Virtual Blog tour

My friend Louise Gale has asked me to participate in a virtual blog tour this week, something different from my usual posts, so pull up a chair and come in to my world for just a little bit on your way around this blogger-sphere.

1. What am I working on? 
Well right now this week, I am working on getting ready for my next art journal class which is a beginners guide to simple mandalas. I love doodling, it is portable, easy to leave and come back to, and easy to do.

I also love mandalas - for their meditative benefits, for the way I can loose myself in them, for the way they can get me out of a creative blank spot, so I incorporate the two and will be showing my students how to doodle their own and how to use them to ground and centre themselves, how to use them as a moving meditation to enhance their creativity and their inner peace.

Long term I am building up my body of work for next years Melbourne International Flower and Garden show which runs in March-April each year. Our art society True Blue Decorative Artists, have a section in the art sales exhibition and it is our one big opportunity to sell our artwork. 

I am pleased to say that I sold a few of my paintings this year so I'm in the planning stages of designing paintings for next year.   Here is part of a triptych that I have started.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

I think my art and teaching practices are unique because I combine different art forms and make them work for me. I take all my life's experiences and lessons learned to help me share my art with others. I combine doodling, art journaling, larger scale paintings, abstract and mixed media and my spiritual practices, my practice of gratitude and re-framing, to create a portrayal of who I am and where I am an any given moment; a snapshot of my inner world. I am drawn to bright strong colours and this is evident in my artwork.



In my teaching I believe that I allow others to express themselves in their own way. With my guidance and encouragement they are free to create something that is a representation of where they are on their journey. I encourage them to really step into their piece, whether it be an art journal spread  or a canvas. By being true to myself, I endeavour to create a safe environment where my students can be true to themselves.

3. Why do I write/create what I do? 

Without creating my art, I would be lost. Art and creativity are an integral part of my being and serve many positive purposes in my daily life. Art and creativity ground me, they help me express myself where words are not immediately forthcoming, they bring me immense joy, wonderful friendships and have given me a platform to share with others my love of art and the benefits of expressing yourself with paint. Basically I paint to feel fulfilled, to feel alive.

4. How does your writing/creating process work? 

I find that I often have ideas come to me in the car on the way to work, or at other times when I am not in the position to write them down. I am inspired by patterns in objects around me, whether man made or nature. I am inspired by colour combinations like the sunrise or sunset, like a pretty scarf or  the left over paint on my palette. I am a very visual person so I have a notebook that I write ideas down but sometimes this is not practical, so I am finding more and more that I use my phone to capture photos of what has inspired me and then save it as an Evernote note and jot bullet points as to what exactly made me take the photo. I can then look at it when I have time and expand on the notes later on. 
When I come to starting a new canvas I usually have photos that appeal to me at the time and either pick the subject or the colour combinations to start the painting. Sometimes it is totally random and I breathe in and out for a couple of minutes and then just intuitively grab the bottles of paint that I am drawn to.
When I art journal I often choose my colours based on my current mood. At other times I am inspired by a quote and sit and pick the colours on the feelings that the quote gives me and what colours I think represent that feeling.
I love taking progress shots and it helps a lot of the time to look at the photo when you have been staring at your canvas for a long time not knowing where to take it next. Also then you have all these delicious photos along the way to use later on. 

Next week the blog tour moves to the lovely Shelley Rydellie

On any given night you can find Michelle creating in her studio with her two cats – Willie and Johnny by her side. She loves art journaling, and always has numerous journals going at one time. Michelle loves to experiment, and believes that the best art comes from letting go and just playing. She finds inspiration in bright colors, animals, music and – well – everything!
Michelle lives in Minnesota, USA, with her husband Michael who keeps her laughing, and the aforementioned feline companions who keep them both entertained!

You can visit Michelle at her blog: Inspiration Everywhere

Please go and show her some love and check out her inspirational work and blog post next Monday

thanks for visiting my blog

Namaste

Lee

guest posting and art journal swap

Hi everyone

I have some exciting news to tell you today and to share some things as well.

I hope the rush up to Christmas is not getting too stressful for you. I just wanted to share some more Christmas cards that I am slowing doing in my lunch hour at work.

 Of course they are featuring Tatty Teddy. I embossed all the edges of the papers with Silver Lightening and on the bottom of the cards I added some detail with the Gelly Roll pens in Clear Sparkle and Silver. I just love these pens, they write over anything and are the sparkliest pens I have ever used.

Now for my exciting news

I am excited today to let you know I am guest posting over at Your Heart Makes a Difference. It is on my favourite subject of Gratitude. Please pop over and have a read and let me know what you think. I just love the group that Louise Gale has set up over there. It is a wonderful place to share and receive kindness, creativity and positive thoughts.

Remember the snippets of this page that I shared with you here. I had to hold off on showing you the rest as it was being used in my guest post. So here are the complete pages and how I did them.

So my first theme in the swap was "my favourite word".

My favourite word is Grateful and here are the two pages, front and back. I decided to art journal on the front page. I used bubble wrap, reverse stenciling with the Mums stencil, some border stamps, sentiment stamps, stamping on strips of ribbon that had a satin border, and then I embossed some butterflies on the page. I then wrote why I chose that word and what it means to me.

 here is a close up of the butterfly. I used a sparkle embossing powder and I liked the way it picked up the colours underneath. It then acted like a resist when I rubbed the inks over the top.

I then doodled a Mandala on the back.....

this page looks a bit lighter than it actually is but I think you get the idea. I rubbed my 3 favourite Impress ink colours on it, Pansy, Indigo Blue and Aqua and then rubbed the whole page with a wet baby wipe to blend the colours for the background. The doodling was done with a black Copic marker.

Yesterday was my birthday and I just had to share the beautiful bunch of roses that my husband and two boys gave me. Aren't they just gorgeous!

 We all went out for a lovely Thai dinner and then some yummy Chocolate mousse for desert.

I hope you are all having a sparkly week.

My quote today comes from one of my favourite authors, Sarah Ban Breathnach who actually started me keeping a gratitude journal as mentioned in her book, Simple Abundance. 

Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Namaste
Lee 

Has it been 30 years since I was in school????????

Yes it has been!

Last weekend I flew up to Sydney to go to my 30th School Reunion. I missed the 20th and so hadn't seen or been in contact with my school friends for over 20 years.

Since I have been on Facebook I have connected with my old friends (saying old friends doesn't sound good does it but you know what I mean and they didn't look old at all!) and so was excited to go and catch up after so long.

To make a long story of a whirlwind weekend short,
I stayed at my friends place who was also my bridesmaid( sitting beside me in this photo below, whose name also happens to be Lee), 

had dinner with a close circle of school friends on the Friday night,

had a great time at the reunion on Saturday night,

we stayed up till 3am talking each night,

and flew back to Melbourne on the Sunday. 

I was so glad that I went and hope to be having a few of my friends to come and visit me in Melbourne soon. It was so easy and natural, we started talking like we had just seen each other last week. I know Facebook gets a bad wrap but in this instance it was a good thing. Anyway here are just a couple of photos, 

 one of me in my first year of high school 

and the last year

We haven't changed much, right??

Well now for some art,
I did manage to take my sketch book and pen on the flight and did some doodles, a couple of freehand mandalas, so please excuse the inconsistency of the strokes and sizes.

I don't do a lot of mandala's even though I love looking at them but I think I will do these properly and make sure I do at least one a week, they are so relaxing.

Oh by the way, I didn't pick a winner in Tuesday's cup but had a great day sipping champagne and socialising with family.

Hope you are having a great day, the quote today is one I found on Facebook

Best Friends have conversations, impossible to understand by other people

Namaste

Lee

Catch Up

Well time is just flying by this week but thought I would drop in and let you know what I have been up to. I am trying to catch up on looking at everyones posts so please forgive me if I am a bit late in commenting...

Last weekend I went to the Shabby Vintage Junk Extravaganza with my friend Anna. There was so much eye candy there and it also brought back a lot of fond memories of my gran and nan because as I walked around I realised I had a lot of the kitchen things that were there . I was lucky enough to inherit a lot of my gran's and nan's cooking things like cake tins, measuring cups and things. Whenever I cook with them I feel as if they are with me in the kitchen. It takes me back to being a little girl in their kitchens, the smells, the tastes and the the whole atmosphere of a carefree time for a young girl with her beloved gran and nan. I won't throw any of these things out even though there are shiny new ones available because I have so many good memories attached to them.

Do you have anything like that? - something that you have inherited that is meaningless to others but oh so precious to you that you wouldn't part with it for the world, something that brings back the sweetest of memories of days gone by.

I also met with a few lovely ladies - Andrea from the Pink Poodle and Alicia from Time Worn Style just to mention a few. I also bought a few goodies.......

Some lovely hand dyed doilies, a couple of interesting books, an old prayer book, some lovely lace and a gorgeous enameled butterfly box.










Here is a close up











Thanks go to Tamarah from Shabby Vintage Junk for organising this weekend.

On my way home I had a detour via Carnegie and spied an op shop that looked interesting. In there I found these little beauties

 The really big book about the Great Masters was a steal at $20 and the other books were between $2 and $5. There is a book about astrology, a book of tibetan poems, a poetry book by Henry Waldsworth Longfellow (actually this was bought at the SVJ fair - oops), and book with sayings about sisters. I can see a few journal prompts out of this lot. I also found a brand new handbag that my niece will love (I hope!) - it was $10.

I just love it when I find bargains and i had a great day catching up with a friend and meeting new ones.

I haven't been doing much in my journals because I am in a made rush to get ready for our True Blue Decorative Artists annual conference that I am teaching at in two weeks time. I am teaching two classes  -



This one which is acrylic underpainting in Atelier Interactive Paints then glazed in Archival oils

and this one which is painted in Atelier Interactives






and as usual I have left everything to the last minute and now have to prep pieces ready for students, type the pattern packets and make little gifts and things to sell on our champagne shopping night.

I did manage to doodle a mandala, it just needs to be coloured in.

I am also going up to Sydney next weekend for the HayHouse I Can Do It conference. There are 5 of my favourite authors there giving lectures and it is going to be a fantastic time. I have my books all ready to be autographed and I am packing my bag tonight so these next two weeks are going to be a bit of a whirlwind for me.

Sorry but I am still learning how to put the photos where I want them and it looks a bit disjointed. Will have to learn a bit more about blogging.

Anyway, I hope you are all taking your daily time for yourselves and living creatively.

Namaste
Lee

Back to Reality

Hi everyone
Well what a shock back into reality last week going back to work after a week off. Sometimes I wonder why I have time off when I have to work twice as long when I get back. Anyway it was good to recharge the batteries and get some art journalling in. I have definately had withdrawal symptoms this week without it.

I have also been a bit quiet on my blog this week because I am demonstrating at stand E18 at the quilt and craft fair on Saturday and have been prepping some background papers and cards for it. My good friends Anna and Rachel are demo-ing on Friday.
I did manage to do one page in my journal which is a simple mandala coloured in with watercolour pencils..

 
I havent had much practise in these but I love them and just found a book yesterday which should help. Hopefully I can get some time to try another one this week.
Meanwhile it is back to the prepping. I will post some pictures later in the week of what I have planned for the show.

Happy Creating everyone
Lee:)