exploring the ocean

You all know I have been making many Angels lately and they fill me with a hugely blessed feeling. Just check out my Angels at my Table for all things Angelic I make. It is also summer here though, yes, still feels funny around Christmas time, but summer is also nice, I love warm weathe, it means beach and sand and sea and ocean and mermaids of course. So I diverted just a little last week when I was in a sunny mood and made this "Dot" She turned out rather sultry and especially with Mr.Pink Flamingo I helped my student make. Check them out together, almost looks like true love ♥ {hehe} I promise my next post will be more Christmassy and I will keep the "hot stuff" for after those Festive lazy dayz ;)

29 Faces #10

# 10 -Fingerpainted a little mermaid in a journal

" The Woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd

The Woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before "

-Albert Einstein-

La Mer ~ an upcycled book

front of book - pre drawings

one of the spreads - pre drawings

I received some art supplies last week and they stuffed brown paper in the box to keep the items from moving around, I have a hard time throwing away good paper, so I thought to use this for a try-out project. I thought I could have the kids make something like this maybe, but then again, maybe it is a little too time consuming for them, maybe if we just did 2 or 3 pages. Well anyway, I finished mine and wanted to show you. It's kind of a twist on Carla's junkmail booklet {that I am currently also working on btw} So I have used brown paper in different sizes, just ripped at the edges, layered it to make it look old {this took quite some time, coating both sides a few times and the drying in between} and I thought I'd like to theme the images and since the colours and the texture made me think about the ocean, I made it all deep sea related. So the trick is that every pages images continue with their lines into the next page, where those lines make up different images again, it's like a puzzle {and this also takes some time and patiences and going back and forth} So much FUN ! Oh, and of course there also is a Mermaid :)

Finally ..... 'the Lure'

-some details-

Usually I start a painting with a 'story' in my head, while I work the story evolves and I tend to get excited and dream away with the story that the painting tells me while I am working on it. Sometimes however -like with this painting- the story takes turns and starts to reveal things I do not want to hear or see and this time it got the better of me and I got a bit scared and had to leave it alone for a while, even considering of abandoning it all together. But once the meaning of it all started to make sense and I could live with what it said, I decided to finish it and I am glad I did. The left side of the painting is traditional and in traditional fresco style, the right side of the panel is a liquid and thin with layers of inks and paints, the centre is of course an image everybody knows

- inspired by Michelangelo of course -

  allthough a little adjusted to this particular tale where this then is not a creation of the man, but the lure to the deep by the mermaid

The panel seems to be a little challenging to photograph, as if it wants to say 'you got to see me and touch me to understand me fully'

because I always try to make my paintings tactile, I love to stroke them and feel them and understand them, and now I do this one too which has made me happy in the end. {what the painting has started to mean to me is rather personal, maybe you read the same or similar things from it, I don't want to start telling you all it told me and thus destroying a completely different story it might have for you, all I hope is that you will enjoy it}

- taken at night while still on my easel -

- taken at daylight -

  *) oh and this is part of the Fresco class I have available as on-line workshop here

<center><a href=" http://youngatartdownunder.blogspot.co.nz/p/sign-up-for-workshops-here.html "><img src="http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u422/youngatartdownunder/FrescoWSbtsmall.jpg" border="0" alt="Fresco Workshop 2012" /></a></center>

Handmade Journals

I have always loved journals, booklets, notebooks etc. - can't have enough of them and for a while now I have been making some myself. I am so glad I found out how to make them and I love mixing up different papers in the journals (the journal I am using myself at the moment has about 4 different ones) I am painting and drawing covers for them and I also put them in my Etsy shop. The one I put in there 2 days ago sold already and I had not even made a blogpost about it yet ! So I'll put some pics here of this gorgeous little journal -just for fun- with my promise that more handmade journals will find their way to my Etsy store soon. They are all OOAK's (one-of-a-kind's) of course :)
♥

Contemplating..........................Nature vs Nurture...

Here's the latest journal entry in my Mermaid Journal/Sketchbook

I've been working on this one off and on for a little bit now

and I think I finished her
She is thinking about beliefs about drawing and art
and about Nature vs Nurture
... or...
does someone have a gift for creativity
or can it be nurtured /taught ?
I have written in her hair:
"Think.feel.see.create.express~joy.regrets.secrets~
every spot part of my shadow~
every line it's own meaning~
drawing.sketching.painting
HOW could an Artist live without ?""My first Art teacher in Highschool wrote in my poetry booklet:
If one wants to draw, one does not need to have talent
but curiosity and warm attention for everything around"So I used a small copy of this on my right page, to remember this.

Chunkies for a swap

See here 4 Chunkies for a swap with a friend in the States.
The themes we picked were:
1 "My Muse" - 2 " Fairy Tale character"
3 "Antler people" - 4 "Mermaid"
They made it there before Christmas, which was nice for both of us.
Little Christmas present for JoAnn
and peace of mind for me
with all the busy postal activities around this time of year
....and....she loved them :-)
♥

Little Mermaid Paper doll

Having a little play with my Mermie Paper doll

Caught in the Abyss

Mixed Media on 8x15 inch woodpanel

Remember her ?

This is after her "facelift"

Gray scaled Mermie

On A4 sized paper, playing with different materials and styles

The Abyss

I am finding myself in te Deep Dark Sea.....the Abyss....
it sometimes happens of course
that things don't go the way we want...
and am there now...at least with one of my works....
and I got all surgical with her and gave her a facelift....
let's hope her recovery is going to be good....
will keep you posted of course.
Luckily I have other projects to work on in the mean time...

Murky Waters Nixie

On A5-Watercolour Paper

I don't know if she's completely done,

but I'll let her rest for a while, so far I have used

Aquarel paints and pencils~acrylic paints~stamps~inks~Crayons~Pastels~Glass bead gel

The Murky Waters Nixie

A digital play as preview to my "Murky Waters Nixie"

I will have to photograph her tomorrow with daylight.
I am not an aquarel expert by all means, but I did this one on watercolourpaper with watercolour paint and pencils and then I added inks, stamps, acrylics, glaze, more watercolouir paint and at last some Golden glass bead gel which I covered with some more diluted sparkly paints.
She is my "Halloween" project for this year,

since I am all submerged with the water sprites.....

Where do I belong ?

One of the journal entries...

While I was starting to draw something over the gesso layer that I had painted over my text,

I suddenly had to think about the little hermit crab with its house on its back, that little hermit crab belongs wherever it is, because it's got its house with him.

A comfy thought....

Mermaid Journal so far...

I am steadily adding more to the Mermaid journal/sketchbook

... thought I'll post a "so far"...

here are some excercises with paints and materials

some prompts I worked on

...there is more...

...which I'll show at a later stage...

Retro-ish

A cover I did for my Journal/Sketchbook

where I keep all about my mermaids

limited print now available on Etsy

Tangled Maids

These are Chunkies, the challenge was Black and White

I thought this was a nice opportunity to do some

Zentangle practice

for a swap at atcsforall.com

dowN wheRe iT's Better

Down where it's Better ~ Under the Sea ~ The Seabed

PiraTeS love MErmAidS Yo Ho !

"Yo Ho, Yo Ho , a pirates life for me

we pillage and plunder, we rifle and loot

Aye and we're loved by our Mermies to boot,

Drink up me 'earties YoHo !..."

(my own spin on the lyrics of "YoHo" by Xavier Antencio)

School of Mermaids

Step-by-step to the School of Mermaids

~and me trying to get the hang of editing~