finished my painting!

A whole week since I've posted on my blog! Normally I post also on Tuesday but this week my scanner broke down and my computer acted all weird, so I just left it and did other things. The problems seems to have been (almost ) solved now, so hopefully next week I'll be able to scan again ;-)

Meanwhile I finished my "struggle"-painting. Phew! Happy that I got it more or less to my liking in the end. Believe me, there were moments I was ready to throw it out of the window ...

But just the idea of having nothing to lose made me more free in the things I tried out. I played around with colours and collage, with stamps and doodles, and all of a sudden I couldn't add any more, it felt finished.

Despite my blah-moments during the painting-process, when I thought I had completely ruined the vibrancy and colours that were there, in the end I was really happy with the colourcombination. So I thought "break up the dark" was a fitting title for this painting :-)

As always, I'll show you all the progress-steps this painting went through. For me it's also interesting to look back on all the (sometimes frustrating) stages ...

This was the start. I collaged some of my own artwork on there, and some text and poetry. And then I started wiping my leftover-paint from different projects all over the canvas.

Since I was doing so many things at the same time, and I had only one canvas for leftover paint, I put so many layers on top that my collage practically disappeared .... Oh well ....

Decided to add some more collage, and for the first time I used modelling paste through a stencil. That was fun!

Following some of the collage-pieces, I made her a body, but wasn't happy with it. First blah-moment ...

Found 2 arms on the left of her and decided to glue a face on top of that too. Still blah.

This must've been my biggest blah-moment. I wanted to bring it all together a bit more, to bring some calm in the chaos, but I managed to get rid of all my lovely bright colours and make it drab all over ...

Quick, throw some colour on there! I also decided to make her body a different angle, and liked her a bit better already ....

Completely stuck, so playing a bit with stencils and sprays. Still no clue how to proceed. Still blah.

Decided it needed some contrast, so I did what Orli Avineri taught us: take a fat brush and just sweep it across your page like a tennisplayer :-) Uh-oh

Still not sure how to proceed, so I decide to continue with my new-found love: trees and flowers ... And I give the girls some collaged hair from one of my journaldrawings. Love how I can make totally different hairdo's from the same print :-)

I get the idea to make 'Alisa Burke-like" flowers in my trees, to brighten things up a bit (it's still too dark for my liking)

No! No no nooooo .. Don't like it at all, so I take my babywipes and try to wipe them all away. But some don't want to go. What to do?

I decide to use some gelliprinted deli-paper, that I just used to wipe my plate with every time. It's still thin so it collages perfectly, but it's not so transparant anymore because of the many layers of paint. I love how I can suddenly get rid of all those spots I don't like and decide to make flowers all over :-)

And from then on its just play play play. With my paint markers, with collage, with colours, with stamps, and finally it's finished!

"Break up the dark" - mixed media on canvas - 40x40cm (15,7" x 15,7")

And guess what I'll be doing this weekend!? I'll be painting 2 days in a row, in a 2 day workshop with Tracy Verdugo "sacred marks", here at the Sunshine Coast! Can't wait! Must not forget to take lots of pictures.

Meanwhile, I've sent the 2 giveaway-paintings to their new homelands, and keep my fingers crossed that they'll arrive safely.

And before I finish: Society6 has another FREE shipping promotion, from now thru to 11th May. I'm experimenting with making t-shirts now, and using my lyricsgirls in another way. Here are some new products I made:

It's kinda addictive, making these things ;-)
If you want to make use of the promotion, this is the link you should follow.

Okay. Long post, I think I more than made up for not posting on Tuesday ;-) Thanks so much for visiting, and don't forget to have a look at all the artists that participate in Paint Party Friday!

Hope your weekend will be all you wish for, and at least: get some rest and do some things you love ;-) I'll be back on Tuesday with a report of the workshop! Bye for now ♥ ♥ ♥

winner of giveaway and a surprise :-)

Thanks so much for visiting and following my art journey! Usually by this time I have already linked to Paint Party Friday, but today I had to wait till my daughter was back from school so she could pick a winner for the giveaway! 

All the names were put in a bowl and my daughter was blindfolded so she couldn’t “cheat” (even though the names didn’t mean anything to her ☺). Only 8 people chose the “one girl”-painting, while a few would be happy with either. So I fully expected the “two girls”-painting to be the one picked.

As it turned out, this is the name my daughter picked:

And Gerdie chose the “one girl”-painting! Congratulation Gerdie! Please send me your mailing-address so she can be on her way to the Netherlands!

And then I thought: what the heck. I’ll let my daughter pick a second name, and if it’s someone who chose “2 girls”, then I’ll give the 2 girls away as well. If not, they’ll go to my Etsyshop.

So she did …

And this is the second name my daughter picked:

And Netty chose the “two girls”-painting! So congratulations to you too Netty! If you send me your mailing-address the 2 girls can come and live with you in the United Kingdom!

Aaahh, I love doing giveaways….. Can you tell ? ;-)

Artwise, this week was very frustrating. I started another “artjournal-painting“ on canvas and boy, was that hard! I think I need to practice a bit more in my artjournal. It started out weeks ago as a canvas for my leftover paint, and in the meantime it had gotten so many layers of collage and paint that I figured it was time to take it to the next level.

But it just Did.Not.Work.

At.All!

I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but everything I did turned out blah. I’ll show a few stages that it went through:

It was like this when I seriously started working on it:

 

Went to this:

Ugh!!

Then went to this:

uh-oh…

I was ready to throw it in the back of the closet, but something kept me going. I can’t stand it when I can’t get it to my liking, so I keep trying and experimenting until I feel better about it.

This is where it’s now, and I’m finally starting to feel as if I could finish this more or less to my liking. It needs more changes, but it’s getting there … (I hope!)

 

I’ve also been working on some mini-doodles, have been making my own textile-paints, and started another box. Not much to show yet, but here’s a doodle-mini-painting that I finished (with a very relevant quote☺):

 

Well, that’s it for today. Sorry to all who haven’t won, but don’t worry, I’ll be doing another giveaway when I reach 300 followers ;-)

I’m linking this to Paint Party Friday, a weekly paint party that’s open for everyone to join, and if you don’t want to participate, there’s also a lot to see. Have a look!

Thanks for being here, and I wish you all a great Friday and wonderful weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥

doodling and an artjournalpage

I am struggling with a new painting at the moment, and didn't get much else done. I have been doodling at night though, while sitting with my daughter. Here's one that I finished:

It's painted on a small canvasboard that I collaged first to make it a bit smoother. I've noticed though that it's also possible to get it smooth enough by adding some layers of gesso and sanding in between.

I also decided I didn't like the cold white so much on these minipaintings, so I used titan buff instead and like it much better. It gives a bit of a warm glow ....

Don't think I showed this artjournalpage yet.

It's also one that I started in Orli Avineri's workshop but finished at home. I'm trying to get more into artjournaling again, trying to find the flow I was in when I was doing that workshop. But I don't take enough time for it. I want to do so many things at the same time, want to start mosaics again, and I want to sew and paint fabrics, and play some more with my gelliplate, and start a new intuitive painting .... Oh, time's always too short ....

Thanks so much for visiting me and leaving comments. Don't forget: you still have time until Friday to give a comment on this post in order to make a chance on winning one of these paintings:

Up till now, "two girls" is by far the favorite ... ;-)

I'll be back on Friday with the results of the giveaway! See you then ♥

Time to celebrate with a giveaway :-)

Thanks so much all of you for the well wishes with regards to my market last Friday. I wrote about it in my previous post here. All went well and I sold quite a few pieces.

The last few days I've been working on my experiments with the gelliplate on canvasboard.
Remember these?

These were drawings that I made into a stencil. Wasn't sure how to continue so I've been looking at it for a few weeks.

I have been experimenting on and off with these, but I completely forgot to take pictures. These are the only in-progress pictures that I have:

I collaged a dog on there, and then saw a second figure and a bird and brought them out. Because the faces were so small I decided to collage 2 of my faces on there.

It's a pity I don't have any other pictures from the one on the right, because she went through quite a few transformations hair-wise :-)

Next time I won't limit myself to one hairdo, I'll just make the stencils without hair.

These are the finished pieces:

They both measure approx. 20x25cm (8"x10") and are made on canvasboard. I will attach a string so it's possible to hang them. And guess what? One of you can win one of these! The other one will be for sale in my Etsyhop. I'll explain the rules at the end of this post.

I've been adding  some new original art to my Etsyshop. These are now for sale, and I'll be adding more in the coming days.

And I've also been experimenting with fabrics that I painted on my gelliplate. Made a little pencilcase and learned a lot.

At first I was disappointed, because it was too thick (I had put some filling in there that wasn't at all necessary for a small bag like this), and there were some other things I didn't like, but then I needed a small pencilcase for my most used black markers and it ended up being perfect for that. So I'll sure experiment some more now :-)

Okay, now for the rules of my giveaway. Only if you're a follower of mine you have a chance of winning one of these paintings.
Following me can be done in different ways: either follow this blog (with RSS, Bloglovin', email (links are in the sidebar)), follow me on Facebook, subscribe to my monthly newsletter (link in sidebar), or follow me on Pinterest. One of these is enough, but of course you can follow me everywhere, don't feel as if you have to limit yourself ;-)

By the way: the giveaway is to celebrate that I have reached over 200 followers on this blog, and over 400 likers on Facebook!

If you are a follower of mine, let me know in the comments, and also let me know which one of the 2 paintings you would like to win. Just say "one girl", or "2 girls", that's enough. Or you can add the quote.

That's all! I will be announcing the winner next Friday night (May 2nd), so you have a whole week to add your comment!

I am linking this to PPF, the weekly party of artists all over the world that everyone can join in. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you are enjoying your Friday and will be looking forward to a restful, relaxing weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥

Rest ... And an award :-)

Well, things have calmed down a bit and I’ve enjoyed a warm relaxing Easterweekend with my family. Today school started again, and I’m working in the gallery all day.

The market on Friday went well. Sold a few rocks, a few minipaintings, a few magnets and wooden plaques, some notepads and some cards. So all in all it was okay.

Here’s a pic of me in my stall:

 

It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever had a market stall. The ocean behind me, on a grassy field with all kinds of festivities around me, live-music, dancers, stilt walkers, a sailboat race in the distance, and the most perfect weather.

Not sure whether it was worth all the stress though. I have a bit of a love-hate-relationship with markets. It’s a lot of hassle, getting things ready in time, making little price tags, make sure you have enough packing-material, practice your table-setting, packing everything and getting over there, unpacking everything, sitting there the whole day, hoping people will buy and then pack everything up again …. It’s pretty exhausting and at times verrrrry boring. Not this time though, because there was so much activity around us.

The nice thing about markets is that you get to see the people who buy your art. I had quite a few people come up to me to say they knew my work from the gallery and had bought things from me. That’s always nice, because usually I don’t know who buys my things.

The biggest advantage though is that I finally get my ass into action and start making things. When I don’t have a deadline I tend to procrastinate immensely. It really irritates me but I can’t seem to shake this habit. Now, thanks to the market, I have a whole bunch of new stuff to sell on Etsy or in the gallery.

These are some of the rocks, that I didn’t share a picture of yet. I’ll put all of them on my website soon. They are now for sale at the Seaside Artists Gallery in Redcliffe.

 this one (above) is sold

 this one is sold as well (above)

 Just to give you an idea of the size ...

My small doodle-painting sold, so I’m making some new ones. Because it’s all markers I can easily do them while sitting with my daughter on her bed every night. Still a bit frustrated by the small size though, maybe I should start making some bigger ones.

Looks a bit dark on here. My scanner seems to pick up things that you can't even see with the naked eye ...

Well, this post is getting pretty long, and I still have to answer my questions from the Liebster Award, that Karla from Poetic Postcards gave me. Thanks so much Karla, I always feel honoured when people think of my blog. It keeps me going :-)

These are the rules for the Liebster Award:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you.
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you.
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination.
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.

 Here are the questions I had to answer:

1 - Who is your favourite writer and why?

I have several, but at the moment Linwood Barclay is becoming more and more my absolute favourite. I love his writing-style and dry humour, and his books are just unputdownable (if that even is a word). If you like thrillers without all the blood and gore, try him!

2 - What makes life beautiful?

Sun, sea and happy people, and having time to do what you like most

3 - What is your biggest fear?

Becoming blind. I wouldn’t be able to paint and read anymore, my two most favourite pastimes … And of course, when you have children, there’s always the fear something will happen to them.

4 - What's your favourite song and why?

Hmm, that’s hard. My favourite songs change depending on the mood I’m in. So I’ll just name some favourite singers: Heather Nova, Sarah MacLachlan, Loreena McKennitt, Jim Croce. And, oh yes, there’s one song I always love to hear: "For bitter or worse" from Anouk. So beautiful ….

5 - If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

In a wooden house on a sunny beach somewhere, far away from traffic, where I would always be able to hear the waves crashing on the shore.

6 - Are you where you hoped to be at this point in your life?

I tend to not really plan too much for the future and just take things as they come. And I guess at this moment I’m exactly where I was meant to be.

7 - Tell me something about your country that makes you proud.

Hmm, that’s a bit difficult, since I’m Belgian but living in Australia right now. We will be moving back to Belgium though, so I’ll answer this for Belgium. One thing I’m proud of is the progressive laws we have in Belgium, regarding euthanasia and gay marriage. We even have a gay prime minister and nobody’s bothered by that.

8 - If you had super powers, what would you like to change in the world?

Turn the hate between people to love, or at least acceptance of the other’s differences. Put an end to religious fanatism. Stop the destruction of the planet.

9 - What do you like doing in your free time?

Painting, reading and wandering through galleries.

10 - How important is your blog in your life?

Important but not all-consuming. I love getting in touch with like-minded people, sharing ideas and helping each other figure things out. The online art community has a big heart, and I love how supportive everyone always is. I would certainly miss it if I wasn’t part of that community anymore.

11 - What is Art in your opinion?

Art is anything that is made from the heart. Something that you put your heart and soul in. Something that you have to do because it’s in you and it needs to come out. I don’t like art that’s made to shock people. To me that’s not art, that’s just plain attention-seeking.

Wow, this is quite a long post. I’ve decided to change the rules of the Liebster award a little bit, I hope that’s okay. I’ll nominate 5 blogs and ask 5 questions. Because I know everyone is really busy and a lot of bloggers don’t even accept these awards anymore because it’s too much work.

The blogs I nominate here: please don’t feel like you have to accept the award, it’s totally okay  if you don’t. I’m not gonna bother with the number of followers either. Sorry, I’m not one to follow rules too closely, obviously …  ;-)

Moongirl: got to know her during the 29 faces-challenge and really like her drawing-style
Karin: love the bright and colourful cards she makes

Laila: just got to know her through PPF. Interesting and colourful work.

Lee: her posts always make me smile

Sarah: crazy and multi-talented
Ann: companion of Sarah, just as crazy and multi-talented ;-)

Okay, yes, that's 6 blogs .... Doesn't matter, they all deserve it (and so many more out there ....)

And the 5 questions are:

1. Which kind of art do you like and why?
2. Is there something you really want to do in your life that you haven’t done yet?
3. How would your best friend describe you in one word?
4. Do you do any kind of sports? (just want to see where I stand compared to other people ☺)
5. Do you sell your art, or would you like to?

Okay, time to end this very long post. Thanks for visiting, and don’t forget to come back on Friday, because I’ll be doing a give away! Yes! Celebrating the 200-followers mark and the almost 400 likers on Facebook. If you like me on Facebook, I might even get to 400 by Friday ;-)