July is World Watercolor Month!

Hi Friends!

It’s been a while!  Hope you all are well!   What crazy times we are living in right now.  Five months ago when I stepped back to take a break from blogging, I don’t think any of us knew what lay ahead with this worldwide Coronavirus pandemic and quarantining and all the changes that have taken place in our country and world!

Hubby and I are supposed to be on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation right now in Italy celebrating a very special family event, but instead, we toasted with Italian wine last evening  in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania with those we were going to be with at a social distanced outdoor get-together and Zoom event.  We cried and laughed and felt grateful that we are all still here and healthy!

But what brings me back here to the blog is a very special event created four years ago by a very special man that honors me with the privilege of allowing me to be a small part in it:   World Watercolor Month and the amazing Charlie O!

Charlie O’Shields, the creator of Doodlewash®, founded World Watercolor Month in 2016. His own love of the medium led to the creation of a blog and social artist movement dedicated to promoting and connecting the vast community of watercolor artists all over the world. After hosting a few early art challenges, celebrating various fun and delightfully obscure holidays, it became apparent that there wasn’t an official celebration of the medium he and so many of us love. Over 18,000 applications are submitted for “official days” each year and only 30 are added to the calendar so it was a long shot, but the registrars agreed with the cause and now it’s official! July is now and forever World Watercolor Month!

Charlie and I started watercolor painting and blogging around the same time, and we immediately became lifelong friends.  If you are not following him on Doodlewash, you are missing out on a very bright spot every day!

I can’t wait to make a commitment to pick up my brushes and paint every day in July again!  But beyond being a celebration and inspiration for those of us who love to paint in watercolor, it is an opportunity to raise awareness for the importance of art and creativity in the world.  It is an opportunity to help children in need of art supplies and art education around the globe through our partnership with The Dreaming Zebra Foundation. 

If you would like to purchase this year’s World Watercolor Pouch, the proceeds directly help provide art and music supplies to underprivileged children throughout the world.

So what else have I been up to?  Well – I started a new job four days before COVID-19 quarantine and work-from-home status hit, so I have been busy learning and growing at a wonderful non-profit organization, Green Building Alliance, where I get to participate in helping make our communities and world a greener, more sustainable and equitable place where everyone can thrive.  Hubby is an “essential” worker in the community, so he has been working hard through all of this to keep our community operating.  My grandie girls are growing and thriving, and I am so fortunate to get to spend time with them each week.

Here is some art I’ve created over the past few months.  My DIL, Colleen and I, still have our McKinneyX2Designs ETSY shop, and we enjoy creating art and home decor.

 

 

I occasionally dabble in acrylic abstract art too.  Here I am with my most recent and largest to date piece.

And my dear friend Ellen, asked me to add this “poem” to last year’s World Watercolor Month bee painting, so I created cards from it and love them!

Hope to keep in touch a little more in July, and hope you will join in on the fun and supporting World Watercolor Month!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi