Art by Niki Hilsabeck

"Lil' Goat" 5 x 7 Mixed Media on Watercolor Card Original Sold It's been a while since I've posted, although I've been painting most of the time since the last post. I'm familiar with writer's block. The way I got around it was to force myself to write for a set amount of time each day, which was easier to do if I already had a story in progress. Artist's block is different for me: there are plenty of things I want to paint, but I have trouble deciding which projects to devote myself to, because I hate to start paintings and not finish them. Daily painting still keeps me in practice, but if I don't find the finished product particularly inspiring, it makes it harder to start a new piece the next day. Here are some ways I've found to get around this particular brand of artist's block: Play with media-- the goat painting above actually features pomegranate juice as the purple in the background. (I actually squeezed a fres...

"Harvest Time" 9 x 12 Chalk Pastel on Paper Click here to purchase Back from a hiatus, and in the fall mood... I used good old Arches watercolor paper for this piece, and blended my chalks using water. The color scheme was supposed to be red, gold, and green based colors, but I had to add a bit of purple for emphasis. It's a scene from our trip last year to Lavender Hill Pumpkin Patch in Fallbrook. I always spend a little too much time hovering around the different types of pumpkinsand gourds, snapping as many photos as I can for later paintings. I guess you could say that I share my toddler's excitement when it comes to the sight of pumpkins. This was the first piece I painted in the last couple of weeks that I felt like sharing. I'd intended to paint through a trip up north and continue painting on return; unfortunately, it took me a while to jump back into my routine. Taking a break gave me a chance to get a fresh perspective on my art, and now I'm...

"Clearing" 12 x 18 Pastel on Paper Click here to buy print: http://www.redbubble.com/people/nikihilsabeck/art/6314102-1-clearing-pastel I used to have a brave motto for myself when it came to painting: paint big or go home. If I had to resort to something as small as 9 x 12, it was because I was out of the bigger stuff. In recent months, particularly once I began painting regularly, I've had to cut my paintings down in size. Between time constraints, tiredness, and lack of space, I could only go for the big paper or canvas when I got the rare opportunity to spend a few hours painting at a time. Painting small has its benefits-- it takes less time (in theory at least), and doesn't require as much energy for me to cover the paper with the media. It has a big drawback for me too though: I end up painting much tighter than I originally intend to, and end up squinting over that small paper or canvas, trying to get my details straight. With this issue in mind, I recently b...