The Artist's Muse: Unlock the Door to Your Creativity [Hardcover]

Betsy Dillard Stroud (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 2006

"To be creative, you simply open a door, the door of the subconscious mind, and allow thoughts and images to emerge unedited."—Betsy Dillard Stroud

Creative opportunity is always knocking, but can you hear it over the drone of everyday life? Unlock the door and open it wide to allow your muse to appear. Travel artistic pathways you've left uncharted, unrevealed, untried.

Inspired by her popular articles in Watercolor Magic, Betsy Dillard Stroud delivers creative challenges, inspirational chapters and profiles that reveal the personal and expressive thought process behind her own work and the work of many other successful artists. Inside, explore ways to loosen up, break through creative blocks and stray joyously from the beaten path.

What glorious discoveries hide behind your creative door? Turn the key for a bona fide aesthetic joy ride.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Workshop teacher Betsy Dillard Stroud is the author of Painting from the Inside Out, and has written for various art instruction magazines, including International Artist, American Artist, Watercolor, The Artist's Magazine, and Artist's Sketchbook.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; Har/Cards (Package) edition (November 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581808755
• ISBN-13: 978-1581808759
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I ride the twin, turbulent steeds of painting and writing. I am a born Virginian living now in Arizona under the shadow of the hawk. I teach national workshops on painting; I lecture; I write for magazines and for myself, and I have judged over fifty international, national, state, and regional exhibitions. I am completing a book I began twenty years ago, and have three published books to my credit. My first book was written under my maiden name, Elizabeth Nash Dillard and was about my finest mentor....Colonel Herbert Nash Dillard, Jr., also my uncle and my father (another story.) As a former art historian, with a proper distrust of labels, I call myself a realistic, abstract, expressionistic, impressionistic painter, who uses color and symbolism as major means of expression in my work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A kit for ongoing inspiration., April 19, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Artist's Muse: Unlock the Door to Your Creativity (Hardcover)

THE ARTIST'S MUSE: UNLOCK THE DOOR TO YOUR CREATIVITY isn't just another book on the topic: it's an actual tool kit that pairs a book with three decks of cards with creative prompts for ideas. By mixing and matching the deck, artists will find about 15,000 inspiring ideas for better art, from paintings and new subjects to new color ideas. Any with a creative block will find THE ARTIST'S MUSE the perfect toolkit for unlocking the block - and while the card/book combo may not lend to library lending, it will provide working and aspiring artists with something they can't be without: a kit for ongoing inspiration.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Artists Muse, May 15, 2007

By 

Fiberphyl (Great Lakes area) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Artist's Muse: Unlock the Door to Your Creativity (Hardcover)

You have to take this book and it's challenges in slow, deliberate sections.
It stirs the imagination and makes you think....and can seem a bit confusing/overwhelming until the reader slows down and doesn't read ahead. I've been able to translate the challenges into fabric.
I'm lucky enough to study this book with an on line group. For me that works best and is how I'd recommend it be studied....either on line or at a local coffee house.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring!! Delightful. Gorgeously written., June 10, 2007

By 

Cactus Flower (Cave Creek, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Artist's Muse: Unlock the Door to Your Creativity (Hardcover)

This artist writes about art so that you cannot wait to paint.

She gives vivid examples of what she is talking about in her own works

and the paintings of others. I was moved to immediately sign up for one

of her workshops. Tbe book is a great read whether you're a would-be

painter or an already-am. As if this colorful book isn't enough,there

are also "inspiration" or "idea" cards that can help guide you to paint

creatively. It's GREAT! Inspiring. Delightful.