Fly

 

Learning to fly starts with a small jump. 

How often do we not take the jump because we expect to be able to just do it all straight away? 

One step at a time soon adds up to miles, so take that small jump and see where it leads.

Passing along

What are we passing along? 

We all inherit characteristics from our parents and grandparents, and pass them along to our own children. Blue eyes, brown hair, a particular shape of nose, even the way we walk may be passed along. But what about other things? Do we pass on a kind manner, gentleness, love for animals? And how do we pass them on? 

These latter things are passed on by modelling them, and they are more unusual in that we can pass them on to people not related to us. When we love others, when we are kind to them, when we answer anger with gentleness we can cause change. Let's pass on these things and hope that they are paid forward, because the world needs more love, kindness, and gentleness.

Finding my niche

Whenever you arrive in a new place it takes a while to find your niche. I'm putting myself out there and offering some bookbinding and art journalling classes. Maybe people will turn up. Maybe they won't. Maybe I'm not advertising in the right places. Whatever happens will be a learning opportunity. All it needs is a couple of people who come and enjoy, who share their enjoyment, and things get going.

Let's see what happens...

 

Contentment

 

Contentment - a state of happiness and satisfaction.

I was drawn to the white circle in the midst of all the pattern and colour. It felt like an oasis in the midst of clamour. And isn't that how life can be - a clamour of all sorts of things vying for our attention? But contentment is a gift, a blessing. Being happy and satisfied with your lot and not hankering after more is peaceful. Not comparing yourself on social media, not always seeing what others have and envying them, not constantly browsing shops for those things you don't yet have - what a lot of time that frees up for doing those things you love. 

Over-thinking

 

It goes so much better if you don't over-think it!

These were the words going through my head while doing this page, which I was definitely over-thinking! But then it struck me that it is true for a lot of life. It's when we start to dwell on things, to second-guess ourselves, to go through analysis paralysis, that we get stuck. Often the first thing we thought of is the one to go with. Not always, but often. That's why having strict boundaries or limitations can draw more creativity out of us than a completely open remit. Maybe my next page should have a limited colour palette and I should stop telling myself that using paint straight out of the tube isn't 'right'. 

Where do you get stuck with your art?

Embrace your style

 

It's so easy to look at other people's work and compare your own. 

Don't do it!

You are unique.

Your style is your own, so learn to love it. No-one can do what you do because you bring unique life experience combinations with you. No-one looks through the same lens that you do. 

So embrace your style, make those marks you love, use colours just as you want to, because your authentic art will speak to hearts in a way that copying and suppressing yourself won't.

Finding my groove

 

It's funny how long it can take to get back into using a material you haven't used for three months. At the moment I'm still playing with materials and reminding myself what I like. As usual there are some days where I feel like I'm in the groove again, and the next day I'm floundering. But hey, that's how creativity can be, right? I don't like everything that I make but that doesn't stop me from making things. The more I make, the more I find out what I like, what makes me happy. On this page that would be the circles and the scribbles. I'm not keen on the brown, but the lines that came with the brushstrokes in that bottom sweep of brown made me think of vinyl records (for those who remember those!) and their grooves. If the needle wasn't in the groove, it was a terrible noise. Once it got into the groove you heard the music. 

Reunited!

 

Reunited with all my studio stuff! And here is the first art journal page from my new studio (pics of which are below). As you can see, I pulled out stencils, used brushes, collage, mark-making - the whole shebang. My child saw it and muttered in passing, 'Oh, sea slugs.' I have to say that sea slugs are admired in our house, so it wasn't at all critical :)

And here are some pics of the studio. I have my two work stations at the desk, and then the tall table where I stand to paint. The window is north-facing, which is the sunny position here in the southern hemisphere, so the light is great. 

Choose hope

 

Again, this is from my 'in-between' journal, which is A5 size and done with neocolor 2s. You can see that I was starting to get into my stride with the different medium and managing to layer up a bit. Marks are creeping in and it feels more 'me'. 

"If we don't make an active decision to choose hope, our default will always be fear." Stacey Morgan. I just loved this quote - it's a great reminder that fear can and will take over if we let it. So that dream you have? Go for it! Better to try and decide it's not for you than not to try at all. It isn't a failure if you learn something from it, even if that 'something' is that you don't like waterskiing/ceramics/whatever it was you wanted to try. Now you won't take up any more time wondering about it. That's a win, right?

Perspective and distance

 

While I'm working on new pages in my journal (yay!) I'll share a few of the things I did in the period of waiting for our stuff to arrive from the UK.

When I first cut out these circles, I didn't really think about the fact that my 'in-between' journal was only half the size of my usual ones. When I stuck them on to the page I was struck by the difference in magnitude. Either the one on the left was enormous, or was very much in the foreground. Which of course made me think about distance and perspective.

A lot of the time when we encounter a problem for the first time it feels enormous. We are up close to it and it blots out the sun. It's difficult to know how to tackle it and we just feel defeated. That's why sleeping on things can bring a whole new perspective. You've given it a little bit of distance and now it comes into better focus at a size that you can start to tackle. 

So maybe that impossible problem is not so impossible at all. Maybe it's just a question of distance and perspective.

It's been a long time...

 

Well, we lived out of suitcases for 13 weeks (count 'em... 13! That's a quarter of a year) and now our stuff has arrived, my computer has been updated and so has my browser, and I can use this blog again. Hurrah!

Being without all my supplies for so long forced me into working differently. I had no acrylics, only neocolor 2s. At first all my pages were ugly as I learned that layering up with watercolours just doesn't work, even when you add in felt-tips and a bit of writing. This meant my pages ended up looking 'cleaner' as they had more white space. I had to think more carefully about colours as once they were on the page, there wasn't much I could do to change them save for cover over them completely. It's only in the last week or so that I've felt that I've hit my stride. Typical! Now I'll have to relearn how to use acrylics, but you can bet I'm looking forward to that :)

Anyway, I'll post new stuff as I make it, and maybe a few of the things I've done over the last few months so you can see how a change and limitation of medium can really change how you work.

Have a lovely weekend!