Back with A New WordPress Theme, Other Changes, and Some Art

*This is a small watercolour I did in my 4” x 6” sketch journal. I added the dark bluish colour in Procreate.

Hi, I’m back! Which I wasn’t sure would be the case – and to those of you who follow or subscribe to my art posts, and are reading this, thank you for still being here. 

I was beginning to find the online world a rather overwhelming place….Though in the scheme of everyday life, (and a lot has been going on in my daily life recently) not a significant issue!

During a few recent art related conversations, and with my site set to “private”, I soon discovered, I missed being able to share my art and processes in this very handy way! My blog was always intended to be helpful to others. Also writing about and sharing my art here, helps me to clarify and organise some of my art journey.

So I’ve decided to keep my website/blog, but have taken some time to consider and importantly, pray about the best way forward in this busy online world.

As I rebuilt my site, using the lovely “Baskerville 2 “ theme, I made some changes that will be of help to me; and will still keep my site running effectively for visitors. 

Further along, I have a bullet point list of some changes, with a sprinkle of links (I like the pretty green links in this theme) for more information.

I’ve enjoyed the rebuilding, and refreshing of my site; and doing a general tidy up of it’s content. A lot more content than I realized! The WordPress engineers were ever helpful, when I got a little tangled during the change over.

This theme has footer widgets, which I’ve not had before, and were a bit of a learning curve. Instead of a static front page, I’ve returned to having posts as the front entrance – and I love how this theme has a dynamic layout for posts. *Although, not as obvious when viewing it on a phone.

Some Changes

• I’ll not often have the comment section on – but I do have a contact page. I’ve considered this before, and share more about it here. *Perhaps this will change, eventually. Past comments are still visible – and I’ve enjoyed and value all of these conversations! I’ve occasionally received emails via the contact form; and this way of connecting suits me fine.
• I’ll also do some posting on Instagram, @janette_leeds_art; with commenting sometimes turned on. And there’s also opportunity in Instagram for “private” messaging. 
• My “Facebook’ artist page is open, though I don’t post there often, instead I have a redirection notice to here, and to Instagram – which I use occasionally. “Facebook” (with their horrible algorithms) continually request money to advertise my page – not going to happen! They also severely restrict the sharing of my posts. There’s apparently ways to organically grow page views, but it’s not on my list of fun things to do. 
• I’ve also shortened my site’s name, and “URL” to “Janette Leeds Art”. Losing the “and words”, felt in line with simplifying my online activity. Though obviously I can get wordy. 🙂
• I rearranged the menu. Changed the name of my page about apps, to “Some App Information” – made it a lot shorter.
• I don’t have the dates showing on my posts; it’s not really important for the content I share. Though, I do have an archive widget as a way to give a general timeline, and it’s another way to access posts. If you want to remove post dates, go to “Settings” – “General,” in the old “Admin” – press on the “custom” option, blank out the box next to it, and press “save”.

As usual, I did this all on my ever handy iPad; rarely use a computer – for anything.

I still hope to turn my blog into a book(s) as a sort of quirky family heirloom. But not just yet.

It’s near the middle of Summer here in Australia, and the usual time for my annual blogging break. Now I’m back, I shall be calling it that, and be back with a post in a couple weeks!  

Thanks for visiting. 🙂