Some new bookmarks and a painting in progress

Hi again, wow two posts in one day - i had better calm down a bit LOL.

Here is a painting that I started in a workshop on our True Blue conference a couple of weeks ago. Today I fiddled with it a bit but there is still a lot to go.
It was with an Aussie artist Kathy Van Ee. 

She is a fabulous artist and it is the second workshop I have done with her in the past couple of months. This workshop was a portrait study of a photo that Kathy supplied. It is done using Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and White using the wipe out technique. I still have a lot of fine details and touching up to to but I was quite pleased with my first portrait painting. it really took me out of my comfort zone as I always say that I am not very good at faces but Kathy really made me see a face differently and she showed us how to pay attention to the little details that in the end make such a difference.

The first photo is the reference photo and step by step photos that Kathy supplied. the second photo is my painting.

 At the moment she has a rather large nose but Kathy said I have the shape correct so I have to adjust that. It also needs more highlights and just more detail. I also liked the way Kathy did her background. We just added odorless solvent to our oils on the brush and let it run. That was a bit scary and I had to stop myself from touching it till it had done its work but I really like the effect.

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 I also made some bookmarks today while I was playing with background papers. They were adaptations of pages I made in my art journal a while ago. Here are the step by step photos

The paper was first painted in stips of Napthol Crimson, Brilliant Magenta and Orange. Sprayed with water and swiped with a credit card. I also pressed over the page with  a daisy patterned paper towel.

1.This is using the end of a cardboard roll dipped in white to stamp.

2.Then I glazed over the stamping with Clear Glaze and Brilliant Magenta and Napthol Crimson

3. Next I used a favourite daisy stamp

4. Here is the stamp. I also used a heart shape brush scrubber as a stamp too with Yellow Deep. They are the yellow dots.

5. Here it is finished with some liner work in Yellow Deep and Pale Gold.

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My next one was with the same background colours but with a different stamp and detailing.

1. a paper stencil for the background pattern

2. This is the background sponged with pale gold

An oriental writing stamp

The stamp was random all over using up the ink each time before restamping.

Added a Peace stamp

The finished page.

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The next one was with Pthalo Blue, Prussian Blue and Diox Purple

Background three colours blended together

Stamped Iridescent Violet with bubble wrap

Used a swirly flourish stamp randomly all over

after the bubble wrap and stamping

then used a birdie stamp set with Pale Gold paint

Finished page.

I have cut them up into bookmark size and tomorrow will write some quotes on the back and laminate them.

Time for a nice long meditation, dinner and then on to painting some Christmas decorations that I will be teaching with a friend at our True Blue Christmas Breakup.

Have a great weekend everyone
Namaste
Lee

I love my crystals!

Hi Everyone
I hope you are all safe and having a creative week.
I am about to start painting but thought you may like to see what else I dabble in.
At our True Blue Conference we have a champagne shopping night where we sell our wares. I started beaded a while back because i love my crystals and the metaphysical properties of them and decided to make something that I could have with me if I wasn't wearing my chip bracelets. As you can see here, I love my crystal bracelets...

Hence, i made some crystal bookmarks. These ones have crystal chips that correspond to each of the chakras . They come with an explanation of each crystal and what they are used for.

Here are some brooches I have made using crystals and charms. I have a lot of friends who like angels and together with a wide choice of crystals you can have a different colour to wear with each scarf. Here in Melbourne I wear a knitted scarf everyday and these are a cute addition. 

For our painting group I also made a few with silver charms on them. I found these nice paint palettes on line and thought it might be a nice touch for artistic types like us.

I also painted some angel brooches. I love angels and the serenity they convey. My friends husband kindly cut out these brooches and I painted them in Jo Sonja colours and painted Opal Dust on them to make them shine.

Well off to paint. It is raining cats and dogs outside, the wet washing is sitting waiting to go in the dryer  and my house looks like a laundry with the rest of the wet washing hanging on the clothes horse. I have said it before and I will say it again, I am grateful for the rain that will hopefully fill out depleted dams but gee am I ready for some sunshine and warmth.

Now where is that chocolate biscuit that is my habitual rainy day comfort food and a hot cup of coffee, but before I go

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Quote for today comes from Sonia Choquette from her book Your Heart's Desire.

"The greatest miracle in creating your Heart's Desire is that you will discover your own magnificence. Like a lantern, you will shine out in our dark world.  Your creation will be your reward. The realisation of your true self will be your gift to the world...

Laugh, Play, Create."

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Are you all being true to your own creative self today? Are you making time to Laugh, Play and Create?

Namaste

Lee

Still here

I am on a short break at work so thought i would just check in with everyone after such a wild weekend weather wise. Here in Melbourne, Saturday night was a sleepless night with gale force winds and heavy rain keeping us on our toes. We were serenaded all night by the crash bang of things in neighbours yards falling over, the constant woosh of the wind on the pergola roof and the gusts of strong winds just as I was drifting off to sleep. We also had to do a couple of surveillance walks around to the house to check if everything was still in place outside and whether or not there was water coming in the house with the constant rain. I tell you what, I don't stand up too well anymore after sleepless nights and when the wind finally died down it was morning and all I wanted to do was curl up under the covers and sleep for a few more hours.

We have been in drought here with water restrictions for a lot of years now so rain is what we have been asking for - I just hope it is all running into the dams. I have also been sending prayers for the people in North East and North West Victoria that have been hardest hit by this weather with homes evacuated and towns completely under water. Together with the earthquake in Christchurch, NZ mother nature is just giving us a reminder that she is in charge.

Yesterday was Fathers Day and it was really nice to go out to a nice long lunch with my husband and our two sons. My father in law passed away a number of years ago and my father lives 800km away so it was just the four of us. A lazy day spent relaxing and paying tribute to our fathers; grateful to have had them in our lives and for all the things they have taught us and done for us. I am so grateful that my father taught me how to look after myself, how to do little handyman jobs and to be independent, oh and he finally has been able to teach me how to do cryptic crosswords after 40 years - thanks Dad xoxo.

I am also over my painting hiatus this past week and ready to get back into the swing of things.  I think I was just all painted out after last weekend. On Saturday I was  preparing for a workshop that I am helping out with a friend of mine. It is half done so will post a picture when it is finishes.

I have been so inspired by Kelly,  Rebecca, Rosey and Cindy that I need to get out my pens, paints and journals and just do something! These girls are truly inspirational.

I hope you are all dry, safe and well wherever you are and doing something creative today

Quote for today

"In order to hear your calling and answer it, you must generously give yourself the gift of time. It's not how fast you make your dream come true, but how steadily you pursue it."
- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Luv Lee:)

Grab a cuppa and join me, now where Do I Start?

Hi everyone, it has been a whirlwind two weeks since I last posted and I am finally coming back down to earth

First, I was at the Hayhouse I Can Do It conference in Sydney a couple of weekends ago and was part of the most inspirational, transformational, relaxing, entertaining and awesome weekend with about 3,000 other people. We were treated to 5 amazing speakers/authors who made us laugh, cry, think and overall inspired me to live a more authentic life.

Saturday began bright and early with us walking into the conference auditorium to the beautiful sounds of the didgeridoo. It is the most amazing sound and it instantly rose the vibration in the whole room and I will never tire hearing one played. If you ever get a chance to hear one live don't miss it.
We started our lectures with Dr Wayne Dyer on his farewell visit to Australia. What can I say but he was everything and more that I had expected from reading his books and listening to his CD's. He is called the father of inspiration and I would whole-heartedly agree with this. Such an amazing man.
In the afternoon Sonia Choquette ran an entertaining workshop that had us all up dancing and singing, letting go of our inhibitions and teaching us to live a spirited life. I just love her books and CD's and she is such a happy soul shining bright.
On Sunday our first speaker was Caroline Myss (who is my idol!) She is a fantastic lady and is so passionate about what she is talking about that you are mesmorised by her every word. She tells it like it is and her lecture was full of wisdom, humour and wit. Her books and CD's have inspired me to live less in your ego and pride and to strive to live more with grace, compassion and love. I can highly recommend her recent book, Defy Gravity.
After lunch we listened to Gregg Braden and his thoughts about 2012 amongst other things. Greg started out as a computer geologist and is now known as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. He was absolutely fascinating and really made you think about how each individual can really effect the global energy.
After Gregg we had a lecture/workshop with Dr Brian Weiss. He is a leader is past life regression and had us all doing a past life regression meditation during the lecture. It was amazing.

Sonia Choquette and me

Caroline Myss and Me

During the conference we had a chance to get our books signed and to meet our authors which I must say had me feeling like a school girl groupie at one stage but I collected myself long enough to have a coherent conversation with Caroline, Sonia and Brian and also had some photos taken.




Overall it was a weekend I will always remember.
I listen to Wayne, Caroline and Sonia on Hayhouse radio where they each have an hour long weekly show that I can tap into while I work so they seemed quite familiar by the time we met them. Of course, they didnt know me from a bar of soap (well, Caroline did recognise me from her Facebook page which was a bit of a thrill so we had a great conversation)I came home with an extra bag of books to read (the flight attendants just looked at me funny struggling to carry them on the plane) and a head buzzing.

On to last weekend......

I attended the True Blue Decorative Artists annual conference here in Melbourne of which I taught the two classes that I spoke about in my last post - the iris and the summer rose.


 I love teaching and I was grateful to firstly have people that wanted to do my classes and secondly to have such lovely students. I love seeing people learn new things and gaining pleasure from painting. 


First up was my Summer Rose class . It was only a small piece but there was a lot of technique and we all had the piece finished by the end of class. I used the Atelier Interactives paints and mediums for this one. If you haven't used these paints before they take a bit of getting used to how they work but once you have the feel of them you are OK. I love using them now together with the mediums they offer so much scope to try different things.
At the end everyone was happy with their paintings so it was a good start to the weekend.




On the Saturday was my 6 hour class teaching my Purple Iris. This was a more involved painting using Atelier Interactives paints.







 


The air conditioning played a bit of havoc with the paints and mediums so it took a bit longer than anticipated but we all live close to each other so we are going to put the finishing touches to it one Saturday.








Saturday night we had our conference dinner and entertainment. We all had to dress up in the theme which was Baubles, Bangles and Beads. Everyone had a great night dancing and catching up with friends.

the three winners of our fancy dress - yes she does have a chandelier on her head!

Sunday was another day of painting but I was a student this time and I did a portrait study in oils with Cathy Van Ee. I haven't finished it yet or photographed it yet so will put it up in the next post.

This weekend was a great weekend too and I just love getting together with friends and having a whole weekend just doing what I love without distractions.

Anyway, I just looked at the time and realise that I will be late for work today so back to the grindstone.

Ah well we have to come back to earth some time don't we, even it is just to earn enough money so we can indulge in our passions.  Till next post....

My little quote for today from Dr Wayne Dyer

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change"

Have a great day everyone
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

While the Cat's away.....

Hi everyone

I received a lovely email from my friend Anna today and then saw a nice surprise on the Chroma website. I made some cards recently using Chroma paints and mediums and they have put the cards and instructions on their website in the Paint Talk section. I just love creating all sorts of things and these cards were a lot of fun to do. I was also very honoured that Anna chose to paint my Buddha design out of the magazine that I wrote about in a previous post. Hop on over to Anna's blog to have a look at her wonderful work.

This week, my husband is away with work all week (hence the title of this post), so we all know what that means don't we? Quick easy meals for dinner, no housework, and lots and lots of ME time. Luckily my boys help me out cleaning up the kitchen every night after dinner so I have been doodling and painting this week.




This first page is my doodle that I did in my new moleskin-like journal right after a nice long meditation. I just used my coloured sharpies and I don't think I have finished yet but I have stopped for a while because usually I keep fiddling till it is too busy and overdone.






 The next group of photos are a double page in my art journal. I wanted to do a collage. Here are my stages. The first stage is stamping and stenciling on the background.




I found a plastic placemat in the bargain shop and used it as a stencil first with black ink and a makeup sponge.





Then I turn it over and used the brayer on it to use it as a stamp.






Here is the result.

Then i painted a wash of Ultramarine Blue Deep and Diox Purple over the stamped pattern. While it was wet I placed the placemat back over it and used the brayer again, lifting off to leave another pattern.






I then stuck on some paper towel that I had wiped my brush on with greens and iridescent colours.  This was actually the inspiration for the next couple of steps and the picture I found. I also stuck on some patterned serviette pieces







I had a piece of black cardstock that I had sponged red and gold iridescents on it. I tore it and stuck it over the patterned serviette.
I painted some thick irridescent green over the dark blue background and while it was wet I pressed the stamp in the picture to leave indentations of the stamp. Then I stamped this all over the page.





I punched out some butterflies and stuck the leftover piece on the page.

Then I found a photo I liked because of the iridescent beauty of her dress but also because of her confidence and her care-free and blissful mood I saw in her. I love the way her dress is floating all around her. I then stuck the punched butterflies around the girl. I cut out a butterfly in the same paper and doodled on it. I finished the pages with Opal Dust on her dress and on the butterflies.

Then I found the words that said what I saw in the photo.  They say 

"Beauty comes from deep within".  

The large caption says, 

"Although genes have a great impact on how we look, how well we wear them is up to us. Decide now to 'dress' yourself from the inside out to reflect the person you always knew you could be."

It looks like I have covered up most of the stamped background but in person you can see it there.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post. I thank everyone who has looked and commented on my blog. I really appreciate the feedback.

I hope you are all having a creative week
Lee:)

Rainy Day outside

Well, this is the view out my front door - cold and rainy outside today, the perfect day to stay inside and work on my art journal that has been sadly neglected this past week.

On Friday I caught up with a couple of friends for a leisurely breakfast and received a lovely present from my dear friend Anna. I had given Anna some pieces of material that I had all great intentions of doing something with but never got around to. This is the result, a beautiful  handbag. I just love it, Anna is so creative!!

Anna also gave me an ATC - I am so lucky to have such a wonderful thoughtful friend. Thank you Anna.

Every time this week that I thought that I would have some time to create, something else got in the way and I hadn't been able to touch a page till today. Hence the theme of my first page, having enough time to do what I want to do. It is a matter of choices and how I look at time - friend instead of foe.
I seem to be stuck on circles and swirls at the moment. I used anything I could find today to make circles, old cotton reels, the end of a sponge brush, bubble wrap and circle stamps.

I am also a big fan of Dr Wayne Dyer and Abraham-Hicks' teachings and the transfer is from an article about time.
The affirmation at the end is "I intend to make time for myself to live the life that I came here to live."

The next page was inspired by my astrology chart from yesterday. It started with the question - What would you do if you had the freedom to do anything?  It talked about the list of things that you wouldn't touch, things you love just as they are. It is a reminder to recognise these things and celebrate them and that being grateful for what you already have is the key to greater comfort.
 Here is stage 1 and 2.
I started with a pinky red with lilac background. i bubble wrapped into the wet paint, then mixed the red with white and stamped bubble wrap on top (can you tell I love the bubble wrap at the moment?)









I then stuck down pieces of a nice serviette, then painted sunflower yellow and aqua in places












 Then came the astrology article, flower stenciling, doodling, stamping and finally the finished page.







Hence, these are some of the things I am grateful for:-

I hope you are all safe an sound where-ever you are in the world and that you are grabbing those precious moments to create till your hearts desire and celebrate what you have right now, because in the end all that matters is now.

Love lee:)