Artist Renee Mak

What a beautiful, sunny day here in Iowa! I thought I'd take another minute and talk about things  that inspire me.  As you know, I believe that inspiration is everywhere ! This is a picture of the mat that sits on my front porch. It's old but I just love the lines of it!  The way they roll and move and draw the eye around.  Most people would have swept away the old Christmas tree pine needles by now... but I like how it looks.  It tells the story of how I let the tree get completely dried out before I took it outside and of how ALL of the needles fell off by themselves! As it turns out, I love curvilinear lines and forms.   And because I  really like them, I surround myself with them.   Not on purpose... but like you, I like what I like and  apparently... that's what I buy! This love for curved lines is evident everywhere.... before you even enter my house you see it on the door mat, the planter and the chair detail above! Onc...

What INSPIRES you! It's clear from my last INspiRaTIOn iS EvERYwHERe!  post  that many artists find inspiration in color. I do too and absolutely love color ! Going deeper, I decided that what I  really love is when colors POP...  or stand out! This is very  clear if you enter my home  and just look around. I have little pops of color everywhere. One way to make your colors come alive is to place opposite colors next to or near each other. The red flower above  really stands out because it's on top of a green book cover. The same holds true for this oil painting... the red scarf really pops because it's painted on a green background. Another way to get colors to jump out at you is to add them to a neutral background... like the picture below. The neutral wall color, the candle holders and the vintage bling all help the red candle stand out! One more way to get color to pop is through contrast... placing lights and darks near each other. The yellow ros...