Above Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch

Desperate Consolidation, Time Management, Healing with Soft pastels, and the birth of Let’s Go Plein Air
As with any modern-day woman, I had a massive to-do list. Add in being an artist with Dyslexia, ADHD, and a touch of PTSD; you have a mess. Because of covid, I was not socializing. With my to-do list, I was not exercising, creating, relaxing, or anything but taking care of myself. People told me to do all kinds of different things to help the situation, like cognitive therapy, meditation, walks, and reaching out to friends. Those things take time and work when I have none to give. Because of the setup time, I could not work in mixed media as I on the norm do. A strong sense of failure creeps in when I am not making art regularly.
I found myself playing with soft pastels because I could pick up a stick of color, make a swatch, put it down, and go back to the grind on other things. Before I knew it, I had completed a few paintings for a deadline that was coming up.
Those who know me know that I am fascinated with abstract writing. I loved playing with this in soft pastels, which led to my experimenting with cognitive therapy. I start this process by writing out the negative thoughts I am having with pastel; I smear them into the background to create an underpainting, then I layer positive thinking words on the top for the rest of the details.
This cognitive writing, mixed with thoughts about color and artistic appeal, puts me in an active meditative state that clears my mind and brings me to the present. I then combined this with starting a Plein Air art group. Plein Air meaning-of or relates to painting in outdoor daylight. As a group, we go to local parks and trails to be outdoors and paint the scenery. This move grouped several things together that I struggled to find separate time for. Put them all into one event—socializing at a covid safe distance, meditation, cognitive therapy, exercise, vitamin D, and I was getting my artwork done. Using the word writing cognitive therapy process to build the landscape that I witnessed added to an even deeper meditative state.
This Plein air work helped me through the effects of the Covid pandemic, having to step in and take care of my father with Alzheimer's Dementia and make my artwork deadlines. This is a powerful tool now if I could just maintain a good diet.
Thanks for taking a moment.
Enjoy life on a whim.
Amanda
This peace is to say thank you to the Clark Fork Coalition for all of their hard work with restoration in Montana's rivers and streams, and a wonderful tour they led me on at the Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch. This painting is from an overlook spot that the team directed me to drive a scenic loop back to the ranch and it was scenic.