Mean Girl - Enemy No: 1

Dear Mean Girl,

You are that nasty voice inside my head that lies to me - my inner critic.

You tell me that I am ugly, unworthy, unsuccessful, untalented, uncreative and not artistic.

You tell me that people will laugh at my paintings, and that they are not good enough to sell, that no one will buy them, so why waste my time painting them.

You are wrong and it is time for you to stop.

I will not be listening to you anymore.

Please leave my head.

Signed, Me

Mean Girl, Mixed Media, 61cm x 76cm or 24" x 30"

Dear You,

You are beautiful, brave and bold.

You are strong, successful and confident.

You are worthy of love, happiness and friendship.

You are artistic, creative and talented.

You are a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.

You light up the world with your smile and laughter.

You are blessed.

Big love and bear hugs 

from the Nice Girl 

inside your heart.

Nice Girl, Mixed Media, 61cm x 76cm or 24" x 30"

I finished the Girls today at the painting workshop and am pleased with them even though the mean girl inside me points out all their imperfections.  When I'm able to be parted with them they'll be sold together as a diptych.

I also finished this abstract I've been working on - I rarely do totally abstract works and I really love the colours in this one.  A challenge for further works is to use a monochromatic or neutral colour scheme - something which I may have mentioned months ago.

Under the Sea, Mixed Media, 61cm x 61cm

How does the mean girl affect your life?  Does she have a name?  One blogger calls her Polly...

Six Pics On Sunday

Playing around with Liquefying Medium - not sure how to use it so was just having fun with it...

Work in Progress pic of my girls...

Last night we went to the Enduro Motocross and watched some of our friends ride and come second and third....pics by me and my hubby...

How's your weekend going?  Got any great pics to show us?

Darlington Estate Art & Crafts Market Day

The Darlington Estate Winery in Darlington, Western Australia was buzzing today with the excitement of it's first Art & Crafts Market Day.  With over 20 stalls of beautiful creations from local artisans there was a wide variety to choose from including jewellery, clothing, scarves, hats, art, ceramics, scrapbooking products, cards and the Winery provided scrumptious food and wine. The weather today was gorgeous, bright and sunny yet not too hot - great for browsing/shopping and enjoying a meal.

Children dancing to the music.

I was particularly interested in the Metal Art by Inge - in previous posts I have written about how I was inspired to paint her African Princess and wanted to see her in person and to meet Inge and discuss having one of her metal artworks created for us.

The perfect spot of one of Inge's metal artworks...hint, hint to my hubby...

Here's my painting:

I've added sewing pattern and a wash....still a work in progress...

Congratulations to Michelle Osborne and staff at Darlington Estate Winery and to all the stall holders too for a great market day. Well done. I hope to get organised and have some of my pendants and small paintings ready to sell and have my own stall on the next market day.  :D

I'm Going to Squam Fall 2012!!!!

I'm going to Squam Fall 2012!!!!!  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Six months from today I will be flying from Perth, Western Australia to Dubai and New York!!!!

I know, I can't believe it either.  I'm so excited and so nervous and so scared all rolled into one.  I will be travelling by myself which is something I've never done before. A dream come true - check out my Pinterest board.

Squam Fall 2012 is an art workshop on Squam Lake in New Hampshire, USA - from Wednesday 12th Sept to Sunday 16th.  It's more than an educational experience, it's a life experience, an opportunity to meet other creative, artistic people, to connect with a creative community.

Why Squam?  I found out about Squam when researching Flora Bowley - this was where she had her first teaching opportunity and the pictures of the lake, the cabins, the dock, the art drying on the ground - well, I just fell in love with that setting.  When researching art workshops here in Australia and overseas I decided that the setting was as important as the class and that I didn't want to get stuck in a hotel.  Squam looks like a place where no one is going to get mad at you if a bit paint splashes on the ground....

Facebook link...  http://www.facebook.com/squamartworkshops

I'll try to find you a pic...check out flickr for more pics...

What classes have I enrolled in? It was so hard to choose but I have decided on Kelly Barton's C'mon Let's Play and Sarah Ahearn Bellemare's Pages and Paint. We will also have a day off to go exploring, chill out, take heaps of photos, chat, connect over coffee on the dock and then there's the art fair on Saturday night - can't wait to be a part of that and go shopping.

So if you are going to Squam then let me know - I'd love to catch up with you beforehand.

I'll be spending 5 days in New York City before Squam getting over the jet lag and doing heaps of tourist things such as the Empire State building, Ground Zero, Central Park, the Guggenheim, the MoMA and the Met as well as Dick Blicks and Michael's shopping for art supplies.

I'll be meeting up with some online art friends in NYC too...  Kanchan Mahon (Fly Tribe and Deviant Art),  Mr Owl creator - Deborah Velasquez (Fly Tribe), Lori Moon (Fly Tribe), and Laura Tringali Holmes (Weedlace on Deviant Art). We are going art shopping and to a gallery and for coffee and lunch and I am soooo excited to meet these beautiful people finally.  Maybe you live near NYC and would like to join us - let me know, would love to meet you.

Mr Owl - at my house...

After Squam I'm heading to Niagara Falls and Toronto then to Michigan to go to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids with Lin from DeviantArt who sent me this painting of my dog, Tessa.

It's going to be awesome....I can't wait. So who's coming with me to Squam?

Sunday's Six Thoughts

1.  I've been blogging for a year now, 151 posts, 9571 page views, 544 comments, 84 followers - it's been a lot of fun and it's been great to read other people's blogs and to meet new people.  Thank you all so much for following my blog, for reading and leaving comments - I really appreciate it.

2.  I decided to change the background of the Mean Girl painting and had to begin by re-writing the words, then I will add more sewing pattern paper and a translucent glaze either in purple of blue.

3. Some beautiful sunsets this week...

Last night...

Friday night...

4.  Tomorrow is a public holiday here in Perth for Labor Day but my hubby is off to work for a few hours to get some work done whilst no one is there and my sons have to go to Uni so I'm home alone again - I guess I'll paint....  :D

5.  Very hot here - about 37C/100F - great weather for swimming in our pool.

6. I have a new button on my blog and will make a big announcement about on Tuesday!!!

Have a great weekend everyone, enjoy your art and take some great photos.

Enemy No. 2

PROCRASTINATION


Procrastination is your enemy.  I'm not only talking about putting off creating art but all the other things that go with creating an artistic life.

Back up your photos and docs and downloads on a regular basis. Last week my laptop crashed and my hard drive died - I've taken it to the computer shop and the technician says that nothing can be retrieved from it.  I'm very mad and sad with myself.  I knew we were going to replace my laptop and had been meaning to back up everything but just put it off and put it off and now there are some photo I cannot replace such as the evolution pics of my paintings, my husband's African motorbike trip - I have a lot of pics sitting in picnic.com that I can download before it closes and in Picasa - many thanks to keeping a blog and my deviant art site has all art on it.

Another example of my procrastination is my car broke down at the traffic lights in the middle of the highway on Monday and I couldn't get it started.  Two gentlemen helped move it to the curb and got it going so I drove it straight to the repair shop and it's now fixed. I've had trouble starting my car for about a month and thought it was the battery and I'll have it checked when I get it serviced which will have to be in a couple of months since I have to take my son to the train station each day and I couldn't possibly make him go to Uni early so I'll leave it till April.....yeah, all the excuses in the world until my car decided it had had enough and my son had to walk to the train station and missed his lecture.

Another example is my Etsy shop.  What Etsy shop is that???  You don't have an Etsy shop???  No, to have an Etsy shop you need something to put in it and a paypal account and probably I'll need a separate bank account and maybe an ABN (Australian Business Number), and it's all too hard...

Aargh...I'm such a procrastinator - I could give you more examples such as appointments for doctors, hairdressers and beautician, doing our personal accounts....

Why are some people procrastinators??  Well, I'm no psychologist and I don't have time to look it up - oh that's another procrastinator excuse...hang on.... here's a link...  http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200308/procrastination-ten-things-know but I know for me I'd rather be doing XYandZ rather than doing what I'm putting off, depression, fear of failure...let's see what other excuses I can come up with.

So, go back up your computer...it's one thing you won't regret doing and do it regularly - each week/month....

Here are some pics of my latest girls - I'm slowly working out my new computer - my Darling Husband bought me a Mac but it's like driving in a foreign country on the wrong side of the road - familiar yet unfamiliar...

Nice Girl - work in progress - I've glued some tissue paper to build up some texture for the dove in her hands - still deciding on whether she'll be holding it in a nest...

Mean Girl - work in progress - I really like the colour of her dress but her arms are wrong and the back ground colour is wrong and needs re-working with white writing, more sewing patterns and a different colour...

And the two together...

I have to go to work but I do really hope you learn from my heartache and stop putting off backing up your computer - go do it now.

Have a great day/evening.