What does love require?

What does love require? At this time and in this situation, how can I act with love? A good question to ask before opening your mouth. A pause before speaking or acting is well worth the time.

It's Friday, so there must be a paint party! I had fun with paint through stencils, paint removed through stencils, paint on a gelli-plate, paint with a brush, and paint used straight from the bottle :) I'm really pleased with all the little details and layers of complexity in this page. (You can see them in the close-up photos below).

For those of you on instagram, I will be joining Inktober for the first time this year, posting an ink sketch every day through October. I've decided to just go for it and not do any pencil drawing beforehand, but get straight on with the ink. Find me there @sojournertracy.

Opportunity for community

Most of us enjoy some level of community. Even we introverts like to spend time with others as long as it's not too many, too loud or for too long :)

But community needs to be worked at. It doesn't come easy and it isn't always convenient. As someone who has moved to the other side of the world, away from everyone in my network, I know that it takes hard work and deliberate action to connect with people. It takes time and sacrifice. It's uncomfortable because it requires vulnerability.

But it is worth taking the opportunities that present themselves. It is worth the discomfort, the inconvenience, the hard work. It is worth it because we all need to feel connected.

Postcard swap

I'm in a postcard swap with Lynda Shoup on instagram (@lynda-shoup, @sojournertracy). When I work smaller than A4, I tend to work in series, doing several pieces at the same time. So here are the postcards. Haven't decided which will go to Lynda yet, but they'll be in the post soon.

Anyone else want to swap? Let me know by email or via instagram and we'll swap addresses.

Plenty of light

The journalling on this page reads: There's plenty of light for everyone, so don't put others in the shade.

Too often we vie with each other for what we perceive to be limited opportunities. But the success of someone else takes nothing away from me. There is enough light for everyone, so we can celebrate successes, whether ours or those of someone else. Let's not compare ourselves. Let us, instead, cheer each other on.

And as it's Friday, we can cheer each other on at the Paint Party. Come and join in the fun.

Sometimes you just have to play

Sometimes you just need to play. No need to have a result in mind, just enjoy the process, getting painty fingers and calming your heart.

Fun with circles

A little time-lapse video for you today of making the sort of circle patterns I posted here. I had already drawn several concentric circles and  lines to split them into 8. You could split them into more sections if you wanted to. I want to have a go at ten-point flowers soon. 

Just a little bit tired...

I'm sure we've all felt like this. And it's OK to admit it. Some days I just feel a little bit tired.

 I drew the face from a magazine picture. The pose was unusual and when I'm tired I don't feel very competent. So this page was drawn with my non-dominant hand. That way I can just let go and not worry about the results. Once the drawing was done, it felt fitting to do the writing with my left hand, too. The style seemed to suit the theme.

Creative architecture

We are blessed to live close to a heap of lovely beaches. Whenever we go for a walk on one, I feel like I'm on holiday :)

We walk with our heads down, looking for treasures. Last time we were on the beach at Grange we found two of these shells, both 10cm (4in) long and undamaged. I love the variety of shells to be found and the knowledge that each one was a home. What beautiful architecture!

Sing your song!

This is one of those pages that made itself!

Most of the time I start a page with no idea where it's going, unless I happen to be using a prompt. With this page, I stuck down the collage materials - pages from a Russian book - first and then gessoed over the top. When I came back to it, it seemed that the collaged pieces made a circle, so I drew it in with a soluble graphite pencil.

After that, the page took over.

The next thing that went down was the colour - just the basic blocks to start with. Then the triangles and leaves.

The thing that really gave me the direction this was going in was the second circle. Something so simple, but as soon as I drew it on, all I could see was a singing face! From there on in it was just the extra details.

A good reminder to not let anyone try to silence you.

True north

What do you use as a compass for your life journey? How do you make sure that you don't get lost? For me, my faith provides that. If I'm not sure which way I should be going - and even when I think I know! - I pray.

Circles!

If you've looked at this blog before, you'll know that I love circles. They pop up everywhere in my work, whether I've planned them or not! And I've admired Alisa Burke's circle designs for ages, so when she had a sale of workshops, and one of them was all about circle designs, I jumped at the chance.

Here is my first go. This journal is made from a couple of large pieces of brown paper that I gelli-printed and then cut into smaller bits. Each piece was then folded and spiral-bound with the open edges at the spine.

I used two pens for these designs: a waterproof uni-ball fine liner and a Sharpie fine-point.

Inspiration on the beach

We went for a walk on the beach yesterday afternoon and the windy weather had brought in a lot of shells and suchlike. As a family we like to walk the beach at the water's edge with our heads down, looking for interesting bits and pieces. There were quite a few sea-squirts and I was fascinated with the beautiful patterns and colour combinations. The one above reminds me of an aboriginal painting. 

I apologise for the blurry quality of the photos - these creatures are like a very firm jelly (jello to my American friends) and have a transparent quality. Also, I was having to dodge the incoming tide at the same time as taking the photos. It's only the beginning of spring here, and I wasn't going to take off my shoes and paddle as my hands were already purple! 

The patterns are in different layers of the creature and so difficult to capture without some blurriness. At the top edge of the photo above you can see a really clear view where there are tiny white spots visible as well as the yellow and white circles. 

This orangey one looks like a stone, but isn't. I loved the colour.

On this photo (above) you can see a clear part of the sea-squirt near the bottom of the photo. Again there are little white spots as well as the larger circles.

This last one I just couldn't get a focussed photo of, but you can still see, through the blurriness, that it has patterns like flowers on it, orange on dark purple. Just beautiful.

Where do you find inspiration?