Rock mania

Two weeks ago I started painting a rock for a commission, and figured I could just as well start putting a groundlayer on my other rocks, in case I found the time somewhere to make some more.
 

Because I'm working at the gallery tomorrow, and my rocks are almost sold out, I got them out again this week and started decorating.

And couldn't stop...

It's a weird thing with these rocks, they can lay there for months without me going near them, but once I get them out it's sort of addicting to keep working on them. I love the feel of these rocks in my hands, and how the shape of each rock defines what I'll put on there. I always work on more than one at the same time, keep going back and forth between them until all of a sudden they are all finished, and I can start looking for a fitting quote for each of them.

Funny enough, the one that I started out with, the commission, is not finished yet. But it's getting there. Here are a few that I finished this week:

I also made a few more pages for my 2015 calendar:

Still working towards the creation of a year planner, although I really shouldn't, given I have so much to do at the moment, but I'm not quite ready yet to give up on the idea. I have been making my own planners since 1997 (gee, can't believe it's been that long!), but I haven't made one since living in Australia. Mostly because I want to try out a self-publishing venue (until now I printed it out myself), but in the end it was too complicated and time ran away from me. I will try out a few pages this weekend, and then either proceed with it or wait for another year ...

Oh yes, despite having to get ready for the big move, I spend too much time on Pinterest (I figure at the end of the day I deserve a break from organizing, so I treat myself to some Pinterest and completely lose track of time, as I'm sure some of you will be familiar with ... ☺). And I come across so many funny/interesting/ wise things on there, that I decided to end my blogposts with one of these pics every week ;-)

can't stop laughing with this ... :-D

That's it for this week! I'm linking this as always to Paint Party Friday. Thanks so much for being here and leaving your wonderful comments. I hope you're having a great Friday, and some nice things to look forward to in the weekend! See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Doing things I haven't done in a looong time ...

Not having much time to make art these days  is forcing me to rethink what I can make and still enjoy doing without taking up too much time. So I discovered my watercolours again :-)  I can make the drawing while sitting with my daughter on her bed at night, and colour it in really quickly. So here's my first (!) watercolour-girl for this year ....

I'll be using her for cards and my Society6-shop, adding a background in Photoshop. I love making these, don't know why I didn't make one for so long. Guess there are too many things I love making ... ;-)

And while sitting on the bed with my daughter, doodling is also a favorite. Here's a new doodle I finished:

Meanwhile I've also been working on my new calendar for 2015. Only finished 2 months for now, more will follow soon (I hope!):

And some more (dare I say the C-word in August Nic? ☺) Christmas- and New Years' cards that are now available in my Etsyshop:

That's it for now. I have been thinking about making a daily planner for 2015, but I'm not sure I can afford spending the time making it while I should be packing and other boring stuff .... Still, the idea is there in my head and I might act upon it ...

Thanks so much for your visit! I hope you're having a great day wherever you are, and an enjoyable weekend ahead of you! I'm linking this as always to Paint Party Friday, with thanks to Eva and Kristin! See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Experimenting with patterns

I've been wondering a long time how to make patterns, and in December I came across this post on Michelle's blog on how to do it. I was so happy and immediately set to work to make one...

Of course I should've started with a simple pattern, just to try it out.  Did I? Nooooo .... I didn't .... I started out with about the most complex pattern I could make: one of my doodles..... Needless to say it didn't really come out as it should ....

This is precision work, meaning you have to cut the paper exactly straight, and tape it back together exactly right. I don't know where I went wrong, but I was off by about 1 mm, and it showed clearly in the pattern. The lines in one part didn't match up, and it just looked bad.

This is the doodle I started out with:

 I then cut it in two and taped it together in the middle

And cut it in two again and taped it back together. Somewhere around that time something went wrong (but I didn't know it yet)...

Then I drew another figure in the middle, like this:

I saved it as a pattern in Photoshop and started playing, and then was all disappointed because, as I said, some lines didn't match up.

So, just to be clear on this, I did this about half a year ago. Tried fiddling with it in Photoshop but couldn't get it right, so I tossed it aside ....

Until last week... In my Society6-shop, it's now possible to sell duvet-covers, and my mind went into overdrive with all the patterns I could make. Luckily I had scanned every image on my computer before cutting it up, and I suddenly got the brilliant idea (if I say so myself ☺) to cut it in pieces using Photoshop. That was bound to be more precise than me taking the scissors in hand. And I wouldn't have to do the whole drawing again.

So I got to work, and the lines matched beautifully. So I printed it out and drew another figure in the middle, which was fairly easy to do since I already had an example. Scanned it all in, made a pattern and tadaaa! It worked!

Here it is:

I meant to colour it in, but that was way too much work with all the small patterns in there, so I chose to make two versions, one black & white, and one with a blue background.

Here's an example of a shower curtain in my Society6-shop:

And of a duvet-cover:

Not sure whether I should leave it like this or make the pattern a bit smaller. What do you think?

So much fun to do, and I'll sure be making more patterns in the future. Thank you Michelle, for pointing me in the right direction :-)

Just so you know: there's again a promo in my Society6-shop, with up to 30$ off depending on your total amount.

This week I didn't manage to paint one single brushstroke ..... We had a long weekend, Monday was a public holiday here in Queensland, and in the weekend we celebrated my son's 14th birthday. So the rest of the week went by in the blink of an eye. I did manage to make some more Christmascards though, to sell in my Etsyshop.

Yes, Christmascards.... Or New Year's cards, however you want to call it. If someone had told me last year I would be making Christmascards in August I would've declared them crazy. Usually I only start thinking about Christmas one week before. But, well, this year everything's a bit different, and since I'll have to close my Etsyshop somewhere in October, and won't open it again until the new year, I have to do it now. Here are some of the cards that are for sale now:

Okay, that's it for this week. Thanks so much for being here, I really appreciate your visits and comments. Linking this as usual to Paint Party Friday. Take a look over there to see many different artworks from talented artists all over the world.

Hope you're having a nice day and a wonderful relaxing weekend ahead of you. Take care, I'll be back next week! ♥ ♥ ♥

a bit of journaling in between other things ....

This week I started in earnest with my todo-list for our move back to Belgium. But I managed to do some art in between. This is a journalpage that I had finished before but didn't post yet:

It's mostly collage from my own artwork, except for her hair. I love playing around with different hairdo's for my girls, and this is my latest obsession: cutting out "real" hair and glueing it on top of one of my faces. Amazing how many different looks you can create that way :-)

On Thursday I had had enough of sitting at my computer with my todo-list and decided to get out into the sun and paint some rocks. I have one order for a rock that I sold some time ago and will now try to make another one of, so I figured I could just as well give all the rocks that I still have a basecoat. That way I can just do some in between, whenever I feel like playing :-)

Felt completely energized after that ;-)

And when I was looking for something I came across this painting that I had started months ago and kinda forgot about. It has a drawing on it already, so I figured I could just as well start colouring in. That doesn't take much time, and I can do it in between other things ...

Need to keep my creative juices flowing, don't I  ... ?☺

I finally managed to get my website completely up-to-date, and listed some more original art in my Etsyshop. These miniature-paintings were not in there yet but they are now!

These'll be the last pieces I will put in my Etsyshop for now.  I will have to close the shop in October, and won't be able to open it up again until after New Years, since our container will only arrive around that time. It's a good thing that my Society6-shop and Redbubble-shop can just stay open, as well as Lulu, where I sell my calendars. Making a new calendar is next on my list.....

So, that's it for now. Thanks so much for visiting, I really appreciate all the thoughtful comments and the encouragement you guys (or girls ☺) give. I'm linking this as always to Paint Party Friday.

I wish you the best of days, and a wonderful weekend ahead of you! See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

featured artist in the gallery

This whole week I've been busy getting all things ready for the start of my 2 months as featured artist in the Seaside Artists' Gallery in Redcliffe. I had a whole wall to fill, so it was time to get all my paintings ready. Do you remember this one?

I did this one in a workshop 2 months ago, and it didn't feel finished to me. Kept it on the easel all that time, and now with the exhibition coming up decided to do something with it.

So I stamped and stencilled a bit, put up some more collage, dripped some paint and dotted some paint on there. It's only now that I feel it's finished:

 "The sigh of a faraway song" - mixed media on canvas - 76x61cm

For sale in the Seaside Artists' Gallery in Redcliffe

It's weird, I didn't feel any connection at all to this painting. I did it in a workshop with a professional artist, and there were "rules" to follow in terms of design. And I'm not one for following rules.... Probably a good thing that I never did do an official art education :-)

It's only now, after 2 months staring at it, that I just started playing with it without thinking about rules, and I feel it's more my own now. Although I'm still not as attached to it as to some of my other paintings.

And do you remember this one?

I wasn't sure whether to put a text on there or not, so I decided to just leave it for then. But it felt too empty to me, so this week I decided to add some words. I deliberately used a colour very similar to the background, because I didn't want the text to stand out too much.

 "I'll find my way home" - acrylics on canvas - 50x40cm

For sale in the Seaside Artists' Gallery in Redcliffe

This morning I went to the gallery with all my stuff, and spent all morning putting it all up. Nina, the manager of the gallery, has given me extra room and tables for my small stuff, because she wants to help me sell everything so I don't need to take it back to Belgium :-) So nice of her!

Here's a picture of the main wall:

Tomorrow Saturday will be an afternoon tea to celebrate the opening. For those of you who are in the area: the address is 133 Redcliffe Parade, at the top floor in Comino's Arcade, at 2.00pm. Everyone's welcome!

I decided to take the small paintings that I made for this year's Summer of Color too, instead of putting them in my Etsyshop. In case you're interested in any of these, please let me know and I'll get it in the gallery. Here they are all together:

My little poetrybooks were ready just in time and I really like how they turned out. Should've ordered some more, but I first wanted to see how they looked. And now the sale is over of course .... I'll just wait for the next one I guess ;-)

Here's some more pages from it:

And then to finish this post: my 2 partners in the around-the-world-artsy-bloghop have answered their questions! And very interesting answers they are as well! Have a look at their blogs and the gorgeous artwork on there: Andrea from Falling Ladies, and Dia from "Dia's Creation Station". I love reading about how other artists think and work, and their answers are very recognizable to me. Thanks so much for playing along, Dia and Andrea!

Well, that's it for now. Thanks so much for your lovely comments last week and well-wishes regarding our move to the other side of the world. Next week I'll begin in earnest with my todo-list ....

Linking this to Paint Party Friday. Hop on over there if you don't know it already, always lots to see!
Thanks for being here, I hope your day is happy and your weekend full of love..... ♥ ♥ ♥