Faith Evans-Sills - Painting the Sacred Within: Art Techniques to Express Your Authentic Inner Voice

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We dedicate this book to our fathers, John Duncan Evans III and Brian Dennis McDonough, who soar on every gust of wind brushing our faces and the crest of every white-tipped wave.

You left us too soon, but your voices continue to shine brightly through us in all that we do.

Thank you for giving us eyes that gather inspiration so readily and the wings on which to boldly pursue our creativity.

Dear creative soul,

We thank you wholeheartedly for picking up this book, and we applaud your desire to begin this creative journey. We honor you for investing in your dreams and your painting practice! We want to do this work deep in our bones and help you soar.

Lets start thriving today as artists, diving into the deepest parts of our creativity together, shall we?

We are so excited to invite you inside our creative process! We incubated the idea for this book after an inspiring phone chat about what we really wanted for the year ahead. We both said that we wanted to paint alongside others for community, accountability and inspiration. So we decided to create what we most needed, in the hopes that others would find value in it, too. At first it was a year long e-course, and then it grew into international art retreats in Costa Rica and Morocco!

After two years of working together with women through these retreats and e-courses, were overjoyed that we have seen so much growth in ourselves and our participants! Its incredible what can happen when people set the intention of making time for their studio practice to grow in a sustained way.

With more than twenty years each of personal painting experience, weve learned so much that we are eager to share with you, including what has and hasnt worked for us and how to come up with your own dynamic way of operating in your studio. Ultimately this is about your relationship to your work, the healthy habits that you develop in the studio, the ways in which you go about creating your art and the manner in which you access and sustain your most creative selfwhich in the end comprise a soul-satisfying studio practice making work you love!

There is a quote by author Karen Lamb that resonates with us so much: A year from now you will wish you had started today.

Applying this to our art practices we see how small changes built up over time will take your work in the direction you want it to go. We want to give you all the skills you need to make your work shine! THE TIME IS NOW.

Although we are ever changing, evolving, shaping and transforming, we believe that a continuous thread runs through all of our work. The longer we work, the more we understand there are steadfast approaches of helping ourselves jump into our process more easily. Our goal is not to create resolutions, but rather to help you create new rhythms of working that allow space for transformation. Art making is a practice, requiring daily attention to receiving, perceiving and responding. Are you hungry for more?

As with any practice, it requires you to make space in your life to nurture it to grow. Waste not a single moment more holding back for fear of expressing yourself. Say what you need to say, paint what you need to paint, create it now. As with anything in your life that is important to cultivate, allow yourself room to grow.

Deepen your practice through rest and connection. Its in quietness and trust that we often find our greatest treasures. This will mean something different to each of us. For you it might mean withdrawing into the beauty of nature or the quiet of your studio. Schedule regular silence and solitude. Outside, everything often whispers inspirations name. In this book we invite you into exercises that will help you discover the best way into your art. The muse wants you to approach.

Create Beauty

Give Love

Find Peace

In the end, what is important is who we are becoming.

This book is your invitation to make space and dive into Painting the Sacred Within. Let us begin.

With wishes for so much blessed inspiration,

We use a variety of mixed media, but here is a list of the basic supplies that we always have in our studios. Once you are in tune with scouting your supplies, you will see creative possibilities everywhere and notice things you can use in the studio that you probably never thought about before!

We love using wood panels because they are very durable for experimenting. (Cradled wood panels are best because they wont warp.) Canvases are great, too, because they are absorbent and have great texture. We like pre-gessoed canvases, but get a mix to see what you like best!

Youll want a variety of acrylic paint, including the primary colors for mixing (red, yellow, blue) as well as Titanium White and black, and then colors you are drawn to. If you are just beginning, a starter set can be really helpful to build your collection of paints.

Our favorite brand is Golden, especially for Titanium White, which we buy in larger tubs for a bigger quantity. Golden can be a bit pricey, so dont worry; any acrylic brand works. We recommend getting some basic colors in the Golden brand (white, carbon black, primary colors) and then grabbing a selection of fun colors that you are drawn to in cheaper brands.

Its helpful to have a combination of medium and small brushes with different tips (a brush pack is a good place to start) and a few big ones that feel good to you. In addition to watercolor brushes (sable or natural fibers are best), try to get brushes specifically for acrylic paint.

Start with one or two pan sets containing colors you love.