Pink Champagne

"Pink Champagne" Original Artwork by Amy Yosmali

Do you ever wake up and think to yourself, this is going to be a great day?  Nothing to stress over, no appointments, meetings, or potential for unexpected time sucks to pop up.  Just a good start to the day to a low-key day.  Today was one of those days, the only thing that could make it any better would have been if the sun had managed to come out from behind the clouds.

I love when the day starts off just right, coincidently on a day that I had blocked off as “paint time” at the studio.  Before I had even got out of bed, I knew that I wanted to paint a large canvas painting today, and that the colors speaking to me were pink, yellow, and green.  

Miraculously, my young children somehow managed to get dressed and out the door for school without the need for me to go into “mommy drill sergeant” mode, amazing – I know!  So, having managed to keep my great mood in tact I got myself out the door and straight to the studio before anything else could come up. Now it was time to prep for doing the large painting. 

I like to paint flat, and usually work on a large workbench.  But with large canvases, I will lay down drop cloths on the floor of my gallery and work.  I work all in one painting session, so I need to have everything laid out and easily accessible.  Once I start painting, the clock starts ticking, and I’ve got to work fast enough to complete the work in the time that I have allotted for that session.  While working I’m constantly moving all around the paintings, reaching, bending, stretching along the way.  It makes for a very, very long but rewarding day.

"Pink Champagne" in progress,
Artwork by Amy Yosmali

Today, like all the others in which I complete a large canvas painting, I take a few minutes to focus and cue up a song (or sometimes songs) that I will listen to repeatedly to help amplify and sustain the mood that I am in while painting, since I paint emotionaly.  It was a great day, but nothing that I normally listen to was speaking to my emotions, so I decided to switch over to my Pandora station and see if it offered anything that would catch my ear.  Pandora did not disappoint, and sure enough it offered up the song “Pink Champagne” by Venus Hum which seemed to be a perfect fit for me in that moment and my color palate!  I really like the funky, happy vibe of the song.

To me it feels as though time is suspended yet at the same time it flies while I’m painting.  And next thing I know the painting has come together and is completed.  Too often I don’t take pictures or video of the works in progress, as I either forget, or don’t want to break from being in my “zone” so to speak.  But today I did manage to get a couple of in progress shots that I hope you will enjoy.

This was a wonderfully fun piece to create and I hope that you will love it as much as I do!

"Pink Champagne" Original Artwork by Amy Yosmali

“Pink Champagne”

Original Art by Amy Yosmali

48”x48”x1.5” 

acrylic on canvas (gallery wrap) 

Retail: $4645

Contact Us to Purchase

Sunshine, Snow, and Inspiration!

A slow start to Monday.  The good news – I managed to get to the gym.  The bad news, I missed my water aerobics class.  Hey, I at least got to the gym that was a challenge considering that its cold and snowing here in Cincinnati in the middle of April – it was extremely difficult to fight off the urge to stay in bed and hibernate this morning!  Apparently Mother Nature is a hot mess like I am.

Fight it off I did, and I’ve been spending my time getting ready for this week.  I have somehow managed to double book myself for this Friday, as I have both an Open Gallery Night, and will be participating as an art vendor at Ault Vines Fine Wines fundraising event at Ault park.  Luckily for me, my husband Tim will be taking over my duties at the Gallery and showing everyone my works as well as my talented friend Gary Kessler’s photography while I will be at Ault Park. 

While at the gallery today, I was prepping some new works I created last week to bring with me to the Ault Park event.  At the moment I don’t have titles for any of them (I’m always open to suggestions). The three smaller works are 3”x3” in size, are mounted in a 5”x5” mat (which will fit a 5”x5” frame).  The larger work is 9”x11” in size, mounted in a 16x20 mat (which will fit a standard readymade 16x20 frame).  The pallet I used consisted of Prussian Blue, Kings Blue, Gold Ochre, Silver, Warm Grey, Burnt Sienna, Rose Quinacridone, Venetian Rose and Turquoise Green, and iridescent white.  Contact me if you are interested in purchasing (or come see them in person at Ault Vines this Friday!)

I paint very emotionally, and last week I was in a very unusual place.  I had just resigned from an organization I had been part of for just shy of 6yrs.  It was a very difficult thing to do as I have several good friends in the group and I really enjoyed seeing them at our meetings.  On one hand, I was sad for the loss of seeing my friends, but on the other, I was relieved, and strangely looking forward to exploring new options with my time and interests.  The weather in the latter half of last week was also beautiful, and I found the time I spent with my kids at the park after school and during their sports practices to be greatly rewarding.

When I paint, I almost always paint while listening to music.  I have a great Pandora station that I created in 2012 called “Amy’sSpring2012Creativity” that somehow always serves up tunes that perfectly fit my emotions – like a jukebox with ESP.  I get asked all the time if music inspires me – it most certainly does considering that many, many, many moons ago I was a Music Ed Major in College and am a college level musician.  It’s because of my love for music that I paint – and I paint like a musician performs.  Perhaps one day I will share more about that journey from musician to painter.  Until then I’ve listed below a few of the ecclectic mix of songs that Pandora kindly served up while I was painting that I emotionally connected to while painting last week.

Perfect Situation - Weezer

Sweet Disposition – The Temper Trap

The Scientist – Cold Play

New Born – Muse

Everlong – Foo Fighters

In the Waiting Line – Zero 7
Embarcadero – Paul Desmond

Desafinado – Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd

O Grande Amor – Stan Getz

Wonderful Copenhagen – Dave Brubeck

I’ve shared with you my inspirations – feel free to share in the comments below the music or colors that inspire you!

My DIY Reusable Custom Planner & Organizer

Things have been busy lately, and as I’m sure many of you can relate, it can be difficult at times in terms of time management.  I have always been one to write “lists” to keep myself organized.  Often, I would grab any piece of paper I could find, lose or in a notebook and scribble down my list of things “To Do” for that day.  I’m surrounded by notebooks full of my lists, or the backs of envelopes with lists written on them tucked away in my purse.

As a business owner, who is engaged in the community, and a mother of 2 kids, I need more than a list, I need to plan and be organized.  I have over the years used many different sorts of “planners”.  Often, I find that there are components that I like and use, but that entire sections go unused as they don’t fit my purposes.  It’s not just time management I need to focus on, but projects that I am working on for my business, personal/family and community.

This past year I did find three great planners that I really enjoyed.  Rituals for Living Dreambook and Planner by The Dragon Tree, and the Productive Flourishing Momentum Planner by Productive Flourishing.  What I liked most was that they help to define and direct focus on long term goals (12 mos) and breaking them down into quarterly objectives, and then into reasonable actions in months and weeks.  The Dreambook is ideal for creatives, and really encourages you to think in terms of not just work but life as well.  The Productive Flourishing Momentum Planner is excellent from a business and time management prospective.  I also found several aspects of the SELF Journal by BestSelf Co to be very beneficial in terms of project management, especially in breaking down project goals.

I decided in the last half of the year that I liked many aspects from all three planners, as well as some from others I have used over the years, and bought a 3 ring binder and cobbled together a “planner” consisting of the pages I chose to use from the Dreambook, SEFL Journal, and Momentum Planners, and a page or two from other sources.  All of the sources were available as digital downloads, so I was able to print off the pages I needed and cobbled together what I referred to as my “Frankenstein Planner”.  It worked, and I was productive and organized. It was particularly helpful in a time when I was unusually busy with unexpected obligations that I somehow got sucked into.  But there were several “cons”.  Namely it was bulky, it used a LOT of paper and ink (the same “blank sheets/templates” being printed off over and over), and it was a pain to remember to print more pages off every month.  After several months the inconveniences become too much and once again I abandoned yet another “planner”.

It infuriated me that I had come so close, I did really like what I had cobbled together.  But I needed something that would be more efficient.  My first thought was to find an app for my iPhone.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find one that fit my needs.  Then I remembered having come across some time back a “smart notebook” that acted much like a dry erase board, but in a spiral notebook form!

Enter the “Everlast” executive notebook by Rocketbook.

The notebook is pretty cool, it is spiral bound – so it is easy to open flat or fold over pages.  You can only use Pilot FriXion pens and markers on them, and that’s ok as they are easy to find in stores and come in a rainbow of colors.  They (the pens) write smoothly on the pages and can be erased (suing the eraser on the pen), and they dry quickly (within 15 seconds) onto the surface.  When your done taking notes, you can use the notebook app on your phone and it will scan the page and send it to whatever drive (google, dropbox ect.) or email address you have directed the app to send it as indicated by the symbol you mark at the bottom of the page.  Pretty cool.  But wait, it gets even better when you are finished you can use a slightly damp cloth and wipe it all clean.

The manufacture is adamant that you can only use the FriXion pens and markers, and that using anything else will be permanent on the page.  And that got me thinking…. What if drew, with a permanent marker a “template” for each custom page I wanted in my planner into this notebook????
I posed the question on Amazon, and fortunately the manufacturer replied that yes, indeed people have used a permanent marker to create templates and that they have been used quite successfully that way.

Eureka!!!!!  That was exactly what I had wanted to hear!

My calendar "Template"

So I purchased a notebook, and after consulting with my local art store, decided to purchase and Sakura IDenti Pen (permanent marker), a ruler (my kids had managed to lose mine), and created my own light box  (I was about to order a cheap LED light box tracer because it was cheap, but had managed to find everything I needed to create my own light box: a clear plastic storage box I had lying around, that I threw a few battery operated LED lights I had into, and then placed a clear frosted clipboard I had on top as a writing surface).

When the notebook arrived, I printed the pages off, and used them along with my DIY “light box” and traced out my templates. 

It took some time, and I did make a few mistakes, but in all I am

Easy to erase!

extremely pleased with the

results!

The note books are a bit pricy, but you can reuse them a thousand times, and the cost is about the equivalent if not less than a ream of paper and ink to print off a years’ worth of one paper planner let alone multiple paper planners!  The thirty-Six page, 6”x9” executive notebook is also more convenient in comparison to my overstuffed 1” three ring binder that served the same purpose.  The pens are a little pricier, but you can buy them in bulk and get refills to reduce that expense.  What is truly

priceless is that they are completely customizable and you can use the Everlast Rocketbook to create not just your own planner/organizer, but templates for your classroom (journals, writing projects…) , or frequently used forms  – the possibilities are endless!

So get out there – get creative, get organized, be efficient!