Nothing is Original, Adele and PPF

I found Austin Kleon through IF blog past Monday. Just click on the picture above to take you there. I love this post. :)

“Where do you get your ideas?”
“I steal them.”

Nothing is original. It says it right there in the Bible.

Fake it ‘til you make it.

And I think I might have an Impostor syndrome. :))

Monday was a weird day. For one it was Easter. Happy Easter btw! :) And the other thing was I was listening to Adele for the whole second half of the day. The same song over and over again. And lucky you, you get to hear it, too. :) And not only that, you get to read the lyrics and see my sketch of Adele. :) That's for PPF this week.



Lyrics - Someone like you:
*
I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it,
I had hoped you'd see my face,
And that you'd be reminded that for me it isn't over,

Never mind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you, too,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"
*

Nothing is Original, Adele and PPF

It's big...ger

Ok, so it might be no biggy to you but it is to me. :) I painted my first whimsy girl this big. The canvas size is 30x40 cm. (11,8"x15,7")

I just can't explain how good it felt to make this painting. The abstract itself to me is very liberating. How I let my intuition guide me through brush strokes and color choices. Then I decided I'm gonna skip my safety net of drawing on paper and go straight to canvas. Again I had to trust my intuition that proportions of the face that I wanted were correct cause it was hard to see the pencil lines on this background.

The whole painting was actually painting itself. I had no predisposition of how the end result will look like. I just knew I wanted to place a girl on the abstract background and that was it. For a second I envisioned her as a brunette or maybe a red head but when I put a base color of hair on her she ended up being a blond. And I love the contrast of her hair against the whole color scheme and how the softness of the flowers on her shirt are the exact opposite of the harsh lines of the background. Can you tell I'm excited about her?! :)

This painting just might be a milestone in my creative expression. I decided I'm ready to show my paintings in a gallery. That is if any of them will be interested. :) But making that decision is a start in itself. So to apply I need to build my portfolio and make my paintings more diverse in size. You know, so there can be a focal point to showcase around.

It's big...ger

Liberate your Art postcard swap

I can't say it any better so I'm gonna copy paste Kat's words. :)

WHO: Artists in any medium. Photography, painting, poetry, typography, jewelry, sculpture, knitting, cooking, illustration - you name it. If you can have an image of your art printed on a postcard, you are in! If you want to share a blog or website address, you can provide it for the participant list below. Then you all can find each other!

WHAT: You will send 5 printed postcards of your original art to me, along with your address and return postage. I will then swap them around and you'll receive 5 postcards from different artists mailed back to you over a period of a few weeks. (The email you receive once you sign up will have all of the details on what to do.)

WHERE: You don't have to go anywhere, and participants from all over the world are welcome! You will send your postcards to me in the US (I'll be moved back by then) and I'll mail them back out from there. Details for international participants will be included in the email.

WHEN: The postcards will need to arrive at my US address between July 5 and July 15.

So, if you want to join, click on the badge above and sign up. You get all the additional info in the sign up e-mail and you can unsubscribe anytime if you decide not to participate.

Liberate your Art postcard swap

Late but ...

I'm late posting today. Partly because I have no art work to show you yet and partly because we've been laying tiles on out terrace all day. :)

But I was excited to receive a parcel from Makiko today. If you don't know of her yet, go check out her blog. She is a kind soul that decided to make 1000 ceramic birds to help Japan recover from the devastating earthquake and following tsunami. Here you can find out why 1000 birds.

Hope everyone is having a nice Friday! :) You're all probably getting ready for Easter so happy holidays. :)

Late but ...

My friends and I

Just so you know, I do journal in my art journal. There are words and thoughts underneath the paint. I always had a fear of someone reading my diary so I never kept one.

And even now I'm reluctant to write my thoughts on my artwork. I find this a happy medium. Words are there you just can't read them. But you can feel the message, don't you?

I fell in love with this technique. Tam of Willowing has a class over at 21 Secrets so you need to check her out if you want more information than I'm willing to give you. :) This is how I started.

My friends and I

Crossroads

Last Monday's post was a little prophetic. When I wrote it, little did I know that my heart will have to take a leap.

I find myself at crossroads. I needed my ass kicked to push myself out of my comfort zone. I wasn't satisfied with what I was doing for some time now but didn't have the guts to do anything about it. I hope this pushes me to the right direction. I really don't have any bad feelings as I probably should have. I guess I'm seeing it as a blessing.

The hardest thing now is to figure out what to do next. Or what to do in life in general. I would hate it to miss out on this opportunity and go back to something similar. I hope I don't give up on myself too soon.

I made this journal spread past weekend. Another omen I guess. I researched the meaning of a cat and a raven.

Cats themselves are quite resourceful and tend to give us messages of change, flexibility of adaptability. Often, when a cat makes an uncommon appearance in our lives it is a message for us to shake up our habitual routines and make some fresh changes in our lives, as well as be more flexible in our thinking.
Source

The Raven is also a keeper of secrets, and can assist us in determining answers to our own “hidden” thoughts. Areas in our lives that we are unwilling to face, or secrets we keep that harm us – the Raven can help us expose the truth behind these (often distorted) secrets and wing us back to health and harmony.
Source

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read "me". :) Have an awesome weekend! I know I'm looking forward to this Saturday. :)

And don't forget to give some love to the party people at Paint Party Friday, too.

Crossroads

Let go

Let your heart fly.

Let go of all your insecurities and fears.

Let your heart do what it's meant to do.

To soar as high as it will.

You are the only one that is holding it back.

So open the cage and let your heart take the leap.

Be fearless. Let go.

Let go

Bird house

You know what?! I'm not good with words so I'm not even gonna try to put them on my paintings. I almost ruined another painting of mine because of it. I said almost. :) I think I should practice in my journal for about a year or so first. :))

This one is becoming my favorite. I didn't even like her face that much when I sketched it but I glued her down on canvas anyway cause I liked the bird and the bird house.

So not to keep you guessing. The background is spray painted again, the dress is collaged She Art style and her face drawn Willowing style except for the chin and the lips. :) That's mine. :) So, there you have it!

Bird house

21 Secrets

This weekend was amazing! For all of you that don't already know, there is a new art playground called 21 Secrets. You won't believe it but there are 21 workshops from different but all amazing artists available on-line at once and for only 59$.

Connie Horvizcka from Dirty Footprints Studio is the one in charge of the playground. And her Abstract Adventure workshop is one of the first classes I watched on Saturday. Here is what I came up with. It was fun and invigorating. Just letting loose and be fearless.

I heard about this event from Tam on Willowing. Her Collage, Paint and Soul workshop is actually why I joined 21 Secrets in the first place. I absolutely loved it. I had to do TWO collages willowing style.

Next I watched Jane Davenport and her Drawing Happy videos. Very inspiring and again loved every minute of it. I was very bold with this one since I didn't sketch with a pencil first but went on ahead and draw everything with a Pitt Pen. Yes, that's how awesome Jane is. She makes you draw with a pen!

Debra Cooper of A Little Imagination & A Pile Of Junk showed some of the ways to make your own patterned paper. Her papers were just amazing so I had to try it. Of course I have none of the pretty stuff she has but I made do with what I had left from my card making days.

These were all done on Saturday afternoon up until 1 a.m. on Sunday. Than I had to go to sleep. Unfortunately. But yesterday I allowed myself to play with Three Little Words taught by Aimee Myers Dolich of Artsyville. Now, if you follow my blog and my work you probably noticed I have a problem with journaling words. It just doesn't come naturally to me so this workshop was a real blessing. I have no journal page to show you but I promise I'm practicing like crazy. It's so much fun. I even impress myself with the stuff I'm coming up with.

The reason why I'm linking to the artists instead of the registration page is because every artist gets a commission fee if you register through their link to 21 Secrets. It's up to you to choose which artist you want to support in this way. Of course there are 21 artists all together but I haven't done all the workshops yet to introduce them all to you.

21 Secrets

Easter chick and bunny

Easter is coming soon and I made this two cutie pies. :) Aren’t they adorable? Background is made with paint sprays. It was different than spray painting on paper. I don’t know if it was because of the paint or the canvas but when I tried to move the paint around the paint started threading. I don’t know how to explain it but it was like spider’s cobweb. :) It gave me some hard times but all was well in the end.

I’m not sure if the painting is done though. I was thinking of putting some retro flowers on like these ones. But for now you can get prints of this one on Etsy. I’m not ready to part with the original yet. :)

And look! It's already in a treasury. :)

It's Paint Party Friday again. Thanks for stopping by and go check out the other participants as well. :) I wish you a lovely sunny weekend! :)

Easter chick and bunny