This is how I do it

Let me explain my way of painting that you’ve seen in the video. I rarely or rather never know how my painting is going to end up. Sometimes I have a vague idea what I would want to do but I almost always end up going another direction.

In the last Friday's post you could see in the video that I started by applying color wash on the canvas just to put some color on it. And yellow is a nice bright color that doesn’t give you much trouble if you want to paint over it and while wet you can mix it with any color on the canvas and it won’t go muddy on you. Drips are just for fun cause I like them. :) And sometimes those accidental shapes give you a sea of possibilities.

Painting always goes through pretty and ugly stage and then hopefully pretty again. :) The thing is not to stop too quickly in either of these stages. That means even if you think it’s pretty it doesn’t mean you have to leave it alone and you’re finished painting.

I liked the background and the circles and I considered not covering it which I later did with black. I don’t regret it because even though I liked the background, I couldn’t tell anything from it. It didn’t lead me anywhere and I couldn’t imagine it being finished. There was just nothing there but a pretty background.

Now, let me explain, that’s what I did or did not see THAT day. It might happen that one day I do a similar background and it will tell me loads. But this time I had to take it further. This all happens to me intuitively. And I’ll explain this in the next blog post because I was once one of those people that just didn’t get people saying, “you need to just let it happen and not think” or “you need to paint intuitively” or something similar like that.

To come back to my painting in the video you’ll see that I used one of the bubbles to make a face. I actually didn’t intend to do that. When I was looking at the painting I was messing around with an idea to put little people on the bubbles that would look like they’re walking on them. One thought was about putting little faces in the bubbles to seem like they are looking out the window.

But looking at the bubbles I really didn’t like the big one with a circle in it. It was an odd shape and that little circle inside it didn’t seem like it belonged there. So I made a face out of it. And the rest is history as they say. :)



I'm sorry I just can't seem to make these videos shorter. There is part 3 coming soon. :) Stay tuned. And don't forget to say Hi! to PPF!

This is how I do it

Can I?

Can I still call it a self portrait if it looks nothing like me? :))

Oh well. Here it is anyway.
It was a product of my husbands birthday wish and the movie Frida.:)

And I wanted to share this with you.

"DO NOT COVET YOUR IDEAS.

Give away everything you know and more will come back to you.

You will remember from school other students preventing you from seeing their answers by placing their arms around their exercise book or exam paper. It is the same at work, people are secretive with ideas. 'Don't tell them that, they'll take credit for it.'

The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually you'll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish.

Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you. Ideas are open knowledge. Don't claim ownership. They're not your ideas anyway, they're someone else's. They are out there floating by on the ether. You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up."

Paul Arden, author of the book:
It's Not How Good Your Are, It's How Good You Want To Be

Can I?

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Thank you all for taking the time and entering my giveaway. :)

I had to do a list to include all the participants from the FB fan page and here on the blog but won't bore you with anything more today so here is the winner.



Congrats Nicola Toms! :) Please send me your address so I can mail you the goodies. :).

GIVEAWAY WINNER

For the first time

Go easy on me it's my first time. :) I shortened it as much as I knew how but I'll have to figure out how to speed it up even more cause this is too long. And it's only Part 1! I'm not even gonna tell you what all went wrong. It took me 3 days to make this video clip. :))

Thanks for stopping by! :) Don't forget to visit the other participants of Paint Party Friday.

And this is a last day to enter my GIVEAWAY. I'll be picking a winner tomorrow. :)

For the first time

What's on my work desk

I have no artwork to show you yet, so I decided to share with you my "work desk". :) It's actually my floor. I have my studio but rarely hang out in there. It's mostly just storage for my art stuff.

My favorite place to paint is in front of my computer. Basically because I get inspired when surfing on the net. I have a very comfortable lounge chair and I tend to do everything sitting in it. :) And because I'm lazy and don't feel like going upstairs I brought all the essentials to my computer desk. Ok, it's not an actual computer desk because I haven't bought one yet. My monitor is on a dresser, my keyboard is on a small Ikea table and I have another small round glass table for my art stuff.

So, when my canvas gets too big for my lap I move to the floor. Here you can see I'm filming myself painting for the first time. If I manage to put together an actual video, you'll see it in a Fridays post.

Thanks for stopping by. This is my first WOYWW post. :) Go check out the other participants and don't forget about my GIVEAWAY. I'll be announcing the winner on Saturday. :)

What's on my work desk

The story of a painting

This name kept popping up all over the Blogland lately. Artist named Flora Bowley. I went to check her out. Oh, I like her style. Everyone is taking her live workshops.

But Flora!

Why don't you have an on-line workshop for far away people like me?

Anyway. I was under her impression and got out my biggest canvas so far and started throwing paint at it.
Loved it!
Loved the not thinking.
Loved the faith in everything’s gonna be O.K.
Loved the texture.
Love the process itself.

Than I thought, what am I gonna put on this one?

No, not a whimsy girl.

Let’s go with a crow.

I’m sorry I don’t have a pic but I totally forgot. But believe me it was an outline of a crow. But then I got to thinking and I was all panicky that black bird on red background will associate too closely to nazi symbolism. I was not making that kinda statement.

So I painted a whimsy girl over it. It kind of coincided with the wing and out came an angel. :)

Than I found this abstract painter Peter Dranitsin. So I tried his technique on the angel’s dress.
Loved it!
Now, it clashes with the background.
Oh, let’s paint over it.
Brilliant idea!
Oh, wait.
Not so much.
This white did not come out as I planned. (second painting on the first photo)
Do over!

So here she is in all her glory. I might call her "Black angel". I'm still deciding about those blue squares on the left bottom. Canvas size is 50x70 cm. (19,5"x27,5")

Thanks for stopping by! :) Don't forget to visit the other participants of Pant Party Friday. But since Blogger has been down for maintenance since yesterday, PPF latest post is not up yet, so try again later.

And you still have time to enter my GIVEAWAY.

The story of a painting

Unconditional love

Love ...
Without judgement.
Without blame.
Without possession.
Without expecting anything in return.

Love ...
With appreciation.
With concern.
With respect.
With care.
With compassion.

Unconditional love ... Mother's love is one of them. Cherish it as long as you can.

Check out Inspiration Avenue for this weeks challenge.

Unconditional love

Illuminated

I am not a religious person but I am a spiritual one. I do not believe in God but I do believe in a bigger picture.

I named this painting Illuminated because she brought some insight into my soul while I painted her. She started out as nothing special and I even disliked her for a while but she blossomed into this beauty that just so happened ended up with a halo around her.
I wondered for a while why the halo but it came clear to me after a couple of days just looking at her. She is an expression of my inner growth. She doesn’t only express my feelings that were stirring inside me while I painted her but my actions and revelations surrounding me in that week of my life.

I strongly believe that we knowingly or unknowingly attract things, actions and people into our lives. We attract them because our soul is telling us we are ready for them even though our mind might not agree at that very moment.

I found a blog of an artist, a prodigy child Akiana. I mentioned her on twitter and FB fan page before. Now, I won’t get into what she's all about cause you can read about her on her blog and decide for yourself. What strikes me is her way of expression and her insight into this world. I think I invited her into my life at just the right time. :)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! :) And go check out other lovely artists participating in this week's PPF. :) Have a fabulous weekend!

Illuminated

Giveaway time

It's time for another giveaway! :) Closed!

This time I'm giving away a(1) set of my 4 greeting cards (5x7") Yes, you get all 4 of them.

To have a chance to win go check out my Etsy shop and come back here to leave a comment on this post telling me which painting is your favorite.

For another chance to win, head over to my FB fan page and tag yourself on the "Giveaway photo". Only tags on the giveaway photo will count so make sure you're tagging yourself on the right one. :)

And if you decide to twitt/blog/FB about this giveaway, leave me another comment saying so and I'll give you 1 extra entry.

I will use random.org to pick a winner on 20. May.

Good luck! And please share the love. Remember, what goes around comes around! :)

Giveaway time