The wonderful watercolourist and designer, Snehal Kank, nominated me recently for a Liebster Award. Thanks so much for the nomination and your ongoing support, Snehal!

What’s the Liebster Award? The Liebster Award is given to bloggers by other bloggers, as a way of recognizing their work, getting to know them, and helping spread the word about blogs with smaller followings that we love. With the nomination comes a short Q&A and the invitation to pay it forward.

Here’s how it works…the Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
• Copy and paste the Liebster Award badge to your post.
• Nominate up to 10 new bloggers.
• Answer the 10 questions the person who nominated you asked you.
• Create 10 new questions to ask the bloggers you nominated.
• Copy and paste the rules to your post.
• Notify the bloggers you have nominated by leaving them a comment on their blog.

I nominate these folks who fill my Reader with joy…

Mary Pumpelly Knowland

Janina Nowak

Michael Scott

Jane Hannah

Elizabeth and Margaret of Moveable Paintbox

Alison Ogle

Here are my answers to Snehal’s questions:

1. Describe yourself in few words or Picture.  Curious; seeker of beauty and wonder, and enthusiastic to share what I find; learning how to embrace my inner (and outer) fiery redhead
2. What does painting mean to you? Expression, meditation, and lately respecting how phenomenal this world can be
3. How do you find your happiness? Through friends and family, good coffee and music, dancing and painting, witnessing others’ creative expressions
4. What is your favourite medium (oil, acrylics, watercolour or any other) for painting? watercolour because it can be translucent and ethereal, and also boldly in-your-face; and it has a bit of an unexpected nature; feel like I’m having a conversation with it (I know, sounds artsy but I DO talk to my paint!)
5. What is your favourite social media? ( to promote your art) I’ve been blogging for years and love being able to tell a story; for visuals though, love Instagram
6. What is your favourite seasonal activity? hosting Thanksgiving dinner in October; walking through autumn leaves
7. Which country would you like to visit and why? right now I want to get to Spain to see architecture, eat tapas/pinchos, and visit the museums
8. Which brands do you recommend for other artists? ( colours, papers and brushes etc.) for watercolour, Daniel Smith and Da Vinci have so many great colours at reasonable prices; a colour I couldn’t do without is Daniel Smith’s Moonglow for shadows; for paper, I’m an Arches girl; and I have no preferences in brushes; for watercolour sketchbooks, Pentalic all the way because there’s very little wrinkling
9. How do you find inspiration for your artwork? being moved during travel or listening to others’ travel stories; interesting compositions and patterns in architecture and nature
10. How frequently do you write a post on your blog? try to get something on the blog once a week, or twice if I’m producing lots of work; like to post about finished works mostly, but sometimes I’ll post about the process or what might be on my mind about creativity, travel or inspiration

My questions for the Liebster Q&A are:

1. What brought you to the creative work you do?
2. What are any rituals you have before you start your work? 
3. What skill do you wish you could learn – any skill, not necessarily something related to what you do now?
4. What’s your most creative time of day?
5. What music, if any, inspires your creativity?
6. Who did you admire most growing up and why?
7. What’s your ideal workspace?
8. What’s your guiltiest guilty pleasure?
9. What period in history do you wish you could visit in a time machine?
10. What would you tell others who think they aren’t creative?

Thanks again to Snehal, and I’m anxious to learn more about the next group of nominees! And I hope you’ll follow their blogs, too, because they are very wonderful!