art by allysia
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Why I’m Not in a Hurry to Become a Full-Time Artist
I may have mentioned this a time or two before, but if you’re new here, welcome! I’m Allysia. By day, I work full-time as the Community Relations Coordinator at The Arc of Delaware County, New York. Outside of work, you’ll usually find me in at my kitchen table with a paintbrush in hand and a…
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Why I Chose to Close My Shop for a Month
August 31 marked the end of an era for me. My digital painting series has officially been retired. That decision wasn’t easy because those paintings helped me grow as an artist. They challenged me creatively, gave me confidence, and introduced my work to so many wonderful people. But as much as I loved creating them,…
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My Thoughts on ACEOs
I have mixed feelings about ACEOs (Art Cards, Editions, and Originals). On one hand, I absolutely love them. Most of my ACEOs take me between 30 minutes and an hour to complete, which fits perfectly into my schedule. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, I work full time at The Arc of Delaware County.…
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The Apothecary Series, Mindset Shifts, and Showing Up
If you’ve been following me on TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram, you’ve probably heard me confidently say “apocathery.” Well… turns out it’s pronounced apothecary. Bahaha. At least we can all laugh together. This week I completed four new acrylic ACEO paintings inspired by all things apothecary. I don’t know what it is about old bottles, interesting…
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From Chasing Ideas to Building a Practice
If you read my last blog post, you probably noticed that I was pretty excited about the idea of starting guided painting parties. And honestly, I still think it would be fun. But something happened after I published that post that really made me stop and think. I recently came across a video. I cannot…
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Sketchbook Practice and Learning to See Again
Returning to the Basics Lately, my intention when working in my sketchbook has been simple but humbling: to get better at drawing. I have to admit, when I was in school and should have been learning the basics of drawing, my ego had a lot to say. It was very much a “yeah, yeah, yeah……
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Rediscovering Play: A 100 Portrait Challenge
Recently, I rediscovered artist Jess Karp on YouTube. I remember watching bits of her vlog about five years ago, and somehow she found her way back onto my feed. I am genuinely grateful she did. Lately, I have been waking up around 4:30 in the morning and putting on one of her videos while I…
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New Year…new me?
Starting without a plan I bought a new sketchbook at the start of the year with no expectations attached to it. No references, no pressure to make anything finished or presentable. Just a place to show up and see what happens. I have never been great at keeping sketchbooks. I buy them with good intentions…
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Tackling the Limes… Again (And Why I Didn’t Do the Color Theory Exercise)
Ok, hear me out. In my last blog post, I said…very confidently, that I was going to complete the exercise from the color theory course. And… for a couple of reasons, I absolutely did not. Reason one: I wanted another round with the limes before they completely dried up. I felt like there were greens/yellows…
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Snow Day, Color Theory, and a Still-Life Meltdown
Today was a snow day, luckily I brought home my work, which happened to be stuffing 500 envelopes. All. Day. Long. But honestly, I didn’t mind because I had something to keep me company: a color theory course I had stumbled upon on Facebook. I’ve been hunting for a solid color theory class, so when…