The Creative Chook

It's Over!

2011-02-17T02:21:00.000-08:00

What a whirlwind these past two weeks have been. I have visited nearly 900 artist's blogs over the last couple of weeks. What an amazing experience it has been. I have met many wonderful and talented artists and have added a lot of blogs to my reader! I have been overwhelmed by the number of comments I have received and am thrilled to have acquired 50 new followers! That should keep me on my toes.

All good things must come to an end however, and I have used random.org to generate the prize winner of my painting.

The winning comment belonged to Mel from Paper Imagery Designs. Congratulations Mel.

Now I need to get back to the studio - with all my blog hopping I've had no time for art.

One World One Heart Giveaway

2011-01-30T01:29:00.000-08:00

The final
One World One Heart Blog Open House is on. Bloggers from around the world offer a "door" prize which will be drawn February 17th. All you need to do is visit the blog of the participating artists, leave a comment and you will be in the draw to win their prize/s. Simple isn't it?

Followers of my blog have seen the process of creating this prize. It culminated in an unfortunate incident where a lot of water was spilt on the painting. Fortunately I managed to cover up what wasn't meant to be there. Unfortunately, what I didn't realise was the amount of water that had been spilt on the painting, saturating the board the canvas is mounted on. We have have extremely hot weather here, the board dried out today and some of the canvas has come away from the board making bubbles underneath the painting. The affected areas are the corners and top of the painting so the winner could frame if and camouflage the damage to a certain extent. It is very disappointing but only slightly detracts from the focal point of the painting.

So if you are interested in winning a slightly damaged, but still beautiful original acrylic/mixed media painting, please leave a comment below and a random draw will select the winner on February 17th.

Weird

2011-01-28T22:35:00.001-08:00

According to my daughter, I am weird. Why else would I be sketching my blender? For the Sketchbook Challenge of course - the January theme is "Highly Prized". There are so many things I highly prize - my family, my faith, my health ... the list goes on. However, I love my Vitamix blender - I use it 3 or more times in a day - it sits on my kitchen bench at the ready. I make my green smoothie every morning in my blender using whatever fruits are in season plus some greens such as spinach and kale. A wonderful way to start the day. I make my almond milk in the blender, salad dressings, my chocolate nut bread (see previous post), soup, etc. It makes short work of anything I throw into it. With my raw diet, there is no way I could manage without it - so here she is - my highly prized kitchen appliance!

Great news - I managed to salvage my painting for One World One Heart blog giveaway (starting on Monday!). I will give her a couple of days to dry then spray her with fixative so no other accidents will affect her. Onto my next project now - stay tuned.

Chocolate Nut Bread

2011-01-24T04:02:00.001-08:00

Well at least something productive came out of my studio - the chocolate nut bread is delicious! What you probaby don't know about me is that I follow a way of eating that is referred to as "high raw". I went on my raw diet about 4 months ago, have lost weight and feel great. Most people would probably feel this type of diet is a bit extreme and that it would probably be boring, but it really isn't and I have to say that I am never hungry!

The recipe for the chocolate nut bread was from
Rawfully Tempting and I did modify it slightly as I didn't have some of the ingredients and I forgot to add one of the ingredients.

Chocolate Nut Bread
1 cup almonds (soaked 6 -8 hours)
1/2 cup macadamia nuts
1/4 cup shredded coconut
3 dates, pitted and chopped
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1 apple
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt
1 Tbsp cacao powder
2 Tbsp almond butter
1 Tbsp ground flax seed (this is what I forgot)
water, as needed to mix
dash of cinnamon

Process all ingredients except cinnamon in food processor or high speed blender. Leave a little chunky. Using an offset spatula, spread the batter onto a non-stick dehydrator sheet about 1/8 - 1/4" thick. Dehydrate for 4 hours, flip onto mesh sheet, score with a dull knife, sprinkle with cinnamon, and dehydrate another 6-8 hours. (Don't let it dry out too much).

Cover and store in refrigerator for 2 days or freeze.

Try serving with a bit of nut butter.

Sorry I don't have the photo to post as I still haven't got a battery for my camera. If you go to the link above you can see a photo of it. This is so moreish and really good for you.

Nothing Much

2011-01-23T03:07:00.000-08:00

Teenagers have taken over my studio these past couple of weeks. Needless to say I haven't got a lot done. My camera's batteries are flat so I haven't been able to take any photos of what I have done. To add to it, when I went to my studio today to put some chocolate nut bread in my dehydrator, I found that water had been spilt over my painting and other bits and pieces on my work desk. I have tried to salvage my painting but the colour from her lips has bled down her chin. I will have to try and mix up another batch of skin tone and try and see if she can be salavaged. If not - there goes my prize for the One World One Heart giveaway. Sigh. No one has owned up to it and I'm sure it was an accident anyway - fingers crossed I can fix her.

Only Words

2011-01-12T02:03:00.000-08:00

I had a big afternoon shopping with my daughter and by the time I got home, I was exhausted and took myself to bed for a nap. Still didn't feel so great, but dragged myself off to the studio to put the words onto my painting. They read "A person's world is only as big as their heart." I thought this was appropriate given that the painting is part of the One World One Heart blog giveaway. So, despite best intentions, she still isn't finished. Tomorrow ...

Home straight

2011-01-11T02:18:00.000-08:00

Almost done. Today I collaged the heart with scrapbook paper then a few different coats of transparent paint, finally finishing with a coat of gold mica flakes from Golden. The heart was then outlined with a bronze/copper lumiere paint. I painted the dress and added the pattern with a fine brush. Tomorrow, I will finish off her face with blush and some subtle shading and think about what other elements I will include - then she will be finished. She will have plenty of time to cure before she is posted to her new owner. I don't usually work on canvas boards but because it is more than likely she will end up in a foreign land, she will be able to go as a letter instead of a parcel, hopefully which should cost considerably less. The new owner can then decide how to frame or mount her. I'm thinking about what to paint for my next project now. I need to do something for my 100th blog post giveaway ...

Hair Glorious Hair

2011-01-10T02:24:00.001-08:00

I think the hair is my favourite part of the portrait. Eyebrows are my least favourite, they are really hard to get right and the more you fiddle the worse they look. I have painted my one world one heart girl's hair red - I love this colour, it is so vibrant and alive. It is really great to be painting again - I go down the back of my yard to my studio where it is peaceful and I can be in my own little world - very relaxing. I thought you might like to see a picture of my workbench - I'm a very messy artist and don't clean up as I go. When I have completed my project I get everything back in order. What you can't see is my overflowing rubbish bin - it is filled with paper towel and junk food wrappers - not mine - they belong to my children who use the studio for sleepovers with their friends. Hope you are enjoying this work in progress. I am up to Day 10 of my Create Every Day challenge.

Eyes and Mouth

2011-01-09T03:14:00.000-08:00

She is starting to come to life now. Tonight I painted her eyes and lips and already she is starting to take shape. Considering I haven't painted in a year, I am quite pleased with her, though I can see many flaws. Tomorrow I will start on her hair; I am trying to decide what colour - red or brown? Maybe inspiration will strike while I sleep. Back to work tomorrow - this will limit the amount of time I can spend painting but even if I paint only a little every day, I will make progress.

Thank you to everyone that left lovely comments on my "intimidated" post. It really helps to know that there are other artists out there that feel the same way and can relate to how I feel. Thanks for your support.

Shading

2011-01-08T01:34:00.000-08:00

It has been a day of colour today. The hairdresser painted my hair, I painted the last of the walls in my bedroom (and it looks fantastic) and I have completed the shading on my one world one heart girl.

I mixed up my skin tone and put two coats all over the skin areas (photo 1). I then used a darker tone to do the shadow areas (photo 2) and lastly I applied the highlights (photo 3). I am really out of practice with my shading and the paint dried so quickly I had to re-do a number of areas which is why it looks a little patchy. However, as my mum used to say "a blind man would be pleased to see it" or I guess a more politically correct way to verbalise this these days would be "a visually impaired person would be pleased to see it".

We welcomed a new addition to our family today - Sarah is a cockatiel and she is beautiful. She has made herself at home, is very tame and loves to be with us. We are going to get a companion for her next weekend so that when we are at work and school she doesn't feel alone. We are calling her companion "Chuck" - we really love the Chuck tv program - can you tell?

Intimidated

2011-01-07T03:12:00.000-08:00

There are some amazing talented artists out there in blogland. Whilst they invite inspiration they can also encourage intimidation. I have to remind myself that I am creating for the pure pleasure and the relaxation it brings me - I don't have to be as good as or better than anyone else - I can just enjoy creating. Posting my efforts on my blog are helping me to be accountable, even if only to myself. I have a long journey ahead of me and I intend enjoying every little twist and turn and if I am influenced by other artist's styles, or by looking at their artworks it sparks greater creativity in mine, then I am grateful. I have met the most wonderful, generous souls through blogging about my artistic endeavours, they inspire and motivate me. I am grateful to them and to all artist bloggers who so generously share their talents with the world.

This is Day 7 sketch. I think I will make her into a painting entitled "I wonder ...". Unfortunately I did not have time to do any more painting on my one world one heart girl, maybe tomorrow ...

Beginnings

2011-01-05T23:46:00.000-08:00

I transferred my drawing to the background using carbon and have used three coats of white fluid acrylic on the skin. After each coat, I redrew the features on her face so they do not get completely lost. She doesn't look like much now but as I add skin tones and facial features she'll look a lot better - I promise! The only problems encountered today was the paint drying too quickly in our very hot climate - this may be a problem when I lay down the skin tone - I'm hoping for a weather change. Fingers crossed.

Enough is enough

2011-01-05T03:35:00.000-08:00

I finish work at 12pm on a Wednesday so I rush around doing all the little jobs I don't get a chance to do during the week. In between time I managed to paint the background for my One World One Heart Girl. It was an exercise in frustration. I was really happy with it but did I know when to stop, no of course not! Just a little bit more ended up being too much and the background was ruined. When to know enough is enough? I waited for it to dry and then basically painted over it - it isn't nearly as good as the first background but it will do, afterall the girl is going to take centre stage and the background is the prop. Tomorrow (day 6) I will transfer the sketch onto the background and lay down the first coat of her face.

The old saying "if you don't use it you lose it" is very true. I'm definitely out of practice. This image isn't the best, it isn't taken in natural light so there is reflection off the picture, but you will get the general idea and when I take further photos of the evolving painting you will see it better.

One World One Heart

2011-01-04T01:58:00.000-08:00

I have decided to enter into this blogging world giveaway. Apparently this will be the 5th and final year. I didn't have time last year to participate but am going to this year. I pondered what to create for this wonderful event and thought maybe a painting might be the way to go. I have done the preliminary sketch and will commence work on the background tomorrow and then transfer the sketch to the background and have the work in progress documented on my blog culminating in the final reveal on the first day (30th January) of the One World One Heart event. I haven't painted one of my heart-shaped-face girls for quite a considerable time now so I am looking forward to seeing her evolve. I'm going to collage parts of the painting in addition to the acrylics - hope she turns out OK or I'll have to come up with something else for the giveaway. What are you creating at the moment?

Locust Plague

2011-01-03T01:33:00.000-08:00

We are currently being plagued by locusts. Every time I go out in the car I come home with yellow and green splatter all over it. Swarms of locusts surround you as you walk into the backyard - they are everywhere. Birds are gorging themselves and becoming too full to get out of the way when you are driving on the road. The cats and dogs are eating them. They have the most beautiful wings. I wonder where they go at night??

I painted some mini 4x4 canvases, a lesson from my Texture Town class - using a limited palette of Golden fluid acrylics, creating "red", "blue" and "brown" paintings. Quite fun to do - I do enjoy painting abstracts. The colours don't show up that well in the photo, you'll have to take my word for it that the painting on the right is in brown hues. Day 3 done. 362 to go.

Cosmos

2011-01-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

The Creative Every Day 2011 challenge for the month of January 2011 is "Cosmos". I guess most people would think of cosmos as being what is out in space but being the gardening lover that I am, I immediately thought of the flowers cosmos. I love cosmos, their beautiful ferny foliage and their vibrant colours. I must plant some soon. I was unsuccessful with my last planting, the soil here is very poor and rocky and dries out very quickly on a 44C day!

My sketch of cosmos was done using Derwent Inktense pencils and a Pitt artist pen. Now onto completing the painting of the walls of our bedroom, making the most of the public holiday before returning to work tomorrow. Have a great day everyone.

Heaven Scent

2011-01-01T23:49:00.001-08:00

I worked out that the Sketchbook Challenge is not a daily creative challenge, rather a minimum of once a month based on a theme. The theme this month is "Highly prized" so I will work on that during the course of January. I decided to join a daily challenge so have once again signed up for Creative Every Day 2011. Creating can take many forms but I am going to mainly concentrate on art. This is my day one sketch. It is of the most heavenly candle. While we were on holidays recently, I walked into a shop which sold kitchenware and smelt the most delightful scent. I asked the owner of the shop what made the store smell so nice and she showed us the candles. Even unlit they emit a beautiful perfume. My daughter decided that it would make a good Christmas gift for me and so I was presented with this on Christmas morning. It now lives in my bedroom and my whole bedroom has the most divine heavenly scent, gently wafting, not overwhelming and it fits with my new colour scheme. Yes, I have been busy painting our bedroom and it is looking fantastic. Now onto some real painting!

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

Wishing all my family and friends a very happy new year. I'm hoping I can turn the corner creatively and make the time to do what I enjoy. I have joined the Sketchbook Challenge - which is drawing in my sketchbook every day of the year, hmmm, wonder how I'll go with that.

I am also going through all the lessons for the Texture Town course I signed up for so expect to see some of my work in progress.

Hopefully I haven't over-committed myself - wish me luck and I wish you all the very best with your own creative endeavours.

Missing in action

2010-10-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been 8 months since I last posted anything. Well, I haven't really had anything to post. I got a new job and it has basically consumed all my time! I have never been so busy. I wish I could say things have settled down and back to normal - but not quite.

I have been busy this past week making pioneer costumes for my children. They have headed off today on a pioneer trek up in the Riverland. They needed to dress like pioneers, they will be cooking and eating like the pioneers, and basically living the way the pioneers lived. They have handcarts that they will have to push and pull to carry all their provisions. I'm sure this experience will give them a far greater appreciation of what our pioneer ancestors sacrificed and they will sure appreciate having a shower and the mod cons when they get home.

I have signed up with Julie Prichard's and Chris Cozen's "Texture Town" online class. Sounds like a lot of fun - make a total of 11 paintings using quite a limited selection of materials. Check it out Texture Town It is self-paced so I don't have the pressure of getting things done by a certain time. Hopefully it will start those creative juices flowing and help get me back some "me" time.

New toy

2010-01-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

I am the proud owner of my new Bosskut Gazelle personal electronic die cutter machine. I can see I have a very steep learning curve ahead of me - it comes with Funtime software which is a learning experience in itself.

I really needed to learn to use it quickly as I had to make 40 invitations for a church meeting in a few weeks time. After much trial and error and some help from the wonderful lady I purchased it from (thanks Alisa)I was able to accomplish the task I had set out to do. I learnt a huge amount in the process, making many mistakes but I know that as I continue to use the machine and software that my knowledge will continue to grow and this little machine is going to make life easier for me, my family and friends!

This is the project I made. I wanted to make some cupcake invitations to go along with the theme of the evening "Dessert First". I found the cupcake invitation design when I did a google search and came across Elizabeth's blogs. (For some reason when you click on that link it adds a %22 to the end of the URL, just delete those and you will have the correct link). What a great find! I was saved endless hours of work because of her generosity in providing the template. I needed to convert the .gsd file to a .wpc (another steep learning curve), but it was very satisfying to have the job finally done.

I have been sketching as well - I will show you next week as I am still awaiting my pen eraser. I am a week plus behind with my on line class - hopefully I will be able to catch up. The lessons with Misty Mawn have been great - I am in awe of her techniques and results. I can't wait to try them - the results could be quite interesting!

Wishing you all a great, creative week.

Sketching and Productivity

2010-01-19T00:46:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Although I haven't posted anything on my blog for a few days, I haven't been slacking. Why is it that all the fruit trees ripen at the same time? I have been madly drying apricots and bottling (canning) them. The plums are ready too, so on my next day off I will be making plum jam and plum sauce. The peaches are just about ready so on the weekend and early next week I will be doing more canning. The nectarines are ripening in batches thank goodness!

I did a few sketches a week ago that I haven't got around to posting. So here they are now.

I have started my Misty Mawn on line Drawing and Painting Portraits workshop. My first lesson is about pencil drawing and our first assignment was to draw a ball or egg. Here it is:

The second assignment in the lesson is to fill a page with faces, trying to make them have different expressions - well I filled the page, don't know about the expressions. I found it very difficult to draw that small - my eyesight isn't that good. We also have to draw some faces but I don't have all the items I need yet - am awaiting a stick eraser and some blending stumps - I really can't do much without them - my finger (my usual blending tool) is too big. Can you believe we don't have stick erasers in Australia - or if we do, I haven't been able to track one down. With a stick eraser you can get into very small areas to erase, such as the eyelids and pupils - something you simply can't achieve with a regular eraser. Can't wait for these to arrive so I can get on with my sketching.

Comments have been made about painting the sketches - yes I intend to get back into that too - just warming up at the moment ;)

Contour portraits

2010-01-08T20:43:00.000-08:00

Just to prove I haven't been idle and that I have actually been doing some sketching!!

My 11 year old daughter wanted me to show her how to draw faces as hers always look a little, ummmm, odd shall we say. So, I went through the procedure with her showing her how to put the guide lines in and where the eyes should be relative to the shape of a head etc. This is what the sketch turned out like:

I have done several more sketches and excuse all the lines on them but I didn't have an eraser handy so they are there warts and all.

Yesterday, Misty Mawn issued a pre-class challenge and that is to draw some contour portraits. What is a contour portrait?? You need a picture of a face. You have the picture in front on you and also a piece of paper and an HB pencil. You look at the picture and move your eyes over the outlines you see in the picture and at the same time you draw the outlines on the paper, without looking at the paper and without lifting your pencil up from the paper so you end up with a continuous line. It was actually quite fun - maybe that is how Picasso got his portrait style! Here are mine:

It is very hot here today. I was up at 7am picking apricots and then halving them to prepare them for dehydrating. The temperature is in the 40's and tomorrow it is expected to be 45 or 46 degrees celsius (115 F) - not pleasant at all. The hot weather is continuing into next week as well. Thank goodness for airconditioning that's all I can say!

Yearning

2010-01-05T13:05:00.000-08:00

I was too busy last night watching episodes of "Chuck" to do a sketch but I did one the night before which I share with you. She has this look in her eyes and I was trying to put a name to it when I came up with "yearning". I don't know what she is yearning for; maybe I'll have to think on that one.

We have a hot week here - most days in the high 30 celcius bracket - thank goodness for effective air conditioning.

Bushy Eyebrows

2010-01-04T00:44:00.000-08:00

At 10.30pm yesterday, I was trying to unwind, doing a little sketching of this girl. The children come into my bedroom to see what I'm up to, bouncing up and down on the bed oblivious to the fact that it makes it a little more difficult to sketch when the paper has momentum. "Her eyes look funny", "It's not a her, it's a boy - look at the eybrows", "are you going to leave her lips like that?". Hmmmm, I patiently finished the drawing and sent them packing off to bed. Oh the joys.

Tonight, my muscles ache. After over a week of not carting a baby around for most of the day, my muscles went into meltdown. It was lovely to be with them today - my repertoire of songs and fingerplays included: "We wash our dirty hands", "1 2 3 4 5 once I caught a fish alive", "Here is the beehive", "Twinkle Twinkle little star", "Baa baa black sheep" and "Galumph went the little green frog" to mention a few. I love my babies.

Quick sketch

2010-01-02T23:58:00.000-08:00

I have had the week off work between Christmas and New Year and what a productive week it has been! I need to go back to work for a rest - just joking. I cleaned out and reorganised the storage room in my studio - I couldn't even walk into it, now it is streamlined with shelves and I know where everything is! Wow - I have already saved myself so much time not having to look far to find things. It was a huge job and took a couple of days but it was soooo worth it. I also sewed drapes for my studio, repurposing some old lounge drapes, cutting them down to size and adding some contrast fabric on the bottom of them - they look great.

I also used my solar oven for the first time. It arrived the week before Christmas and one of my goals for my week off work was to give it a go. I cooked a chocolate cake in it and our evening meal - all turning out delicious and not a cent of electricity used in the process. Very satisfying and yummy to boot.

I repaired a doll, replaced elastic in two dress-up skirts, made a heap of texture cards for my babies at work and a tablecloth.

I spent a day at work too, getting all the resources organised, hanging a curtain rod and curtains and mobiles. It feels so good to know that when I go back to work tomorrow everything has a place and is readily accessible. Yay!

Of course, there were some jobs that I didn't quite get to - but all the things I really wanted to do have been done and there will always be jobs on the list of things to do.

I digress from the title of this blog post - last night before I went to sleep I did a quick portrait pencil sketch - it was pretty dark in my room but I'm quite pleased with the way she turned out - maybe I should draw in a darkened room more often.

Have a great week!

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T14:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends. I have been somewhat absent from the computer the later half of 2009, but am looking forward to getting back into my art. To give myself a kick start I have signed up for Misty Mawn's Drawing + Painting faces online class. I can't wait to get started - I think it will be just the boost I need. I also notice that there are a number of students signed up that I already know from blogging land and other online classes I have done - so that is an added bonus! My studio has had a good clean up so I am as organised as I'm ever going to be. I am looking forward to sharing my sketches and paintings with you.

Sorry Friends

2009-08-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

I have been absent for a while and have not been doing much art at all. However, the drought is broken, I am back.
I am finishing off a dotee doll for a swap - the theme is Russian and I will make another smaller doll to go in the pocket of this work in progress doll.

I have started a very special journal, utilising my moleskin that I have been too scared to touch for fear of spoiling it. The journal is entitled "Gratitude and Inspiration" and it is a special book to contain my personal thoughts of what I am grateful for and the things that inspire and uplift me. I am really excited about this - it is something that has been at the back of my mind for ages and I have a friend that is taking the journey with me. We will exchange our journals periodically to write uplifting messages to one another and then return them. I can't wait. The photo is of my first page and utilises caran d'ache soluble crayons, Golden liquid acrylics and distress ink, oh, plus some perfect pearls in multiple colours. It looks beautiful in real life, as it really sparkles depending on how you hold it, as I used some interference colours. Hopefully, this is the start of many more pages that I can read over and over to lift me when I am low and to remind me of how much I have to be grateful for. Thank you to those special friends that have emailed me to tell me how much they miss my blog posts - I appreciate each and every one of you.

Black and White Dotee Doll Swap

2009-07-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the dotee doll I received from the black and white dotee doll swap held recently from a Yahoo group I belong to "Delightful Dotees". Jude made her for me - isn't she gorgeous?

Wedding over

2009-07-06T17:21:00.001-07:00

My sister's wedding was beautiful. It was quite casual and laid back which was nice. Not very formal. She looked radiant as did he. I don't think I've ever seen her looking so happy. It was a lovely day. Glad it is over though. All my family was there which was such a surprise. I knew that 5 of us siblings would be there but you could have knocked me over with a feather when my brother from New Zealand knocked on my door on Thursday before the wedding. He'd received an email about the wedding the night before (he hadn't been able to access email for a while),phoned his boss to see if he could take some time off, phoned the airline to see when the next cheap fare was. He found out a plane was leaving for Melbourne from Christchurch the next morning at 6am, it was a cheap fare so he took it. He threw a few things in a suitcase, jumped in his car and drove from Queenstown where he lives, to Christchurch (600km I think he said - an all nighter driving). He got to the airport just in time (his car gave him trouble on the way and he couldn't drive over 80 kph). He hired a car when he got to Melbourne and drove to Adelaide where I live (another long, long drive - around 8 hours). He looked a little tired but it was so good to see him. I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers and we last were together at my mum's funeral a couple of years ago and before that it had been more than 25 years we had all been together. Everyone has gone now, which is sad, but it was so great to catch up with everyone. You can check out the photos here My facebook photos. The above photo is of me with my husband and children.
The sad, sad news is that my computer has been in the workshop for a couple of weeks now so I have been using my husband's laptop when I could. However, that has picked up a very bad virus from my son's USB, which has wiped out the hard drive. That is now useless. My Mac, may it rest in peace, had overheating problems which wiped out its motherboard. It will cost $1,000 to replace the components, or $2,000 to buy a new one. Oh the decisions to be made. Fortunately I do a full mirror backup every day so I can put everything that was on my old Mac onto a new one if that's the road I decide to travel. What do you think - should I buy a new one? I do love my Mac and really couldn't go back to a PC.

Black and White Dotee

2009-07-02T03:15:00.000-07:00

I recently joined "Delightful Dotees", a yahoo group that is devoted to Dotee Dolls. In my excitement I signed up for a swap (one for one) with the group and I needed to create a black and white themed dotee. This is my effort. I'm actually pretty pleased with it because it is my first ever dotee. It was really fun to do and I can see that it could become quite addictive. My B&W dotee is ready to post so I hope Jude (the recipient) likes it.

Wedding Invitation

2009-07-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

Since so many of you have asked to see the wedding invitation that I made for my sister's wedding, I managed to get a spare and photograph it. The invitation doesn't show up very well due to the subtle nature of the design. I cut cardstock to size and ran it through my cuttlebug with an embossing folder. I then used a Brilliance gold ink pad over the surface of the embossing to highlight it. I printed the details of the invitation onto vellum and printed it out on my laser printer and then cut it just smaller than the cardstock. I placed gold heart brads in each corner to secure the vellum to the cardstock. I didn't have much time to make the invitations so I needed to do something that was quick, easy but looked great and I was really happy with the way these turned out. They look so elegant in real life and my sister tells me that so many people commented on how beautiful the invitations were, so mission accomplished. The two photos show firstly the invitation in its entirety and the second a closer up look.

Where have I been?

2009-06-25T01:20:00.000-07:00

Drowning in work I'm afraid. Every 2 and a half years the Child Care Centre where I work goes through an accreditation process and as one of the Team Leaders I need to ensure that everything is as it should be. Currently we are awaiting the validator's visit at which time she will go through everything with a fine toothed comb and we need to provide the evidence of our quality practices. I love my job and know that we work to the highest possible standard so this process doesn't phase me at all - it has just meant a bit extra work as I have only been in this role for 6 months and there were lots of things that needed to be done that hadn't been done by the previous team leader.

On top of that, my sister is getting married - yes, the sister that moved here from New Zealand with her daughter just before Christmas. She asked me to make the wedding invitations so I made 50 and they looked beautiful. They get married on the 4th July and I have been involved in the wedding preparations as well, which has taken up more of my time.

I am enrolled in several on line classes at the moment but am not doing any justice, hope to get back into it soon.

Oh, my daughter broke her arm the other day - she fell off a quad bike. She is quite proud of her purple cast but is quickly working out that she takes her arm for granted and how limiting it is for her. I have to put her hair in a pony tail, I will probably have to shower her or work out a way to wash her hair without getting the cast wet - oh and she has to have it on for six weeks.

I finally succombed and joined facebook, so if you want to add me as a friend, look in my side bar for my details.

That's all for now, sorry for my long absence.

Golden Angel

2009-05-28T16:20:00.001-07:00

You may remember that just before Christmas I was painting four angels at the same time - each of them with a different colour hair, eyes and wing treatment. A couple of them went to secret santa gifts, one to a work colleague and the final one, lay unfinished in my studio until yesterday when I pulled out all stops and ta dah, she is done. She is my only blonde haired angel, or I like to call her golden. I think I need to continue my heart face, spiral hair girls, I quite enjoy doing them.

Great Mail Day and portrait progress

2009-05-27T20:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday and today have been great mail days. I received two art quilts that I bid on in the recent Collage Mania auction to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. Both these art quilts were made by the wonderful Fannie Narte in memory of my mother who passed away from cancer a couple of years ago. Fannie lovingly created these and the detail is amazing. I wish you could see them in real life. I am keeping the "Create" art quilt and will be giving the "Journey" art quilt to my sister. Thank you so much Fannie. You must go and check out her website - her art is amazing and so diverse. Oh, and Fannie included a something special for me in the parcel - a personally autographed copy of "Taking Flight" by Kelly Rae Roberts. Can you make out what the writing says? If you can, please let me know - I'm not that good at reading script. I love this book - it is one to reread over and over.

Today I received this charming mixed media piece that I purchased from Martha Lever. Isn't it divine?

I managed to finish the shading on the two girls, so now just finishing up the backgrounds and they will wing their way to two of the ladies who are participating in my "Pay it Forward" - so watch out for your mail deliverer, ladies.

Abstract

2009-05-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here's something you probably didn't expect to see from me. I belong to a group called "Loosen Me Up" on Gary Reef's Ning Group. He recently posted the first exercise which was "painting to music".

I really enjoyed this exercise. There were a few firsts for me. One, take a tip from Gary - do it outside next time! Two, I actually used my easel for the first time ever - I bought it years ago with good intentions of taking up painting! Three - my first ever abstract.

I used colours that would go with my studio. I used a canvas that I had started a folk art painting on many, many years ago and never finished. It always bothered me to see a half completed painting just sitting there, now I don't need to be bothered any more! I debated on what to do the painting on - should I waste! a canvas, should I used poster board, butcher paper - what? Ultimately I am happy with the choice I made - I really like my painting and intend hanging it on the wall of my studio as a reminder to be more loose and free when I paint.

Oh, the music that I painted to in case you were wondering was ABBA Gold - haha, showing my age now. I used a very wide brush to start with (probably 4" wide) and then grabbed a brayer which was lying nearby which happened to have rubber bands wrapped around it, some bubble wrap and then finished off with a paste brush to flick paint everywhere (and I mean everywhere - I had a bit of cleaning up to do). Having said all that - I still have to loosen up a lot more which I look forward to doing as Gary's Ning group exercises continue.

Hair and Eyebrows

2009-05-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

So much for my productive week - I think I spoke too soon - I haven't been able to get down to the studio until today. It has been showering today so the perfect opportunity to do some painting. Since I last posted about these paintings I have been somewhat preoccupied with making resources for my babies - I just love all of the babies, they are so gorgeous in their own precious, individual ways. You can tell I love my job can't you!! Anyway, back to the paintings - I have added hair and eyebrows which makes them look a bit more human. I still have the shading to do on the faces and of course I need to think of some background words/pictures to go along with them. Hmmmm, sometimes I think that is the most difficult part.

Blogger Friend Award

2009-05-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

A new online art friend, Beckie Holso , was so sweet to award me with a "Friends" blog award. Here's the link to her blog: Art Beckons.

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers."

Now I'm supposed to pass this award on to 5 other deserving bloggers who meet that criteria - check them out:

The Bodhi Chicklet
Faint Heart Art
Sherry Carrigan
Imagine, Create, Inspire
One Day at a Time

There are so many inspiring blogs out there that meet this criteria - I could have listed many more - I am so grateful to the technology that makes making friends all over the world so easy.

Portrait Progress

2009-05-07T02:39:00.000-07:00

After an extremely unproductive morning - well I cleaned all the bathrooms first thing, before dropping the children to school, came home ate some toast and then went back to bed - until lunchtime. I was sooooo tired. Hope I'm not coming down with something again.

After I woke up (because the phone rang and my daughter wasn't well at school so I had to pick her up), I went down to the studio and did some more work on the portraits. Finished off the white base coats, and then mixed up the skin tone and painted the girls with 2 layers. Then a bit of shading and highlighting. I finished off the night by painting their eyes and mouths. I don't know when I'll get to the final shading and hair, soon I hope. Now that I'm at this stage, I will also finish off an angel that I painted before Christmas, she is just waiting for final shading and her hair to be finished off. Woo hoo, I'm on a roll. It feels good (doing happy dance).

Productive Day

2009-05-06T02:46:00.000-07:00

Today has been great! Not only did I get all my grocery shopping done this morning, I also purchased two gorgeous artworks from Collage Mania - creations of the very talented Fannie. I'm so excited my bids were accepted, both of these were lovingly and graciously made by Fannie in memory of my mum, Zelda, who passed away from cancer two years ago. I am going to keep one and give one to my sister.

After lunch I thought I might go down to my studio and have a bit of a tidy up as it hadn't really been touched since my sister moved out of it in March. Having cleared my work surface I decided that I would do some wet felting to refresh my memory from the 2.5 hour course I did on the weekend. I am making a sketch book cover. There are no seams, it is felted with a pocket in it. I haven't finished it yet - it needs to dry and then I am going to add some further embellishments to it. I am really enjoying wet felting - I can just see the potential and possibilities. Don't you just love the colour of the pouch?

After dinner tonight, I again ventured down to the studio (it is in my backyard). I decided it was about time I did some more painting. I have started two girls, transferred from some sketches I did back in November last year. One of the girls has 3 coats of fluid titanium white on her face, the other only has one coat so far. I will photograph progress as I go so you can see how I go about it. I'm really not sure how these ones are going to turn out as when I prepared the backgrounds in December last year! I texturised them and some of the texture is on the face and neck - almost looks like they are prematurely aged! Oh well, we'll see how we go - gotta try these things.

I have also decided, in hindsight, to never do 3 courses at the same time ever again. Only ONE! OK, so if I ever again do anything so silly, please email me and tell me that I must be out of my mind. I couldn't do justice to any of the courses because not only was I really busy at the time, but I really needed to concentrate on just one process so that I could do that well, instead of three badly! Never mind, we live and learn.

Well that's it from me for today, I'm hoping to get some studio time tomorrow, though one of my things I really want to do is make some drawstring bags for storing heuristic play materials in for my babies at work. Hmmmm, that housework may just have to wait!

Wet felting project

2009-05-02T21:10:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I was able to attend my first wet feltmaking class. It is a 2-part class over two Saturday afternoons. I developed an interest in felting a couple of months ago, bought lots of wool and tools but didn't have the confidence to give it a go, even after watching lots of youtube videos! I saw this course advertised and even though it is an hour away from where I live, I thought it was an opportunity too good to miss. The tutor was great, explained and demonstrated in an easy to comprehend way and we were set loose to create our own felted piece. This photo is what I did, I have a feeling I may have over felted the piece, I must ask the tutor next week. We also learnt the process behind creating a double sided object such as a glasses case, or bag and how to go about it. Next week one of the things we are doing is round beads and sushi beads and some other bits and pieces. Have to tell you though, those felt making courses should have a disclaimer about the exercise that is involved. My arms and shoulders were aching when I go up this morning! Great work out. I am looking forward to creating more pieces and getting more adventurous and possibly incorporating felting into my mixed media pieces. The potential is endless really, felt is a vibrant medium that is beautiful to work with and with lots of possibilities. I'm a convert!

Tagged

2009-04-29T20:06:00.001-07:00

I was tagged by the effervescent and talented Aimslee over at Paper Paisleys some time back and naughty me just hadn't got around to doing it. This is the result:

Way back when I was Joey Scout Leader our State Branch issued a challenge to take a photo of your section eating at an unusual place. We decided to eat popcorn on top of the bunyip cave - a local tourist attraction where I live. The children had to climb onto the top of the "cave" and then I took the photo. Guess what - we won the competition! Probably not the safest venue for the activity, in hindsight, but the kids had a great time and that's what is important, haha.

Here are the rules for this tag:

1. Go to the photo folder in your computer.
2. Go to the seventh folder of photos.
3. Go to the seventh picture.
4. Put the picture on your blog along with a description of it.
5. Invite seven friends to join the challenge.

I am not actually going to invite 7 friends, you are probably all tired of me tagging you - so I'll just leave it that if you really want to participate, go ahead. What photos do you have lurking on your hard drive?

Some sketches

2009-04-29T19:52:00.001-07:00

I know it has been a while since I shared anything with you, that is because I haven't really done much. Yes, I know I participated in 3 courses, but I can't say that I have done anything with them yet! Maybe I should make May my "Make art every day month or else"! Here are a few sketches I did do in April, and I would like to paint them at some stage - wish me luck. Thank goodness so many of my blogger friends are so inspirational and they update their blogs more regularly than mine! Oh, and I have some paintings I need to do for my Pay it Forward participants too - can't wait to do those.

Surprise in the mail

2009-04-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been over a month since my last blog entry - so sorry - have I been slack or what!!

Yesterday a lovely surprise arrived in the mail from the USA. Upon opening I discovered this gorgeous little cardboard shrine and a packet of ephemera. These were sent by the lovely and talented Carol over at Swallowcliffs Blogspot as part of her 29 gifts project. Carol made up 29 parcels containing pieces of art she had made, wrote about it on her blog and asked those that might be interested in receiving a parcel to indicate their interest by commenting on that blog post. From all the names of people that expressed interest, 29 names were drawn to randomly receive a package. How cool is that and how generous. I'm thinking about participating in it myself, but I have to create some artworks first and they'd have to be fairly light because postage from Australia to the States is horrendously expensive. If you want to find out more about the 29 gifts project go to 29 gifts. Thanks again Carol for your generosity.

Library Card Project

2009-03-25T21:17:00.001-07:00

Jeanne over at One Day at a Time has got a few of us involved in a really fun project. She sent out library card envelopes to all participants with part of a story she has written in each envy. We each had to decorate the envy, take a photo of it and send it back to Jeanne. When all of the envies have been returned, Jeanne will publish the story in its entirety. I have just finished mine, and several other participants have returned theirs - so check it out on Jeanne's blog - she spins a great yarn!

I received a blog award recently from my dear Canadian friend, Kim at The Bodhi Chicklet. The award is called, Premio Dardos, meaning "prize darts.” This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day. Here's what it looks like:

Thanks so much Kim - sorry I didn't do the tag part of the award - if anybody is interested in doing it, check out Kim's blog and consider yourself tagged. I've been a bit busy lately!
I've been involved in several online classes which are and have been a lot of fun - Willowing's World of Whimsy, Paulette Insall's Organic Backgrounds, and Artella's Me-Flections - so lots to keep me busy and out of mischief.

Sketches for World of Whimsy Course

2009-03-08T14:34:00.001-07:00

We have just had our second lesson for the World of Whimsy class with Willowing. The first lesson involved the "rule of thirds" and composition. The second lesson was all about sketching the whimsical creatures - heads, eyes, noses, mouths, bodies - a lot of fun. It is nice to do sketching that is less realistic and where really, anything can go. Sorry about the dreadful jpegs, I have had trouble with the scanner and camera - really consider yourself lucky you have anything to look at! Thanks to those who entered my Pay It Forward giveaway - everyone has sent me their snail mail addresses so in the next few months or so, look forward to receiving an original artwork from me in the post!

Pay It Forward Giveaway

2009-03-02T02:33:00.000-08:00

I got this off Chavah's Blog. I had read about it before and had toyed with the idea of participating, but with so much happening in my life at the time I decided to postpone to a later date. Well, this is the later date!

According to the rules, you have 365 days to send out your homemade gifts. Rest assured, that if you win, I will not wait 365 days to send you your gift.

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. If you are one of the first three to make a comment, you are a winner! And you then agree to post this challenge on your own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward.

While I'm unsure of exactly what I'll be sending my 3 participants, it will more than likely be a mixed media piece, maybe a portrait or some whimsical art.

One World One Heart Blog Winners

2009-02-11T18:54:00.001-08:00

There you have it - the winners of my draw. Congratulations. I will email each of you to notify you of your win and in return, you will need to supply me with your snail mail address so I can get the little elves winging their way to your home. Thanks for visiting my blog - hope you can come again soon.

Big Blog Browsing Butt

2009-01-31T21:53:00.000-08:00

I have done it! I have visited all of the nearly 800 blogs that are participating in the One World One Heart International Blog Giveaway! I always used to call my butt "Browser Butt", but now I'm sure my butt size has increased due to my lack of physical activity through blog-hopping, my fingers may have lost some weight though! It is so amazing to see how many generous bloggers, worldwide, are participating in this amazing event. I have been blown away by the awesome talent that is out there, and the amazing giveaways they are offering.

I have been honoured with a blog award by Linda. It is the The Marie Antoinette, Real Person, A Real Award, thanks so much Linda.

The Marie Antoinette,
Real Person, A Real Award

Here are the rules for the award:

1. Put the picture of Marie Antoinette on your blog.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs.
4. Link to those blogs from your blog.
5. Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know you've shared the award with them.

Here are the wonderful bloggers I would like to nominate (in no particular order).

Kim - The Bodhi Chicklet
Fannie - Imagine, Create, Inspire
Martha - Martha Lever Lettering and Design
Vicki - Faint Heart Art
Annette - Annette in Oz
Jo - Art Heart Studio
Heather - Creative Solace

All these ladies, (and others) are a wonderful inspiration to me and have been very encouraging to me on my artistic journey. Thanks ladies. Even if you don't want to nominate 7 blogs, I hope you can accept this award from me with my heartfelt gratitude for who you are and all you do.

One World One Heart Blog Event and Giveaway

2009-01-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks, comments are now closed for this giveaway. Stay tuned to find out the winners via random number generator. Good luck!

I've decided to hop on board the gypsy caravan and put up some giveaways for the One World One Heart worldwide blog giveaway.

I have six sets of these adorable little shelf sitters made from cotton spools, spelling out the word "peace". Leave a comment by February 11th and you will be entered into the draw to win a set. Good luck!

Fat Book Pages

2009-01-25T17:23:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone, I know it has been a long time since my last post. I have been very busy in my new job and when I have been home I have been doing a lot of reading, to re-familiarise myself with the 0-2 year old age group (previously I taught 3-5 year olds). I am loving my new job role though, it is a pleasant change. Additionally, my sister and niece who are living with us at the moment, have taken over my art studio so it has been difficult to get in there, I like them to have their privacy. They have found a house that they like and are going to make an offer on it this week, so I should have my studio back within the month! Yay!

OK, today (Australia Day) I had no choice but to invade their personal space as I desperately needed to complete the 120 pages for the Fat Book Swap I am involved in. We needed to choose a technique that used recycled or cheap materials. I chose to use rubber band printing. I used cereal boxes as the basis for the 4x4 inch squares. I base coated these with acrylic paint (Payne's Grey). Using a brayer, I took off the handle and wound rubber bands of various widths around the brayer, overlapping them to get different sizes and effects. I rolled the brayer in another acrylic paint (Red Earth) and rolled the design across the fat book page. When that was dry (it didn't take long), I inked up the brayer on a gold Brilliance ink pad and again ran the design across the previously printed fat book page. It was a really fun technique to do, very speedy, very effective result. I found I could vary the design by curving the way I ran the brayer across the page, by criss-crossing, by shadowing, etc. Really there are so many options on how you can vary this technique. Give it a go. I have used it as backgrounds on my portraits for a different sort of effect. It would make a nice background for cards, ATC's, moos, etc.

CED Full Moon Dreaming

2009-01-14T03:06:00.000-08:00

I feel better than I have in ages, I think the medication has really sorted me out, crossed fingers. I have started my new job role and my body definitely feels it. Lifting and lugging babies is great exercise, my muscles are testifying to this after only 2 days! Just goes to show how old and out of shape I am. Tonight, tired though I was, I decided enough was enough, it was time to play. My studio has been taken over by my sister and her niece, but undeterred I went down and retrieved my neocolor soluble crayons and some reservoir brushes and took them up to my bedroom where I had fun experimenting and messing around. It felt good! I was just using my sketchbook which doesn't hold up to wet media very well, but I wasn't really concerned about the buckling and the finished product, I was more focused on playing and exploring with no real goal in mind. Admittedly, these past few nights have seen my bedroom brightly lit by a full moon and I was wondering how I could capture the beauty with my meagre abilities. I keep reminding myself that I am a beginner, I have a long journey ahead of me and as long as I get some enjoyment, self satisfaction, and stress relief from my little creations, then life is good.

"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best" ~ Henry Van Dyke

Oh, and here is a little sketch of a heart shaped girl - I think she looks a bit alien-like, so I've called her alien girl, hehe.

World of Whimsy

2009-01-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Bloggers, I'm back in the land of the living, well my mind is willing, my body is weak, but I need to get back to work to earn some money to pay some bills - which pour in at this time of the year. A new school year commences in just two weeks and that means school fees, stationery, updating outgrown uniforms, bus tickets, well you get the idea. It was $165 just for a calculator for eldest son's math class, eeek. I'm still a little dizzy, but hopefully I'll be OK. Guess what, I've signed up for another on line class, how exciting. It is called World of Whimsy being run by Willowing. Check it out here. I haven't done an on line class since Paulette's faces class and I enjoyed and learnt so much from that. It doesn't start for a while yet so I have plenty of time to finish my 120 fat book technique pages that I need to do by the end of January. I have nothing to show you, I haven't had the energy to even pick up a pencil, let alone do anything with it, but I am hopeful I will get back into the swing of things this week. Thanks for all your well wishes while I was sick.

Sick Chook

2009-01-06T22:33:00.000-08:00

There was a reason for all that sleeping, I've been one very sick chook. Thought I'd better let you all know before I head back to bed again. I'm on double strength penicillin so I should be getting better really soon. I'll have a lot of blog reading to do but at the moment I am too weak to stay on the computer for any length of time. Talk to you all soon.

Tortillas to die for

2009-01-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

I had a terrible day today, well it started off good. Went to church, (that was the good part), but when I came home I was so tired I went to bed and slept until 4pm. Woke up and prepared dinner. We had burritos, a family favourite. I make a yummy lentil filling - this time I added a tin of tomatoes that had chilli in it, which gave the burrito mixture an extra zing and a batch of tortillas. No, I do not buy my tortillas, I make them from scratch. My family refuse to eat bought tortillas any more after tasting this wonderful recipe. Here is the link. You have to try these, they are fantastic and so easy to make. OK, they are a little time consuming, rolling them out - and I double the recipe. There are never any left after my ravenous mob get stuck into them, but on the odd occasion there are some left, they freeze really well, then a quick zap in the microwave and they are fresh once again. Oh, after I had my two tortillas, one big juicy peach and 4 yummy apricots, I felt terrible and went back to bed. My daughter woke me up at 10pm and asked if she should go to be yet. Hmmmm, let me think about that - YES! I got up at 11pm, checked my emails, and then went back to bed. Very unlike me. Back to work tomorrow - then I'll really have an excuse to be tired. OK, so no art as such, my creative effort for the day (CED) is my cooking of the burritos with a bit of a twist on my recipe. Oh, if you want the burrito mixture recipe, just say so and I'll post that too.

Sun Kissed Girl

2009-01-03T01:06:00.001-08:00

I had a very productive day today, though not really a creative one. My house is clean though and so is my computer after deleting lots of unnecessary files. For my creative efforts today, I made a cushion cover for my daughter, a batch of playdough for work and this quick sketch. I've called her a sun kissed girl because it reminds me a little of my daughter, who is blond with a beautiful olive skin at this time of the year. We had the most perfect day today weather wise - don't be jealous now! I never did make it to the studio to paint my New Beginnings lady, I remembered I didn't have any masking tape - the boys used it up masking a perimeter for their Warhammer game. Hope everyone is having a great day.

New Beginnings

2009-01-02T02:19:00.001-08:00

This is a sketch I did during December with the intent of painting when I could. With going on holiday, Christmas preparations and New Year I haven't been very successful. I managed to prepare a background today and will transfer the sketch and commence painting tomorrow (that's if I remember how!)

Creative Every Day Challenge

2009-01-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

I have joined the challenge of "Creative Every Day" run by Leah. I need to create something every day of the year, it doesn't matter what it is, as long as it is some form of creative endeavour. Today I made a card table play house/cubby. This is going to be used in the Baby Room where I will shortly be working - it will be a nice quiet space for any babies that want to get away from the crowd. It was fun to make - I made it up as I went along and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. It is very simple, no windows, but the door flap can be rolled up. My 12 year old son couldn't resist getting inside, and I can't keep one of the cats out either! The great thing about it is when it isn't in use it can be stored very compactly - just fold up the card table and the cover until they're needed again. Now to get stuck into some painting.

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T03:35:00.001-08:00

I always use this time of year to reflect on the year that has gone and to make goals for the coming year. More often than not I start off with the best of intentions which gradually dwindle as the year progresses. Next year will probably not be any different, but I will give it a try. Blog land has opened my life to so many new friends and for this I am extremely grateful. For all of your support, friendship, encouragement - it gives me the incentive and hope to go on and continue with my journey. If I try I won't succeed and I can and do learn from my mistakes. I look forward to continuing this journey with you, sharing in your joys, hopes, dreams, successes and together, let us fly to where our muse takes us and where our dreams unite us. Wishing you all a Happy New Year and may 2009 bring happiness and joy into your hearts and lives.

I'm Back!

2008-12-22T02:43:00.000-08:00

We're back from a wonderful holiday away. We had perfect weather and lots of time to relax, read and shop. The male family members enjoyed the fishing and caught some huge snapper, lots of whiting and crabs. I spent the majority of time doing puzzles, reading books about raising a teenager and a book about losing weight! Hmmmm. New Year's resolution coming up. I only sketched one picture while I was away and I am hoping to paint it in the next week or so - I'll show you once I get started - it is called "New Beginnings". I finished this doodle, sorry the photo is blurry. Well, it doesn't seem like I was even away, it was back to work today, a day off tomorrow to get my Christmas grocery shopping and organising done, then back to work on Wednesday. The child care centre where I work closes down between Christmas and New Year and I won't have to go back to work until the 5th January, so it will be a nice break. My sister arrived from New Zealand a week ago, with her daughter, to live here, so we have been busy looking at houses on the internet and having nice long chats. They will live with us until they get settled here. I have some photos to show you - the view from where we were staying, my DH and one of the DS's with the fish they caught, my daughter with a joey she fed (the owners of the villas were fauna rescuers and looking after 2 joeys), one of the joeys - how cute is he!, and of course, my doodle.

Sharing some sketches

2008-12-12T03:31:00.000-08:00

I have been too busy to paint this past week, yet I still have one more angel to complete as a Christmas present. It will have to wait unfortunately, as my family and I are off on holiday (vacation) to the beach (it is summer in Australia) for a week, returning 20th December. I will take my sketch book, so hopefully will have something to show you upon my return. These sketches that I share with you are just rough ones, I haven't even rubbed out a lot of the guide lines, but each night I try and sketch some girls. It is most interesting to look back on my sketches, some are really quite awful. A couple of these I really like and will paint them - I quite like my heart shaped girls and their spirally hair. I also just like to sketch and experiment, it's a lot of fun. Hope you manage to get your Christmas shopping done (I did majority of mine on line), and enjoy this wonderful festive season. Talk to you when I get back.

Christmas Cheer

2008-12-06T02:15:00.001-08:00

Sorry, I haven't done any painting, but have finished this applique wall hanging (it is a pattern by The Chook Shed - well I think it is by memory). It is a teacher gift (school finishes next week here in Australia and the children start their new school year at the end of January with new teachers). Over the years I have made countless Away in the Manager wall hangings for friends and teachers - yes, that's right, so many I have lost count. Do I have one myself? Nooooo. I have never had the time to make one for me. Do you find that? Do you give away everything you make and have nothing left but memories? I love to see the joy my creations give to others, but gee I wish I had some of my stuff for display in my own home, LOL. Three of my angel paintings have gone to their new homes. My work colleague was thrilled with hers, so were the rest of the staff, they all want one of their own. One work friend was talking about how she hadn't had enough money to buy much for her Secret Santa person and asked how long it would take for me to paint an angel. I explained that it was quite time consuming and I wouldn't be able to do it for a week. Meanwhile her Secret Sister recipient asked if I could paint her an angel with brown hair and blue eyes and that she would pay me for it. When I got home I wrapped up the brown haired, blue eyed angel and gave it to my work friend to give to her Secret Santa recipient. She was overcome, and just about shed tears - she was so grateful. I said, if I had another one she could have that for herself and have promised to paint her one of her own as soon as I can. It was such a good feeling to make someone's simple wish come true. It was quite weird actually, because the painting was destined for someone in the UK, but for a couple of days I had been having second thoughts about sending it, so I guess that must have been the reason. Christmas really is about the joy of giving.

Two more angels completed

2008-12-03T23:39:00.000-08:00

Had a good day in the studio today, completing two more angels. I rubbed gold rub 'n buff on the molding paste angel wings and it looks quite effective and incidentally, quite festive (she is meant to be a Christmas Wichtel angel). She flies off to the US tomorrow. The other angel has embossed cardstock on her wings, rubbed over by a Brilliance gold inkpad and surrounded by seed pearls. I'm really happy with how they have both turned out. Only have my blonde angel to finish off and that's it.

Yesterday I received this gorgeous painting that I bought from Sherry Carrigan, a wonderful artist. It is my Christmas present to myself. I could really relate to the sentiment of this painting - getting older and greyer "age is nothing more than maturity of the heart". It's just beautiful. Check out Sherry's blog and Etsy store, you are sure to find something you like.

Back to work tomorrow, so not a lot of art will happen at home. My cold isn't any better, in fact I think it has got worse but I'm sure I'll get better soon.

Oh, check out my niece's website, Chavah Kinloch, she has a special giveaway on her blog - you need to perform a random act of kindness and blog about it linking back to her site.

First completed angel

2008-12-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

Yes, today I completed one of my angel girls. Thanks for everyone for their suggestions for wings. For this angel I used mulberry paper (I've had it in my stash for years, and years, and years ...). I think it works quite well as a wing. I've used German scrap for a trim around her gold and bronze lumiere painted dress. The quote on the pictures says "We are each of us ANGELS, with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another". She is for a work colleague for our Secret Santa swap on Friday.

My other angel has a wing courtesy of Golden molding paste. I masked her body and around the wing with masking tape, placed a crocheted doily on top and used a palette knife to smooth the paste over the doily. I then peeled off the doily (and immediately washed it), and the masking tape, and was left with this beautiful textured finish. (See the close up photo) I am thinking of rubbing some gold on it - what do you think? I really need to get her finished so I can get her in the post to the US on Friday. She is being sent to an unsuspecting secret sister as part of the Milliande Wichtel swap.

I still have a horrible cold and constantly sneezing, wiping my nose and my eyes streaming but I am having such fun painting these lovely girls. I already have my next project in mind - bought the canvas today for it - I am going to paint a pretty girl (ala Willowing and Suzi Blu) for my daughter for Christmas - can't wait!

Shading complete

2008-11-28T22:42:00.000-08:00

I have finished the shading on two of my angels. I need to have these in the post by Friday latest so they reach their destination in time for Christmas. Next step is the wings and clothing, finishing touches to the background and voila - they'll be complete. I'm still trying to decide what to use for the wings - there are a few options I am considering: fantasy film (which I have never used before), some glittery opaque fabric, or painting them and using some Perfect Pearls. What a dilemma - any insights welcome - or additional suggestions (not too many though - I get confused when offered too many choices - keep it simple, LOL). For your information, these are both 8"x10" canvases.

Hair and blog award

2008-11-27T22:53:00.000-08:00

I managed to paint two of my angel girl's hair - as you can see, they are redheads. I rather like red hair. I was going to paint one blonde but didn't have the colour paint needed (that's the trouble when you are just starting out - getting supplies in dribs and drabs). They have two coats of hair colour, and I need to add in the texture, highlights, shadows, etc, but at least I have made a start.

Trish, my wonderful, talented friend has awarded me my first blog award. This award states that: This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends, they are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.

Such a nice award - I'm supposed to pass it on to 8 bloggers for the reasons stated above:
1. Jo 2. Linda 3. Katherine 4. Annette 5. Teri Leigh 6. Vicki 7. Heather 8. Sherry

Continuing Progress

2008-11-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

I've had a productive day in the studio again. I still had a lot of difficulty with the shading. Reflecting back to my first portrait, the only difference is the stay wet palette, so as suggested by Sherry, I will try using it a bit differently to how the manufacturers suggest. Today I completed the touch up shading, the highlighting, painting the eyes and base coat for the mouth. I don't know that I would paint four of the same pictures again, not at the same time anyway - it becomes a little monotonous, but it was better when I did the eyes as each girl has different coloured eyes. So, that's it for today, I have to work tomorrow so not a lot will happen, and the day after my youngest turns 10, so she has a full day planned for us all.

Portrait Progress

2008-11-26T01:50:00.000-08:00

I had to work today so didn't get much opportunity to paint. After dinner I went to the studio and attempted to do some shading on my angel girl, but the sun was setting through the window and the light was too bright (if you can believe that), so I am not completely happy with the shading. I'll be down in the studio tomorrow morning (the morning light is best for me) and attempt to re-shade to my satisfaction. My stay wet palette works really well - maybe too well - I found the paint has thinned somewhat from the moisture in the sponge under the palette paper - so we'll have to see how we go tomorrow. The first photo shows the base skin colour and the second photo shows the first shading. Tomorrow I will finish the shading and highlighting and hopefully start on the eyes and mouth - I'll have to see how far I can get (remembering I am working on four of these at once). So until tomorrow - stay safe and create.

New painting

2008-11-24T21:53:00.000-08:00

I've had a great day today, spending the majority of time in my studio. I really don't want to go to work tomorrow, not while I'm on a roll! I painted four backgrounds on canvas in preparation for painting some angels. Today I transferred the drawing of the angel for the Christmas swap I am involved in. I decided that I would do the same painting on all four canvases. Why you might ask? Firstly, I have a Secret Santa present I need to have done by Friday next week, plus other gifts to make for Christmas. My quilting supplies (I usually make applique wall hangings) are trapped in the back of my studio storage area thanks to someone I won't mention who cleaned out his shed and transferred lots of stuff into my storage area. OK, I admit, it is all my stuff, but at least a pathway could have been left so I can actually get to the stuff I use ALL the time! Anyway, I digress. Secondly, I got myself a new stay wet palette which is fantastic, and I can now make up a big batch of say, skin colour, and it won't form a skin and dry out, so I figured I may as well paint lots of portraits while I'm at it. Well, that's my reasoning anyway. I'm going to use different colourings on them all though, so they won't look like complete clones. I have been sketching every day, but haven't shared those, thought you might be getting a bit tired of my daily portrait sketching by now. Oh, this background is collaged and then gessoed over, then I inked it with chalk inks and rubbed at them. She is actually going to have a few wrinkles in her neck from the tissue paper I used in that area - but it all adds to the charm I think - and what's a few wrinkles between friends. After I transferred my drawing, she received a few coats of titanium white fluid acrylic where her skin is. What I haven't taken a photo of yet is her skin - I have finished her skin colour but haven't done any shading yet - my next step!

Dream Girl finished

2008-11-20T00:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, the "Dream Girl" is finally finished. Just added the finishing touches today. The quote says "Dreams are free, so free your dreams" by Astrid Alauda. I am really happy with the way she turned out and can't wait to get started on the next ones - I have already prepped the canvasses. I figure if I get into it straight away, I am more likely to remember the techniques Paulette taught in the classes.
Oh, and this portrait is my submission for the November challenge of "lace" at Embrace the Face. Make sure you check out the fantastic artwork there.

You've got mail!

2008-11-18T21:23:00.001-08:00

While I was eating my lunch at home today the parcel post lady knocked on my door with a large parcel. Yes, it was my birthday present from my husband, my tin of 84 neocolor II crayons. How exciting to see all the beautiful colors - can't wait to play with them.

Giveaway

2008-11-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

Check this outAll you need to do to have a chance to win it is to go visit Kristin's blog. Better be quick!

New sketches

2008-11-17T02:20:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday - I had to work but the children sang Happy Birthday to me at the tops of their voices - so cute (I teach 3 and 4 year olds). I got spoilt, as it should be, even my children got up especially early so they could see me before I headed off to work at 6.30am. My eldest son gave me a box of chocolates so I can get even more fat, my second son gave me a wall plaque which says "My house was clean last week, sorry you missed it", and my daughter gave me a gorgeous polka dot apron and a much needed pencil sharpener! My husband paid for my order of Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Aquarelle crayons, a set of 84, which I can't wait to get. I have so enjoyed working with them in the portrait class with Paulette, I decided I needed the full complement of colours. I decided to have a little fun sketching tonight, I did a "normal" girl, and two fun girls - LOL, now you can see why I stick to more conventional drawing - it suits my conservative style more. I so admire you artists out there that can be more free with your creating - maybe one day I'll loosen up!

More face sketches

2008-11-15T03:22:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd better do a couple of sketches tonight seeing as I didn't get into the studio today as I had planned. I'm going to have a lot of painting to do!

I've been tagged, again

2008-11-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

My new artist friend Katherine, in New Zealand has tagged me - thanks Katherine. Make sure you visit Katherine's blog, she is a fantastic artist and has her things for sale on Etsy.

Here are the rules...

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.

OK, on to the six quirky yet boring things about myself, hmmmmm.

1. I hate hanging up laundry with a passion - I have to do it at work sometimes and we always hang our laundry at home (hardly ever use the dryer), but I love seeing the laundry hanging on the line, blowing in the breeze - I get such a sense of satisfaction.
2. Water is my favourite drink - I rarely drink anything else.
3. I twiddle my thumbs - something I never had noticed until my sister was visiting me and she said "oh look, you twiddle your thumbs just like mum used to"
4. I have never broken any bones, or had to have stitches (not counting the childbearing ones)
5. I can't swim, I dog paddle and can float on my back - that's it.
6. Apparently, I fart while I am asleep and stink the bed out (well, that's what my DH says and I don't really know if I believe it or not!!)

If you want more interesting trivia about me than the boring stuff above, go look at an older post on my blog a couple of weeks back.

Now, I am going to tag six bloggers, who are:

Annette - a wonderful Aussie artist
Linda - a wonderful artist from the US
Letha - another great artist from the US
Debbie - another fantastic Aussie artist
Sherry - an amazing artist in the US
Trish - a fantastic artist in the US

Hope you can play along ladies.

Look forward to seeing the boring, quirky unspectacular details of your lives!

Quick Portrait Sketches

2008-11-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

Hello friends,
Glad so many of you enjoyed a glimpse into my past with the mountain sketch.
I have been busy this week so have only done a few quick "tilty head girl" sketches in the evenings. The lady with spiral hair is going to be a painting for my secret sister in a Milliande swap. Everyone in the swap has to create an angel, any medium for their secret sister. I tossed up whether to sew an angel, but seeing as I have just finished my last portrait class with Paulette Insall, I decided that really I should keep on painting portraits. I am going to place a quote alongside her "We are each of us ANGELS with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another". My angel is only having one wing. The portrait is 8" x 10", so in the sketch you don't actually get to see her wing or clothes, so stay tuned for progress. I am really enjoying sketching portraits, and some seem to say "paint me", so I will be working on those that appeal to my muse. Oh, the portrait that I was painting for Paulette's class - I haven't finished it, still need to do the clothes and a few finishing touches, and then I'll post that.

Mountain Sketch

2008-11-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

I was very inspired by Annette in Oz today when she displayed the sketches she drew when she was in her 20's, on her blog. As you know, I haven't been back into art for very long and these last couple of days I haven't done much at all - and can't see much happening in the next few days either as I will be very busy, so I thought I would share with you a drawing I did when I was 18. On the back of the frame I had written "Dear Mum and Dad - my first frameable drawing, love Brenda". It is a mountain in New Zealand, Mt. Ngauruhoe, and is done using pencil only. It is very large in real life, done on a sheet the size of a sheet of cardboard - I don't know what size that is, maybe A2? This is the only sketch I have kept from my younger years unfortunately, as I was a prolific drawer back then. Maybe I can regain some of my old talent with practice and persistence.

Portrait in pencil

2008-11-06T03:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't done much art today, instead I spent the day searching for economical recipes to start doing weekly menu plans. I have also started up price books to track prices of regularly bought grocery items, and making up a list of items I regularly buy - my own personal shopping list. I am doing this to try and make the dollar stretch a bit further. Every time I go to the supermarket prices have gone up, and not just by a few cents. We have to tighten our belts and look at ways to cut costs. I belong to a couple of Australian groups that deal with saving money - both are great. The first is Simple Savings, and the next is Cheapskates - both have simple ideas on how to save lots and lots of money each year (which will give me more money to spend on art supplies!) See where I'm going with this, LOL. Before I head off to bed, I decided I better do a quick sketch, and this is my effort. I think I might turn her into a painting - there is something about her that appeals to me. I will fix up her lopsided chin before I paint her, hehe. I am going to sign up for the Embrace the Face monthly challenge, which is lace, and I can see this lovely lady with black lace covering her head. Does that mean I'm committed Jo?

You wouldn't believe what I have just heard outside - some rain. Earlier this evening one of our cats was washing behind her ears and I said to the children that it meant rain was on its way. I guess it is an old wive's tail? but it always seems to happen that way. The cats don't often get to clean behind their ears in South Australia - driest State in midst of a drought - so a few drops tonight would be lovely.

Portrait update

2008-11-04T21:46:00.001-08:00

Lesson 5 from Paulette Insall's faces class yesterday was using neocolor II soluble crayons to enhance the face and features. I added more shading and highlights, blush and more dimension to the lips. Next week, we work on the clothes and background some more. I am loving this class and if you have the chance to take a class from Paulette, jump at at - she is a wonderful teacher.

Art Journal page

2008-11-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest art journal page - from a prompt from Milliande's Art Journal group. We had to imagine an angel claiming her wings, and what those wings might look like. I don't believe angels have wings, they are symbolic, but I found this great quote on the internet that I thought worked well with reaching out for angel wings.

The quote says:
We've never had to look far to find our angels.
Angels have never really been out of reach.
We can always discover angels from the inside out, because it is the angel inside us who can point the way to all our other angels.
Author unknown.

Portrait Progress

2008-11-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, I managed to set aside some time today to get up-to-date with my portrait, in time for tomorrow's lesson. Here is progress so far from initial sketch to finishing the hair and eyebrows today.

Mixed Media Collage

2008-11-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

Here is the finished piece, given to a friend for her birthday this week. It is basically the same as the other frienship mixed media piece for a German friend (see older posts), but with different colours, reflecting her taste. I find it quite relaxing doing these, must take me back to my childhood - tearing, pasting, cutting, dabbing, painting, etc. I'm hoping to do more work on my portrait canvas tomorrow, wish me luck.

Covering notebooks

2008-11-01T02:57:00.000-07:00

Being a bit run down and tired and still suffering from my cold for more than 2 weeks, I decided to have an early night last night so didn't blog. I have finished off another collage for a friend, but the gel medium is still drying so I'll post a photo of that tomorrow. In the meantime, last Tuesday night, for Mutual at Church (like Youth Group), my young women and me covered horrible hardcovered notebooks with some beautiful, coordinated scrapbook paper from the cheapie shop (dollar store). You should have seen their faces when I showed them the notebooks and asked them to choose one *giggle*. Then I brought out the scrapbook kits! Big smiles! Since some of the girls were away sick, so I used some of their papers and a book to make my own journal. The girls had a wonderful time, and it was so amazing how different their journals looked, even though everyone had access to exactly the same supplies. I will attach a photo of my journal and the girls holding up theirs.

While I was searching for some quick and easy ways to cover notebooks, I came across this great tutorial for sewing a journal cover - it even comes with a pen holder and clasp. Heart of Mary. I hope to try it soon - would be a great gift idea. She has lots of other great tutorials as well - one clever lady.

I've been tagged!

2008-10-30T02:43:00.001-07:00

Whew! I've only had this blog for 4 days and I've been tagged already. Thanks Trish! If you get a chance, pop on over and visit Trish's blog, she is a great artist! OK, so I have to post the rules and list 6 things about myself that you don't know, which shouldn't be that hard as none of you probably know anything about me. This is harder than it sounds though!

1. I love chooks, real ones and ornamental chooks. (chook = chicken). My children chose the name of this blogspot - not me!
2. I am a bibliophile - I collect books, lots of them, and I read them. I love non-fiction, probably because I love learning.
3. I was born in New Zealand in Auckland and have a twin brother. I moved to Australia when I was 22.
4. My favourite colour is purple - I even have a purple bedroom. It was painted that colour when we bought the house and I have grown to love it.
5. I am a fruit bat - can't get enough of that fruit. I love fruit in any shape or form, and dipped in chocolate makes it even better!
6. I own a ten pin bowling centre with my husband. When we bought it ten years ago, neither of us had ever bowled before.

OK, now I need to tag six people - that is going to be tricky as I am new to the blogging world, so don't really know anyone that well, but here goes.

1. My niece, Chavah a wonderful artist
2. A new friend, Carolyn who writes lovely comments on my blog
3. Another new friend Ewian from Milliande's
4. Calligrapher and artist Martha Lever who is taking the Paulette Insall faces class with me
5. A new friend from the faces class Jo a very talented lady, also an Aussie :-)
6. A new friend Vicki another Paulette Insall student

the rules:
1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My Creative Space

2008-10-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

There has been some discussion on Milliande's about what kind of artist are we. Are we messy, an inbetweener or a neat freak. So, I thought you might like to see my creative space and make up your own minds. However, before I post, maybe you'd like to see how my studio evolved - from an idea to complete within weeks. My mum passed away last year from cancer, and left me a small amount of money (when you have 5 other brothers and sisters it doesn't go far), and I was able to build my own space. We turned a little used corner of our backyard into a building site, though we have retained the chook shed at the back (no chooks at the moment though). The land we own is solid limestone so we had previously had raised vegetable gardens down there, these were relocated to make way for the structure. OK, on to some photos:

This photo shows the site where my studio is now built. Builder in photo, plus my German Shepherd, Magnus and daughter. Chook yard at the rear.

The building in progress. It is actually a 6metre x 9metre shed, minus the roller door, with windows and sliding doors added in.

Nearly finished, just the verandah to add on. I had to dig the path with a mattock, it took me three days to clear all the rock, weeds and dirt, but I wanted the path level with the lawn (saying that tongue in cheek - the lawn has died in the drought!)

This is how my studio looks now. I want to create a sign reading "THE STUDIO" to hang under the verandah, get the garden established and hang some potted plants, and it'll be complete.

OK, now on to the inside. I have only taken photos of the studio itself. It also has a huge storage room and a small kitchenette. When I save up enough money I would like to install a composting toilet there as well, to save me making trips up to the house! These photos show my work space, there is also a sofa bed, two large cupboards, coffee table, etc. in this room. It is very large and painted white, with lots of wonderful natural lighting and also banks of downlights.

So, what do you think? Am I a messy, inbetweener or neat???

Purple Tree

2008-10-29T04:07:00.000-07:00

On Milliande's Creativity Club there is a sub group devoted to women who need to "make time" for art. Challenges are issued that correspond with time periods, according to how much time you can set aside, e.g. 13 minutes, half an hour, an hour, half a day, etc. Each person belonging to this sub-group has to commit to setting aside some personal creative time at least once a week. The first challenge is to create a tree, the only stipulation is that it must be purple. Here is my tree. I painted the tree shape in acrylics and then punched out lots of leaf shapes from novel pages that had a wash of purple tinted gesso. I then outlined roughly, the leaves in black with a touch of white gel pen. It looks more effective in real life as you can actually see the print of the novel, which doesn't show up on the scan. However, I still feel something is lacking, and am considering adding words in black, around the tree outline, or maybe a poem or quote below the tree. What do you think?

First art journal page

2008-10-28T03:36:00.001-07:00

Milliande issued me with a challenge to get started on using an art journal. Her words were "do it now". Her additional challenge was to do something purple and relate it to what I associate with the colour purple. My response is "royalty" and this journal page is the result. I am quite happy with the way it turned out - well, OK for a first effort anyway. I think I'm hooked. Just need to get myself a proper journal, this was just done on a page taken out of a watercolour pad. Little steps - as my friend at Milliande's Creativity Club, DellaLuna said "You know, maybe you don't have to just do it...maybe you just need that ocean to become a bay, that bay to become a lake, that lake to become a pond, that pond to become a pool, that pool to become a kiddie pool. Just like Letha said. And kiddie pool's, they're fun, and it's really, REALLY hard for an adult to drown in one. No deep end until you're ready, you know? Very wise lady. Thank you DellaLuna, Milliande, Letha for your advice and believing in me.

Free Stories Class by Jessica Sprague

2008-10-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

I have registered for this FREE class at Jessica Sprague's website. This is what she says about it:

"Lately, I've been realizing, that for me, there needs to be a way to capture little stories that can either be made into scrapbook pages, or not. There needs to be a way to fill in those gaps for which there might not be a full-blown 2-page spread that took me 4 hours. But that is a story worth telling nonetheless.

I'm confident that I'm not the only person out there in this situation. So that's why I developed this class. We ALL have stories. And whatever way it is that we choose to tell them, we all need a way of capturing them first. So that's where Stories in Hand comes in.

In our week-long, instructor-led class, we will learn:

* Techniques for capturing memories from our own lives and from others
* Dozens of prompts for stories you might have forgotten
* A cool system for capturing the stories happening in your life right now, AND for listing the stories you have yet to tell
* Technologies you can use to help you gather your stories together with photos, video, your blog, or any other media you have that gives a peek into your life

And we will make a REALLY CUTE project! (You’ll find out the supply list when you register). You are not required to have Photoshop to complete the project.

Oh yeah, by the way, this class is COMPLETELY FREE."

Sounds great doesn't it. You have until November 8th to register. Hope to see you there.

Creativity Club for Women

2008-10-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

I am spreading the word! Milliande's Creativity Club for women is great. I first "met" Milliande when I was looking at art journalling on YouTube and came across some "how to" videos posted by Milliande. That led me to her web site and email group. She has just moved everything to the "land of ning", a forum type set-up, and it is great. If you would like to connect with like minded women from all over the world, make new friends and get the encouragement you need and deserve, what are you waiting for. I hope to "see" you there soon!

What you need to bring to the creativity club:

~A willingness to explore the creative arts viewed through the eye of your soul

~ Deep respect for the beauty and individuality of each woman who chooses to share of herself and her artwork at the Creativity Club

~ A love of life itself

~ An openness to reclaim your connection with the sacred feminine

~ A knowing that to create is your first and foremost birthright and that by trusting your intuition you will know instinctively what to create and when you do it will be the perfect time, always ...

Altered Book

2008-10-25T23:55:00.001-07:00

Trish Bee has wonderful techniques on her website. I have been playing along with her altered book tutorial. Trish emails us the different stages. It has been fun to watch the book evolve. We started off with a child's board book. I lightly sanded it and then gessoed the pages. You can see where I am up to. The current page is Asian inspired, but I haven't added the elements to it yet.

Fat Book

2008-10-25T23:31:00.001-07:00

In an egroup I belong to, The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Arts we recently had the opportunity to participate in a fat book swap. Now, I'm a swap virgin and thought, OK, I need to begin somewhere, this sounds like it should be good. It was anticipated there would be about 40 participate in the swap and I thought that sounded quite manageable. By the time the swap closed, 120 people had signed up to participate! Very intimidating. Each person had to create a background, no two people could use the same technique. The size is 4x4 inches and we needed to create 120 pages using our background technique. On the back we needed to provide the instructions on how to create our background. I chose to do a gesso and soluble oil pastel background, even though I had never done one before! I spent lots of time experimenting until I was happy with the results. It is surprisingly easy to achieve and very effective. When I get a chance I'll do a step-by-step to show you how it is done. I am going to post some photos of my 120 pages all ready just before I posted them to the USA. I will be receiving 120 different background technique pages back in the next month or so, very exciting.
I did six colour combinations, 20 of each, so I wouldn't get bored and so I had enough soluble oil pastels to complete the backgrounds.

More art

2008-10-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll - stop me please, someone! I recently signed up to do an online faces class with Paulette Insall. It is an 8 week course. First we learnt how to draw faces, the second week we transferred our faces onto canvas and painted the skin. The third week we learnt how to paint the eyes and lips. I haven't actually got to that stage on my canvas yet - that is a tomorrow job. Here is what I have done so far:

Sharing some art

2008-10-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

After a long, long absence from creating (since I was a teenager), getting distracted by work, having children, studying and homeschooling to mention a few things, I decided it was time to simplify my life and negotiate some "me" time. I quit full time work, cutting back to 2 days a week. My house is no longer a bomb site, my family can rely on a home cooked meal every night as well as home baking in school lunch boxes. Bliss. Most importantly, I have found some time to start creating again. I belong to some wonderful egroups and when I can work out how to link to them I will. One of the groups, art techniques, run frequent on line classes and through them I learnt to create a mixed media collage. It was a step-by-step process and my end product was given as a gift to a friend for her 40th birthday. Here it is:

Because my friend is German, I added the German word for friendship in the corner and personalised it a bit more by having "40" and the date of her birth on the picture. I was quite pleased with my first attempt and am in the process of creating another collage for another friend's birthday this week. Will post when it is done.

First Post

2008-10-25T23:04:00.001-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that I'm doing this. Having enjoyed reading and subscribing to so many posts from others has inspired and motivated me to begin my own blog. I have lots to learn so I hope you will forgive me and be patient with me as I go along. There are lots of links I would like to put up but as yet I have no idea how to do it - baby steps :-)