Introducing - A Portrait - A Challenge

Hehe, I finally did it ! I made a videO !

Now I had a reason, or many reasons for it.

First of all, it had been brewing for a while, I just never had enough courage to start. But somehow this particular question from someone about if and why I had never done a self portrait before (well ....hellOOO ?!!!) set this all in motion. I suddenly thought, what the .. ? I can do this, I don't care what others will think or say and so what, if the portrait is not what I want it to look like or even not what I look like, I had  a good play and same goes for the video. It might not be all THAT, but learning how-to is so much FUN !! I hope you all enjoy it as well. Be BRAVE !!

3.2.1... counting down ...

SHHHHHHHH - still working

Somebody asked me last week if I had already made a self-portrait.......NO !!!

She asked why not ? I didn't have an answer. I guess I never felt I had to or maybe was scared to do it ? Now I was actually studying and working on some other canvasses, but I thought: why not ? I need to work on different projects anyway because of the drying times involved in between and for one project I am waiting for a supply to be delivered still, so.....YES ! I have started, ha ! Not easy I must admit and I can never take myself really seriously, so how can I make a serious attempt at a portrait then ? Well, I will be showing you all soon and no, this is not my mouth here either, this is another one of my works-in-progress. I seem to have many at the moment and my head is still full. They will probably all happen to be finished one after the other, but not yet, for now I am still working, SHHHHHHHHH ! 

♥ xoxo 

will talk again soon 

Art lives inside

 
So just to prove Art is great wherever you are ... after our big move up North... I have A LOT of inspiration and have A LOT of works-in-progress....so stay tuned....more to come soon, soon, soon !!!! In the mean time I have been teaching Art to kids after school so if you like to have a peek at what they are creating, check out by following the link >here< 
See y'all soon ;)

Nixie ♥ Mail

Today I got a lovely surprise in the mailbox :)

  

Nolwenn's Nixie print arrived in a gorgeous envelope FULL of stamps :) ....I couldn't wait to open it...it said "Awesome Joyce " - how awesome is that ? and once I opened it ... "Amelia" said "hello!"

but wait ... there was more ... there was an extra surprise too ! I could already smell the marvelous scent of beeswax....Oh, how I love that smell. Wanna know what ? She included an original ! Thank you thank you Nolwenn (Merci beaucoup), this is a real treat, very very generous ♥ So ... anybody that has not read why I received this generous gift, read here or here about this and do check out Nolwenn's Nixies !!!! They are very special little girls ♥

Starting small again - Faux Verdigris Aceo

Maybe my block is starting to go away ? Yesterday I managed to make a little ACEO. It's a faux-verdigris Unicorn for a friend, I'll post it today and hope she'll like it. Will get out my paints again too, hopefully my fingers want to listen to my head, hehe. Oh, and I also decided to try and make one of those painted cloth dolls, will need to do some research first though. Any of you have some tips for me?

Old Books

I am still experiencing  a bit of a painting-block :( 

So today I went to a local garden fest and I thrifted a very nice old book with embossed cover. I thought it looked so special, just had to have it. I got a few others as well (for the text and the covers, don't know what I'll do with them just yet, but that'll come) So for the lack of art at the moment I thought to share this little happy event with you instead
♥

Butterflies

 

Remember the butterflies ? 

I love butterflies and I love the idea of 1.5 million handmade butterflies in one exhibit,

  

too bad I don't live close enough to go visit in person, but I am sure that there will be pictures appearing on line for me to enjoy. Anyway, I thought I'll just repost this as a little reminder for some of you that might have seen this, thought to participate and make one and then put it on the backburner for a bit. The deadline is 31 December and we are quickly getting into that crazy busy mad time of year again.  So here goes....if you want to make a butterfly and send it in to Trudi at Two Dresses Studio, this probably is your last chance just follow my link. Have a fluttering day ♥

Nixies for Nolwenn ♥

Do you get this sometimes ? You read something somewhere and it just takes a little life of it's own. It started with a post I read by Nolwenn Petitbois, a fellow artist from Vancouver-Canada. She was stuck making up a suitable name for the girls she paints and she asked for help. Now I like to play with words and names and thought Nolwenn's Nixies sounded kinda cool, so I suggested this to her...... and she picked my name !!! Then as a prize for my winning suggestion I got to choose a print of one of her girls. Well, choosing from her collection of whimsical Nixies for me was as difficult as choosing a name  had been for her... I ended up choosing "Amelia" the daydreamer for reasons of....well.....I also do dream quite a bit, hehe. Check out her site here and visit the Innervoices world of Nolwenn yourself.

 Oh, and here is Amelia...she'll be on her way to me soon, I can't wait to meet her :) Anyway with my brushes not wanting to do what's in my head for the last couple of days, maybe I am better with words and names and should start writing that book.....

Handmade Journals

I have been playing with some paint and sketching what I saw appear in the paintblotches, I love this process. Then I bound them into a couple of journals with assortments of papers. They are now ready to be filled with thoughts and drawings, maybe yours ? They make lovely orginal gifts for the coming Festive Season and I have put some in my Etsy shop :) Just follow the link