Tag Archives: Writing

2020 Literary Calendar

Posted in 1920s, Creativity, Reading, Vintage, watercolor painting by
Literary Calendar 2020 Literary Calendar – The Pleasures of Reading

I created a calendar with a literary theme this year entitled “The Pleasures of Reading”. I wanted to share my final calendar images with all of you. This calendar is my favorite so far! I thoroughly enjoyed focusing on painting the books and people engaged in the best activity ever (at least as far as I am concerned) of reading. I enjoyed it so much in fact that I am thinking of focusing all of my art around literary subjects – books, imaginary book covers, book spaces, and more. I used to be worried that it would be too limiting to only focus on one subject area, but it is actually helping with my creativity. Somehow having limits/boundaries for my creative work is helping me to think of a lot more possibilities. Well, enough about that – without further ado, here is my full calendar for 2020:

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If you are interested in purchasing this calendar, Click Here

A friend of mine, Rochelle, also wrote a blog post about my calendar Click Here

My NaNoWriMo Project 2018

Posted in Art, Creativity, Imagination, Inspiration, Writing by

Adelle by Cindy Adelle Richard

November is one of my favorite times of year because 1) I get to take a week off for Thanksgiving, and I use it to watch lots of T.V., read lots of books, and take lots of naps and 2) it is National Novel Writing Month. I attend meetups to write with the NaNo North Shore group, a wonderful group of people who encourage each other and have fun together. We always hold an event one day each November where we write all day and night (24 hours), eat lots of food, and talk in between writing (another November favorite). I never actually do what I am supposed to do during NaNoWriMo (write a novel that is at least 50,000 words); I usually use the time to work on whatever project has been brewing in my head for a while. This year I have decided to spend the month fleshing out this fictional art colony that has been taking shape in my mind since January. The paintings I have been creating this year have come about because of this fictional place which I have named The Isle of Adelle. I imagine that Adelle, the woman pictured above, founded this special art colony on an island off of the coast of France circa 1920. You will hear more about this special place after I have a chance to fully imagine what it is all about – who the people are, what they do each day, the climate, and so on. I am excited by the idea of building my own world and letting it take shape on paper. If you are participating in NaNoWriMo this year, happy writing!

The Reluctant Chef

Posted in Art, Dreams, Imagination, Writing by

Kitchen Magic by Cindy Adelle Richard

This painting was inspired by my shameless binge watching of CHARMED. There was an episode where Piper first learned to freeze time, and she was cooking at the time. As I was watching it, this image popped into my head. I also created a little story which conveys my feelings about cooking. I love food. I love the idea of cooking. I even love cookware and utensils. My problem is with the act of cooking. I hope you will get the picture after reading this mini-story.

The Reluctant Chef

The ingredients rested on the counter in pristine condition – homemade pasta, ripe tomatoes, crisp carrots, onions, and basil leaves – all ready to chop, boil, and release heavenly aromas. The chef, Penelope, seemingly ready in her white coat and red scarf, sharpened knives, shiny pots, leans on the counter with her head propped in her hands loathing the process required to make these ingredients edible. She daydreams about how the meal will taste, how her friends and family will applaud and rave about her meal. Then she sighs, and once again she puts the ingredients in the refrigerator, the cooking implements in the cabinets and drawers; then she picks up the phone to dial Luigi’s Italian Kitchen.

This watercolor painting is available in my shop adellecirca1920.etsy.com

I Am a Story Artist

Posted in 1920s, Art, Creativity, Dreams, Imagination, Inspiration, Jazz Age, Reading, Self Knowledge, Writing by

A practice painting of Bonnie Bennett by Cindy Adelle Richard

I have been taking a little hiatus from social media to do some deep thinking  about my brand and my art business. I seem to think best by writing by hand with no interference from technology, and I used my time journaling and reflecting on my vocation productively.  The series of practice paintings I posted today are based on characters from THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. Rewatching six seasons of the show and creating these paintings helped me to realize how much I love art that tells a story. I finally found something I can happily do for the rest of my life without getting tired of it. However, these paintings were based on photographs, and I decided I really want to create original art using my favorite stories as inspiration instead.

Practice painting of Damon Salvatore and Elena Gilbert by Cindy Adelle Richard.

One of the big revelations for me while going this process was the role I came up with for myself – being a Story Artist. The two pastimes that have occupied my time throughout my life have been stories and art. From the time I was three years old, I have been obsessed with reading, and my favorite events were book fairs, weekly trips to the school library or the bookmobile, and story time in my classrooms. Eventually my love of stories expanded into movies, television shows, plays, operas, and ballets. I also started to pay attention to the arts as I grew up – painting, playing the drums, and dancing specifically. During the years that I was in college and building a career as a young person, I had forgotten how important these art forms were to me, and I am grateful that I have reconnected to my love of stories and art over the past ten years.

Practice painting of Damon Salvatore by Cindy Adelle Richard.

I have decided to use my favorite stories in various forms and genres as the starting point for the watercolor paintings I produce. This blog will be about my life behind the stories – my life as a Story Artist. In addition to creating and sharing my art, I am still in the process of writing a novel set in the 1920s, so you will still see content based on my discoveries from that glorious era. I am truly excited about this new direction my art and writing are taking, and I hope you will stick around to be a part of my creative journey. Thank you for reading and supporting this blog, and I look forward to sharing more story art and content with you.

On Writing: Summer Writing Woes

Posted in Art, Creativity, Inspiration, Writing by
Photo courtesy of Central Home/Pinterest

Photo courtesy of Central Home/Pinterest

My writing habits got woefully off track this summer. I wrote….some, but the weather was just soooo nice, and we had suuuch a hard winter that I just had to get outside, and there was just soooo much to do, and I neeeeded a break.  Is my whining working yet?  Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Although I didn’t get as much writing done as I would have liked to this past summer, there is one ritual I maintained even during the most enticing days of summer – I woke up at least an hour and a half early to have time to myself before my day started. During that time, I would at least write my morning pages (for the uninitiated, morning pages are three pages of stream of consciousness freewriting proposed by Julia Cameron). The great thing about these pages is that they let me know what I am thinking about writing, reading, experiences, my responsibilities, and just life in general. The thoughts are not always fun or productive and sometimes they lead absolutely nowhere, but more often than not, they yield solid ideas for taking action. For example, I have written about needing to write more in my recent morning pages, and my exploration yielded the following actions to try:

1. Use morning pages to write about my current project to get my mental juices flowing

2. Work on one project during that time (I always have more than one writing project in play to keep me from getting bored)

3. Read something for inspiration everyday

4. Plan/schedule an artist date once per week (this is another suggestion of Julia Cameron’s – to do something fun once a week by yourself for at least two hours to inspire your inner artist; I’ve been doing this off and on for about three years, and it has changed my life)

5. Make time to just think (this is to remind myself to just be still and take time for daydreaming or pondering ideas I find intriguing)

6. Meditate before bed (while I used to enjoy doing this as part of my morning routine, it takes too much time away from my writing – I’ve decided to try flipping it to bedtime)

In case you are interested in learning more about Julia Cameron’s suggestions to do morning pages and artist dates, I have included her website http://juliacameronlive.com/ (there are two videos under the tab about the artist’s way video program).

These are the tips I have come up with so far to get my writing back on track.  What tips and tricks do you use to keep yourself writing on a regular basis?

New Posts Coming: My Writing Life

Posted in Creativity, Inspiration, Research by

Typewriter

I have decided to start posting about my writing life on this blog as well.  As a writer, I have quite an active life – for instance, here is a sample of the activities I participate in outside of blogging and working full-time:

  • Member of Grub Street – a wonderful writing organization offering classes and events for writers in Boston; in addition to being a member, I also serve on a committee that puts together writing events to keep members engaged
  • Member of a Writing Group called Impetus – this is a four member writing group where we read and critique short writing pieces; we discuss poetry, plays, short stories, essays (I’ve been working on poetry lately)
  • Literary Events – New England is a literary locale, and I am constantly attending excellent workshops, conferences, and readings
  • Journal – I keep a daily journal in which I write long hand on my musings related to writing and the creative process; I will share content that I think will be helpful to you
  • Research – I am constantly conducting research on writing, creativity, art and the like
  • Reading – I am always, always, always reading (this is as necessary as air and food for me); books, essays, blog posts, writing magazines, and much more, which I will share in the hopes that you will find the content interesting as well

I will definitely continue to post content related to the Jazz Age; this is my first passion and the reason I started this blog in the first place.  Now, I will just be expanding upon this and offering you more to love.  I tried creating separate menu items for these categories on my main page, but I did not like the fact that “pages” are static on WordPress (very difficult to add posts to these static pages).  If the content will be based on current topics relevant to my writing life, I will label them as “On Writing”, “On Reading”…. you get the picture.  If the content will be related to the 1920s, I will continue to post as usual.  I attended a lot of festive events this past summer, so you will be seeing quite a few posts over the coming weeks.