Dharma in the Garden

I attended a Figure Drawing Masterclass on Saturday with the artist Kelly-Anne Cairns  We spent the morning working in charcoal drawing our model Elizabeth.  This was my second life drawing class so I did a little better with proportion this time, managing to get the feet to fit on the page and not disappear off the end of the paper.  I learned a bit about charcoal reduction at Edinburgh College of Art in the summer so it was good to create a drawing using this method again.  It involves covering the paper with a thick willow charcoal and then rubbing this in with your hands (very messy!). Then you draw in the lines of the body using a thin piece of charcoal, creating highlights by lifting out with a putty rubber. Any additional shading is done by adding more charcoal and blending with the fingers.

We only had one hour to do this so there is a lot that is unfinished. At one point the model's knee was far too squashed so Kelly-Anne suggested cutting off a strip of paper from the left side of the paper and joining it to the right side which gave me more room to extend the knee and get the proportion right. I think it works quite well and you really can't see the join!

I have used oils only once before but have always wanted to give them another go, although I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get the painting home given the amount of drying time involved.  We were using Alkyds which dry quicker but still take about a week.  After a great demonstration by Kelly-Anne on mixing and applying skin tones, we had two hours to spend on our paintings. Oils are wonderful to work with although I will definitely need to invest in some decent brushes as the ones I have are starting to shed their hairs - not pretty when that happens on your painting.  

The painting is slightly bigger than this but I cropped the photo because there is a large smudge of paint on the far left which I need to fix. This happened because the two ends of the paper got pressed together when I was getting it home.  I might do more work on the background but am pleased with the skin tones.  Two hours wasn't very long (it flew past) but it was a good introduction to working with this medium. At Edinburgh College of Art Summer School I worked in acrylics which dry much too quickly but I couldn't really have used anything else when you have transport several large pieces of work home afterwards.  But now that I have a better understanding of how oil works (and know that I can buy water-based oils which will avoid having to use turpentine) I'm keen to start painting some portraits. Although I've just seen the price of really good brushes so might have to make do with my cheap ones for a while longer.

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In Profile

Over-worked?

This is my latest drawing of Ronnie Wood. I am in experimental mode at the moment, just trying to find my way not only with the app but in what I am trying to achieve with these drawings. My initial idea was to produce monochrome images but found that the addition of colour to create light and shade worked well so now I am starting to experiment with more colours. Some may find the results a bit weird but It has never been my intention to produce a painting that looks like a photograph - that's what a camera is for.

 

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Here's one drawing that didn't work out.  Pity, as I thought it was going OK.

I don't know this actress (Sofia Grabol) but saw a photograph and loved the shape of her face.  She has a very long face and I discovered quite late into the drawing that I had made it too wide and too short.  I started to make the adjustments but it just didn't look right any more.  I'll pick this one up again later but meantime I've started work on a drawing of Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones.

 

Well, today's drawing took a lot longer to complete than yesterday's.  The likeness disappeared about half way through and I came very close to hitting the delete button.  But I persevered with it and it got a lot better, although I'm still not 100% happy with it.  The mouth is not quite right somehow and the eyes are possibly a bit too wide. The temptation is to go back and tinker with it, which I'm doing my best to ignore.

I have been using one or two iPad drawing apps lately to see what sort of results you can get and have been pretty impressed so far.  These apps will definitely be my winter art medium of choice. Particularly today when I really don't fancy sitting in my unheated garden studio (and no water required or brushes to clean). Also great for sketching on the go - now I just take the iPad!

I'm still getting used to this method of drawing as it's certainly very different from using the usual brush or a pen but some of the blending tools on these apps are wonderful.  

Have just finished this drawing of David Attenborough which I did in about 90 minutes.  Sometimes I can get a likeness quickly and the drawing starts to come together really well - love when that happens! Other times, well let's just say the 'delete' button is very useful.  I could work further on this drawing but have decided it's best to leave it as it is. 

I much prefer doing portraits of older people.  There is just so much more information in their faces, so much more character in the lines and folds and texture of the skin.  Their faces really do tell a story.

Over-worked?

I would have preferred doing this head study on red pastel paper but even my extensive supply of art materials didn't extend to this particular colour.  I am working from a photograph of the same male model again but this time he is in quarter profile.

I used charcoal pencil for the initial sketch, moving to soft pastels for the shading and detail.  His nose is not right and I struggled with the lips but I'm relatively happy with the skin tone and position of the head is not too bad this time. Although I feel I may have over-worked it - knowing when to stop is difficult!

 

 

In Profile

I have always struggled when drawing profiles, the mouth especially, so this is the image I decided to work from today.

This time I managed to get the proportions of the head right (the distance from the face line to the back of the head should equal the distance from the mouth to the top of the head).  I used a charcoal pencil this time to mark in the mouth, eye, ear and nose and then continued to work with soft pastels.

The position of the ear isn't right in this inital stage drawing.  It should sit level with the eye so needs to come down a little.  More work needed on the hair and shadowing under the chin and also need to do more to show the contours of the face.

I am more or less happy with this so will call it 'finished'. I know if I keep fiddling with it then I could lose what I've achieved. I think there is more of a likeness to the person in the photograph this time which is encouraging. Definitely happy with the shadow areas. Pastels are great to work with - you can blend colour so well with them. I switched to pastel pencils in the latter stages and used a tortillon to blend. The ear was a real challenge! Much harder to do than the mouth.  

Preparation

I am busy preparing for my portrait painting course at ECA Summer School. Only twelve weeks to go so I am attempting to get as much practice as possible before then working from life and photographs.  

Yesterday I did a quick five minute preparatory sketch working from this photograph.

Although fairly happy with the result, I was unable to get anything approaching a likeness.

 I did like working with only three colours of pastel (dark grey, pink and light orange) and also enjoyed the process of blocking in the dark areas first before working on the features.

I attempted a more in-depth study of the same photograph today although didn't find it quite as easy as yesterday. At one point I had over-worked the drawing so much I didn't think it was worth saving. However, I stuck with it and am pleased with the overall effect.  Still no startling resemblence (I have the head too long) so I need to work on getting the proportions right.

 

Mosaics - Part 1

It is unseasonably warm today.  More like June than March.  The summer house is baking hot, bees are buzzing, birds are singing and butterflies are fluttering.  I'm wearing factor 50 sunscreen and sunglasses and wondering what happened to Spring.

The weather is confused, the plants are confused, in fact we're all a bit confused.  Which may explain why I decided to teach myself mosaics today.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I have the basic kit of materials I bought a while ago which contains tiles, grout, adhesive, nippers, goggles, tweezers, even an apron and gloves. What I hadn't realised was that adhesive and grout don't really keep that long.

What happens when the sun shines

I'm using this Clairefontaine sketchpad for some 'wet in wet' work.  It has 180gsm drawing paper so can take a lot of water and doesn't buckle.

It's called a travel album and I think I may have bought it with the intention of doing some painting on holiday.  It was sitting on my shelf just asking to be used and the sun was shining... 

...and maybe I was thinking about summer and flowers and butterflies.

And there it was. A butterfly shaped accident.

I love when that happens!

 

Wishcasting

Today Jamie Ridler asks the question "What is your spirit wishing for?"

My wish is simply to believe.  In myself, in the goodness of others, that all things are possible, in a creatively fulfilling and abundant life, and most of all in my dreams.

This Week

So far I have been:

enjoying the sight of spring bulbs starting to push their way above ground; removing the moss which has covered most of the brick edging surrounding the lawn; discovering Cruickshank Botanical Gardens and I ♥ Art in the city of Aberdeen (both hidden gems); photographing trees (again!); thinking of taking up crochet (and I ♥ Art do classes!); choosing plants for pollinators (I so want the garden to contain only plants, shrubs and flowers which attract bees, butterflies and insects); reading The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo; wearing red (a colour which has been long absent from my wardrobe); receiving a parcel of skincare goodies from Liz Earle; waiting for the arrival of two new art books - Unfurling by Misty Mawn and Art at the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker; voting to retain the beautiful Union Terrace Garden in the heart of Aberdeen; finishing my evening class in acrylic painting (loved every minute, could do another four weeks).

A Byte of the Apple

I've decided to stop fooling myself and just admit it. I really do want an iphone. 

In fact what I really want is the iphone 4s. In white. And if I'm going to have this shiny new thing then really I definitely need the 32GB size for all the apps and movies and photos I'm going to store on it.

While I'm in full confession mode, might as well admit that I would also really love to have a MacBook Pro. You know, the one with the biggest screen and biggest memory (and biggest price but what the heck, it's only money). Oh yes, and an ipad and an ipod would be lovely too. Just to complete the set.

You see, I've been trying for so long to tell myself that my old Nokia does me just fine. Which is does. It's serves me well, my little Nokia. Very reliable. But then you see everyone around you with their shiny new phones. My phone is now so ashamed that it rarely makes an appearance these days. It just can't compete with the new cool phones with all their bells and whistles - 'apps' I think they're called.  No wonder they are called smart phones - they seem to do everything! People are utterly enthralled by them. Can't live their lives without them in fact.  And until recently I didn't want to be like that. I didn't want to hand over my entire life to a phone. I kept telling myself that really my life wasn't that complex that I needed a phone to organise it.  I worried that I would buy one and become just as fascinated, just as addicted as everyone else and then... Well, then my life would be over.  My life as I currently know it that is. Once I had 'crossed over' into that world I knew there would be no return.

Then one day I found myself inside the Apple store. This was a place I had passed by many times and never felt drawn to enter.  I don't know what was different this particular day. Maybe my resistance was weaker, maybe it was a full moon. I just don't know. Anyway I did 'cross over' and once inside all was lost. Resistance was futile. I capitulated and asked for a demo on the MacBook Air. I'm not sure what happened after that. It's all a bit of a blur (do the assistants use mind-bending tricks?) but since then I can't stop thinking about iphones and ipads and ipods and gosh just thinking about them makes me go all funny inside. I need to have one of these gadgets. No, I need to have ALL the Apple merchandise. Not just the MacBooks but everything. Even the phone covers and headphones. I want to paint my world APPLE!

Strangely there is still a tiny part of me fighting this overwhelming desire. Last night I got as far as putting in my credit card details for my beautiful new white iphone 4s (which also came with free headphones worth £60 and other goodies!) but then something stopped me clicking that submit button. It could have a lot to do with my already enormous credit card bill and the fact that it's only a week until Christmas with all the madness that brings.  So maybe I haven't lost all sanity - maybe there is still hope. 

But then again...

Happy Accidents

My recent art class had us working with ink and bamboo pens and I loved the effects so much I came home and ordered a selection of inks and different sizes of pens.  

I've been playing around with the inks on different papers using the bamboo pens and brushes. This painting was another of those happy accidents which I love so much. I had initially planned to try doing a very black sky using ink on wet paper. The paper was a bit too wet so the ink ran but it produced what looked like a tree when the paper was turned upside down. It made me think of a bleak and snowy landscape so I did a wintry sky using watercolours and used a white ink pen and liquid ink with a brush to create the snow. 

I don't think I would have produced anything like this if I had set out to do it and I am definitely experimenting much more these days rather than working on anything specific. I'm feeling a lot more confident in being able to create my impression of a scene and as a result I'm starting to produce more 'abstract' work.  However the art class was great for helping me brush up on my drawing skills while also challenging me to be more expressive.    

I am angry.

I am sad.

I go within.

I forgive myself.

 

Lost

I type this from hubby's laptop, I suppose in that slightly numb state you feel before reality hits. I lost the entire contents of my computer hard drive last night. Had been meaning to do a back-up for weeks but you know hindsight is a wonderful thing. Trying not to think about what has been lost as there madness lies. But believe I'll be counting the cost of this for some time.  Thankfully I still have all my original artwork, journals etc but the loss of photographs is always painful, particularly those images that can never be re-created. Anyway, I'm trying to be philosphical about it all and view it as an opportunity to create lots of new images and artwork. A new hard drive arrives next week, double the size of the old one, and this time I will be taking the time to back everything up!

Another beautiful spring day, cloudless blue sky, warm breeze... just perfect.

Been re-aquainting myself the art of portrait drawing, making a few pencil sketches of images in newspapers and magazines. It's been a long time since I did sketches of the face (quite obvious from the results thus far!) but it's still great fun trying to get a likeness. And a great feeling when, with one tiny mark, the person you are trying to capture stares back at you from the paper!  Somehow you've managed to get the exact tilt of their nose, the shape of their mouth or the turn of their head.

Much harder will be drawing from life. Who is going to sit still long enough I wonder...

Well they've had their best ever performance this spring, continuing to give a fabulous display week after week and well past their allotted time. But after many encores my tulips have now sadly taken their last bow.  I can't be too sad because ready to make an entrance is the rambling rose, accompanied by the lavender, the gentiana and the aguilegia.  A welcome return year after year but a new act waiting in the wings is the Gerbera 'Forever Daisies' Collection and I can't wait to see how Crista, Pam, Piroska, Rachel and Sunny will fare among the other stars of the garden.

 

 

A tranquil oasis with trees, waterfalls and bridges, where ducks swim, children play and dogs are walked. Located in a quiet residential area, the noises of everyday life won't disturb you here. There are plenty of quiet spots where you can sit and contemplate, water and birdsong the only soundtrack to your dreams.

The bridges and winding pathways guide you over and around a deep pool which is fed from above by a small waterfall which gurgles and gushes over rocks and stones.

This garden paradise is only a brief walk from our home - we are truly blessed!  Today it was sparkling in the sunshine, a kaleidescope of colours.  The water was like a mill pond creating the most beautiful reflections.

Sketchbook and pencils remained in my bag as the camera was definitely the favoured medium for capturing all this vibrancy. 

The name of this paradise is Johnston Gardens.  More images can be found in this album.

 My efforts (so far) with my new Canon Ixus 130.

I'm loving the colour accent function on this camera where you can highlight one colour while leaving the rest of the image black and white.

And there definitely was a painting in that photograph!

I have tried to capture the shadows that were created by the very strong sunlight. The initial result was actually pretty insipid so I added watercolours straight from their tubes and worked them with a palette knife to create the leaf shapes.

"The tulips stand arrayed. Here infantry wheels out into the sunlight." Amy Lowell

Small but beautifully formed

My new camera is here! Still getting to grips with the basics but am excited about all the quirky things this little digital device can do and the fact that it is small enough to carry around in my pocket.  Have already seen the results using both the fish-eye effect and miniature effect (you knew I was sold Jen B when you showed me what it could do and of course you were lucky that I let you keep it!) but I'm also loving the colour accent and colour swap modes which I can't wait to try out.

Meanwhile, remembering to walk before I can run, I grabbed a few simple shots today to get the feel of it.

This is one of the entrances to Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen.  I love the design of these gates and it's clear to see that with just a little care and attention they would look beautiful again.

This is Tulip 'Madonna' again. I can't resist taking photographs of it.

Liking the black shadows and the background. Could be a painting in this one...

However, I've still got a 176 page manual to read so won't be running anytime soon!

Repeat daily until better

"Today I will sow the seeds of the fruits I wish to harvest by thinking juicy, good, fun, fresh, new, positive, beautiful, loving thoughts." Mystical Sunflower - Dorothy Mendoza Row

Had lunch out yesterday at The Alford Bistro as it was our wedding anniversary.  Enjoyed smoked haddock risotto and cranachan for dessert. Hubby had mInce, tatties and skirlie - very Scottish. It was all yummy!  The cranachan was a nice surprise as this dessert was on our wedding menu.  I'm quite predictable in my choices. I know if there's risotto on a menu than I'll be eating it and if I had to choose my last ever meal then smoked haddock risotto would definitely be part of it.

Today we have been garden shopping. Yippee!  Bought four lavenders ('Hidcote', 'Munstead', 'French' and 'Bella' Purple) and a Euphorbia which I will have to very careful with as apparently it has a poisonous sap. Yikes! The grass has had its first cut and today was given a liquid lawn feed.  I've also tried Miracle-Gro Patch Magic Grass Seed on a few bare patches.  Our circular lawn is not a patch ('scuse the pun) on my grandfather's lawn which was as smooth as a bowling green. I'm sure he would be giving me great tips if he were still here but the least I can do is try to give it a bit of a feed and a cut now and then!  The said plants have been given a soaking, placed on top of the beds in final location until I put them in the ground tomorrow.  However, I'm still looking for a bird bath. Two garden centres we visited today didn't have anything remotely bird bathish but there are a few others we can try.  Garden shopping is expensive!

The warmest day of the year so far.  The garden is now so full of life and at its most perfect. I love this time of year.

This is Tulip 'Madonna' - isn't she beautiful? 

The apple blossom will never be more perfect than it is right now.  Expecting a bumper crop of delicious apples this year.

The pots of spring bulbs have been moved from their winter position at the side of the shed to the front of the shed so I can now see their glory from the kitchen window. Sharp sand has been scattered round the hostas to deter the slugs and snails. I've tried to keep the rambling rose from rambling too much or I won't get through the garden gate!  Plants in clay and terracotta pots have been given a large drink of water and books and magazines in the summer house have been re-arranged and weeded respectively. I'm off to put my feet up and read more Wilkie Collins.

Today was a very different day from our normal Saturday, full of lots of interesting people and experiences with a couple of purchases thrown in.  A chance meeting in a city garden, a yummy lunch with a friend I haven't seen in a while and who hubby got to meet for the first time, a long walk which my body definitely needed plus a spot of leafleting for a good cause.

The good cause is Friends of Union Terrace Gardens.  These gardens in the heart of our city are the subject of much debate and controversy at the moment which I won't go into here because this is not the place for such matters. Suffice it to say that various 'Friends' were gathering in the city centre today to do a mass leafleting and we went along to give our support.  On our way to the gathering we just had to stop off in the gardens and enjoy the sunshine.

On our way out of the gardens we passed an older man sitting on one of the benches and hubby noticed that this man had a small sketchbook. He asked if he could see what he was drawing and we spent time chatting to this lovely man about his sketches and about the gardens. He was 89, partially sighted, with impaired hearing but he still enjoyed sitting in the gardens making little pencil sketches. He liked using oil and soft pastels but wasn't so keen on watercolours. He was a joy to talk to and he kindly gave me two of his sketches.

I hope we have the pleasure of meeting him again soon.

It was a surprise to find my art buddy Freda leafleting with the 'Friends'. Hubby also got involved handing out leaflets while I visited the local Jessops with the intention of buying the Canon Ixus 130. No luck unfortunately as I was told it had been discontinued.  Back at the gathering we met and chatted to lots of interesting people and membership numbers have increased as a result. After good food and conversation at The Coffee House with Freda I purchased a couple of art books from the Collins 30 Minute Series (one on pastels and one on watercolours) at a bargain price and we just about managed to make it home before the rain started.  I'm also happy to say that I've just found an online supplier of the Canon Ixus 130 and so await delivery of my shiny new toy.

One thing leads to another

Beautiful sunshine again today. Yesterday's brief spell of rain has only teased the plants with a few drops of the water they need.  Put seed in the bird feeder (tried to clean it as something strange seems to be growing in the bottom...) and did a bit of pottering round the flower beds. There are large gaps where I have lost quite a few plants due to the two severe winters we've had so a visit to the garden centre is on the cards. I've mail-ordered hardy gerberas and a dwarf buddleia 'buzz'.



This will replace the buddleia davidii which had grown so large we had to dig it up. I do miss it but it really was taking over.  

My pottering led me to the summer house where I flopped in the chair and started reading Frida Kahlo's Diary. Had bought this last year and stuck it, unread, on the shelf among all my other art books. I'm still not sure what to make of her work but I did feel inspired to put the book down and do something! Looked through my portfolio again and found a few more sketches from the past. Back in the day I really loved drawing the human figure - maybe I should pick this up again. Also came across my paintings from an experimental art class I did in 2003. All very strange. I remember we had to paint while listening to various pieces of music, just playing with colour and shapes and seeing what came up.  So sorted everything into (roughly) date order and debated what to do next.  Acrylics were right there in my line of vision, along with texture paste, structure gel and a glazing medium.  With no definite outcome in mind I mixed reds and yellows with the structure gel and created random shapes on paper using a palette knive. Also played around with the texture paste and different colours - just having fun and making a mess. I did eventually have to put on the CSI gloves though!

Ink spots and garden pots

Whilst marooned in the summer house during a heavy downpour I was inspired by the rain drops and the sound of water hitting the roof to grab a piece of paper and whatever medium came to hand so I could capture the moment.  Dipping a brush into black and blue inks, I let the colours fall onto damp paper. I then used a green watercolour, again letting the paint drop onto the damp paper. It's an interesting result - I may leave it as it is or use it as a background page for journalling. 

When the light was better earlier this morning, I set up a stack of small terracotta garden pots and a wicker trug and did a couple of quick sketches using water-soluable graphite pencils. I couldn't resist adding watercolour pencils and coloured pens!

More images have been added to 'Dharma in the Gallery' and 'Journals and Sketchbooks'. A trawl through my portfolio revealed a few forgotten pieces (some from old sketchbooks, some from art classes taken last summer) which deserved to see the light of day.  A thoroughly enjoyable day. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?

You are beautiful...

don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Operation Beautiful

A few weeks ago after finding this site I put my first happy post-it note on a door in the ladies' toilets at work. It's still there and has brought a smile to a few faces.  It was fun hearing the girls talking about it and wondering who had put it there - eventually I confessed! 

Start your mission today.

Back to Basics

After re-arranging all my art materials (I do this regularly when I want to create something but it's just not happening), I made the decision to go right back to the basics and re-familiarise myself with techniques and materials.  Pastels were my first love so I had a fun half-hour playing with oil pastels and a palette knive, then moved on to pastel pencils and coloured pens - made all the easier now that these are sorted in glass jars by their colour groups.  Determined to conquer the medium that is watercolour, I am now working on skies and clouds.

My parents have a small watercolour painting that always makes me want to create something similar everytime I see it.  Today I saw an exercise in one of my art technique books that was almost identical to this painting.  The background is strips of pale washes in yellow, blue, red and green. In my parents' painting there is a tall tree and a couple of people.  In the exercise the picutre has reflections and very vaque shapes suggesting trees.  Well I gave it a go and the result if above. Quite liking the reflections, not sure about the trees...

I tried the colour washes again on a bigger piece of paper with bigger trees. The result wasn't great but I particularly liked one of the trees so cut this out and stuck it in my journal.

The green/brown splodges were a happy accident and I like the impressionist feel of it.

Going back to basics has been such a great idea. I'm not creating works of art but I am creating and that's all that matters.

 

Trust the Process

My daily mantra is fast becoming 'trust the process'.  This was something Shannon told us on the first day of the Inside Out e-Course, that there was no right way of doing it and we had to trust the process.  This is my second time doing this course but it was only during the third week that my eyes fell on those words again and I suddenly realised what they meant.  Today during my messy attempts at creating journal pages I have repeatedly said those words to myself ("just trust the process Jennifer"). Too often I get hung up about things not being 'right' or 'perfect' so now I remind myself that I'm only having fun, doing a bit of collage, making brightly coloured pages for my journal. It's no big deal.  In the past I have ripped up a lot of artwork I didn't like, things that if I'd only trusted the process would probably have worked out OK if I'd just kept at it.  That was my lesson today.  To keep going even if I didn't particularly like the rsesults I was getting, to trust the process and see what happened.  Now I see that trusting the process doesn't just apply to my artwork but to my entire way of life. In all things, I must learn to trust the process.

So, long time no posting. Essentially I've been suffering from a creative dry spell for, oh... too long.  Although I haven't fed or nurtured the garden much in recent months, I haven't forgotten about it. But I see it  needs a bit of revamp although I'm not sure where to start or indeed what I want to do with it.  

Meantime, on a more positive note I am boldy participating in Free Spirit Knits' Inside Out E-Course again this year. This is definitely helping to get the creative juices flowing again (well, starting a slight trickle anyway).

I have also bought myself some BrainSync Meditation CDs and have just started listening to Clear Wave Creativity ("Unlock your imagination, and experience inspiration flowing from deep within the currents of your own mind. Under the calming sounds of Mayan waves, Alpha binaural beats will swiftly melt away the day’s worries, and spark higher levels of creativity, intuition, and awareness.") Here's hoping!

 

It must be...

It's arrived. My blue sketchbook is here.  All pristine and waiting to be filled with ... um, well that's the question.  What am I going to fill it with?

I thought I had picked a theme that gave me plenty of scope. But now I'm thinking that maybe there is too much scope.

It must be... 'madness', 'art', 'me', 'about time', 'a sketchbook'. The list is endless.

I'm thinking about it way too much.  The title's not important.  It's what I fill it with that really matters. 

So I guess it must be... time to make a start.

It ain't big. Only 5.5 x 8.5 inches. That's the size of the moleskin sketchbook (mine will have a blue cover) which I will be using for The Sketchbook Project 2011.  

I have a sketchbook very similar to this which I have used on holiday so I guess I know what to expect re size, type of paper etc.  The paper won't stand up to too much water or paint so I think I'll go down the collage route using digital images, printed papers and ink. And colour, lots of bold colour!  

My latest arty book buy is 'Creative Paint Workshop for Mixed Media Artists' by Ann Baldwin.  A lot of the ideas in this book are more for large scale projects.  However, I am hoping to get some inspiration and ideas regarding texture and layering that will translate to a small sketchbook, obviously avoiding the use of small items like beads or buttons that could come unstuck!  My little sketchbook is going on tour after all.

I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do around my theme of "It must be..." but I think it gives me a lot of scope.  Once the sketchbook is here I have decided to allow myself three months to complete it so that I can ship it in plenty time (it needs to be State-side by mid-January 2011).

Let the creative juices flow.

"It's like a concert tour but with sketchbooks"

Next year my sketchbook will be doing a tour of America.  And after a tour of galleries and museums across the country it will be part of a permanent collection at The Brooklyn Art Library.

It's not just my sketchbook of course.  There will be thousands of others from around the world taking part in The Sketchbook Project 2011 run by the Art House Co-op.  It's a chance for professional and amateur artists alike to show their work and be part of a creative community.  

For the sketchbook project I have chosen the theme 'It must be...' and I have until the end of the year to fill a moleskin sketchbook based on this theme.

Oh boy, what have I done?

Weather or not

This morning a colleague commented on the fact that the sun wasn't shining. I thought it was a perfectly lovely morning - calm, warm and dry.  Anyway, it set me thinking that for most people the weather dictates whether they will be happy that day or not.  Blue skies and sunshine and everyone is happy but on the cloudy days a smile seems hard to find.  Why is that?  Why should we let the weather decide if our day will be good or bad, whether we'll smile or frown?  Yes, life has its ups and downs and there are some days when dark clouds are just an added misery.  But whether we're happy or sad, grumpy or mad, what's the weather got to do with it?

ACID Project

Yesterday was the first day of my digital photography class and my fears of being the only female among a group of retired men were completely unfounded - only three males and seven females! We spent the morning in Aberdeen's Union Terrace Gardens with our cameras and then back to the art gallery to manipulate the photographs using Photoshop CS.  The idea was to use the software to create sepia or black & white images as the gallery currently has an exhibition of Victorian photography which we had looked at earlier in the morning to get some inspiration. Photoshop CS is all very new to me so I had a bit of play with it.  My playing around resulted in an image which I liked so much that I decided to share it with the group at the end of the day instead of using the sepia one.  The colours being so strong and vibrant, I referred to it as my 'acid' picture.  

I have been so inspired by my 'happy accident' that today I created three more 'acid' images and have decided to make it a long term project.  I do have a slight difficulty in that I don't have Photoshop CS (nor the funds to buy it!) and it does give me greater control of hue and saturation. However, I am undaunted as Paint is good enough meantime and can produce some impressive results (although the colours are not quite so intense).   

I am calling the project ACID (Aberdeen. Colour. Imagination. Drama) and I can't wait to add more exciting and vibrant images to the collection.

Goddess Guidebook | Live your Goddess life...

Whether it is your own puppeh or meow - or a free-roaming animal {from caterpillars to birds to butterflies}… animals are a beautiful all-rounder healer. They can heal in a moment with their love and joy - as well as each having their own individual medicine to heal with.

via www.goddessguidebook.com

Love Goddess Leonie's uplifting website and goddess goodies

Lest we forget

There's a part of Winston Churchill's D-Day speech that never fails to make my spine tingle and to feel all patriotic

"...we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..."

This weekend we are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of Dunkirk.  50 of the original "little ships" have returned to Dunkirk this week as part of these commemorations. Maybe you have to be British (or French) to feel particularly moved by any of this.  I was moved that young children in France are very much involved each year in marking the occasion. They are very knowledgeable about what took place 70 years ago and proud of their country. They know that enormous sacrifices were made in order that they could be free.  I would like to think that children in this country are as knowledgeable because they will be the ones responsible for passing it on to the next generation.

Inside Out Explorers

Well the Inside Out e-Course has now finished and I'm starting to have withdrawal symptoms!  Missing my daily dose of reflection and creative fun.  I would love to do another one but time, money and a digital photography course have put paid to that plan. 

Anyway, Shannon (our inspirational guru and course organiser) has put together a montage of all the course participants' creative efforts from the four weeks and you can see this on YouTube

You must love yourself before you love another. By accepting yourself and fully being what you are, your simple presence can make others happy. –unknown

I re-read that second sentence several times before I really understood what it meant. This morning, for a brief period, I really felt I was fully being what I am. A joyous, giving being, full of love and hope and happiness. I felt that joyous energy bubbling up from inside me, making my heart swell. It caught in my throat because I had to fight the urge to open my mouth and just let all my love and joy pour out. In what form I know not – laughter, song, a yell! I was sitting in my favourite café, taking time out on my way to work to enjoy a cappuccino. I had bought a cup cake for my friend to cheer her up (this café does amazing cup cakes), the sun was shining, the coffee was doing its stuff and the life felt good.

Today I am focusing on giving and receiving but more importantly on loving myself. As the quote above says, we must love ourselves first before we can love another. My creative e-course is helping me to dig deep, to reach inside, and discover (or should that be re-discover) who I really am.

I'm no expert but I know one thing. If you are filled with doubt and negativity, don’t consider yourself worthwhile or deserving of good things, if you are self-critical, angry or bitter, then it will not be possible to give lovingly to others.

It is incredibly difficult and scary to look inside yourself and see what is really there. All that dark horrible icky stuff we don’t admit to. Those traits and characteristics that we dislike so much in other people? We’ve got them too. Once you start looking, I mean really looking, shining a light in to all those dark corners, the dark stuff starts running for cover. Thing is, there’s no where to run. It’s been exposed to the light and dark stuff doesn’t like being in the light. I’ve shone the light on a lot of nasty stuff lately and it wasn’t nice to see. I wanted to put the cover back over them and pretend they weren’t there. But I had seem them and I knew I had to admit that yes I’d had those thoughts, I’d felt those feelings, I had been that awful person. But I also knew that inside me was lots of lovely stuff too - compassion, love, gratitude, passion, creativity, respect, generosity, joy, positivity, belief. An abundance of beautiful virtues, thoughts and feelings. Then I realised that if I could think and feel all that negative stuff with no real effort on my part, then surely it was just as easy to stop, reach inside and choose one of my happy traits instead.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm learning, day by day, step by step, to stop and examine all my negative thoughts and just find a better, nicer thought instead. Hey, I'm not perfect and I'm not saying it's easy. I still have times when life can threaten to overwhelm me and all seems pretty bleak. But I'm learning to accept that too, and to know that at least I now recognise these moments for what they are and that I can choose to change how I feel. In a heartbeat. How powerful is that?

Incidentally, my day just got better and better and the more positive and happy I felt about myself and my life, the more I found that nice stuff kept happening. As for journaling, I think I am becoming seriously addicted! 

Say it loud, say it clear...

Affirmations work and visual reminders are even better.  I have made a few affirmation cards like the one above for prominent display in the summer house.  So when those little niggling doubts start to appear I can look at the cards and remind myself of who I really am. 

Have you met me?

Bored, bored, BORED. My head hurts from the sheer boredom of today's stifling routine. If it is possible to have a day that was less creative, less fulfilling, less authentic, less real, then I hope I never experience it.

But boredom served its purpose - it made me realise that how I am living my life is totally unacceptable and that I am tired, tired, tired of being the square peg in the round hole.  I want to live my life, live it fully, really, authentically. I want to grab my life with both hands, hang on and shout "come on, let's run, let's jump, let's skip, let's play".  There are ideas buzzing, flying around my head, there is a creative bubble inside me ready to burst out, I can feel pure joy and energy fighting to be let loose, I want to laugh long and loud for the sheer delight of hearing its sound. I want the plug to be pulled, the bottle uncorked, the dam released and everything that was stuck fast to come rushing, pouring, tumbling out.  I want to live my values, speak my truth, blow my trumpet.

Phew! Good to get all that out.  Right now I feel I am being swept along in a torrent of emotions, not knowing what will happen or where I'll end up. You know, I've realised that it's actually really hard work pretending to be someone else. And I'm not an actor so I don't even get paid! A lifetime's work and it's not even a great role.  Time for the mask to be removed, the disguise to be taken off, to step from the shadows and into the (spot)light.

Time to introduce ME.

Perfect Things - 20 of them!

Could have thought of a lot more but here are 20 perfect things in no particular order:

An Agatha Christie novel (any of them, it doesn't matter) and a comfy chair
The scent and taste of vanilla. Vanilla perfume is the best!
Newly cut grass - summer's here!
Laundry blowing in the breeze and the fresh air smell when you bring it indoors
Viennese Truffles - makes the first item in the list even more perfect
Life because it is perfect, in every way. I just need to remind myself and get in the flow
Gardening - it's the best therapy ever and you never stop learning
Art - my saviour, my passion, my dream
The White Sands of Morar  May they always remain so blissfully unspoiled  
Spending time with Mum, lunching, shopping and chatting - so rare but bliss! I love you Mum
Girl talk - giggling, gossiping, gassing, great fun
All the amazing people I have met through blogging - bless you all
Katharine Hepburn movies
My Alegria PG Lite Red Scribble Clogs - funky and comfy!
The Inside Out e-course because it's OK to not be perfect!
Granola with cranberries, blueberries and organic yoghurt. Yum!
My summer house and it's view of the garden
Bird song - it never fails to lift my spirits
The sound of waves breaking on the shore
The man who shares my life. Nothing would be perfect without you.

Lose the scissors!

Just completed Week 1 of my creative e-course Inside Out and about to leap into Week 2!  It's been great to just mess about with paint and other fun materials and not worry about the results on the paper. This is something I have real difficulty with so hoping to learn how to release all the angst I feel when I start a painting.  The best part has been snipping words and images from magazines and making wonderful collage.  For a little while I was taking time to cut words and pictures out with scissors but then I realised that it was actually far better to just rip and tear things out.  Essentially learning to let go and just be a child again, not caring about being neat or tidy.  Lesson of the week for me has been "lose the scissors"!



There are some parts of the e-course that are challenging for me.  Particularly the journal writing exercises. But I am finding the free form writing to be cathartic. After all the course is called Inside Out and that is just what is happening when you get your thoughts down on paper.  Some thoughts aren't so nice (lots of negativity that needs a light shone on it) but equally I am finding lots of nice stuff turning up!  I have done something similar many years ago when I tried to work my way through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way (no fault of Julia's that I never managed to complete it). Anyway, morning pages (as they were called) threw up some pretty good stuff and I re-read them again the other day to remind myself of what was going on in my life back then.  



Loving the relaxing meditation (which I just don't do enough of) and looking forward to learning about yoga. 

So can't wait to see what's in store this week, although definitely will need to plan my life better so I can do a little something every day instead of a huge splurge of activity at the end of the week!

Other pictures from my journal of self-discovery can be found here

Well I took the plunge and registered for the Inside Out e-Course on Monday. Today I have been happily cutting, sticking, painting, stamping and having the best messy fun ever! My creative journal has begun and, if today is anything to go by, the next four weeks are going to be a revelation.

A journal into self-discovery

Loving the sound of the Inside Out e-course from Free Spirit Knits.  Anything that allows me to scribble, doodle and draw and essentially just be creative has to be a good thing.  And it's even more tempting because Imene has arranged a very generous giveaway of a free spot on the e-course.  Visit Imene's blog to find out more.

Tingling Fingers

Loving my Shakti acupressure ring, which looks beautiful (although a little big to wear as a decorative ring) but more importantly actually works!  Not sure how it works - something to do with the meridians (energy lines) in your fingers being stimulated - but it does.  You roll the little ring up and down each finger about 20 times and you start to feel your fingers tingling.  Great for my cold hands.

Love every day

Today is the first day of spring and it is a beautiful day.  The sun is shining, the snow has gone (finally) and I'm the mood for ... well being busy as it happens.  It's just one of those days when I am in full throttle, getting lots of things done.  I have cleaned windows, spent an enjoyable hour in the garden, tidied my summer house, watered plants, and started work on a watercolour for Mum.  In between I fitted in a session with my chiropractor, popped into the supermarket, ate some lunch and had a chat over the fence with a neighbour.   I did all these things and yet the clock said it was still only a little after lunchtime. It felt like it should have been the middle of the afternoon!  They say that time passes quickly when you are 'in the zone', really enjoying whatever activity it is that you are doing.  Well, not today.  Time seems to be stretching to allow me to do all the things I want to do.  I even have the time to write this!  My intention this morning was to have a truly wonderful and inspirational day, to enjoy all my activities, to find pleasure in every moment.  Well, I am loving my day and it's not over yet!

Attitude of Gratitude

'Count your blessings' is simple to the point of stupid—and powerful to the point of life-altering. Gratitude, that very specific feeling of thankfulness in your heart, allows you to see and absorb all you have, forgetting for a moment all you may lack. It connects your brain with your heart, and gives you the ground to be more giving, effective, loving human. Being grateful allows generosity to flow. And many believe it also makes us more receptive—as in, the more you love what you have, the more you get what you want. So herewith, a list to remind you of fundamental things to be grateful for every day—from apples to clouds to ice cream to getting enough nightly Zzz’s. 

See the list at 26 Reasons to be Grateful - The Ultimate Gratitude List from A to Z

Thanks

A BIG thank you to Karla King who offered to help me create a new banner for my blog using external and internal shots of my studio.  I'm really pleased with what Karla produced so wanted to give her a special mention.

Stirring up the soul

I came across a list of Veronica Hay's New Year Resolutions this week.  Not your normal lose weight, exercise more type resolutions, but real soul stirring, grabbing life with both hands, living your absolute best life type of resolutions.  I love this one:

"I want to write more about those things that really matter to me, with passion, the things that I know in my gut, the things that stir up my soul, and not give a damn about keywords or tags or where I rank in Google."

probably because it pretty much sums up my blog. There's no plan to what I write here and a lot of the time I don't always manage to put into words the wonderful ideas and images that are jumbling around inside my head.  I just write about the people, places and things that come into my experience and "stir up my soul".  I have no interest in keywords, tags or ranking although obviously I write a blog in the hope that someone will read it (even better if they enjoy it too)!  But I'll keep writing anyway because I love it.  Pure and simple.