<![CDATA[SHARON MACKINNON ART - Blah Blah Blogs]]>Fri, 27 Mar 2026 03:01:33 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[March 14th, 2024]]>Fri, 15 Mar 2024 03:22:12 GMThttps://www.sharonmackinnon.com/blah-blah-blogs/march-14th-2024<![CDATA[Embracing Uncertainty]]>Mon, 24 Jul 2023 01:35:55 GMThttps://www.sharonmackinnon.com/blah-blah-blogs/embracing-uncertainty
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Every brushstroke in abstract painting involves a degree of uncertainty. It sure helps to embrace your fearless side and welcome this ambiguity, realizing that it is through uncertainty that fresh perspectives and novel techniques are discovered.
Taking risks with abstract art allows one to release the fear of making mistakes and instead champion the beauty of imperfection.
If you’re craving adventure and risk, I say “just go for it.”
My painting "You Make Me Blush" does just that.
]]><![CDATA[My Sketchbook experiments]]>Mon, 17 Jul 2023 23:55:05 GMThttps://www.sharonmackinnon.com/blah-blah-blogs/my-sketchbook-experiments
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Sketchbooks have opened up a whole new world for me. 
Until recently, I mostly used them outdoors in my travels to capture very loose landscapes. Either surrounded by flowers in the garden, or on a rocky point there I was making value sketches with my black and grey markers.   That was it!  As far as painting in sketchbooks went,  I felt like I was wasting paint and time. The little voices inside said; "What if this turns out to be my best work and it is in the sketchbook?” or “Why aren’t you finishing up your larger canvases?”

Well I have turned the corner and sketchbooks have become a ritual that is both experimental and meditative. I either start my painting process by playing in the sketchbook or use up the leftover paint on my palette  at the end of a session. That deals with the wasting factor!

I sketch only for me. No-one sees my sketches unless I choose to show them. I allow myself to play with no judgment. I use sticks, ink, charcoal, pastels scrapers and anything I feel like trying. I may do two at a time or go back over one.  If I discover something new I will make notes.

Here’s the real win.  My playful scribbles and experimentation are showing up in my abstract work and I love it. Both the excitement of adventure and the sense of peacefulness have become part of my creative time.

​Perhaps you are a faithful sketcher that prefers realism or you love to experiment. I think what counts is that this process feels authentic, provides inner peace  and a sense of joy.  It is the real “you”.

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