Continuing to Move Past the Fear

Hey folks

 

Just over a week ago I blogged ("Moving Past the Fear" - Mon 1st April) about my canvas piece, the process of taking a leap and being brave enough to delve in thanks to the guidance of Flora Bowley. I spent a couple of hours on it on Sunday, as a well done to myself for working hard on my latest assignment, and here's the progress:

 

 

 

 

 

It was a frustrating session at times, it did't flow as well as it had on previous days but I took it steady, experimented a bit and it worked out well in the end. I can see where it's going now and feel a tree is emerging on the left and the woman on that side with her baby on her back needs highlighing in lilac. It's good to have plans to go back to when you finish a painting session. As I struggled I also reminded myself this was my first canvas and to just enjoy the ride, see what the paints can do and how brilliant this canvas will be to look back on in a few years :).

 

Happy arting everyone

 

 

 

 





Back to Business Monday - Week 1 CAPI

  Welcome to my first "Back to Business Monday", every Monday I'll blog about how setting up my business "Into the Mix" is going... 

 

 

In order to set myself up under the business “Into the Mix” I need products, stuff to sell, wares to wield, gorgeous loveliness to brandish and my own unique art to unleash upon the world. Ok, but first I need to nail my own STYLE. Hmmm, not as easy and obvious as it sounds. I looked at my work in the new year and realised I didn’t have a core style and this is where CAPI 2013 came in.

 

CAPI stands for “Create Art Portfolio Ideas” and is a free online art course by the wonderful Milliande. The course is all about drawing out your own unique style, it’s a slow paced course you can join at any time and you can follow it on Milliande’s site, the CAPI Facebook group and at The CAPI ning group. The accompanying videos are available on Youtube and there’s also stuff on Pinterest! Phew, lots to see and do!

 

I wont blah on about the assignments, the different sketchbooks and files you’re encouraged to keep and so on, I’ll leave that to Milliande! However, I will post some of my work in stages so you get an idea of the process:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early stage free-association drawing where you pick out forms and shapes to work with. I picked this one as it looks like a woman with a flowing dress.

 

 

Developing the form and on this photo you can see a woman which most resembles that original form.

Starting to test her out in different mediums...

Oil pastel.

Watercolour.

Now she has some friends...

I can see these becoming a series on greetings cards and prints too. I LOVE these figures and find them so effortless to create. I love how they link to the natural world and are so simple in design.

So, watch this space, folks.

Remember what you were Told About Leftovers…

I like to think of myself as a frugal artist, I don’t like to waste anything (remember what you were told as a child about waste!)  and more and more I’m finding ways of using everything in inventive ways. This is, in part, thanks to the gorgeous Jennibellie whose blog could be entitled "The Frugal Artist", she’s incredible and is helping guide me along as I endeavour to make my own journals from scratch.

So, yesterday after painting on my canvas I had some left over paint and taking my beloved artist sponges I set about slapping the paint onto any journal I could find. This included my trusty A5, black faux leather cover journal. I’ve found these are my favourite type of journal as I don’t have to prep the pages every time (I can just glue a couple together) and the paper quality will stand up to a lot of media. These cost me about £3 from my local ASDA supermarket and come in all sizes. So, as I slapped the paint down in my A5 journal I loved the result instantly as the sponges had soaked up several colours, creating an effect I’d be hard pushed to replicate with a brush…

　

Scrummy, gorgeous, loveliness…I LOVE this pallet!

　

　

I felt inspired to draw on the pages using my favourite black Pitt pens and white uni-ball Signo. I love circles, sprials, wavy lines, the natural world and female figures meaning this double page spread sums up where my a lot of my art is at right now. I'm thrilled with it and it shows me, yet again, what using up those leftovers can lead to!

Moving Past the Fear

I promised myself a day of art and relaxing and here are the results so far...But before I show you my WIP (Work In Progress) I need to tell you about the amazing painter Flora Bowley. I came across Flora's work last year and instantly found her art a breath of fresh air and so inspiring on numerous levels. Flora is an artist who pushes the idea of letting go to the fullest, her book "Brave Intuitve Painting" is superb and gives the artist permission to experiment, explore and "Let go. Be brave. Unfold." I love this sentiment as a year ago, before I knew of Flora, I painted in the front cover of my (then) new journal "Be brave, be bold, banish the fear."

Being able to move past the fear can be a huge issue, especially for those new to art, all those questions of "What if I...do it wrong/make a mess/waste a canvas/page?" etc etc. I've learnt to think "So, what?" It's all about the experience, you can't make art if you, well, don't make art. Remembering no one else has to see your work if you don't want them to is also vital.

So, here's my canvas. I started it on Mother's Day after reading Flora's book in the morning. It's far from finished but I'm so thrilled with it.

 



I'm having a lot of fun exploring what the acrylic paint can do on the canvas and have found that using cheap artist sponges to work the paint creates beautiful effects, see pallet below.

 

Cheap sponges that make me so happy!

 

Happy arting everyone :)

 





Order of Progress

I don't often use geometric shapes in my art but these Steampunk papers fitted beautifully with my page. I have also used the matching stamp and loved working on the theme of progress, moving forward and being ordered - so relevant to my life right now :).

May the Art Fest Begin...

After a period of great work stress, I'm on a break now. I work with young children, term time only and so here in the UK it's the Easter holidays. I'm up for two weeks of family time, arting and hopefully gardening, oh yeah, and an assignment to write (I'm a mature student, more of that later).

So, this morning I started decorating the cover of a handmade journal from my good friend HK (see post "Random Art of Kindness"), we have done a journal exchange and I've been busy personalising the outside of mine. I love it, I love the whole journal as it was made especially for me by someone I care about.

This is why I want to make art journals to sell, so that people can buy them knowing they have been made with love, care and with the intention of being a means of self-expression. With an art journal, the possibilities are endless, there are no rules and it's all about the pure joy of creation. For me, art is also about unravelling your true self, seeing your mind, emotions, fears, thoughts, desires, hopes, dreams and everything else that makes up you being laid out. You get to play with that, explore it, express it and share it if you so choose. Many people do, that's one of the beautiful things about the art journaling/mixed media community, we choose to share it all because, for many, to be an artist is to be in touch with the self and not be afraid by what is revealed.

So, quite something for what appears to be a place to doodle and make a mess  ;)

Happy arting everyone.

These Hands were Made for...

 

These hands were made for swirling, swishing, dabbing, painting, playing, printing, sploshing, testing, trying, drawing, pushing, pulling, placing, peeling, drizzling, stamping, snipping, sewing, sticking, tearing, scrunching, measuring, stroking, tapping, embracing, unravelling, transforming and creating.

 

These are artist's hands.