Emerging Artists' Exhibition Opening Night

Last night was the esordio>debut>beginning exhibition Opening Night at the Zig Zag Gallery in Kalumunda.  It was also two years ago to the day that I went down to Nanga, Dwellingup to the Flora Bowley Bloom True Art Workshop.  I had five paintings on display and I sold one and received some positive feedback so it was a great night.  Many thanks to Marilyn Keys and the staff at the Zig Zag Cultural Centre Art gallery for this great opportunity.

Here are some pics:

The five paintings:

Memories from two years ago:

Top Left - Me with Flora and Donna Heart.
Top right - Flora with the paintings she created over that weekend.
Bottom Left - 'Follow Your Passion' 30" x 40" 76cm x 101cm
Bottom right - 'Live Your Dream' 30' x 30' 76cm x 76cm

These were the biggest paintings I had ever created at the time, originally I hated them as they didn't look like Flora's or a typical Flora style painting but I came to love them and am glad that I have my own style of painting.  Flora's workshop opened up my artistic world to one which uses tools other than brushes - foam brushes, kitchen sponge, bubble wrap, rubber matting and other found objects such as lids, corks as well as stencils.

Wednesday Workshop

Yesterday was week 3 of a worskshop with mixed media artist Neil Elliott at a local Youth Centre.  We are working on an underwater theme and there are some very creative and inspiring people in our class.


I put on an undercoat of paint yesterday.

This is how it looked previously after gluing on tissue paper, towel, bathrug and paper stuffing (that red stuff):

Whilst waiting for the paint to dry I worked on these two Kimberley paintings that I created over summer.  Neil suggested lightening the sky and darkening the foreground and adding more layers of paint.

I didn't have my Golden Fluid Acrylics with me yesterday so I think I will give them both another layer of paint using the glossy Goldens.

Here are some before and after shots:

And here's another I was working on:

Six Thoughts on Saturday

1.  Sunsets - we've had some stunning sunsets this past week as we've had a few clouds that give gorgeous colour.

2. Mixed media art class - on Wednesdays with local artist Neil Elliott.  We are working on an underwater scene and here's my painting now.

3.  Art Journalling - I've started art journalling  for fun and experimentation and to play with some of the goodies I've bought.  I have been watching a lot of art journal videos and I don't have and am unable to get in Australia some of the products being used.  So the challenge is to use the tools I do have and in that way I can make the pages mine. I used to think art journalling was a waste of time because I couldn't sell the end product but this can be liberating and it means you can look at another person art journal and use it for inspiration.

This page was inspired by Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday journal from Feb 6th, 2013. 

These pages are the beginnings of pages that were inspired by France Papillon's When Was The Last Time journal.  France's page starts with gluing a printed tissue paper which I didn't have so I covered my pre-painted page with sewing pattern.  More to come in the future.

4. Foxes - this morning I saw a fox in our backyard and a few weeks ago at a friend's house we saw one there too.

5. Postage Stamps - I ordered through Ebay some postage stamps to use for art journalling and I'm looking for someone who lives overseas who would like to swap some American or European stamps for some Australian stamps by weight or number.  Please leave a message in the comment section if you are interested, thank you.

6. Confetti Tree with stencilled background - here it is finished:

Here are the progress photos I have shown previously:

Journal Candy Workshop

Over the past five weeks I've been having a great time learning new art journaling techniques with Rachelle Panagarry from Art Eye Candy.

Here's a few of my pages:

Altered Book

Reflections on 2012

Wow, 2012 is over and it's nearly time to think about my goals and plans and word for 2013.

Looking back over some blogposts I wrote in early January 2012 about my plans/dreams/schemes for this year I can see that sometimes we just don't have enough time to do all the things we'd like to do.

The highlight of the year was my American Adventure and my art classes at Squam with Kelly Barton and Sarah Ahearn.  I had an awesome time meeting up with some online arty friends too.

I was part of the 30x30x30 Challenge Exhibition and completed 30 paintings in 30 days and sold 21.

I also joined my friend June Stevens for an exhibition and sold two paintings.

I loved the Life Book 2012 online course and my girls have improved....

I learnt so much from going to a local art class each Wednesday with mixed media artist Neil Elliott.

An article I wrote was published!

My word for 2012 was Courage and these are the goals I achieved from the list I wrote in January:

• To be the real and authentic me
• To take risks with my creations/art/paintings
• To live my dreams, follow my passions and create an artistic life
• To be part of as many exhibitions as possible.
• To reach out to others, include them in my life and artistic community.
• To say 'Yes' to opportunities
• To get my writing and artwork published.
• To leave the secure environment of my home.
• To travel to USA, Canada.
• To travel alone and with friends.
• To attend a workshop in the States and to make it the most awesome life and learning experience possible.
• To meet people whom I've never met but whom I know and hold a special place in my heart.

How did your 2012 go?  Have you chosen your word for 2013?  We are doing a blog hop and I'd love for everyone to join in.

Wednesday Workshop and Sunday Snippets

Next Tuesday I am flying out to New York City and then to New Hampshire to go to Squam Fall 2012 - an art workshop on Squam Lake.

Today was my last Wednesday Workshop with Neil Elliott, a local mixed media artist for 6 weeks so I thought I'd catch you up on what's been happening at the workshop.  Neil is a great teacher, very informative, always encouraging us to have fun and take risks and gives out lots of praise.

Here are all four StreetScapes that I did this year - using sewing patterns, acrylic paint and masking tape. Interesting to see how I changed as I played around with this style and technique...

Which is your favourite scene???  I like number three - Outback House - the best....

Outback House evolution pics...

Neil's House evolution pics....

Cardboard art I've been working on - background and finished painting:

Little Brown House:

Dragon's Head background - I can see a dragon's head in the background of this painting so that's it's title for now...

Here's Neil Elliott's Batboy!!!

Today Neil showed us his bitumen technique - more work still to be done on this test piece - shame I won't be here to see the transformation...

Here's a group piece we are all working on as a donation to a local school to be auctioned....paint needs to dry then more layers will be added next week...some bitumen too no doubt...a very stinky process...

I created one more Flower painting over the past couple of weeks...

My order of new postcards and business cards finally arrived from Moo - 2 weeks after their ETA...

Lemon Meringue Pie I made for a family dinner last weekend...

Here's what the dinner table looked like - as fancy as it comes in our house...

This is Who I Am pic - me with my new prescription sunglasses on....

So I think we are all caught up with what's been happening....now I can start packing my bags for my Big American Adventure - scared and excited all rolled into one.....any tips or advice is appreciated....

Wednesday Workshop

Have just been to my Wednesday mixed media workshop with Neil Elliott and I worked some more on last week's Streetscape 3 and started Streetscape 4.

All 4 Streetscapes together...

We all stood around oooing and aahing at Liz's painting - she's on the left.

This is Liz And Neil with the same painting a few weeks ago.

My order of cool colours of Golden paints arrived on Monday so  played with them on watercolour paper and on Tuesday I rolled on another layer of warm colours then turned them into bookmarks by stamping them and cutting them out and will then laminate them and punch a hole in them and add a tassel...make great gifts...

Hope you are having a great arty week.