doll art- wow

A-Z Challenge- U= Underneath

A few months ago I participated in an online course with Desiree East as part of my wish to know some basics about expressing creatively on canvas.

We began with painting on canvas and week by week we painted over what had gone before.

I was quite pleased with part of what appeared in week one and was reluctant to paint over it, and then paint over that, but I was there to learn, so followed Desiree's guidance.

Eventually only I knew what was underneath, and even that was just a memory.
I began to enjoy painting in layers.
Last weekend Giselle Grenier took group members through a process of creating art on a small substrate and we began with gesso, then collage then added embellishments so the interesting piece  of paper with Russian text got covered over quite a bit and again, only I know what is underneath.

I quite liked the end result and have also learned more about composition and layout, which may well lead to a more pleasing ATC when I next do a swap.

The word 'substrate' kept being mentioned and it sounded quite grand to my novice ears, but it just means background, or what is underneath. It can be card, paper, canvas, wood..anything.

I have also heard the word 'substrate' in Ramana Maharshi's teachings.
In this context it refers to that upon on in which all of this world appears, including its art workshops, artists, art journals, paint card, gesso and modge podge.



https://desireeeast.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaJqRRBRVs

A=Z Challenge-T is for Treasure

I was listening to Jena Houston's replay of Quantum Powers and was intrigued by her reference to Tibetan Tema- hidden treasures.
I love the idea of a holy man centuries ago hiding physical and spiritual treasures to be discovered by the worthy and devout.
I wonder what these treasures actually are?

In the context of this A-Z challenge theme of art journalling etc, I have to say that some of my worldly treasure includes wonderful ephemera I have received from swappers, including some lovely purple organza ribbon and an envelope full of steam punkish stuff.

A neighbour gave me a box of vintage lace and another gave me a century old piece of lace from her godmother.

There is also the treasure of good ideas.

The newest swap idea is to create a page about an imaginary ancestor, with a picture and a bio and whatever else we come up with.
This will be a 12 month project so at the end we will have posted and received 12 pages and we will be join how to put them together to form a journal. We begin with an imaginary ancestor from 1700's and I already have an idea.
I won't write about it until I have finished it, as writing might dissipate the creative energy.

https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=2042

A-Z Challenge-S is for Silver

We are on the home stretch now and I am glad I have kept up.
It has been interesting to visit such a variety of blogs too, to see what others are blogging about.

So- silver. I thought about this for a while and realised I do not paint with silver very much.
I have several shades of gold acrylic paint which I enjoy using for postcards for swaps and I found some gold card at a recent fund raiser for guide dogs, which I have used as a substrate for postcards.
I added pictures of Krishna and some jewels and am pleased with the gleaming, radiating outcome.

There was some silver card with the gold, but i have not used that yet, and I cant remember the last times I painted with silver of if I even have any silver paint in my stash...let me have a look..ah yes, I do have a tube and it is nearly all used up....that surprises me- maybe I used it to paint a back ground page or 2 in an art journal.

I will make a point of using the silver card to make a postcard this week, and also to create another one with silver paint.

I enjoyed an hour with Giselle Grenier yesterday as she guided us through making a small piece of mixed media art, so will use her replay to make a slightly larger silver themed one.

A-Z Challenge-R is for Rubbish

I went to an event yesterday and looked in the rubbish bin in the hallway outside the venueto see if I could use anything at the top of the pile in one of my trash /junk journals. We are supposed to use at least 50% trash/re-cycled stuff.
A discarded black box looked quite interesting but i decided my behaviour was a bit odd- so put it back.

The event was about the life and work of Bill Mitchell, an artist and director and the title of the day was
'Ideas from the Attic'. I did not know anything about him or his work but know he seems to be a kindred spirit.
His attic is full of items he collected, or stuff he made as part of his process.
I envy him the space to store all that stuff.

Some of the items were on show and I loved his box art..and some of the stuff I would call rubbish, but there were small sand boxes for us to play with small bits of this rubbish, and a lot of us got creative with it.

I am collecting black/mysterious/Gothic ephemera and have an album with the intention of creating a black journal and after browsing through some of his art journals I have a feeling it will actually get created soon.

I have  returned with renewed enthusiasm to a journal I am making for a trashy/flowish junk journal swap.

A stall holder at the local Tuesday flea market says she will bring in her box of discarded junk for me too...will she remember..will I be able to use any of it, and if not, will I be able to throw it away?

A-Z Challenge -Q is for Quintessence

When I do the A-Z challenges Q can be a bit of a challenge, but the word Quintessence popped up.

How does that connected with my creativity?
Perhaps it is to do with a love of words and a love of unusual words or ones we do not use so often.

I wondered about using 'quintessential' as my Q post

It seems like it is a golden and gleaming word that if we lived from it, would lead to whole new worlds opening up.

There is a hippy  shop called Quintessential in Truro , my nearest city. Next time I pass it I will call in and ask them why they chose that name

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quintessence





Challenge for you.
What if you use quintessence in a conversation this week
Let me know how that goes.

A-Z Challenge- P is for Postcards

This year I joined in with a global 365 project which entails making 365 somethings in a year.
This might be a daily something or 7 a week, or 30 a month.
I chose to create 365 postcards in 2018.
I knew I would not do one a day, so aim for 30-ish per month.
Today is day 109 and I have created 111, so am slightly ahead of myself.

I also have a long piece of vintage paper that I painted yesterday during a video that was part of a 21 Secrets course I treated myself to.
She was showing us how she does a background which inspired me to give it a go, and I like the peach, yellow, red postcard background I can now cut out to create 2 post cards and the remaining is a background for an atc.

I might add some gold leaf.

I have also signed up for my 2nd 10 Postcard swap with Hannah.

I participated a few months ago and enjoyed making them and receiving 10 in return.

New skills have been learnt in the interim months and I have already made 3 cards using text and napkins..wish I had a camera to show you the outcomes.

I find the 6x4'' format more satisfying to work on than playing card size atc's, though I will continue to make those as part of a fb swap group.

http://www.ihanna.nu/postcard-swap/

If you would like to swap a postcard with me, leave a comment below!