Tanya's ART NOTES 2

Your Happy Art & Culture Content Digest this week of Aug 20 -27, 2025.

Hey, how are you today? I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since we talked last.

Welcome to the 2nd edition of the weekly art share which I have now formally decided to call Your Artsy Palette Cleanser. The idea behind the name is that is a weekly round up of experiences, art & culture finds to get you excited and inspired for the week to come. Things to help let go of any old stale stuck energy or ideas that aren’t serving you from last week. Then feeling inspired to create something new this week!

And remember “creation” doesn’t necessarily have to mean that you’re making a piece of art. It could be anything that you are putting your heart and soul into.

If you find this missive fun, helpful or even slightly amusing - please share with someone else that can use a little bit of good vibes this week. Remember you never know what someone's going through on the inside, so why not share a little love?
Oh, and if you happen upon this in a sideways kind of way, don't forget to subscribe so you get your weekly happy directly to your inbox.

Okay let's get going!

Colors I'm in Love with this Week

I went on my annual solo off-grid camping trip. Wasn’t what I expected (more on that below) but how can anyone go wrong with the comforting omnipresent natural colours of green , blue and brown… plus cherry tomatoes. hehe.
A slice of Canadiana summer for your week.

What’s up in my Art Studio a.k.a. my spare room

Well, I am excited to tell you that I am finally doing a new art release!
Back in April and May I created a series of pretty pseudo impressionistic style liquid watercolour magnolia buds -say that three times fast . But then my email list got hijacked.

If you were wondering why you didn’t hear from me for two months that was why. Now that I’m back chatting with you (yay!) – I figured it was time to release these just in time for … fall? hahah. You know I’m doing the shaking my head thing because it’s totally the wrong season. But also, you know what? These are pretty!
That means they can shift your mood and make you feel good no matter what time of year it is - so the release is a happinin’.

I’ve got a few of them in the shop getting ready to be live in the next week or so.
Don’t worry I’ll tell you all about it in another mailing ;-)

There are four different art prints and as you can see in the photos, I decided to do a couple styles of greeting card just for fun. Plus I’ve been hand embellishing the prints and cards with a little bit of sparkle. Because you know, you deserve the extra.

Floral Inspiration
And just like that. . . It was spooky season

I love that I currently have red-orange nasturtiums and black petunias on the balcony just screaming at me to get out the Halloween decor. OK I'm not gonna lie. Most of it is permanent fixtures like my crows and the skull in the glass ball. but you should definitely let your surroundings get you excited. Put weird colour combinations together. Make little posies one of my favorite things because I always have tiny flowers as cuttings. I've never liked taking off a full branch and not seeing the buds come to life so I always have tons of tiny little flowers and making them is one of my favourite things to do. It's like you get to be a floral artist in miniature!

Meanwhile, Im still in love with the dahlias and feel incredibly grateful that there is a woman not too far from me who has a garden full of them. She does cuttings every day and sells them for a couple bucks a stem, which means I get to enjoy them all the way through until the frost.

This week seek out some flowers. Buy them or take photos, but let the colours inspire you.

Artist of the Week
Art by Miz Katie Although we just met through text for the first time last week, she is the kind of artist who creates work that makes you feel like you’re already connected on some sort of level. And that’s something that a lot of us are really craving in our lives. I know I am!

I like that there’s a bit of whimsy in the colour she uses, and in the expressions on the faces. But there’s also a lot more going on. Each one of these pieces has their own character. I find it so much fun to see the stories come alive in my mind when I look at them.

She recently completed over 300 portraits(!) over the span of a year and a bit. All of them are fascinating. All of them with their own stories. check out her website below.

And don't forget to go over to her profile and show her a little love. Maybe share a post comment here and there. She's relatively new to sub stack like I am and you know we need to support each other :)

300 is a good number to stop on

Nature Nurture
Over the course of the last month, there have been a lot of wildfires near where I am. Last week after the aforementioned camping trip – one of the fires got very close to home. I had one of those nights where (because my body is super attuned to the smell of smoke having been through two fires in my lifetime) I woke at 3am thinking the building was on fire.

I was in that calm before the hectic space of grabbing the go bag and cat carrier, when I figured I should probably just take a step out. Checking the door knob, which was cool, I walked out into the hall and no clouds of smoke. Until I looked outside and realized that the smell was there. There was so much smoke that I thought the house was on fire.

Many people were evacuated from a lakeside settlement 20mins away and it was all planes and helicopters and sirens for a bit. Fortunately since last week we’ve had rain and some of the best firefighters on the planet here working their butts off, trying to save what they can. Evacuation was rescinded and the smoke is dissipating.

In these moments, you gain a lot of perspective.
The ironical shift was that my camping spot was on the right side of the wind. I was literally 15 km away from the fire when I was camping, but because I was on the other side of the wind, we had beautiful weather with blue skies and fluffy clouds and no smell. It was offgrid - so I had no idea that it had become so close.

As a highly sensitive person and empath, I’m already pretty aware of the suffering of others. But fires are challenging for me as a nature connected being. And so there has been a lot of grieving at the loss of forest and animal life. Plus that deep frustration that comes with wanting to help, but being poweless to do anything except for stay out of the experts damn way.

But I do always remember that what you can take away from these situations is the opportunity to be truly grateful about how much we have available to us.
This week I invite you to take a moment to do the same. Regardless of the chaos on the outside or even the inside of your mind or body - take a moment at some point and remember that you probably have much more available to you than you think you do.

For that and the fact that you are safe and sound – I am grateful.

Good Eats
You are looking at someone who hasn’t had a croissant in almost 15 years.

Not that I haven’t wanted to, just that my body kind of gave up the ghost on gluten and cow dairy. And now that it seems to be actually recognised as “legitimate health challenge” after all this time, its kind of become …trendy? So this combined with the fact that my sister was in Montreal, where they actually have incredible food for everyone! meant I was the recipient of an amazing care package today with gluten-free dairy free croissants!

All day long I’ve been saying tehee hee to myself and I literally did the happy snoopy dance when the box came. Do I give a crap that they are five days old on the verge of mold? No, I do not.

Froze half. Ate 1/2 a pain au chocolat before I even realized - I think I'm still riding that sugar caffeine high 12 hours later…Then toasted one for dinner and made an amazing sandwich. I intend to eat the rest of them in slow motion.

Also note, some of my cherry tomatoes, finally – and I mean finally because these suckers have been on the vine for like three weeks, just staring at me with their little green faces – are ready. That means cherry tomatoes for at least three meals. Yay!

Artists You Should Know
I love following Rose Florence who often shares artists Ive not heard of or haven’t seen in ages. Case in point the amazing irridescent (oooooh shiny!) work of Thorbjørn Bechmann of Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Thorbjørn Bechmann’s formalist paintings demonstrate the process of layering hues and shades to create delicate veils of colour. The luminous quality of Bechmann’s work sits within the artistic tradition of the Sublime.

Bechmann’s work is created through action, freedom and intuition, allowing gravity, gesture and medium to work in harmony. Painted horizontally, solvent-diluted oil paint is allowed to flow freely, harnessed to an extent by the artist’s placement. “

Last Words
In this world, full of insanity and chaos where everybody is up their own patoot because they’re overwhelmed – I am continually blown away with gratitude for the wonderful things that come my way.

I hope this collection of shares inspires you to do a little something sweet for yourself this week. Take a moment to remember how much you have – even if you’re in the middle of thinking you don’t.

Thanks for being here and hey - you know I love to hear from you :)
So drop me a line if you have any feedback, or suggestions on people you would love to see featured.
Cheers
Tanya

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Find me at: art.tanyakucey.com | Substack | IG | YouTube

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If we haven't met yet, hey hi!
My name is Tanya and I'm a non-traditional watercolorist who loves to play with paint and make videos about it. I also really love to share art & culture related content, promote and lift up other artists/creative and give you moments of joy and hope. And the best part? Showing you this lets you tap in to those good feelings which shift your body/brain from complaining to contented.

You can find me on the daily on Substack. Where my content is free with weekly Your Art Palette Cleanser weekly wrap ups and Art Notes once a month. Subscribe for free through your web browser and get your happy delivered directly to your inbox!