Build a brighter world

I finished another painting! It helps to be able to paint 2 days in a row to get a lot of work done :-)

Although I must admit this one didn't go smoothly ... Something was bothering me and I didn't know what it was. Although, when I think about it know, I did know what it was, I just didn't want to know ...

I'll explain when I show you my in-progress pics ...

This is how it all started:

 Charcoal and collage on canvas. And now I know for sure: I don't like to use "normal" collage. Normal collage for me is collage from normal paper, as opposed to prints on delipaper. I don't like the chunkiness of it, I don't like it that you can keep seeing the edges, I don't like the smoothness as opposed to the texture of the canvas... I love how delipaper almost disappears into the canvas. So that'll stay my collage-material of choice.

Next step was to put a lot of ink and fluid acrylics on top

 Then we were going to look for things in our canvas. And what did I see right away? Yes, the big head in the lower right corner ... I had to go with it, even though it was in a bit of an awkward place....

Then I saw the standing figure, and the other face next to her. Again in a place I didn't really want it.

 But she kept begging me to bring her out, so I did ....

 

The way she was holding her hand reminded me a bit of the painting I finished a few weeks ago: this broken world". Again something I didn't want .... sigh ...

 But I struggled on, not really knowing where I was going with this but letting the painting guide me

This is where I was when the workshop finished .... And that same night after the workshop I woke up really early in the morning and knew that I wanted her to scatter flowers around. 

Problem solved, I thought ....

Throwing some paint on it trying to get some more different colours on there ...

Starting to bring out the flowers. Which was really tedious work I must say ...

But it was mostly tedious because something was still bothering me about this painting. And I knew what it was. It was the big face in the right corner, and the position of the second smaller face .... But I didn't want to take him away, because he was the first one I saw, and I kinda liked his weird face. And I didn't want to take the other face away because I really liked her hair....

What to do ....

Couldn't figure it out, so I decided to ask my family-members. Which went something like this ...

me: "is there something bothering you about this painting?
hubbie: "Yes! The big face in the right corner. Doesn't fit in with the rest"
son: "but I LIKE the big face. It's different"
me: "so the other face doesn't bother you?"
hubbie: "no, that one is okay"
son: "the big one is nice too, I like it"
me: "if I take it away, isn't it going to create an imbalance with the face on the left? With the 2 that remain being so close together?"
hubbie: "hmm, now you mention it ..."
son: "so leave it then, it's a nice face"
me: "maybe I should make it a bit smaller ..."
daughter (coming in the room just then): "take both of them away. They don't fit."

Hmmm ....

So I remembered one of the valuable lessons from Flora Bowley: if you're stuck: be brave and bold.

So I was .... (sorry son ...)

*gasp*

 aah, my beloved birds ... They fit in much better I reckon ...

Working out the shapes, still not completely sure ...

getting there and finally feeling happy with it :-)

working out the eyes and generally fixing some small things that are bothering me, and then it's finished!

"build a brighter world" - mixed media on canvas - 60x60cm - 23,6"x23,6"

I called it "Build a brighter world", because for me it's about bringing light into the darkness, bringing hope where there seems none left, bringing happiness in every which way you can, however small it is. I might 've been a bit inspired by this because of some things I came across this week. First of all the big Facebookcampaign Jessica Sporn has set up with regards to the 300 kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria "Artists for #bring back our girls". Have a look at their Facebookpage, the auction is now running here. All the money raised will go to Girl Rising, you can find information about that here.


I really admire Jessica for doing what she can to help raise awareness. It's thanks to people like her that the Nigerian government finally took some action to try and save these girls.

And another thing I came across this week was this artist who builds mini-houses for homeless people out of illegally dumped trash. Take a look here to see what he does. I think it's brilliant.

There are so many small things we can do to make this world a better place. It doesn't need to be big and all-consuming. And that's something I wanted to convey through this painting ...

Okay, this post is getting a bit long again, sorry about that :-)

This is the other painting I started during the workshop:

Want to try something different with this one ...

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday. There are some artists from PPF who are selling art in the auction, so one more reason to have a look over there. Thanks so much for visiting, I wish you a wonderful Friday and a bright and happy weekend ♥ ♥ ♥

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 ♥

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! ♥ ♥ ♥