Experiments

Hello!

Well I realise it's been a while so first let me apologise for that. It has been a busy few weeks! I have been feeling very inspired lately to experiment and play with new things and go back and try my hand again at old things that I haven't done for years!

One reason for this is that recently I applied to go on 'The Big Painting Challenge' on the TV (this is a series that has a different challenge every week and one artist gets knocked out each week) Don't get too excited, it doesn't look like I have got through but by just applying got me experimenting with different types of paintings and with different mediums that I haven't reached for in ages.

Here are a few of the experiments!

This is my cat Biscuit! This was done on watercolour paper with brushos. I use brushos all the time, love them for adding colour to my paintings and mixed media projects but I have never tried to paint an image with them alone. I was really pleased with how this came out!

This one I did in only 10 minutes and with pen and brushos again. I wanted to it to be a bit freer and more expressive. It's simple but effective I think.

This one (again on watercolour paper) is done with brushos, pen and watercolours. I love how this one came out, it is definitely my favorite of the three. I really enjoyed using watercolours, they are not usually my 'go to' paint but this has led me into a bit of a watercolour phase at the mo. I am doing loads of experiments with them. I have never been taught to use them and never had the inclination to try until now. I will keep you posted with my progress!

I have many other projects on the go at the mo, including a new mixed media canvas and an art journaling workshop that I am running this week with a new group, which fingers crossed will lead to lots of workshops in the future! 

I will try and post again this week to show you more recent work. Until then bye for now! xxx

Getting Back To The Little Things

Hello All,

Sometimes it's the small scale projects which have the biggest impact. I love working on either index or post cards. They are a small piece of creativity that can be done when you don't have a lot of time for anything else and the results can be really exciting. By restricting yourself to a small area you can really focus on a particular medium or technique and I love seeing where they take me. Here are a few recent cards

In this one I added modelling paste through a stencil then used inks and metallic paint to add colour and gel pens to bring out some of the pattern. I found the text in a magazine which suited it perfectly.

This one is an experiment of adding layers of circles using different mediums and techniques. I finished it with some bottle top art (an even smaller canvas to work on!) and again some text from a magazine.

I hope you like them and hope they inspire you to go out and buy a pack of index cards to have a go!

Bye for now xxx

Finding Inspiration

Hello All,

Sitting at work last week listening to music that I hadn't heard for ages and suddenly a song called 'Oh My Mama' by Alela Diane came on:

It is such a simple and beautiful song and really struck a chord with me. At the moment my eldest daughter is finishing infants and moving up to junior school and my youngest finishes nursery today and starts school in September. This week is the last week when it is just the two of us and although I am looking forward to some time to myself I also feel really sad. It is the end of a chapter and it has gone too fast, I feel I haven't been able to keep up and I will miss her a lot! This song really captures the feeling of being a mother for me.

I decided I needed my journal to channel some of these feelings:

I was also inspired by a fantastic artist called Mary Wangerin whose use of colour is fantastic! This page was done in my altered book and you can see in the top right an old fashioned image of a mother figure coming through from the original page. The text is taken from the song as is the imagery of the little bird.

I also did a quick page in my small journal:

This one is to express that feeling of time moving on relentlessly and not being able to keep up while days slip away. The text on the feather reads "days are lost to distant memories"

I will still struggle this week and in the coming months to adjust to the changes happening but journaling about it helps me to get my head around things and move forwards.

Bye for now xxx