Mixed media flower painting

I just finished making my second mixed media flower painting. It's so energizing to work with such vibrant, happy colours! I absolutely love making black and white zentangles and doodles, but I feel the same love for making colourful paintings.

I wanted this painting to show what summer in Sweden looks like. Or at least it shows my feelings for summer in Sweden. Colours, flowers and just pure happiness :)

Hope you like it!

 

A zentangle Mandala and some zentangle knots

I can't stop zentangling. I've bought the perfect book for it with perfect paper in it and it's gorgeous and I love it! My new pens, Pigma Micron fineliners are the best! The only trouble is that my neck and shoulder hurt after a while. It's so hard to take breaks and suddenly two hours have passed and I haven't even noticed it :)

I made the zentangle mandala the day my daughter left Sweden for the Greek island Rhodos for five months. The boarder of the mandala is full of hearts even if that can be a bit hard to notice. I really like making mandalas, it's a great way to deal with feelings. It's nice to put my thoughts in the zentangle and kind of having them safe in a circle.

The zentangle with the knots was so fun to draw! Really easy to make and it only took me an hour.

Zentangle on canvas

I found an amazing zentangle on the net and was so inspired that I just had to do my interpretation of it. All cred to the artist that inspired me, Art & Potatoes .

I made mine on a canvas, quite big, and just used black and white pens in different sizes. I also added a few quotes about art that I love. It's so true; As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life (John Lubbock).

 

A mixed media owl

I've been working on this owl painting for a few days now and yesterday it was completed. It's hard to know exactly when to stop, but suddenly it just felt right.

It's made on a canvas (46x38 cm, 18x14") and it's the largest piece I've ever created. I've used acrylic paint, scrapbook paper, gelatos and molotow pens. I made at least a million mistakes and lost hope several times, but after each revival the painting reached a higher level. I've definitely learnt not to fear mistakes :)

As you problable know by now, I LOVE owls so this painting is a darling to me. I just had to write the poem "A wise old owl" on it and I had to squeeze the last words in. It's so hard to calculate the space letters take and I was sure it would fit in without any problems and with a little force, it did.

So, here he is... my darling owl :)

The green/blue and bronze are metallic acrylics and it really glows in some angles. Love it!

For the first time one of my pieces was allowed to move in to our living room :)

The third and last Mandala assignment - Mandala as a dream catcher

I'm so into this mandala making that everything else at home is neglected. I needed time on my own to really get into mandala thinking and making mandalas part of my life, so there was never any other option. However, now it's Easter and I will be more available to my family :)

This third assignment was to make a mandala based on dreams or images or elements that are part of your life. I new exactly what would be included in my mandala. Waves, as I think the sound of them a warm summer day is so soothing and they are forever, whatever happens in the world, no matter if I'm happy or sad, they are still there with their irrepressible strength. Owls, because I love the sight of them, the coolness about them and the smartness they stand for. I feel respect and humility for them. Rays of sun surrounding them. That just felt right and bright and brings hope for the future.

So, as you can see I'm not good at drawing, I'm more of a "pattern person" but when I draw it always gets kind of childish. In any case I like it and I've decided not to get into the comparison game, which is easy to do when I see all the incredibly talented artists around me.

The text around the rays is about owls and waves. I also had to write down this wonderful poem of an owl that I just love. I have no idea who wrote it.

The Wise Owl
The wise old owl sat in an oak.
The more he saw the less he spoke.
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we be like that wise old bird?

Thank you Lisa for this workshop! As you already know you've given me the mandala fever and I'm grateful for that :) Also, thank you for that wonderful meditation session. I will surely come back to it, over and over again. Love!

Had to take a closeup because I've used water colour with glitter in it and it's so sad that it doesn't show properly on the photo. In this closeup you might see it in the blue and green (the green outside the mandala).

Playing in your Mandala garden - Lesson two by Lisa Hofmann

This assignment was to create a mandala from the center outwards. I tried to paint directly with watercolour, without drawing lines first, but that was too difficult to me. It became a mess. I definitely have to practice more on doing that. I cheated a bit and instead drew patterns from the center outwards and then coloured them with watercolour.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the process and mandala making is such a great way to just let go and get in the wonderful state of just being and not thinking. I surrounded my little mandala garden with flowers and leaves.

So, in the next mandala lesson we will be exploring the mandala as a practice or tool for gathering healing insight and as means of deepening self awareness. So exciting!!!

Circle play - Lisa Hofmann, the second assignment in 21 Secrets

Ok. I have to admit, I had no idea what a Mandala was. I loved the introduction that Lisa Hofmann did to this meditative form of art. I've noticed that almost every piece I make is full of circles and I tend to always make a circular motion and I believe it has been a subconscious action for me, and I guess circles really mean something in my life.

So, guess if I liked this workshop??? I've only done the first part, circle play, and I actually made three pieces :) I wrote on the first one, the second one got kind of crazy, the third one I'm showing you here.

As a child I had a kaleidoscope which I had completely forgotten about. When I made this piece I suddenly remembered how much I loved it. I could be in bed at night looking in it, feeling amazed over the great patterns and wonderful colours that showed up. Always new patterns and it felt like I was in another world. This Mandala took me right back to my childhood and I feel greatful for that. That is what the text around the Mandala is all about.

It actually made me order a build-my-own-kaleidoscope-kit! Crazy, I know, but I am the kind of person that act upon my feelings, immediately. Now I cannot wait for it to be delivered so that I once again can disappear in the beauty of patterns and colours! And this time I get to build it myself :) I want to see how it works (I was a child who loved playing with Lego, so maybe that explains my urge to build things myself) ;)

I coloured this piece with my ProMarkers and filled in the lines with Sharpies. Maybe I should have stopped there but I wanted more so I went on with way too much glitter stickles and finished it with some bling stones. Who said less is more... :)

Thanks Lisa for a wonderful workshop and I'm looking forward to step two in Mandala-making!

First assignment in 21 Secrets 2014!

I am so excited that 21 Secrets 2014 has started! There are so many workshops I want to take and so much I want to explore and learn and, this is important, so many people I want to get to know. 21 Secrets is really an exciting community with wonderful teachers (thank you Connie Hozvicka!), a world wide  bunch of people connected by art. A friendly Art Squad :)

I started out with Lisa Cheney´s workshop "The Savage Mirror". I watched all the videos and was both inspired and a bit terrified. I have only drawn about four or five faces ever, and now the assignment was to draw a self portrait. It was an exciting trip, to put me outside myself (you will have to excuse my bad English) and look into a mirror and draw the stranger staring back at me. It really felt like it wasn't me at all.

I've decided to go all in and let you see every step to the final result. You can never imagine what a strange feeling it is to see myself in the final picture. I didn't think that I would ever draw a self portrait and this is acutally looking like me! A bit anyway. I don't have such sad eyes, but the nose, the mouth, the shape of the face and the hair is me.

When I looked into the mirror, I focused on my mouth and that was what my journal spread should be about. When writing the text for ten minutes, I wrote a different story, but exactly what Lisa said would happen, happened. I found the meaning. The last few minutes my text was all about what I say, how I can bring joy with what my mouth says, how I can hurt people by saying the wrong things. So, I decided to cover my whole text with paint. Then I drew a big mouth and wrote a text about what I say and what I don't want to say and how I feel when saying the wrong or right things.

This process really made me think about the importance my mouth has and that I sometimes have to think before I speak. I wrote everything in Swedish because it feels closer to myself even though it's much easier to write in English to keep a distance to the signification of the words. Maybe that is not so obvious for English speaking people, but at least for me, it's much easier to say "I love you" or "I hate you" instead of "Jag älskar dig" and "Jag hatar dig". The words get closer when they are said in my own language and in this process I had to keep it close.

I am happy with the result and more importantly, I am so happy for Lisa's class and her wonderful way of inspiring. Thank you Lisa, you rock! Love!

 

My Guardian Angel

This is my second mixed media art journaling piece made on a canvas (30x40 cm, 12x15").

When I took a workshop by Kate Crane in 21 Secrets earlier this year, I fell in love with her way of drawing whimsical angels. I tried painting three angels on a small cardboard and loved them! Now I've taken it one step further and made one big angel and added more details like arms and hands. I'm so in the process of learning and I enjoy every minute of it.

One thing I love about acrylic paint is that it's so easy to cover mistakes. I think I repainted the face at least five times. At first it had no facial features at all. My husband thought it looked like a football and I decided to add eyes. That was a mistake, so I repainted it. Then I thought, why not paint a whole face? So I did... hahaha... the poor angel looked like a eunuch so I had to repaint it again.

So... no face, face, no face, face, no face... and here he/she finally is... my Guardian Angel :)

 

Mixed media painting with doodle

Today I felt like trying out doodling on a painting which at first felt like I was wrecking the whole painting but then turned out to something nice.

I got the inspiration from the book "Doodles unleashed" by Traci Bautista, a great book by the way! I cut out pieces of scrapbooking paper for flowers and stems and glued them on the canvas which I had painted with acrylics. Then I painted the flowers and stems kind of "clumsy". It isn't supposed to look neat and tidy :) After that I doodled with Molotow pens and my new favourites, Liquitex paint markers. I had a great time and enjoyed every mistake I made and just made some more so that you wouldn't guess they are mistakes at all ;)

I LOVE colours! You who know me are probably surprised because I'm always dressed in black, grey and white and sometimes, maybe, with a slight touch of colour. But inside I am full of colour and it is about time it shows in my art (it feels kind of pretentious to call it art, but I don't have a suitable word for it.)

Hope you enjoy it! And if you don't... I'm happy anyway :)

 

Recycling

I went through all our cd-records the other day and decided that I no longer need them. A strange feeling that the cd-epoque is over, but all the music I need is on Spotify and available at any time, easily and at a low cost AND it doesn't need any physical space in my house :)

I found inspiration for cd coasters at Crafts by Amanda and made my own interpretation of it. I sanded off the surface and painted it black, then used some of my stencils and painted it white. Tip: I painted the wrong side of the cd, the shiny side, and unfortunately the "ring" in the cd is visible. It's much better to paint on the side with the label. I didn't know what kind of varnish to use so I first painted a layer of matte gel medium and then one layer of glossy decoupage varnish. Then I cut out a circle of dark grey felt and glued it on the other side of the cd.

I like the result. It was really fun to make so I'm sure I'm gonna make some more :)

Take me as I am...

I spent the entire evening making this piece. I didn't know what would come out of my playing with colour, stencils, cardboard, stamps etc. It's so fun to just DO things and see what develops!

I cut out a picture of a model from a catalogue and painted her black since I don't have any stencil with girls. Then I just added paint and stamped, made circles and so on. I used a metallic green/blue paint for the tree and it kind of glows but you don't see that in the photo. Found the text "Confidence is not for sale" in another catalogue and then wrote the text "Take me as I am or have nothing at all". Like that quote.

Hope you like it!

Mixed media painting

I'm proud to present to you my first mixed media painting that I actually want to put on my wall. I bought a stack of books from Book Depository (free world wide delivery and low prices, love that) all about mixed media and art journaling. So after being inspired by Kelly Rae Roberts, Suzi Blu, Dina Wakley and Traci Bautista I made this piece :)

I made it on cardboard and mounted it on another cardboard covered with an old black tablecloth. I didn't really know how to attach the painting to the background and considered using screws but decided on sewing instead. I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Hope you like it!

Canvas painting

I'm really astonished that this new year has started so great creatively for me. As I mentioned in my previous post I've had a hard time finding what I want to do, or to choose among all the things I want to do. But then I read Tracy Verdugo's blog where she wanted us to mention one intention for this new year.

One of my intentions is to be more persevering, persistent, to go on and go through with what I'm doing. I often give up thinking that everyone is much better than I am and that I might as well quit.

So, I've been wanting to make a canvas painting for a long time. I've looked at all the beautiful canvases that all talented artists out there have made and ended up not daring. Today I had the word persistent in my head and just started making my painting without thinking too much. I knew what colours I wanted to use and then I just made it.

The quote says "Don't grieve what you miss, be happy for what you have". I like that quote. It's so easy to forget to be happy over the things and people that fill your life and to focus on what you don't have.

Anyway... I started with painting one layer of gesso on the canvas, then went on with decoupaging some napkins and after that painted with different blue, green and white acrylics. Then I did some stamping, and  making circles with metallic paint. Some washi tape and a brown string and then it was finished.

I'm really happy with the result!

The first zentangle of the year

New year, new goals... or maybe the same goals as before but with a few additions :)

I have no idea if someone is still reading my blog, but I've decided to write in English as many of my new found friends from 21 Secrets are English speaking.

For the moment I have run out of inspiration. I don't know why and I don't know how or where to find it again. I google, I visit blogs, I read books and papers, I look at tutorials on Youtube. Or maybe my problem is not to actually find inspiration it's more the lack of energy to do the things I want to do. There are so many techniques to use and so many different kinds of paint to choose from and I can't decide what to do first. So instead I do nothing. But I hope that will change soon :)

Anyway, I started this new year with finishing a zentangle I started making a few days ago. That was an achievement. I had no inspiration at all when I made it but it was kind of fun to draw the bird. The background is made with Dylusions inks, stamps and different circles painted with acrylics.