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..... ♥ ♥ ♥