Happier painting

I can see a lightening of my mood in my paintings – the colours have got brighter and lighter. It feels good! Lots of texture, colour, stencilling, bubble wrap, ink etc.

 

All coming back to me now…

A few days ago I commented that since Mum died I haven’t achieved much, and have done plenty of art journaling etc but no real painting. Tony was away last night, due back late today, as he had a medical appointment in Hamilton, so it’s been just me and the furkids.

I decided to prepare some canvas and see what happened. Not push it, but just give myself the chance to really paint. I’m not sure where these are headed but I have a sense that I might be starting to paint again. That would be so cool and Mum would be pleased. No doubt she is watching me and mumbling about the mess I make 😉

My wee painting companion

This is what I do

This is what I do, what I think about, who I am:

Looking at the landscape

I am still adjusting to all the time I have now that Mum has died. Six months on I find the evening has vanished and, all too often, I have achieved nothing. Yet when she was alive, I juggled it all, and found art time. I think I’m still catching up on rest, and learning to live with the gap in our lives.

So one of the things I am slowly doing is going back to some of the things that have been good in my art in the past – like exploring the landscape to see just how far from a ‘real’ landscape you can get before it no longer says landscape. I’d be been using my Gelli Plate, foam stamps with words on them, and a bunch of bubble wrap, to get messy landscapey layers. What I love is that with printing you get bits of paint left over and they come out in a layer later on, adding more colors and texture.

 

Tim’s 12 tags of 2013 – June

I’m having a slow, relaxed, arty sort of Queen’s Birthday weekend. We were heading away but Tony’s had a couple of ‘off’ days so we decided it was better to stay close to home. Every month Tim Holtz holds the Tim’s 12 tags of 2013 challenge. He demonstrates how to make a super cool tag using his products, complete with detailed product tips and techniques = awesome stuff. This month’s tag features Distress Markers.

I don’t have any Distress Markers (yet 🙂 ) but have plenty of Distress Ink and Distress paints, so adjusted the instructions to suit my stash. I don’t mind not having all the bits ‘n bobs because it makes me think about the process and what the look is we’re trying to achieve. I’m pleased with the final results. One of these will go in my art journal, the other will become part of a greeting card.

I have a very sick staff member, she’s already been in hospital 2 months with plenty more to go, so I write to her every week and try to use handmade cards for a bit of colour and variety. Tony watched me draw a tree, leaves and bird on the envelope for a card I wrote her today; he shook his head, muttered something about the poor postal service, and wandered off. He makes me laugh…

Got my Gelli on

It’s a long weekend, it’s cold, Tony’s gone out to help his cousin with house stuff – so….it’s Gelli Plate time. The picture’s below are random Gelli Plate pulls so that I’ll work back into; cut up, stick together, rip, paint over, and generally have fun with.

I sometimes watch videos of other people working with their Gelli Plates and all I can think is – OMG they are *so* tidy. Here’s my art desk today: