So thrilled to be Celebrating Life & the Art of Gratitude with 8 other lovely artists.
I’ll be featuring an interview and info about each artist’s creative projects leading up to the start of the e-course on October 4th. Kimberly Ans is today’s featured artist and has the joy of offering the content and projects for the sixth week of the course.
Collage above created by fellow contributing artist, Julissie Saltzberg
Fellow contributing artist, Lara Cornell, set up the following interview questions and these are Kimberly’s replies.
Lara: What are you most grateful for?
Kimberly: I am most grateful for my family. Especially since I don’t have children, I am very grateful for my fur babies! I have had my Shih Tzu, Percy for 16 years and he is diabetic and has cataracts. His antics amuse me everyday and he is such a special little man that I know I will have stories to tell about him for years to come and because I have had him so long they are all the more precious…annoying but precious 🙂 Every day that he gets me up at the exact same time (6:03 am) and wants up on the bed for snuggles. Then at 6:39 he starts whining because he has had enough of that and wants to eat! I have to carry him up the stairs…when his cataracts first started and he could not see how many stairs there were, he started throwing himself down the stairs. *shakes head* So now he gets carried down every set of stairs…I do believe that was a nefarious plan of his! By 10:30 he needs his next pee break and at noon he MUST have his snack. He then sleeps the rest of the day until 4:30 when he starts whining to remind us that dinner is in an hour. After dinner, it is nap time again because he is so exhausted from reminding me that he needs to be fed that he needs to sleep until 8:00 at which he gets up to demand his “bedtime cookies” but if I am not paying attention RIGHT NOW he beats me to the backdoor and barks every second until I open the door. By 9pm he starts wandering back and forth between his bed and my chair in the living room to double check that I didn’t go to bed without him. If, by 9:30 I haven’t picked him up to go to bed he wanders into the office where his “second bed” is and goes to sleep in there. While his behaviour can be overwhelming and weirdly specific, I know that soon I will have to let him go and so I am grateful for all his weirdness and quirks.
Lara: How do you prefer to show your gratitude? (do you have any traditions)
Kimberly: I am a firm believer in “Thank you” and while it might be a Canadian thing I think that saying “Thank you” is the simplest way of showing respect. In addition I think that paying attention to my surroundings and incorporating them into my artwork is showing gratitude for what I have in my life. In today’s society it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you must have more. I think that taking stock of the things in your life and using them as a source of inspiration is another way of showing gratitude.
Lara: What are your favorite fall season traditions?
Kimberly: The switch over to Fall happens very quickly where I live. This week on Monday it was warm and sunny and by Wednesday there was a bit of snow on the ground. So I think I enjoy the last vestiges of summer that are the lead into fall. We always buy a flower pot of yellow mums to have in the kitchen. I also really enjoy getting to start cooking more soups and roasted foods (Brussel Sprouts being a personal favorite)
Lara: Do you have any favorite fall season art/crafts/etc…
Kimberly: When falls comes I want to start to curl up and work on knitting or needlecraft projects. I still work on painting and drawing but knitting becomes my “go to” in the evening.
Lara: Why did you decide to be part of this group of artists for this project?
Kimberly: I had been working on a “100 day’s of painting” project and I had been thinking about why was I choosing the subject matter that I was choosing and what did that represent to me. As I was working on those paintings it was becoming important to represent what was around me in my home and studio in my art. I wasn’t looking to paint fanciful or imaginary creatures or landscapes but tactile and concrete objects that surrounded me. As the call came out for artists that were interested I saw how much this idea of gratitude fit into what I was doing in my everyday painting practice.
These four paintings were completed at the end of the summer. The Honeysuckles painting was created from Honeysuckles from my garden and the last three paintings were all created from the same bouquet of flowers.
Week 7 * Ordinary Extraordinary with Kimberly Ans
Our creations this week will focus on using objects that we surround ourselves with as the inspiration for our gratitude practice. Our final work will be an intuitive, abstracted image that is inspired by realism without being anchored to it.
I firmly believe in creating a strong foundation of technical skills to build confidence and understanding of supplies. With a strong knowledge of materials you will free yourself to explore creative possibilities without wondering if you are doing it “right”. To support your skill development we will, through a short series of exercises, explore a variety of ways to use our materials. We will start with exploring drawing and developing our idea and then move onto to adventures in paint! We will see how artists have used the everyday to inspire their art and develop our own work that is inspired by our own surroundings and the objects that we wish to honour.
Our final painting will be a joyful explosion of colour, texture and life that celebrates our own surroundings and makes the ordinary extraordinary! Join us now
I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to collaborate with Kimberly! She has put so much effort, heart, and soul into her offering for this course. I’m looking forward to exploring her approach to drawing and painting with the course participants! 🙂
Every one is invited and welcome to join us to creatively celebrate life through the art of gratitude! No prior art experience is necessary. The course content will be available for a full 6 months so plenty of time to play and explore all the great projects! Want to experience the fun and magic of creativity and the joy that an attitude of gratitude nurtures in your life?! Know someone that would appreciate the gift of gratitude and creativity? We’d be so very grateful to have you and your friends join us here. <3 There are still some early bird spaces available!!! 🙂
* More About Kimberly Ans *
Kimberly has been an artist her entire life and followed her dreams to be an artist and a teacher. So, she gets up at 5am to practice a daily painting ritual, spends all day making art and continues creating in the evening…it’s the healthiest of addictions! She explores her artistry using a variety of mediums including paint, charcoal, pastel and creating art quilts.
Visit Kimberly: Website * Facebook * Instagram * Twitter * Etsy
Sign-Up for a special limited early bird space now
