A creative life is so annoying

So, I am starting a new career. It’s one of those ideas that sounds great at breakfast time, but not so easy once you get up and have to do something about it.

I think there are thousands around the world who have been shaken out of their comfortable careers by circumstances that seemed to be out of their control. Though, I am not sure if there are many circumstances that are in our control! We seem to be always limited by our own personalities.

Anyway, the point is, sometimes we all have to start again, if it’s not in a career it could be in relationships, in lifestyle, in attitudes… there’s a myriad of tricky combinations that life finds to spin into a ball and then throw at us when we have our hands tied behind our backs, $$#*#! (I’ve no idea what that means!)

Life is funny like that, humans are admonished if they are not compassionate and caring, yet life doesn’t seem to give a damn. I sometimes wonder if life realizes just how self-important human beings really are. I mean we are the wise, intelligent rulers of this otherwise scruffy, wild little world, for goodness sake give us some acknowledgement!

Anyway, we are all forced into a corner sometimes and really the only solution is to get up off the sofa of self-pity and make an effort to do something different! That’s what it’s all about – effort. Nobody can do it for you. If you are in a new situation and you don’t like it, then make the effort and do something to change it.

I’m starting a new career, what about you?

Where in the world is somewhere else?

This week my wife, Lina and I are making a major effort to get my new career on the road to prosperity. I will still paint, but it will no longer be a priority. Instead we are now headed clearly and definitely in the direction of public speaking. I have tended towards this for years but now it is time to be determined, persistent and focussed on my new direction.

The road to creativity

This will be my 4th career change. I was a Mechanical Engineer for 12 years. Then a portrait artist for 16 years. Then a seascape artist and now for perhaps the grand finale I am turning to speaking.

I have already written 5 shows and have about 16 short DVD movies about subjects around these shows. They vary from dramatic, humorous, philosophical to technical.

The first talk that I am launching is very technical and is based on over 12 years of experience building personal website. It is called “How I get on top of Google with Free Websites”. I feel that it is of great value to the website beginner as well to those want to expand their online presence and get noticed more often.

So off we go again on a new adventure into the unknown. I wish us the best of luck!

You can read more at: thecreativewarrior.wordpress.com

We’ve moved again!

In our life long quest for Economic Utopia we have closed our gallery in Eumundi. Unfortunately it did not work out for us. It is a beautiful town and the people are delightful but it wasn’t for us.

Also there were some complications with house selling and buying (I can hear lots of you saying – I know exactly what you mean!) So we are back on the Gold Coast and my studio is now my gallery. Phone Lina 0404074126 if you would like to come around to buy some art.

We get around. We have had many house moves and many changes in our life. Maybe that gives me the creative outlook that I have. I am not afraid of change and adapt to the new situation very quickly. In the long run it doesn’t really matter because we all end up in the same situation – dead! That’s the good news!

What matters is how you fill in the gap between here and dead!

Adopt creative ways to solve your problems.Unleash your creative heart and step out. Take the risk and do it! Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win.

However, if you sit in front of the TV and dream, you will slowly sink into half-life where your senses are dulled and your mind becomes rigid. Oh what fun!

Your body is the same. if you get out there and be active, sometimes you will fly and sometimes you will fall, but if you don’t do anything you will slip into the dullness and heaviness of a prison of your own making.

Become creative before you become dead, one way or another!

This blog is just too much fun, I’ll quit now and go settle down in front of the TV and dream of what I could be doing.

This week I wrote a book, well a training manual actually. It was as a result of learning to use wordpress.com. This site is a free website hosting service. It is great with enough freedom to express your individuality online. Creativity is free! take advantage of this situation.

However… it is not a simple matter for anyone who is not technical, patient and good-looking. ( I am not sure about that last requirement). So after a lot of experience from studying the system and putting sites online. I decided to write a manual about it.

That was this weeks creative project. I really believe in this product… after all it is genuinely free. All you need is an email address and an internet connection and you can be online.

Get ready here comes the ad… My manual is like a road map to make your first website very easy to publish. All you have to do is follow the instructions and before you know it, you’re online.Then you can have as many sites and as many pages as your secret fantasies yearn for. All for no money and a little effort – not a bad deal!

I look at it this way. If I told you that there is a town over there through the jungle that has free beer. Many people would want to buy my map to get there. That’s what I’ve done with my manual. There is a place on the internet where it is all free. Buy my map and I’ll show you how to get some.

It’s simple, I did the brain work, you do the creative work. Now put yourself out there for the digital world to visit. If you would like more information, and I can’t see who wouldn’t, go here!!!

At last! It was a very demanding and tiring task but it is complete now. I have achieved what I wanted, the ability to do beautiful pastel portraits.

The change in style and quality is obvious as I progressed. For the first 50 or so I was mainly interested in finding a style and method. After I became comfortable with that I refined the accuracy of the work.

I only drew 1 portrait live, my wife felt sorry for me and posed. Every other portrait was drawn from random photos. You will see a lot of repeats in the subjects. When I got bored with the same photos I would go to the web and grab another random photo or two. I mainly drew children. This was to force me to be sensitive in my work.

you can watch the short movie on my blog site – thecreativeartist and you are welcome to add comments.

Colin lost amongst 100 portraits in his studio.

100 portraits takes a long time, a lot of patience and heaps of perseverance.

Through night and day it seems all I do is portraits, breathe, portraits, eat, portraits, sleep, portraits… on and on.

Here is a preview of where I am at the moment. Should be finished on time and have the completed movie showing the progress through the 100, next week.

This article has been taken from my Creative Artist site.

This week, I decided I would like to be able to do serious portraits in pastel. To achieve this I have set the goal of producing 100 portraits in 1 week. I am photographing each one as it is finished and I will put them all together as a movie at the end. Next week I have  already booked myself into a venue to draw the public… quick panic!

I am practicing what I am preaching… practice, practice, practice. There is no substitute. If you want a skill, you have to make a consistent effort to achieve it. As I write this, I am ½ way through the 3rd day and I am already up to portrait 44. There is a rapid improvement in the quality as it progresses.

I have left the bad works in to show that it is not all pretty. This morning when I started at 2am the first 2 I did were shocking, I think I was still asleep. Nevertheless, I continued on to my goal.

Portraits piling up in my new studio.

I have 2 new sites that talk about creativity. There are many creative ways to write and so I have 2 more blogs to keep your imagination amused.

1. The creative way, a blog about unleashing your creative personality – The Creative Way.

2. This is a series of points for anyone who wants to learn to be more creative – thecreativeartist.com.au.

It is broadly written for the beginner artist, but we are all beginners with some sort of creative art, so you might find it interesting even find some new creativity in your heart.

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You are invited to interact with our new website. Leave your comments. I will respond as I can. I look forward to hearing form you.

Each new painting that I have completed will go on display, along with comments on that particular piece. I will keep you updated with assorted images of the artist life and general comments.

Todays new work is acrylic on canvas 1500×1100mm called: ‘Ever Together’.

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