Robin Moulyn's blog, Canadian Artist, acrylic painter - Robin Moulyn

September 28th, 2013

9/28/2013

Hey there Everyone:
Here I sat in Cafe Hood in Banos. They make a beautiful Latte and have a great pad thai. This is really unique here in Ecuador. Usually most of the foods are quite limited. It is also a funky place with lots of artwork around and great music. There were new employees there and the music was a bit too loud today but it was still great.

I had a lot of fun with the greys and blues, and patterns, it was like doing a zen doodle. The dark purple shadows gave the cat the extra pop off the page.
I used my electric eraser to create the highlights.

As you can see, the coffee got to really settle before I got to drink it. It was still good though. I always have to complete a color before I reward myself with a sip and then change colors.

I sat for way longer than when I got my to go carton and paid the bill and they took away my finished cup before I could take a photo of it.

It was a bit of a drag as my neighbors were speaking a language I totally couldn't understand but it was nice to see them enjoy their videos and they were smiling and sharing their points of view of whatever were on the video. I think modern tech is amazing, we have com such a long way.

September 25th, 2013

9/25/2013

Hey there Everyone
This is in the Coffee shop creating art shamelessly. Today's coffee shop was Cafe de Arte y Te in Banos. So I had the first coffee and that was great. See how pretty. But I met another artist there and we chatted for quite a while. It was wonderful to connect with someone from my creative tribe immediately. The did mean however, the second coffee had to be had to get the work at least going. Finally, near the end of the coffee I get some really great progression on the card.

Today, was really meant to christen the project so after I had an rather large personal shock today, which really hurt my feelings..... I decided that the Goddess of compassion and forgiveness was invited to join me for coffee today. I felt that compassion and forgiveness was way more welcome for coffee than having a pity party.

Yup this is totally what I need to create art while in a coffee shop. What you can't hear is the nice jazzy music in the background. But I think that you get the idea.

Sad thing today, was I couldn't listen in on other conversations as I just had too much work to do and had to figure out how I was going to get this job done.

September 24th, 2013

9/24/2013

Hi there All
So this is what is going to happen to help me to learn how to work with writing blogs. I am not always or even close to a creature of habit. So it was suggested to give a theme to the blog to help push it along.
Since I just love my coffee or at least coffee breaks and I love to do art in the coffee breaks, that is what I will be doing taking photos of my coffee and art in the coffee shops that I go to.
I really wanted to share with you all about the great doodly things that you can do in the coffee shop while not listening to your neighbors (only a little so that they don't really know), hopefully listening to some nice music and create art. You can be inspired to create art anywhere especially the coffee shop.
See you at the coffee shop with my travel art kit and latte.
Robin

September 09th, 2013

9/9/2013

Okay so Melissa was interested in what I said about shamelessly creating art in a coffee shop.

Sometimes I get burned out and uninspired sitting in my bright blue chair working with my son at his schooling or working on the computer for websites and PAYPAL, or creating these art cards. So I gather up my art supplies, as it is all portable it is easy. And head out. A nice easy 10 min walk and I am in downtown Banos and in one of the nice coffee shops.

For those of you who don't already know, I love a good coffee. I celebrate it. I love the taste, the smell and for really good coffee shops: the presentation.
What I love about coffee shops is firstly the smell. Good Coffee can smell so amazing.

Usually in a coffee shop, I like to listen to people chat, it is like a dull hum, with some soft and interesting music in the background. Then, I pull out my next bit of art I am working on. Since they are only about 5 x 7 cards, they are a little discrete and subtle. I proudly set up my lovely black (of course) Scrap'N Easelette and my beautiful clutch (Also black, but leather!) that holds my colored pencil leads and the lead holders ( Kor I Noor) and display it in front of me in an anticipatory sort of way. When it is all displayed in front of me on a coffee table next to a beautiful latte it is a work of art and they naturally go together, lovingly.

I look around at all the other people who have nothing better to do than to just chat and gossip about whatever( in this moment I am feeling very egotistic and french artist inspired) while pompously I have the grand ability/purpose to create something wonderful that is truly colorful, so on and commence to load my pencils and reassess my art and put color to paper. Okay so that was just silly but it was kind of fun to write. But that is the kind of silly and fun things you can imagine while quietly creating in a quiet space like a coffee shop.

I find that in really arty cafes: people around you can talk about interesting things and it helps to inspire your work. You don't really listen but you kind of do. Often in places like this, my color choices are louder, more creative and interesting.

Sometimes people talk with you about what you are doing and sometimes just sneak a peek. Sometimes the wait staff or owners also visit and it creates an opportunity for nice simple conversation, nothing really draining but light and easy. All the while the colors and shapes are developing and enjoying their space of inspiration.

If you are drawing people around you, it can be fun also for so many reasons, both naughty and nice depending on your mood and if you enjoy your own company and giggle at your own "mind" jokes. "Mind" jokes are easier as it never hurts anyone else's feelings, it is quite innocent, well my "mind" self is anyway. I like that about my "mind" self.

In the coffee shop your mind can roam without commitment.It is much like a potential movie or theater being played right in front of you…… The more creative, the more colorful, the more interesting, the more experimental is often rewarded because you are in a safe quiet place to do that. No one is really there to judge anyone and that allows for my freer expression. They are occupied by their things, their computer, their friend, their lover, whatever. I am still a part of the group but not really.

I read today that visual art can be like poetry or music or both, with its rhythms and flows its expressions and intellectuality, it concepts, illusions, design and strategy. I can see and feel all that. In a coffee shop you mind can bob around or be fairy like landing lightly here or there, all the while creating art, then having moments of intense Beethoven-like concentration. But mostly, I enjoy the cafe to create art with the freedom to shamelessly create and enjoy art. Let me just adjust my beret for a minute and take a sip of my cafe latte as I have a dead french impressionist to channel.
I hope that this little set of words explained that well enough.
Talk with you all a little later
wish me luck with PAYPAL.
Robin
http://www.robinmoulynart.com

September 08th, 2013

9/8/2013

Hey there All

Today, on Facebook, my dutch cousin who I literally haven't seen in a lifetime commented. It was great, when we were little I always looked to play with her and hang out. She was an artist to and I hope that she still is. She had a great artistic spirit and was fun. She was my age and to be honest I can't remember who was older, and really it didn't matter because kindred minds were at play. Awesome. This is when things like Facebook and other forms of social media work wonders. I had never really been all that keen about it and thought it quite egocentric but it is fun and quite informative if you do it right. I also think that it will make the world a smaller one and maybe we will be able to influence each other for the better. For now, I will celebrate my cousin (I don't know if she wants me to mention her name) YEAH!!! oH yeah and she got a really cool name...I was always envious of it.

September 05th, 2013

9/5/2013

Today is another day in beautiful Banos Ecuador. I however have work to do. Today this means drawing. When I draw for these small cards they are more like an exercise. I am learning by doing with my new Kor I Noor set of colored pencils. I am learning what I and they can do, it is way fun!

I am learning to stretch a little and then redo the whole thing all over again. I use transparency paper to do the primary sketches as it is wonderful to erase and trace over to get the lines correct.

Often when you draw something and you stay close to it, you can loose sight of the little things. Things like: a foot not quite right, depth not quite right, even color as well. You also learn by looking and observing. Sometimes the best way to relook at things is through a mirror or a photo.

You have to open your mind to what is it you want to capture. Many lines can be manipulated and others not. The time to know when you can change things is gathered through mileage of drawing and if you have the chance education. For me the education thing has not been available, but things like you tube are so that is now fun and enjoyable. Ahhh, the computer age, but remember to stay in contact with your paper and pencils.

Enjoy drawing

Robin

September 04th, 2013

9/4/2013

This is my response the other day when my dear dear friend was telling me that she was going to clean her refrigerator. I took pity on her and decided to lighten her mood for her future endeavor:

I am hiding behind the couch right now, I am peeking.....peeking....... I hear the fridge calling but I know it is a trick when I open that door that muck is going to attack.......I will just stay here a while. I have a little bleach and a sponge, I yell to the fridge to settle whatever is inside to settle down or I will attack with the powerful force of cleansers................. HA! Nothing like a threat to gain control of a sanitary situation.
You are brave my friend, attack you fridge with fearlessness.
........maybe I will too.....tomorrow....
I have sent you a disguise so that it won't know its you when you attack! There will be not witnesses.
Love you lots
Robin

I am hiding behind the couch right now, I am peeking.....peeking......he fridge calling but I know it is a trick when I open that door that muck is going to attack.......I will just stay here a while. I have a little bleach and a sponge, I yell to the fridge to settle whatever is inside to settle down or I will attack with the powerful force of cleansers................. HA! Nothing like a threat to gain control of a sanitary situation.

You are brave my friend, attack you fridge with fearlessness.

........maybe I will too.....tomorrow....

I have sent you a disguise so that it won't know its you when you attack! There will be not witnesses.

Love you

September 03rd, 2013

9/3/2013

Hi there all
I don't know if you all know this but I love my coffee. I love my coffee also in my travel mug. Rob had purchased a mug for me as you can't easily get this type of mug here in Ecuador or twizzler licorice or jelly bellies jelly beans, inject sad face here. I was walking around town drinking my coffee and getting errands done. In the post office of all places, my mug was stolen from right under my nose..... I am still a little upset about it. Of all the things to steal, my half drunk coffee in my cool travel mug. I do have to say that I immaturely carried on a bit about it, but it really made me frustrated and annoyed. Of all the things to take, a mug, I mean really. And for some reason, you don't feel complete if you don't finish the last swallow of coffee. After hearing my rant, a friend of mine took pity on me and gave me a nicer travel mug from Starbucks, it even has hearts on it that get redder when the coffee is hot. It is cute. I don't often partake in anything cute but it is cute and sturdy and softens my hard edge in the morning and it is not cute that it is annoying. Too cute in the morning is like someone chattering, abrasive, not acceptable morning protocol. This new mug does soften the burn of losing the other one. I really quite like and am grateful to have it. I am quite attached to my coffee. I have given up so much in the way of bad food habits and such, that I feel that I can have one vise. So out of all the vises that I could have, I think that coffee is a good compromise. So here I sit this morning writing to you all in the lovely warm morning sun sipping my coffee from my new coffee mug with all hearts a nice appropriate shade of red. I am enjoying one of life's little pleasures, coffee at the perfect temperature in the morning, quietly.......

:warning to future coffee mug acquirers, hands off !!!!

Talk to you all later

Robin

September 02nd, 2013

9/2/2013

Hi there All

Well today was a day of finding… Yeah it is an interesting way to start this journal, but that is the reality. So lately, I had lost a few things and today everything has been found. I had lost a piece for my Ipod. My ipod is very important to me, it is a nano, 6th gen it sits on my wrist and is completely portable and discrete. Yeah whatever, looks like I am looking for my lost youth in technology, but often the music here can get rather repetitious. So I use the music to ground myself. I found the missing piece while looking for something else that I thought I had lost…. I had lost my eraser refills for my electric eraser. I love my electric eraser and think that every artist should have one. They are amazing. So, this morning found the lost bit for the Ipod and decided to backtrack to a couple of places that I have visited while drawing to see if I was to find it else where. I mean these eraser refills are useless looking things, I would think that most people would think it was garbage and throw it out. So, keeping my mind on the positive, I went to the first restaurant that I thought it might be. I go there for a quiet cup of coffee and draw. And bright and early this morning, there were the owners having a last quiet moment of the day having their coffee and I asked them and they had it. Yeah! It would be stupid money to have the replacements shipped down here and time and a hassel etc. So I consider myself fortunate. Then as I was walking home, a senior citizen showed up in the street and he had flower bulbs for my husband and he invited himself in and did some gardening….really!!! (by the by I don't know this guy at all) So he taught me what needed to be done with the bulbs and my garden plants, and what stuff was, pruned some trees, dug some holes and we basically visited over the garden. It was nice and so I felt even more positive, kind of surreal though. So back I go to the restaurant because I feel it is time to payback and be grateful for all the positive things that I got today. The young 11 year old son of the restaurant owner is into drawing but has no one to help him. So I sat with him and my son (19) for several hours and taught him about color theory and application and shading and stuff like that…..I did this because he was hungry for knowledge and so intense and loving art… I gave him a portable lap easel that I had made. to encourage him to keep up with his art. He was so proud and then so proud of me also. This was cool because he was showing what his teacher could do to his parents. I had the new greeting cards that I had made for my daughter and he was showing them off to his parents. The owner Juan, felt that my drawings were very cool and that I should sell them but that they should be registered with my signature and initials with the government to protect the art from theft and oth. Here if you register your signature and initials everything that you have signed is proof that you are the owner and no one can copy them. He had the name and number and gave them to me. This was actually one of the worries that I had had living and showing here. So another big bonus, Yeah. Today was a day of good feeding for more good. I guess that I needed a lesson in loosing things, letting go and then accepting the good with trust. Yeah, it was a good day and I love supporting budding artists….. that was the best. So what did I find other than material things,…. patience, trust and love thy neighbor.