Breathe....

At Monday Morning Art Group I took an old painting that I didn't like, Mexican Water Jugs (pic 3) and covered it in gesso and texture paste, then left it overnight to dry. Then covered in Cobalt Turquoise paint and did a bit of stamping including stamping circles onto it. Then I covered it in Quinacridone Red Violet/White and did a little more stamping.  Then I covered it in Phalo Turquoise and blinged up the circles with gold!!! 

Sorry I never got more pics of these final stages. I was going to cover the turquoise in a blue but really liked the turquoise. If you do have a painting that's just not working for you then keep on going with it or start again.  I love the cobalt turquoise with the red/orange/yellow stamping on it - I came across this combination when I was doing my layered painting for the Arts Festival.  I'm still debating as to whether I should add some gold bubbles/dots to it but I think I have enough.

One of the best things about this painting is that now I love it and whilst I'd love you to love/like it too if you don't it doesn't matter to me.  I did learn something from reading Steven Pressfield's The War of Art - Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles - "A 'professional' distances herself from her instrument."

Tomorrow is the start of  Blogtoberfest  - a challenge to blog each day in October - click on the link or the cute blog button at the top of the right column for more details and join in.

Have a great day - see you tomorrow!!

:D

Do you suffer from the disease called Perfection?

How many of us suffer from the disease called "Perfection"?

Read this blogpost by Dan Pearce.

"Perfection" is the artist hating themselves because their lines aren't straight/neat enough, the faces they paint aren't good/perfect enough...She would give anything to create beautiful, perfect paintings just like her beautiful, perfect artist friends do.

It may make you cry....some of those hit so close to home for me and all of them are so very sad.

Will you help me spread “Real”? Tell us below just how perfect you aren’t. You never know who might be alive tomorrow because you were real today. You never know who needs to feel like they aren’t alone in their inability to be perfect. Even if you comment as an anonymous guest, please comment. Tell us what you struggle with. Tell a sad or dark secret. Get vulnerable. Get real. Let’s see if we can get 1,000 people showing the world that we’re not defined by perfection.

I'm not perfect....

{Shell's Sunday Snippets}

I created a banner for my Etsy shop.

This is the definition of optimism.

I don't have an Etsy shop at the moment.

I have to make enquiries about getting prints made from the photos I've taken of my paintings.

Yesterday, I painted and did chores around the house.

Today, I spent a few hours updating my website getting it more how I want it.

How did your weekend go?  Join in on Sunday Snippets and let us know how your weekend went...remember to leave me a link....

Beautiful Blogs

I've read some great blogs this week that I'd like to share with you....

Brandy had a baby....welcome Brooklyn Corey.

Lori's friend Kate needs help to adopt another baby....how cute is Mia???

Donna's video link to Derek Siver's Obvious to you. Amazing to others.

Check this out....Leanne's beautiful collage she made for her art exhibition.

Captivated and in awe of Flora Bowley....

Design Seeds great colour blog....Puppy Tones

I found this blog through Pinterest and just loved all the different colour inspiration and ideas.

And then there's this controversial blogpost on How do you earn the title of "artist"?

I found some great quotes this week too....

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

- Marcus Aurelius quotes (Roman emperor, best known for his Meditations on Stoic philosophy, AD 121-180)
"Dance like the photo's not being tagged, Love like you've never been unfriended, Tweet like nobody's following."
A tweet I found on Twitter....

I'm off to walk the dog, photograph my paintings, paint and iron whilst the paint dries.

I'm also looking forward to Tinniegirl's Blogtoberfest. which starts next Saturday, 1st October.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Wet Wednesday

I just opened my kitchen back door to take a photo of my view for you...can you see the rain drops????

Here's my view in good weather....

This blue fairy wren tried to visit me yesterday - this photo was taken through the window...

I tried to get more canvases from the art store but they still don't have any in my size/price but they are at the docks waiting to be unloaded....check on Saturday......though I did get one canvas and an entry form into another art awards show.  :D

Still waiting on some sunny weather and some time to take some photos of my paintings and take them to the printer to see whether they can be turned into prints...will ask about business cards/cards etc too...

Looking forward to the weekend and doing some painting.....





{Shell's Sunday Snippets}

Kangaroo Paws

Geraldton Wax

Wisteria

Grevillea

Wattle

Part of my painting for the Darlington Arts Festival...

Spring has sprung though it's more like winter for the past 24 hours, very windy and heavy rain which finally cleared enough for me to take some photos.  Went to a wedding yesterday and all I took were the backs of people's heads and blurry shots.  The native flowers are blooming - kangaroo paws, geraldton wax, grevillea, wattle, several unknown plants and a 25 year old wisteria plant which is just gorgeous.

Hope your weekend went well - if you took some pics then post your own {sunday snippets} and leave me a link so I can take a sticky beak. Here's a link to Cathy/tinniegirls {sunday snippets}.

Hope everyone has a great week.


Sox

Time and Unforeseen Occurrence

Life, hope, dreams.

Faith, fear, determination.

Anger, tears, frustration.

Sacrifice, heartache, rejection.

Survivors, past, present, future.

Paintings into prints.

Scanners, photos, photoshop.

Ups and downs, ins and outs, it's early days yet.

Knowing it can be done and yet being told it can't be done.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Butterfly Girl - work in progress - inspired by the Kelly Rae Robert's Taking Flight course that I've been taking.

I've just started my painting to enter into the Darlington's Art Festival today and will give you a sneak peek of a portion of it next week sometime.

Dear Universe

I wish I had known this a month ago.

"In Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott writes about a Buddhist belief - the idea that when several things start going wrong all at once it is to protect something bigger and greater that is trying to get itself born - and that whatever it is that is trying to come into our world needs for us to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible."  Thanks Kelly Rae Roberts.



Yesterday I had a lightbulb moment whilst reading this quote. I have photographed all my paintings using my small Sony camera all in low resolution 72dpi. If I had sold all my paintings that weekend I would not have the opportunity now to re-photograph them with our Nikon SLR in high resolution 300dpi - suitable for printing and magazines/publishing.

Here are my 3 top tips for today that I want you to take away with you...

1.  Photograph your finished artwork/creation in low resolution for the internet - blogs/sites etc and then re-photograph in high resolution for publishing/printing.  (Your computer program may be able to do this from high to low resolution).

2. Tag your final photograph so it's easy to find such as 72art2011 and 300art2011.

3.  Bad things happen but then better things can happen - all part of a bigger picture which we do not know all the details of.

Another beautiful day in my part of the world....wish you were here....

Big love and bear hugs,

Shells.
On the last weekend in July I had 11 paintings for sale at an art show/sale. 20,000 people were meant to come to a food festival in our community and then hopefully come to the art show and buy some art. The weather was rainy and stormy and very few people turned up and no-one bought anything. I was very disappointed.

www and MMAG

I'm really proud to announce that my website is now online - so go take a look at it and if you have any feedback then let me know.  I honestly can't believe that little ol' me has a  website with my art on it - woowhoo!!! 

http://www.shellsinthebush.com/

Yesterday was also my Monday Morning Art Group and here is the painting I've been working on...

My butterfly girl has a face and background though there is still plenty of work to be done...

Hope your day is going well and that you have a great week.

{Shell's Sunday Snippets}

The exciting news is that I've bought a domain and have decided to do the hosting and website building through weebly.com.  I've actually clicked on publish and have told godaddy about weebly and am waiting to see if I've done it all right.  The site needs tweaking and playing with and info added to it but I just wanted to get it up and running.  Will post the link when it's up and running.

My eldest son is quite sick with glandular fever - is having trouble eating and drinking due to his sore and swollen throat - just trying to get him to sleep and drink lots - poor thing.  :(

My golden girlie - Tessa.

Beautiful sunset....

I painted the windows and doors onto my mini wooden houses - still a bit more to go till they are ready to be displayed.

I'd love to see and hear about your weekend, so join in {Sunday Snippets} and leave me and {tinniegirl} a link. 

{Weekly Wind-Up}

Yay, my internet speed is back to normal, it has been slow for over a week which meant it was difficult to upload photos and download blogs.  I'm so far behind in reading blogs and getting my creative biz off the ground.

Last weekend....

Monday Morning Art Group - I was busy taking my son to his driving test - so I did some painting in the afternoon:

 

I also hung Ribbon Town on my lounge room wall - matches the curtains - very funny!!!!

On Tuesday I took my eldest son to the doctor's - he has tonsillitus - poor manchild - he feels like death warmed up.  My guess is that it's actually glandular fever and he's going to feel yuck for quite a while.

On Wednesday, I went to the hairdressers - good news - they would like to hang 2 of my paintings for sale in the front of their salon - which will mean some great exposure.  I need to get organised with this great opportunity.  Want to see me??

Thursday - yesterday - hmm what did I do???  Ironing, shopping, cleaning - popped into my 'studio' and I use that term very loosely and touched up my painting.  If I'm going to paint for a few hours I bring things out into the kitchen as you can see from the Monday's painting.

I took the above pic just now, sorry the lighting is soooo bad but it's a little dark outside with the rain clouds.

Hope everyone had a great week and will think about joining us on Sunday for {Sunday Snippets} - send me a link to your Sunday Snippets post so I can go read it.  Thanks, have a great weekend wherever you are in the world.