura. A little wild but that's okay. I am, too.

Courage, on the other hand, is rooted in the French word for heart and though often used now interchangeably with bravery means more of an inner strength which, to be true to the root of the word might be inner strength with an open heart.

Perhaps the most courageous act is to accept yourself for who you are, to recognize your underlying basic goodness and to feel love and compassion for yourself.

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Learn to practice courage

I've said it before and I will continue to do so. It takes courage to practice drawing! This is one of the main reasons I teach drawing and watercolor. It's not the only reason but it's a biggie. Every time you put pen or brush to paper, you have to summon courage, open your heart and allow yourself to be yourself.

Download Enter Here to Draw and Watercolor

Take your own sweet time exploring line and color and your inner self. Spend a weekend or two weeks discovering what your eyes and hands can do.

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Life is full of surprises

2012-10-31T14:11:00.001-04:00

Sandy Sky
Watercolor
Suzanne McDermott

“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything that happens in life”

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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Sandy

The happiest days of my childhood were spent on the beach in Longport, New Jersey and wearing out my summer flip-flops over the street running between the Atlantic Ocean and Great Egg Harbor Bay or up to Ozzie's for a cheeseburger washed down with a frosty mug of Dad's Root Beer. All those summers I was mostly sandy and salty and free as a bird.

The narrow strip of Longport starts at 11th Street on one end of Absecon Island. Atlantic City is at the opposite end. If you stand on the jetty at 11th Street, you can look across the inlet to Ocean City. A little over one hundred years ago, Longport was attached to Ocean City but when I was little, we'd have to cross bridges and take a long route around the bay, pastBurma Shave signs for after-dinner walks in Ked's on Ocean City boardwalk where we'd eat cotton candy, play pinball machines and smash into each other's bumper cars.

My mother's parents kept a summer place in Ocean City. My father's family stayed at theMarlborough Blenheim in Atlantic City. In my grandparent's era, some big storm took out a big chunk of land from Ocean City up to 10th Street in Longport forming the Great Egg Harbor Inlet.

In the early 1960s, another big storm took out the boardwalk that used to run along the sea wall in Longport. During that time, we rented a house that backed up to the beach one lot from the ocean. When that storm came in, our ocean front next door neighbor insisted on staying in his house and both were washed out to sea in the storm.

Today, the borough of Longport is covered in a deep layer of sand. Considering that it's a spit of barrier island no wider than a city block in most places, it's no surprise. Still, it's a major pain to dig out from and clean up after a disaster.

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Wet and ruined

I was going to wait a while to bring this up but...

I've been through a year of unusual challenges. A few days over a month ago, I stood on the back of an ABF Freight truck surveying the remains of my possessions strewn across over a hundred yards of blacktop in front of storage units. In short, there were holes in the freight truck that I'd hired to ship my carefully packed and covered belongings. The freight truck encountered severe rain storms. In the midst of the 8 hours it took to peel wet cardboard from boxes of soaked books and frames and prints and clothing and CDs and correspondence and photos, I thought about a lot of things. At one point, I looked at the stuff and thought "This is an opportunity for a new beginning."

New beginnings can be mighty rough with grief for the old, exhausting learning curves, and plain old hard work. But new beginnings are literally what life is all about.

With that brief synopsis, I send my school friends and cousins (and Aunt Joan) my best wishes for recovery at the Shore and to all of you, anywhere, who've been affected by Sandy.

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"...and destruction after all is a form of creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now become."

—Graham Greene, The Destructors

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Close Encounters

2012-10-24T10:09:00.003-04:00

Almost Home
Watercolor
Suzanne McDermott

“The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.”

― Yasutani Roshi

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Every weekday morning, I receive a short email from a guy who writes TUT (Notes from the Universe.) This morning, as I was preparing to write about how people continue to appear out of nowhere to help me through my current phase of experience, his email was about the rule that everyone in your life is there to help you.

The truth is that we are here to help each other. If everyone in your life is there to help you, it must follow that you are here to help everyone else. This doesn't mean that you have to carry everyone's water from the well. Sometimes a smile or kind word does wonders.

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It's easier than you think.

Randy Newman wrote a song called "I want you to feel like I do." The narrator wants to make everyone else hurt as much as he does. Feeling bad can become a habit. Targeting others to make them feel bad can become a treacherous game. If you're feeling crappy and that's making you mean, try to grab that moment of sanity before action and stop or slow down your impulse. Allow yourself to be open to the healing power of someone else's kindness.

Although I've forgotten his name, I have never forgotten the parting words of a 90's era Boston Public Radio talk show host. He had been through considerable and public turmoil and his final message to his listeners was to "Be kind, be kind, be kind."

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The Golden Rule generally goes

"Do unto others as you would do unto yourself."

Last week, I went to the Shambhala Meditation Center in Asheville, NC. After meditation, a small group gathered for a reading on the topic of showing love to ourselves.

The gist of the text and ensuing discussion was all about how much easier it is to show more kindness to others than we do to ourselves. About how we tend to beat up on ourselves in ways we would never do to other people.

The reason that airlines instruct us to first put on our own oxygen masks before strapping them onto our children is so that we, ourselves, can be fully functioning before helping others in need.

Be kind to yourself. Show compassion towards yourself. It makes helping others somuch easier.

________________________________________

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Sea Change

2012-10-18T09:51:00.000-04:00

Sea Change

Suzanne McDermott

Watercolor

The wind is always changing.

It's how you work with the wind that determines your journey.

If you expect wind from the west but it suddenly whips around from the north, what are you going to do about it? Resent the wind? Demand a different sail?

Expecting too much in any situation can lead to both disappointment and contempt. Be annoyed, surprised, maybe bonked on the head, even. But adapt or struggle adrift.

Adapting to an unexpected situation takes fortitude. Growing and learning require considerable adaptation and adaptation usually means work. At some point, it's helpful (critical, even) to learn how to make work fun.

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"My parents did say “yes” a lot, but it wasn’t the kind of yes where we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. There were definite rules. We had strict bedtimes, we were expected to be polite, to clean the house, and help with chores. There were consequences when we failed to complete our tasks. The “yes” was about how we chose to do the thing they were making us do. My dad would often say “Is this going to be work or is this going to be fun?” You begin to realize that having fun is an attitude not an activity."

—Ann Weimer Baumgardner

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"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

—e. e. cummings

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"“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

—Charles R. Swindoll

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Be Happy

2012-10-15T04:05:00.002-04:00

Fresh Gateway

Watercolor

Suzanne McDermott

"I have decided to be happy because it's good for my health."

—Voltaire

I have no idea what's going on.

...I once said to an uber-wealthy, powerful and highly influential employer. He turned to me and said, "Suzanne, no one knows what's going on!"

I like to think that I know what's happening. If I know what's happening, I have nothing to worry about. But I come from a long line of worriers and worry is more than just a reactive habit. It's deeply ingrained inherited and learned behavior.

The truth is that all I really know is what exists in this present moment. Each present moment. Everything else is memory, conjecture, anticipation, perceived in the light of worst or best case scenarios.

Even when it seems that I cannot count on solid ground beneath my feet, I can control my attitude and I can choose to be happy rather than fall into the habit of anxiety.

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"Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity."

—Thomas Merton

The quickest route to spiritual security is as easy as one, two, three.

1. Breathe
2. Observe
3. Smile

Breathe again and see if you're not feeling less anxious.

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Each moment is an opportunity.

"If you want to be happy, be."

—Leo Tolstoy

If you have trouble being present with the easy as one, two, three formula, try picking up a pencil to draw something. Don't judge yourself, just look at something and do the best you can to describe it with a pencil on paper.

One of the primary reasons I teach drawing is to help people connect to the present moment; to help people bypass their stream of incessant thoughts.

Would you like a little help? Download my basic lessons on and approach to drawing. Spend an afternoon becoming reacquainted with the world around you. It's a beautiful world that we live in.

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"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times."

—Aeschylus

Breathe. Observe. Smile. With practice, you may find that being happy takes less and less effort.

Still cranky? Pick up a pencil and draw. That takes practice, too.

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Have a problem with the notion of happiness?

"In working with this, one of the ways of phrasing this that seems to be more digestible for people is to think of happiness in a very profound sense of 'May I fulfill my potential—during this lifetime, from now until I die. May the days of my life add up to waking up and fulfilling my potential, actually connecting with the deep and rich potential that I have, and wishing that for other people as well.'"
—Pema Chödrön

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Don't Change!

2012-10-03T10:18:00.002-04:00

Tree Glow

Suzanne McDermott

Watercolor

"It isn't the things that happen to us in our lives that cause us to suffer, it's how we relate to the things that happen to us that causes us to suffer."

—Pema Chodron

Can you imagine telling a leaf to not change?

It's too difficult, destabilizing, traumatic. Stay right where you are. Don't change a thing.

Life without change is impossible. Even when we think we're stable, we're aging, passing through time on a revolving planet, orbiting a sun, careening through the galaxy.

Nothing is fixed.

Thrown into high relief by unforeseen events or circumstances, a phase of change can quickly become a crisis. When faced with a crisis, it's helpful to remember the two characters that make up the Chinese word for crisis: Danger and Opportunity.

How we choose to navigate crises can be a beautiful thing.

Just look at the colors of the changing leaves as they let go of their nurturing, comfortable tree, transforming into a new cycle of death and rebirth.

"Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In other words, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's because of our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What we do accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now."

—Pema Chodron

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A walk around a lake

2012-09-18T11:02:00.002-04:00

Lake Tomahawk
Black Mountain, NC

"Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake."
~Wallace Stevens

I took a few turns around little Lake Tomahawk yesterday in between showers in search of the truth (perhaps) and definitely some semblance of clean air in my lungs. The western North Carolina mountain air is vastly different from that of the central coast of California. Adjustments, adjustments.

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See the truth in a different way with drawing and watercolor. Still time to join us starting September 20.

Register Now for Online Drawing and Watercolor.

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September is a month of change

2012-09-11T22:29:00.003-04:00

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something." —Steve Jobs

I've changed some things. I've moved!

From Nashville, I've travelled to the Pacific coast and back again to the mountains of North Carolina. It was a stretch.

The trip was long and grueling though I'm grateful for the beauty and relative uneventfulness.

Many of you or your children or parents have moved or are on the move this month. To school, to college, toward winter doings and dwellings.

I took the summer off on the central coast of California. It was a lark. Important. A beautiful experience on the shores of the Pacific Ocean every day. With whales and seals and otters and dolphins. Pelicans, gulls, terns and herons. Not a place for forever but beloved and appreciated while I was there.

Now that I've changed and moved, It's time to rest for a minute. To recuperate. Time out for readjustment Time out for the turning around required for any act of change. Time our for sleeping and bathing and rearranging.

Settling into Asheville, North Carolina, I prepare for a new online course in drawing and watercolor starting September 20 as I embark on a locally owned online business course here. I'm excited! (Still, I'm resting.)

Allow yourself to rest for a minute. How about some training in resting with a pencil in your hand? How about some temporary training in using creative tools to enhance your everyday life?

JOIN US!

Whether or not you're interested in drainwg and waterfcolor for the long run, this course has the capacity to change you. To make room for new experience in your life. Challenge your beliefs about yourself, the "arts'", your own abilities.

Register Now for Online Drawing and Watercolor.

____________________________________________

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Away from the drawing board

2012-09-04T20:52:00.002-04:00

from Grover to Pismo and back again...

I've been up and down this mighty stretch of beach every day this summer (sometimes twice a day.)

I didn't entirely plan the way in which my summer played out but I worked with it. I rode the wave of circumstances that presented themselves. With the best attitude I could muster. That wasn't too difficult because the weather and location have been gorgeous.

Time now to get back to work. I have a long drive ahead of me but will be back with a new post once I'm resituated.

Meanwhile, I have a new 12 week online course in drawing and watercolor starting up on September 20th. I'm offering tuition at an amazing special price for the next week. Register now to take advantage!

How was your summer? (Leave a comment below!)

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Gone Surfing

2012-07-10T17:46:00.000-04:00

I'm on hiatus through end of summer. (Everyone needs a break!)
See you in September...

"Rank upon rank of waves, leaping, curling, plunging. Each upon each, and absolutelyy infinite the variety. No two in all the millenia curling over exactly alike. Each one individual. Each one yet another unique expression of the complex underweavings of natural law. Each one an identity. Each part of one an identity. The inexhaustible creativity of it almost overwhelming."
—Drew Kampion (from "A Meditation on Breaking Waves")

—
New short course in Drawing and Watercolor starting in September.
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Go with the flow

2012-07-03T17:51:00.000-04:00

Blue Moon Blessing
Watercolor, 8 x 8

Creative Flow

The creative process is not just about output. Creativity requires ebb and flow. Intake and output. A balance of the two.

If we try to spend all of our time expressing, we collapse in exhaustion. If we do not express ourselves, we get toxic, stagnant. If we do not rest in between the two actions, there's no time for transition, reflection, readjustment, growth.

In meditations that focus on breathing, there is often instruction to pay attention to the space between the inhale and the exhale, the exhale and the inhale. It's the moment between tension and resolution, problem and solution. In music, that's an equivalent of the rest stops, silence.

Although it helps to think we are grounded by our things, ways of identifying ourselves and routines, the fact is that we spend much of our lives in mid-air. It's really too scary to consider our lives that way so we fill our heads up with chatter of what was and what may be as we're in process in between one experience or situation and another.

As I write this, the moon is at its fullest point. Tomorrow, it will be on the wane. This is the time to express, to breathe out, to release.

Stop for a moment this afternoon or this evening, and consider the full moon, the richness of your life, your abundant gifts. Tomorrow, consider how you express yourself and all that you have to share.

_______________________________

Express Yourself

Join my Online Drawing and Watercolor course starting July 12.

I give you instruction on the foundations of drawing and watercolor, guidance on ways to share your distinct gifts, and support and encouragement to transform yourself.

Try it out for 8 weeks to learn or review the basics. You can always sign up for the rest of the course later.

REGISTER NOW!
I provide the content and direction, YOU provide the energetic flow and transformation.
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Are you willing to slow down?

2012-06-27T19:26:00.000-04:00

Sea Bloom

Watercolor

Suzanne McDermott

It's Summertime

Time to live easy. Time to dip into that summer reading list.

Right now, I'm reading Slow Love by Dominique Browning. In a jacuzzi. (One sure way to slow myself down enough to read for a long time.)

I've been a fan of Browning's since the mid-90's when I started subscribing to House & Garden just to read her editorials. Okay, and also to dream about houses and gardens. One of the great magazines of all time, I lugged boxes of H&G issues around for years — making good use of them for students and collages — until recently, and reluctantly, dragging what was left of them to the alley recycling bin.

A chapter in her earlier book, Around the House and in the Garden, about hiring infuriatingly inept contractors, helped me keep my sanity while building my studio. Slow Love chronicles Browning's life after H&G, and her frenetic job as Editor-in-Chief, suddenly (and unexpectedly) shut down. In the prologue, she writes that

"Slow love is about knowing what you've got before it's gone."

Slowing down is a good, good thing. We have to slow down to observe and connect with the world around us. Truthfully. Some of us can slow down naturally but most of us need a jolt, or tough love training to shock us out of our break-neck pace and obsession with past and possible futures.

"At the back of that hurry is the knowledge that it is a screen against honesty." —Adam Nicolson

One of the main reasons I teach drawing and watercolor is to help people slow down, get real, bypass racing thoughts, be present in real time. The tools we use in my courses are pencils, pens, brushes, water, color, and paper. We start at the very beginning so that your creative house will always stand on a solid foundation. Whether you have no experience or some experience, your foundation is critical.

As you practice drawing and watercolor, you begin to notice that the light, your experience of time, your perspective, is always changing. Your experience in any moment is never to be repeated. You can't catch it with a camera, but looking back over drawings and watercolors brings some ineffable reminder of connection to a place in time. Because you slowed down enough to connect to your actual experience.

Schedule your practice of slowing down if you have to. In my calendar, at 6 AM on Monday morning of this week was scheduled "Rest All Week."

I'm going to get back to that now but not before reminding you that you can join us for an awesome training in slowing down, getting to know yourself better and learning to practice and understand drawing and painting as a path to self-actualization.
__________________

Transform Yourself

Join us for my Online Drawing and Watercolor course starting July 12.

The value of this course goes well beyond your typical art class. Your return on this investment in yourself includes progressive, step-by-step drawing and watercolor lessons designed to construct a solid foundation for any subsequent artwork in any medium, personal self-development coaching, deep art history lessons in context of your drawing and watercolor exercises, deadlines that force you to do the work, companionship that helps you understand your own work better, encouraging, supportive and constructive feedback on your homework. And more.

Try it for the 8 week foundation phase to learn or review the basics.

You still have a few days to take advantage of the discount on the full course. But whether you choose to try the course for 8 weeks or for 24 lessons, you can easily spread out your payments over a couple of months or more!

Transform yourself with See Here Now.

REGISTER NOW!

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My Great Day

My Favorite Watercolors

Sleep on it

You need more sleep.

How to gain perspective

Get Truthful Behavior

Must Life Be Messy?

Chaos Rules

Yes. You. Can.

Who told you you couldn't?

How To Overcome Procrastination

How To Make Space

Fight your way through it

Plant Your Seeds

Let There Be Light!

The You Season

"For it is in giving that we receive."

—Francis of Assisi

It's all about you

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

― Mother Teresa

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

The value of darkness

"Value refers to the use of light and dark, shade and highlight, in an artwork."

—Wikipedia, Elements of Art

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”

― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Total Solar Eclipse

Shadows are the secret of light.

"I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value."

—Hermann Hesse

How Vulnerable Are You?

We are all vulnerable

Wind and rain, fire and flood, sticks and stones, words.

In a forest in the north of England

Accept yourself

What do you really need to be content?

Learn to practice courage

Download Enter Here to Draw and Watercolor

Life is full of surprises

“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything that happens in life”

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Sandy

Wet and ruined

I was going to wait a while to bring this up but...

"...and destruction after all is a form of creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now become."

—Graham Greene, The Destructors

Close Encounters

“The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.”

Everyone In Your Life Is There To Help You

Be kind, be kind, be kind

It's easier than you think.

Remember your oxygen mask

The Golden Rule generally goes

"Do unto others as you would do unto yourself."

Sea Change

Set your sails

The wind is always changing.

Are we having fun, yet?

—Ann Weimer Baumgardner

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"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

—e. e. cummings

Attitude is everything

—Charles R. Swindoll

Be Happy

"I have decided to be happy because it's good for my health."

—Voltaire

I have no idea what's going on.

"Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity."

—Thomas Merton

Each moment is an opportunity.

"If you want to be happy, be."

—Leo Tolstoy

"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times."

—Aeschylus

Have a problem with the notion of happiness?

—Pema Chödrön

Don't Change!

A walk around a lake