Love One Another

Sunday Sketches with a theme.
I love to draw and sketch with pen and watercolor. But I spend a lot of time working with clay, which I also love. I sketch out ideas for projects and ideas in my sketchbooks. Lately I have been making the effort to work on some sketches and finish them with watercolors. I have been inspired by another artist/blogger, Alexandra H. MacVean, to start posting 'Sunday Sketches'. She has a link up post every Sunday with a cute graphic to link up with. I will be posting my watercolor sketches here on Sundays.

So here are a couple of my recent watercolor sketches...

My theme today is...

Love One Another

I'm choosing these two watercolor sketches because I would like to see more tolerance and love in the world.
I was taught to Love thy neighbor.  This past week, there has been a lot of hate and negativity in the world. My hope is that people will learn from these events to Love one another.

Love thy neighbor

No two people are exactly the same. We are all very different.  We can't pick and choose what differences should be acceptable or not. I wouldn't want people to choose not to accept me because I'm left handed, or because I'm an introvert, or an artist. I would hope that I am accepted by everyone for what I am. I can't change who I am. God loves me just the way he made me.

Your neighbor does not have to be your best friend, or someone that you spend time with, But you should love them for who they are. God made them too. We all matter in this world.

Love one another

This world would be a better place if everyone would just love each other.
Love is caring about each other.
Helping each other.
Not tearing other people down.
Accepting that people have differences.
Respecting our differences.
Respecting others opinions.


We need more 
tolerance
in this world. 

We need...
Peace

Help spread some tolerance and love around this week. What can you do to help your neighbor? A friend? A family member? A stranger?

Have a great week!

Beth♥

Looking Back at 2014 and Forward to 2015

2014 ~ Simplify
Last year I chose the word 'Simplify' as my word of the year. That was before we put our house up for sale and sold it within 5 weeks and moved within 2 months. By the middle of March, we had moved across the state.  I thought my word 'Simplify' was going out the door with many of the things that we let go to downsize. However, because of that downsize, we did start fresh with fewer 'things'. But it was definitely not Simple! There were days I wasn't sure we could do it.

Nine months later, I can say for sure, it was the right thing to do. Things have settled down and we, my husband and I, are still working to simplify our life. He has found a job that he loves and a new hobby that he enjoys.  I continue to work in my studio, at home, on my own schedule...
...Keeping It Simple.

2015 ~ Focus
I have been trying to decide what my word for 2015 would be.  I want to grow my business.  That means I need to focus on what will help me do that. In my post from last week, I wrote about focusing on Texture in my Artwork. That is my focus for my artwork. But for myself, I need to remind myself to Focus on my goals.

5 Things I Need to Focus on in 2015:

1.  Create Art that is fulfilling to my creative spirit.

2.  Find 2-3 More Venues to Sell My Art

3.  Improve Social Media Promotion

4.  Develop Relationships and Roots in our new Community

5.  Improve Business and Organizational Skills

Happy New Year! 

To 2015!

Beth♥

Writing and Art

I consider myself more of a visual artist rather than a writer, but I do enjoy writing and photography.

I've always tried to keep a diary or journal, although sporadic at times. When I was very young, I had a diary, once. It was the 'thing' to do back then. I have no idea what I wrote in there, as it is long gone. I am quite sure that it was so important and secret that I had to hide the key, so no one would try to sneak in and read my important memoirs!  Makes me laugh now. But I do wish I had that old diary.

When my kids were young, I wrote in notebooks about their milestones, accomplishments, and even my frustrations with being a mother. I also have calendars where I kept notes about important dates and events.  I have managed to keep those because I'm sure that one day someone I, will want to read them again! They help me to remember things that I have forgotten about. That is my reasoning, anyway.

Later I began to keep a journal about my art. Then I discovered blogs..on the internet.  I was amazed that there were so many people out there that were willing to share their thoughts, feelings, and even their secrets...to the world! I'm not comfortable writing about my secrets, but the idea of writing about my art on the internet was something I had to try!  I could post photos and write about my art! At first I was not even going to make it public. Only I could read it. But I decided I would publish it because I was sure that no one would read it, so I was safe. That was back in 2007!   Some people did actually find my blog and read it! Some people actually posted comments along the way too. I've enjoyed meeting other artists and other bloggers along the way.  I just missed my 7 year anniversary of the beginning of my blog. I hope to continue for many more.

Some of my old journals

My first blog post:  
May 2007 : 
Starting a new Path

A lot has changed in my life since then. I really do enjoy going back and reading my old posts and seeing how far I have come. If someone else happens to come across my blog and enjoys reading a post or two, then that makes me happy. I am not a great writer. I am just an artist who wants to write. I want to share my thoughts and art with anyone who is interested. If you are still reading this...thank you for your time. I appreciate it!


Beth♥

Two Year Blog Anniversary!

Heart Home on a Hill

4 1/4" x 4 1/4" Clay Tile

Beth S. Macre © 2009

Today is my two year Blog Anniversary! I am proud that I have continued my blog for two years and I have really enjoyed sharing my creations and a few personal events along the way! I hope that you guys that keep coming back to see what I am up to, have enjoyed my journey. I hope that you will continue to visit me and see what I am up to. I hope to continue creating and sharing for a long time.

As my celebration for my 'blog-aversary', I am in the process of opening my new Etsy shop today. I am calling it HeartHomes...after my most recent clay creations. I have added one heart home clay tile, but I have a few more to add today, and I will be adding more all this week. I hope you will stop by to check out my new creations. I will be adding some heart home drawings in the future. I plan to add magnet, pins, and pendants to my line of heart homes. I am also keeping my other Etsy shop, bmacre.etsy.com open. I plan to include my other drawings and paintings that I create, that do not quite fit with the whimsical style of the HeartHome collection.

Thank you to those of you who commented over the last couple of weeks. In my next post I will post a list of those of you who commented and announce the winner of the give away. All of you who commented will be getting a free gift as well! Check back with me to see who is the winner!

Thank you for being so supportive and encouraging to me in my artistic journey and personal journey. I appreciate all of you!

~Beth

Upcoming year of events...

This is my view on my way to work.

This year will be a year of milestones. I just started to realize how important this year will be, as far as milestones in my journey through life. I realized that I will have a 2 year blog anniversary coming up on May 3rd. So I started thinking about other anniversaries and events that will be occuring this year. Probably the most important one will be that my 25th wedding anniversary will happen this year! That will not happen for another 3 months, so I will talk more about that later. Another milestone, that I'm not so excited about at this point, is my next birthday is 'the' big one...but I won't discuss that until next January! I thought last year had big milestones with my oldest child turning 21 and my youngest child graduating from high school and going away to school! But this year could be just as important!

Give-away...
Since this is going to be such an eventful year, I want to plan some give-aways to celebrate. I will give more information soon. The 2 year blog anniversary is coming first, so I will give more details about my give-away soon. So please check back for more information. I will be taking names of readers who leave comments over the next few weeks until May 3rd. Please make sure you leave your name and a way to contact you!

What milestones have you achieved lately?

~ Beth

100 Posts...Time to Reflect

"Jessica's Thoughts"

Beth S. Macre © 2006

Prismacolor Colored Pencils on Stonehenge

100 posts! I just noticed that my last post was my 99th post to my blog! I started blogging last year in May. The first year I only blogged occasionally. I'm not typically a talkative person, so it was hard for me at first. Especially to talk about myself and my art. I had started an art journal before that, but it was private and noone else read it but me. I noticed a lot of artists were keeping art journals online. I decided to give it a try. I had been wanting a website, but I didn't really have enough recent work for a website. So I have realized, over the last year and a half, that my purpose for my blog is not only to share my art journey with my friends and family, but to share with other artists and to meet other artsts along the way. That is the best part! I love to see what other artists are doing and hear about how they go through their creative journey.

So this week, I will be thinking about the past year and what I have accomplished and will think about next year and what I hope to accomplish. I am going to think about what goals I want to set for the year and put them in writing this year so I can come back to it next year and see if they are the same. I am hoping this year will be a better year for everyone and I am looking forward to a fresh start!

Why do you blog?

~Beth

More sketches...

'Pink Painting' journal sketch
2004
Beth S. Macre




'First Baptist Church' pen & ink commission journal sketch
June 2004
Beth S. Macre


'Cooks Barn' colored pencil commission journal sketch
'Farmer's Bank' pencil and ink commission (on table)
Fall 2005
Beth S. Macre