Category Archives: Pen

Celebrating Creativity: The 8th Year of The Creative Gathering

A global community of artists exploring new mediums while starting the year with
creativity, curiosity, and connection.

As we begin the 8th year of The Creative Gathering, we’re celebrating another inspiring season of creativity, dedication, and community. This month, our artists collectively created and shared 588 pieces of art. This is a wonderful reflection of the passion and commitment within our global creative family.

Throughout the gathering, artists worked in a wide range of mediums. These include pencil, pen, watercolor, gouache, inks, and oils. They also used photography, mixed media, nature art, colored pencil, assemblage, and journaling. Each piece reflects a unique voice and perspective, with artists of all experience levels sharing their creativity and vision.

What makes The Creative Gathering so special is that it’s truly international. Artists from around the world come together to share not only their work, but also encouragement, ideas, and support. Beyond the art itself, the gathering fosters camaraderie and connection, reminding us that creativity thrives in a supportive community.

Artists often spend long hours working alone, which makes these moments of connection especially meaningful. We share our work and cheer one another on. We witness each other’s creative journeys. By doing so, we build relationships that enrich and reward the creative process.

Each year, participants challenge themselves to try new mediums, experiment with unfamiliar tools, explore new techniques, and learn new approaches. The Creative Gathering isn’t just about making art—it’s about growing as artists and embracing curiosity and exploration.

The gathering is also a wonderful way to start the year on a positive note. By committing to create daily for one month and sharing that work publicly, artists celebrate both discipline and courage. While some complete the full month, we believe that even showing up for part of the month is worth celebrating. Every sketch, photo, journal page, or painting represents a moment of creativity and intention.




To everyone who participated this year—whether you created every day or joined in when you could—congratulations. Your creativity, dedication, and willingness to share help make The Creative Gathering such a special community.

We look ahead to gathering again in September to continue our shared creative journey. Together we’ll support one another, explore new ideas, and celebrate the joy of making art. Let’s see where our creativity takes us next.

Group Gallery, The Creative Gathering

Welcome to October! We just finished another month of creative challenges together. This marks the completion of our seventh year as a group. Thanks to our curiosity and perseverance, we created 368 amazing pieces of art. Great job, everyone!

The group gallery video runs just over four minutes.
You can pause, adjust the volume, and expand it to full screen if you’d like.

If you would like to take a look back at previous galleries, links are below.
You can also visit our Pinterest page. Enjoy!

FEBRUARY 2025

SEPTEMBER 2024

FEBRUARY 2024

For the artists: I have copies of all of the images. They have been cropped, & brightened as needed. Many of the collages have been realigned. If you would like a copy of your slides, message me in the group, and I will happily send them to you. 🙂

Week One Of The September Creative Gathering

A Week Of Practice & Relearning

Day one left me painfully aware that getting back to painting, was not going to be easy. I haven’t touched a brush since our February gathering. My first piece was meant to be a loose and sketchy coneflower. Small, 3 x 5. I painted it five times. Still, it is not loose, or sketchy. My pen lines all but disappeared. I did finally manage to get some decent blends.

Feeling frustrated, I decided to do some abstracts. Hoping again for organic, free flowing shapes and colors. One led to another, and soon I had a series of three. These are all 6 x 6, mixed media. Watercolor, paper, acrylic and Inktense pencils. The paper is lacy, mulberry paper.

After watching a video by Kristin Van Leuven, The Easiest Way To Paint Watercolor Trees. I was excited to try her process. It looked like fun. HA! For this out of practice watercolorist, it was very challenging. Days 5-7 are all watercolor on paper.

It all comes down to timing, and the amount of water on the paper. Basically you have a blob of color at the top, the trees. And a blob of color on the bottom, the land. You connect the two with tree trunks. If the colors are still wet, the colors will blend in the trunks.

I plan on doing more of these. It is fun, as well as a great learning practice. And I still haven’t got it quite right. I completely filled the space. Big huge blobs for sure. A stand of trees.

I want to work at varying the tree shapes, lacing them out. Create softer colors, washy tones, loose and organic. So there you have it. I suppose that is my theme for this month. What I struggle with the most. What I attempt, year after year. To loosen up, and stop trying to control the watercolor.

week 1, The Creative Gathering, September 2025, SMDelgado

Here are some close ups.

Days 4, of the September 2025 Creative Gathering.  © 2025 Sheila Delgado.
Days 4, of the September 2025 Creative Gathering. © 2025 Sheila Delgado.
Days 7, of the September 2025 Creative Gathering.  © 2025 Sheila Delgado.
Days 7, of the September 2025 Creative Gathering. © 2025 Sheila Delgado.

See you in the next weekly round up!
Enjoy the last weeks of summer!