Sacred Marks with Tracy Verdugo

Two full days of painting ..... what can I say ...? Loved every minute of it, and could've gone on for a few days more.

Although, I admit, at the end of day 2 my back was killing me .... I'm used to working on an easel, and standing bent over a table 2 days in a row is not really that gentle on your back....

But I'm not complaining. We had a wonderful group of artists, all eager to get going, and Tracy herself was wonderful and sweet, and taught us so much. And it was such a surprise to meet 2 bloggers that I've been following for a while, and didn't know were coming: Jenny from A Simpler Life and Cathy from Studio 28. It was lovely to meet them in person, and to go on this art journey together :-)

Plus we were in a beautiful location: Buderim at the Sunshine Coast in Queensland ....
What more can one want ... :-)

We started 2 canvases, and although most of the participants had one canvas finished, mine are far from finished....

The first day we got a lot of prompts from Tracy, and demonstrations on how she does things. Very interesting ....

What I liked most was how diverse the artworks were. Since I'm not sure that the people whose artworks I took pictures of like to have them posted, I won't put them on this blog, but trust me, there was a lot of talent in this group. What I can post are the paintings of Tracy ....

of Jenny ...

of Cathy ...

and mine of course (the one I'm working on right now)

Couldn't help it, I saw faces ... again. And you know what? Something has been bothering me for days about this painting, and I think I finally figured out what it is .... So expect some big and bold changes to come in the next few days ... ;-)

If you ever get a chance to do a live painting workshop: go for it! It's the best way to learn, and there's such an energy in the air with all these people creating that you just can't achieve alone in your studio. I've discovered the live-workshops this year, starting with the one with Orly Avineri in January, and I will be doing another one in June....

Might become a bit addicted ... ;-)

And today I got a nice surprise in the mail: one of the paintings I made in Flora Bowley's online workshop was featured in her newsletter! Very happy about that. This is the painting:

 "Where are you now?" - acrylics on canvas - 60x80 cm - 23,6" x 31,5"

Thanks for being here! I'll be back on Friday with hopefully some progress on my Sacred Marks painting ♥

Calendars and Christmascards, and some doodles in between ...

No paint for me this week, boohoo ... Life is getting in the way big time! So I limit myself to some doodling, which is also a lot of fun. And now I come to think of it, in this doodle I did use some paint.... :-)

Besides life getting in the way, I worked on my calendar, and I made new Christmascards. Even though I think it's waaaayy to early to think about Christmas. But I've had some orders already, so I needed to get going.

Here are some more pages of my new calendar (here are even more):

My calendar will be available from the end of October, online at Lulu. I'll share the link when it's ready.
And here is (only a small) sample of my new Christmas and New Years cards:

These will be available in my Etsyshop soon.

And guess what? I sold 2 paintings this week!

"Summerblues":

which will always be special in my heart because it's my very first "Flora"-painting. I worked on two paintings during the workshop, but this is the first one that I finished.

And I also sold "May you walk gently through this world":

They are like my babies, but I know they're going to good homes, and I'd rather have them there than standing here in my cupboard ...

And speaking of Flora Bowley: a new course is starting on the 30th of September, with updated videos so even more yummy goodness. If you want to sign up for it, please consider using this link, since I'm now a proud affiliate of Bloom True. Since I did Flora's workshop, more than a year ago, my way of painting has changed forever. It is so much more than "learning to paint", it's a totally different way of looking at your painting process and following your intuition.

Well, that's it for now. Next week the spring-holidays start here in Queensland, and I'm taking some time off from my blog to have some quality family time. I also accepted a new commission, so I need some time for that as well.

Linking this as always to Paint Party Friday. Thank you so much for being here, and for giving me your uplifting and heartwarming comments.

I'll still be posting on my Facebookpage, but my blog will be in "vacation-mode" until the end of October. Hope to see you back then! Meanwhile, have a wonderful Friday, and enjoy your weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥

How fragile is the heart

Yes! I finished my painting. For a long time it looked like it wasn't going to happen. I struggled immensely with some small details that I normally have no trouble with at all. And when school was out, it wasn't ready. But I picked the kids up and then just continued until I was satisfied. Man, that feels good! On to the next one now ;-)

I'll show you all the in-progress shots from the very beginning.

This is how it all started: a canvas that I used for my left-over paint (I left some foambrushes in water, and was amazed my how much colour was still in there. It gave a nice watercolour-kind-of-effect):

More leftover paint from the next paintings session:

Yummy colours! I really liked it at this point ....

Then I started the dripping process:

And then I went overboard big time with my whites and blacks ....

UGH! Where are all my lovely colours ...?

Get some colour on there fast! Where would I be without my drips and my spray-inks ....

starting to make some random marks

Painting around the marks and looking for figures to jump out at me

Saw several figures on there, not sure which ones to go with yet

Yes, definitely want to go with the figure in the front center. And of course the bird leaning over her ....

I decided to put a tree in there, and I must say I really like it. Expect lots more trees in my next paintings ... ;-)

Working out the top figure, still not sure about the head next to the tree (can you see the eyes?)

Bit too dark for my liking, so out comes the spray ink. Oops, pretty yellow everywhere ...

Decided that I didn't want another figure on there, so I painted a bird instead.

This is where I got to last week:

Starting to work on the details

And no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the bottom figure to look at me ....

Went over the eyes several times, but she refused to look at me. So in the end I just left her there, and worked on the rest of the painting. But it kept bothering me. I thought she looked like some kind of drugged-out addict, and I didn't like it ....

I didn't mind that the other one didn't look at me. But the bottom one HAD to!

So I just kept working on it, got the kids out of school, and started again ....

And in the end, YES!, she finally made contact! Phew! 

This is the finished painting:

I'm glad I kept working on it. I can't finish a painting when something keeps bothering me. And it was definitely her eyes that were bothering me.

I called this painting "How fragile is the heart", because both figures look a bit melancholic and sad, despite being surrounded by beautiful colours and birds. That's just the way life is, sometimes you're high up in the sky and feel as if you can tackle the whole world, and just as easily you come crashing down to the ground and have trouble getting up again. Here's a quote from Neil Gaiman that fits this painting perfectly I think: "There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts".  

I did a discovery with this painting. When I was making the random marks, I used those little plastic bottles with a very small hole on top. I mixed some acrylics with water and filled them up, and then squeezed the paint out of it to make the marks.

And now they make a really nice texture on the canvas, despite the paint being mixed with water, it was still thick enough to be a bit 3D. It gives a lovely effect. Look:

I just used it to get some marks on there, and now I have added texture without even trying! I love it when unexpected things like that happen! 

Okay, this post is getting a bit long. Just a quick heads-up on my big Etsy-promotion-idea. Since I forgot that April is also Easter-school-holidays, and we might be going away for a few days, which means I would have to close my shop, I decided to postpone it to the month of May. Somewhere next week, I'll put up a separate page on this blog, with a list where you can link your Etsy-shop. The list will be open for signing up for the whole month of April. And then in May, everyone on the list will be promoting 4 or 5 shops on her/his blog/Facebook/Twitter, and will in turn be promoted on 4 or 5 blogs. 

So this is your chance if you have been neglecting your Etsy-shop. Plenty of time to dust it off again and try to get some new visitors there. And of course everyone else (with a shiny sparkling non-neglected shop) who would like to get some promotion is welcome to participate. I'll try to write a decent explanation next week ;-)

I'm linking this, as always, to Paint Party Friday. Hop on over there to look at all the other artists!

Thanks so much for visiting me! Hope you're having a wonderful Friday, and that your weekend will be filled with lots of fun, warmth, love and creativity! ♥ ♥ ♥

Etsyshop open!

Last night I finally opened up my Etsyshop! I don't have that much in there yet but I just had to open it, I didn't want to wait any longer. Here's the link, if you have time please take a look and tell me what you think (even if it's bad, I can take it, it's the only way to learn .....  ☺).

Because of all the product descriptions and listings and getting pictures ready for the listings and trying to figure out Australia Post, I didn't get to paint as much as I would've liked this week. But I managed to finish a miniature painting and I continued on one of the canvases that I started last week.

And boy, did I struggle! It was such a long time ago that I painted the "Flora-way", and I just couldn't remember how to go about it. I kept rereading the notes I copied during the workshop, and kept looking at all the in progress shots of my previous paintings, wondering how on earth I did that.

This is what I ended up with last week:

Since Flora said: "in this fase you just have to work with what's working, even if it's only a tiny part of the canvas", I concentrated on the figure, the only thing I knew I really wanted in there. And I also discovered a big bird hovering over her, so I started working on that too.

Not sure what to do about the upside-down face with the eyes ....

So I just continued on her face ... Oh yes, and decided on another face in the upper left corner.

This is all I have at the moment. All in all I'm happy that I kept with it and forced myself to paint. In the end it went really well and then I had to stop because school was out ... Bit frustrating ;-)

In between all the Etsy-stuff I managed to work on another miniature-painting.

It looks a bit like another one I made years ago, didn't have much inspiration for faces this week. Maybe got an overdose from the 29 faces challenge, I remember I've had that every single time after the challenge.

Anyway, next week I'll start concentrating on boxes again. They sell really well in the gallery, and I've not that many left.

And I'll also keep adding to my Etsyshop the next couple of days. This weekend I'll send out my newsletter with a couponcode for my subscribers. So if you haven't already and are interested in this: you can sign up for my newsletter here.

Linking this post to Paint Party Friday.  Thanks to them I forced myself to paint this week, and I'm happy I did! Go have a look at their blog and see all the other artists participating.

Thanks for paying me a visit, and thank you for all the wonderful comments I receive every week! Hope you have a beautiful Friday, and a great weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥

Where are you now?

I finished my painting! Can't help but still think about that busaccident whenever I see it. So I called it "where are you now?", referring to that horrible night and most part of the day when the parents still didn't know whether their child was dead or alive. I see the circles as the children going up to heaven, and the hands of the parents reaching out to them.

Well, that's my interpretation anyway. Other people probably make something else of it. The nice thing is that I didn't plan this beforehand, it just came to me while I was painting. I'll forever be grateful to Flora for changing the way I paint. Probably won't stay with this style forever and ever, since I like to experiment with different things. But it'll sure influence everything I do from now on.

Still working on my painting

Painted some more layers on my painting from Flora's workshop, and I'm finally feeling better about it, like I know where I want to go with it. Not finished yet, but getting there.

Oh, I so love painting this way. Not knowing where I'll end up, just let the drips and dribbles decide. Don't need to think beforehand about what I'm going to paint, the images reveal themselves. Very freeing.

Uh-oh

I painted yesterday morning, and then the painting sat on my easel for the rest of the day. And the more I looked at it, the worse I felt about it. Something was wrong, and I didn't know what. I first thought it was the use of wrong colours, but finally I knew what was bothering me. It was the hair. It was way too overpowering and didn't fit with the rest of the painting.

First I wanted to sleep over it,  and decide in the morning what to do. But being the impatient person that I am, I couldn't wait any longer, so at bedtime I got my paint out again and started being bold and brave. That's something I learned in Flora's workshop. If you're not happy with a certain part of your painting, don't worry. It's just another layer. Paint over it, make some bold changes and take it from there.

So I did. I dripped and dribbled paint, made some more marks, and now have a whole range of new possibilities. Not really sure where to go with it now, but I have some ideas in my head.

Wonder where it'll end ....

Painting again!

Well, yesterday I managed to paint for about 3 hours in a row! Today it's raining very hard, so I just might put on my painting clothes and start painting again. I just feel like it and honestly, is there a better thing to do on rainy days like these? Okay, I can think of a million things I NEED to do, but do I WANT to do them? Noooo!

I'll give myself a break and just paint ;-)

This is painting one from Flora's workshop. It has been sitting on the easel since a few weeks. I was a bit lost as to what to do with it. I think Mickey Mouse just spoiled it for me ... (can you see him about halfway on the left side?)

But last week I started looking for images again and spotted some straight away, like the figure laying down in the middle. I drew a big bird, not because it saw it in there, but because I just wanted a big bird on there.

And then I heard the news about the busaccident in Switserland, where 28 Belgians, including 22 children, died after a skiing holiday with school. This affected me greatly. Maybe because my son is the same age as  those children killed, maybe because the parents had to wait so long before knowing whether their child was dead or alive, maybe because the whole country was in shock. I don't know, but suddenly I didn't see Mickey Mouse anymore, but a person in despair. And other figures, in disbelief and shock.

I don't really want to paint a sad painting, but I just saw these figures popping out and I decided to go with it. We'll see where it ends. Here's how far I've gotten yesterday. Still have a lot of work to do, but I'm feeling okay about it now.

Now I'm off to paint!

Finished! (I think...)

Have been working on and off for the last few days on my painting. I put it in the livingroom where I could see it every day, so I could get a feeling for it and know what else it needed. And now I think it's finished.

I enjoyed the process of making this painting so much! I'm so happy that I did Flora's workshop. I learned a lot. She is an amazing teacher: fun, accepting, positive. It's a joy watching her paint in the video's and getting to know her view on life and painting. I'm a bit sad that it's over, but I'm very happy that I still have access to the class video's for the next 6 months. She has also written a book that will be published somewhere in May I think, and I might buy that as well.

Well, here it is! I haven't thought of a name for it yet. But it'll come to me, I'm sure.

In the meantime, I've been staring at the other painting as well, and finally some images are emerging for me. So now I can go and finish the second painting. Yoohoo! Looking forward to it!

Next stage

Managed to paint a bit more on my second painting. I'm behind with watching the videos from the workshop. The workshop was 5 weeks, and is finished now, but lucky for me the videos will be available for the next 6 months. I think I will finish them all in the next few days, and then start all over again from the beginning, because I can't even remember exactly what I've been doing on my canvases. I'll have to start making notes ;-)

Some more figures have emerged, and I have some more I want to bring out there. Can't wait to paint again. Hopefully tomorrow ...