Make Art a Daily Retreat, Not Just a Getaway!
This book will help you make art a daily retreat rather than just an occasional getaway.

100+ Art Exercises to Improve Your Work!
Dory Kanter leads you through 100+ fun, easy-to-do (and hard-to-resist) projects for drawing, watercolor, mixed media, collage and more. Each creative exercise can be completed in a single session, although many may naturally expand into ever-evolving works-in-progress. These projects are refreshingly simple, but not simplistic. They ask you to paint what you hear, imagine a 'room with a view,' and find inspiration in something as ordinary as a label from a bottle of mineral water. They'll help you seize unexpected artistic moments in meetings, at the grocery store, and on your travels.

Claim a Moment for Creativity
Art Escapes is designed to help you uncover creative moments and inspirational sources that lie camouflaged in your everyday life. Every page offers at least one simple, fun, often surprising suggestion for giving artistic form to your innermost feelings and impressions'
* Find beauty in the most simple subjects with prismatic painting.
* Build original paintings out of favorite photos by extending the picture beyond its four edges.
* Discover personal symbols.
* Learn to better appreciate the beauty of the natural world by painting 'observation icons.'
* Escape from the ordinary by envisioning a garden from a bird's-eye view.
* Make a good painting even better by isolating a narrow slice into a panoramic perspective.
* Paint abstractly as inspired by each of your senses.
* Weave 2 paintings together to combine two observations of one theme in an extraordinary way.
* Paint more intuitively and passionately with a simple four-step strategy.
* Use collage to transform the ephemera of daily life.
* Treat yourself to a 'caf' art date' each week; complete a painting in the time it takes you to finish sipping your drink.

Anything Goes!
* Break the rules and take artistic liberties. Paint the sky yellow, the trees purple, the grass orange and the water red!
* The art critic is on vacation. Toss judgment out the window. Nothing squelches creativity more than the daunting expectation of perfection.
* Have fun! Experiment with what you already know, and extend it into the unknown. Liberate yourself from predictability. Open up to the exhilaration of discovery.

Discover Greater Artistic Confidence!
* Build skills! You'll gain a comfortable understanding of how perspective works, how to capture the essence of a subject, and how to paint with passionate color. You'll also expand your repertoire with new techniques including watercolor, mosaics and collage.
* Loosen up! Because you're painting for your eyes only, you will release the pressure of perfection and tune-in to your true artistic voice. Be liberated from the restraints of reality, and free to make more personal, emotional and original creative choices.
* Jumpstart! Whenever you're hungry for painting ideas, open this book for page after page of possibilities. When you're stuck or bored, the creativity exercises in this book will help you break through barriers and paint with abandon.

A Note From the Editor
Art Escapes is a pure delight of a book that I recommend wholeheartedly for artists of any age, experience level, style or medium. Heartily illustrated and durably designed with a concealed spiral binding, it's sure to become one of your most cherished painting companions.