Making Art as a Stay-at-Home Mom

I’ve started making art again in the midst of the near-constant chaos that is being a stay-at-home mom of three-year-old twin boys and a one-year-old girl. This is why I thought to try watercolor again, after only really painting in oils since college. It cleans up quickly, takes up little space, is inexpensive, and doesn’t involve solvents. I’ve never really worked seriously in watercolor so this will be an adventure…learning a new medium during nap time.

From a photo taken out a bus window someplace in rural Mississippi six years ago.

My uncle’s kitchen window filled with colored glass bottles.

The painting above of the white building is from a photo I took out a bus window someplace in the Mississippi Delta, I don’t remember where. I love painting white things in watercolor because you get to leave paper blank and make shapes and forms materialize out of a few faint shadows. It’s ultra concise – saying lots with very little.

I also love painting glass. It can be tricky to draw it accurately, but once you get all the shapes right, it suddenly reads as “Glass!!” without any fancy technique. This was a pretty quick sketch from a photo of my uncle’s kitchen window, and I’d like to have another go at it eventually when I can spend a little more time on it.

Molly Bell Minor is a watercolor artist living in Durham, NC with her husband Matt Minor and their three little kids. She is available for commissioned portraits of people and pets, as well as custom house portraits or any other painting you can dream up. She can work with any budget and loves helping people create meaningful art for themselves or for the people they love. Curious about commissioning a custom watercolor? Email her at mollybellminor@gmail.com or visit her Etsy shop at: www.etsy.com/shop/MollyBellMinor