Sewing Patterns In My Art

I had a great time at Neil Elliott's Mixed Media/Abstract Painting Workshop gluing sewing patterns onto three canvases and then painting a wash over them.

All 3 paintings - works in progress....

African Princess

Nice Girl

Mean Girl - I think I'll add more paper to her....

And here are some from 2010...

 A Stitch in Time, collage, Dec 2010

She is the Keeper of Time, collage, Dec 2010

Here's what some other class members were doing - burning holes in a canvas!!!!

What fun arty things have you been up to?

Diptych Sneak Peek

Would you like a sneak peek at a diptych I'm working on???  Pop back later in the week after I've been to Neil Elliott's workshop and I'll show you the progress I made on them whilst there...

Nice Girl:

Mean Girl:

I'm looking forward to continuing creating these as well as the African Princess - another experimental piece.

So excited that the 30x30x30 Challenge has their blog up and running - take a peak at me Behind Curtain 1!!!

Six Pics On Saturday

Been painting my African Princess and here's the progress I've made on her - not finished and not sure of a few things....  hmm I think her chest may be a little too big.....

Beautiful sunsets this week:

Scorpion in the house - normally be get very small ones but this one was 7cm, nearly 3 inches long:

Been Painting

On Wednesday I went to Neil Elliott's Mixed Media/Abstract Painting Workshop and finished off my mixed media confetti trees.  They're ok, not brilliant, could be better but a great learning experience and this is why we go to workshops - to learn and to be inspired and to inspire and teach others.

Here's my finished painting:

And some evolution pics:

Here's Neil with his painting:  Putting Out the Dog

Yesterday I found a local metal artist named Inge and fell in love with her African Princess.  When I saw it a picture popped into my head of her painted in my acrylic layered style so I rushed out today and bought a canvas and have put down the base layers.  Next I have to draw her onto the canvas (eek) and block out around her leaving the bright colours for her dress.

Here's my drawing and canvas:

Have a great Friday and a great weekend too...I'll be back over the weekend with more pics...  :D

Love of Art Blog Party

Today is the Love of Art Blog Party in which everyone is invited to join in.

I love art because it brings me great joy through it's challenges and triumphs, and when I'm creating this is all I think about - not my kids or husband or problems just my art.

'The Pattern of Love' was created with acrylic paint and and an old pattern.

The Pattern of Love, mixed media, 20cm x 20cm, 8" x 8"

“Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Wedding


Merovingian from the Matrix Revolutions: "It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity. "

LoveSong by Adele - could not find a decent version of this on youtube...

I had my son take some photos of me for an artist portait photo - wearing my heart pendant...

Hearts have featured in my art since I began creating a few years ago...

30x30x30 Challenge Accepted

I have been accepted to be one of the 30 artists who will create 30 works in 30 days for the 30x30x30 Challenge Art Exhibition and Sale.  Each piece will be 8in square = 20cm square and I will be painting them in April. The works are signed on the back and are not hung together.  The 900 paintings will be exhibited and for sale for $50 each on Sept 15th/16th at Darlington Hall, Darlington, Western Australia.

Some of the challenges for me will be:

- the size of the canvas - I prefer larger canvases so these ones are tiny for me.
- adapting my style to the size of the canvas.
- creating 30 works in a style that people will recognise their similarity.
- painting them and storing them whilst drying in my studio aka my kitchen.

I'm really excited to be part of this fundraiser for a local school and can't wait to get my paint on.

Workshop Wednesday

I went to Neil Elliott's Workshop again today - week 3 and worked on my mixed media confetti trees and an abstract that I haven't decided on yet.

Here is the painting Neil brought in today titled:  High and Dry

Here are my confetti trees not yet finished - working on the sky....

And my abstract not too sure where it's going but it's fun learning new techniques and how to do things properly.

Hope everyone is having fun and learning lots from their online courses....have a great Wednesday.

Six Thoughts on Saturday

1. Twitter got hacked and a virus is going around so if you get a direct message from me or someone saying that people are saying nasty things about you and it gives you a link - DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK.

2. Works in Progress pics - which I know you love and since I'm such a sharer and a show off lol here's some....

Mixed media confetti tree I am working on - more to do - photos are a great way of analysing your paintings from a new perspective - now I see that I need to do this, this and this...

3. Started a diptych today - here are the beginnings of the background - these will be what I think of as symbolic paintings rich in meaning - great for kids to analyse in art class in 20-30 years time...Why did the artist choose blue???  To represent cool as in cool calm and collected or more of the cool, having a cold heart or was it because she had a large canvas and a large tub of prussian blue her favourite colour???

Why did the artist paint this so messily?? Unlike her usual style of showing no brushstrokes?  Hahaha yes, this was actually hard for me to paint, to leave all those lines and unblending etc, but a lot of fun.  :D


4. Red/Pink - Why did the artist chose this shade of red/pink?  To represent warm as in hot-headedness or warm heartedness? And this painting is more neater....

5. So you can see there's a lot of thought and meaning going into these paintings and second guessing myself too.

6. Beautiful sunset photo from last night:

Have a great drama free weekend filled with family and art time too. 

Neil Elliott Workshop

Today was week 2 of the Neil Elliott workshop that I'm attending.  Neil is a local mixed media/abstract artist who's work I've admired since seeing it at the community centre art sale 18 months ago.  I find myself nodding when he speaks about painting - building up layers, using colour intuitively and have learnt so much so far.

Neil brought in his Flying Pig painting today to show us how he has built up the layers of texture on the surface of the painting. 

This is me with my creation (can you guess what this one's going to be??) and here is my other one:

and this is the texture prior to the colour..

Lastly I just wanted to share with you the awesome space we are working in at the new Youth Centre - it's light and bright and air conditioned....

I'm really inspired and look forward to working on my paintings during the next week.

How are all your workshops and online courses going?