A productive weekend

Hi everyone, I hope you have enjoyed your weekend. 

It is Sunday night and I am just about to go into my neighbours house for a lovely relaxing dinner after a hard day spent in the garage, shifting, moving and throwing out. I mentioned a few posts ago that I am moving my studio out to our garage which I will share with our campervan. The cupboards have been measured up and ordered so it was up to me to make some space for them. 

 

Here is what I started with, minus the box trailer which used to live in here but has been relegated to the yard now, cold and lonely covered by a tarp. 

Oh well, all in the name of progress of my painting space I say.

So today I needed to clear the bikes and other paraphernalia that we had accumulated over the years. All of my canvases on the high shelf have to come down so the cupboards can go underneath then against the brick wall. The old desk is a lucky pickup when my husbands work was cleaning out their offices and this was going to the rubbish pile. 

So here it is now

All of my canvases are on top of our campervan, 3 bikes are up on the wall behind it and the space is nearly ready for the cupboards to go in. Just have to get rid of a weights bench and 1 more bike and take down the shelving. I have a great big pile of stuff to donate to the charity shop and I also chucked a lot away........ ahhhhh that feels so much better....

I must say that it has taken over 10 years for me to get my own space so I am really excited about it. I know it will be tiny but it will be all mine. I have some carpet coming, a new heater for my cold feet and a new light to go in overhead. I intend to have a big declutter when I finally move in here so that everything has its own place without needing a miners hat on to find something.

Needless to say there hasn't been much art journalling going on at the moment but I did get a chance to do a doodle while I was watching the last Oprah show. I am a huge Oprah fan, and credit her for changing the way I look at the world, at people and at myself for which I am forever grateful.

 

It is on a background of yellow paint then I drew with coloured pencils, then with Staedtler fineliners and again with coloured pencils.

So now it's time to rest this sore body of mine and enjoy some good company. I leave you with a quote from Oprah's last show.

"you.. have to know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world"

Oprah

For me, one thing that sparks the light in me is creativity

Namaste

Lee

A fight between intuition and too much thinking!

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a great weekend.

This latest page I want to share was a labour of love and learning. It felt like a tug of war between my intuition and my thinking brain. At times there was just too much thinking about what colours and techniques to use without letting the page form naturally. Whenever I stopped flowing and tried to apply too many rules and reasons for doing things, the layer just didn't look right. Many times I did another layer and walked away cause it just didn't look how I thought it would. Whenever I just relaxed, breathed and let my intuition guide me the page came together. 

Sometimes we struggle against the tide trying to put the "right" colours together, trying to balance the page from the beginning, ignoring the evolving process that is so much a characteristic of art journaling.

So here is the process

For the background I gessoed the page thickly and then pressed the two pages together. opened them up and let them dry naturally to create the texture underneath. Over the top I brushed on Jo Sonja Sapphire and wiped off the excess.

then was a wash of jo Sonja Harbour Blue

and a layer of randomly stamped flowers.

I then used Jo Sonja Yellow Orange with a makeup sponge and a Crafters Workshop Stencil called Flower Frenzy as well as a Gerbera stencil

At this stage I wasn't really happy with the colours so I doodled some flower outlines with a white paint pen

I still wasn't wrapped in the results so used the Crafters Workshop stencil called Mini Daisy cluster and sponged white all over the page

Still not happy because it was too harsh, so I mixed white with Harbour Blue and scrapped over the pages.

 

 I really wanted to get a nice contrasting colour so pulled out a cutout with a floral pattern and sponged white all over the pages then sponged Jo Sonja Tiger Lily randomly

OK so I am feeling better about where this is headed now because I got out of my own way and picked colours without thinking too much.

So I have left this page now and gone to work. I'm sitting at my desk at lunchtime with my favourite scarf on and realise that it is my favourite scarf because of the colour combination. My first thought is wow, these are the colours I can add to the page of my journal. Hence the next steps. Here is the scarf, gorgeous bright colours that just make me feel better on a cold Melbourne day.

 I needed a border so used the Tim Holtz On the Edge Die called Scrollwork cut from a piece of chipboard to use as a stencil

 Jo Sonja Cadmium Yellow Mid was the colour I used with a bigger, softer, more open sponge

 I sponged again with the same stencil but just in from the edge of the yellow layer using Jo Sonja Yellow Green. I also scrapped it down the page in random places

 Next colour was Jo Sonja Brilliant Magenta. I dry brushed this on the page so I could retain the texure underneath. I just love dry brushing or smooching.

  

  Next layer was  stamping with a floral stamp with words in the petals and impress Tangerine and Versa Magic Cloud White

  So this is where I am at and I am really happy with where it is now. So onto the words

 I am a big Sonia Choquette fan and one of her early books called Your Heart's Desire. It is in a workbook format to help you remove obstacles, focus on your dreams and to empower you to manifest your Heart's Desires. I have had it for a while now and have done some chapters sporadically but now the book calls to me to be read from start to finish. Funny how you can have books for ages and not ready them till you are ready to hear what they have to say.

So I found a small pad of Adhesive patterned papers in my stash and a sheet of striped paper in the colours I have used. I cut and tore strips, worked out where I wanted them and wrote a quote from Sonia's book on them and a bit of personal journaling in a Blue Sharpie. 

After I stuck them down I rubbed Jo Sonja Titanium White around the main title, dipped the credit card in the white and underlined the words. I re-stamped a couple of white flowers and there you have it.

So what obstacles or excuses have you put in your way consciously or sub-consciously? Do you tell yourself that you could not possible do something. Surprise yourself, give yourself permission to try something and you will find that what you thought was  a huge immovable mountain was really a smoke screen hiding your potential creative self, ready and waiting to be invited into your life.

“The chief enemy of creativity is  

"good" sense.”

 Pablo Picasso

Namaste

Lee 

just a quickie...

Just popping in to show you a quick doodle I did this week with my Sharpie pens

Have a great weekend everyone

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

Mary Lou Cook

Namaste 

Lee

With one slip of the palette knife

Well, I learned something this week, that palette knives can be sharp! Who would have guessed? And when you are trying to scrape something off a surface you should scrape "away" from you not towards your hand. No great damage done, just a deep paper cut which is all but healed now but a lesson learned none the less.

Anyway, I am currently thinking a lot about where I want to be in the next few years with my creativity and what it will take to get there. I have always been a dreamer and find that my dreams are my motivation and focus for getting things done. This is why art journaling has been so invaluable to me. It helps me with a lot of things; stress relief, focus, recording my dreams and goals and working out who I am and who I want to be, and focusing on what beliefs i have and those that i need to let go of. 

This week my page is all about Imagining the life you want.

Another page that started with leftover swipes of paint and ink. I decided the background would be Jo Sonja Orange which i spread on with a credit card.

My bubble wrap came out again and was coated this time with Jo Sonja Aqua and stamped randomly over the pages......

I scraped over the aqua while it was a bit wet

.....dug out an old piece of paper towel that had paint on it from a stencil in pinks and orange. I separated the paper so it was one ply thick, tore and stuck it to my page in bits. I also wiped the page with Jo Sonja Smoked Pearl in places, with a credit card.

I picked a few stamps that I liked, a script stamp from Kaisercraft and an Artist stamp from a Tim Holtz collection.

i then used a small sponge brush and Jo Sonja RosePink to wipe down the page particularly on each side.

The writing was done with a black Sharpie and white inkssentials pens.

The word Live was stamped on and outlined in white, then i stamped on a manilla tag and cut to size, grunged up with black ink and stuck to my page.

To end up with these pages.

Last weekend I also did a watercolour workshop with a local artist Glenn Hoyle which was a scene from Venice. Glenn does beautiful watercolours and oils and was such a generous teacher with his time and knowledge. I always learn a lot in his class. I need to do some final touch ups of my painting so hopefully will be able to show you this weekend.

We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.

- Louisa May Alcott 

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and I hope your weekend is just what you imagine.

till next time

Namaste

Lee

Going around in circles

G'day everyone from a freezing cold Melbourne. We are only in Autumn at the moment but today has felt like the middle of winter with ice cold air. I was very glad today to get home, put the heater on and rug up in my woolies.

My journal page is how I feel like I am going in circles trying to catch up, every time i cross something off my list I am adding another one or two things to do, feeling like I am treading water at times.

This is how the page started with left over sprays and wipes from ink projects etc.

I liked the pattern on this serviette so I tore it and stuck it down with Mod Podge

I chose my colours, Jo Sonja Gold Oxide and Teal Green hoping they will compliment each other.

I slipped my onion bag over the end of the journal so it could stretch out, filled a mini mister with water, added a few drops of Teal Green, shook and sprayed

then I dipped an end of a cardboard roll that came out of a roll of baking paper, into Teal Green and stamped over the page

here is a close up of the spraying and stamping.

I then sponged on some Gold Oxide using my new Crafters Workshop Stencil Mini Cosmic Bubbles.

and ended up with this.....

I then got out a new stamp I bought recently, a grungy one and stamped on the pages with StazOn Timber Brown

and it looked like this

Up until this stage all I new about this page was that I wanted to do circles. Then the words came and so I painted a track for my words with Smoked Pearl

To write my words  i used a blue and green Sharpie and then a blue glitter gel pen because the letters weren't standing out. I also rubbed around the edges of the pages and in other places with the Impress Pale Aqua ink pad.

Here it is finished

Anyway, I have lots still on my list to do but doing this post has grounded me so I can keep moving.

I just heard on the news that we are expecting hail in the next day or two so i think I need to get my gloves out for work tomorrow.

I hope you are keeping warm or staying cool wherever you are, I am off to pour a nice hot cuppa and have a piece of Chocolate Brownie to warm my insides.

Breathe and Just Be.......

Namaste

Lee

Happy Mothers Day

Just popping in for a quick hello to everyone. I am out all day tomorrow on my usual posting day so thought I would share a quick doodle for my friend Aimee, who is 30 today. Is is drawn in Sharpie fine black marker and then coloured in with pencils and Staedtler coloured fine point markers.

One thing I would change is where the I is placed, the A looks lonely. 

 

Well that's it for the art I am afraid. At the moment in my studio I am wrestling with a large jar of Mod Podge because the lid is stuck firm and the jar is 90% full. I have banged it on the bench, pried the lid to no avail. I think I will try hot water next. I am usually pretty good and getting stuck lids off but this one does not want to budge. If you have any suggestions please feel free to share them. 

 

I still haven't gotten around to visiting everyone but I am getting there.

I hope everyone has a lovely mothers day where ever you are and however far away from your mum or your kids you are. I will be sending loving thanks to my mum over the phone and remembering the mums in our family that are no longer with us.

In honour of Mothers Day I leave you with this poem I found a couple of years ago

Love and hugs to all the mum's out there. 

Namaste

Lee