Third week of the 29 faces challenge

It was hard this week to get all my faces done. Somehow time ran away with me. But in the end I managed it :-) There's still some day this month that I have to make 2 faces, but we'll "worry" about that later ☺

Face #13 was part of a journalpage:

As well as face #14:

And here's the whole journalspread:

I had an accident on this page, shaking a bottle of white fluid acrylics that I forgot I had already opened.... I just let it all drip across the pages, and in the end it turned out okay. Love making these weird figures, just following lines that are already on the page from previous layers :-)

Face #15 was another lyricsgirl, with lyrics from Heather Nova:

Face #16: watercolour and marker

Face #17: watercolour

Face #18: yes, I finally made another floodle (doodle combined with flowers)

And the last one for this week: #19: pencil and marker:

And I got a nice surprise this week! Sweet Carol from "pouring my hart out" nominated me for a Liebster award! I have received this award a few times already, but every time I feel privileged to have my blog chosen. One problem however is that it's getting really hard to find fellow bloggers who want to accept this award. So I'm going to bend the rules a little bit. I'll answer the questions Carol asked me, but I'm not going to nominate other blogs. I think all of you out there in Blogland are great, and I want to give it to every single one of you. So go ahead, if you want it, you can answer the same questions Carol asked me, and pass the award on to others if you want! Hope that's okay with you Carol, and I want you to know I really appreciate the gesture ♥

Okay, here goes (I'll try to keep it short):
1) How did you get into blogging?
When we emigrated to Australia 4 years ago, I started a blog to keep family and friends informed, and I liked it so much that I decided to start one for my art adventures as well.
2) How did you come up with your blog name?
That's easy: the first 3 letters of my first name, and the first 3 letters of my last name :-) It's the name I was already using to sign my paintings.
3) What is the best bit of blogging?
Without a doubt the connections with like-minded people all over the world
4) What is an art/craft you have always wanted to try?
Sculpture
5) Where do you do most of your art?
In my kitchen, and while we're living in my sister's house I have a nice big studio I can use !!
6) What would be your dream job?
Paint and create all day, either alone or together with other people
7) Where is your favorite place in the world?
Phew, there are so many .... I guess one of my most favorite places must be Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia
8) Can you speak more than one language?
Well, growing up in the Flemish part of Belgium we have to learn 4 different languages in highschool: Dutch (mother language), French, English and German. So I speak 4 languages, although I admit my French and German are a bit rusty ;-)
9) Where/how did you learn your art?
By experimenting, doing workshops (online and in person), getting books in libraries and practicing practicing practicing .....(or maybe playing playing playing ☺)
10) What is your favorite film?
That's a difficult one, since I haven't seen a film in ages. I guess "life of Pi" must be one of my favorites....
11) What is your dream for the future?
Being able to live from my art :-)

Phew, that were quite a few questions. Hope I didn't bore you ... I'm linking this as always to Paint Party Friday and to the 29 faces challenge. Hop on over there for some serious eye-candy!

Thanks so much for visiting and supporting me, I love the connections with all of you and hope to get to your blogs this weekend! Have a lovely day, and a weekend without stress!
See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥

Second week of 29 faces

I had forgotten how fast a month goes when you make a face a day. You're so focused on getting your face done that the month is over before you know it. I need to keep in mind that I have to get my video for Soul Food ready by mid March. So I started using my sister and my friend as guinea pigs for trying out my lesson :-) Face #7 is an experiment for my Soul Food lesson:

Face #8: another graphite and marker combi:

Face #9: Lyricsgirl, yes! It has been ages since I made lyricsgirls, and I LOVED it! Expect more of these :-) Lyrics are from Christina Perri:

Face #10: another experiment: watercolour and marker:

Face #11: another watercolour:

And last one for now: face #12: another lyricsgirl:

That's it for now. I'm also working on a new journalpage, but it's not finished yet so that'll be something for next week.

I'll be linking this to Paint Party Friday and of course to 29 faces. Hop on over there to have a look at the wonderful work everyone's producing!

Thanks so much for coming here and leaving your lovely comments! It always stimulates me to keep going :-) Hope your day is beautiful, and your weekend filled with love ♥ ♥ ♥

first week of 29 faces

Participating in a challenge like the 29 faces makes you realize how fast time flies. The first week of February is already over!
Here are all the faces of this week:

Day 1: graphite with black marker

Day 2: watercolour

Day 3: experiment: I took a double page in an old book, put some paint on there and then closed the book while the paint was still wet. Then I searched for a face. Not difficult to find with all that hair ;-)

Day 4: the opposite mirrored page of day 3, here I could see the profile right away

Day 5: another watercolour:

And finally day 6: just trying out different hairstyles. Not very happy with this one, but hey, it's a face :-)

That's it for this week! I had wanted to continue on a new big canvas, but alas, time is escaping me. I did however start experimenting with examples for my Soul Food Lesson in April. That was fun! I only hope I still know how to videotape everything ....

You can still subscribe for Soul Food if you want. The first 2 lessons were aired this week, but all videos are downloadable and available till the end of the year. And even though time flies, that is still a long time away :-)

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday and to 29 faces challenge. Both are exciting challenges/bloghops with lots of wonderful artists. You can participate if you want, or just enjoy all the art on display.


Thanks for visiting and leaving these lovely comments! I wish you a joyful day, and time to enjoy a relaxing weekend ♥ ♥ ♥

Another 29 faces :-)

Here we go again for another round of 29 faces, the challenge started by Ayala Art in 2012, because that year was a leap year so February had 29 days instead of 28. Of course this year is no leap year, so that means we have to create 29 faces in 28 days. But who cares? Creating faces is FUN :-)

This is one of my favorite challenges, and every year I try to participate in at least one (there's one in February and another one in September). It is amazing how much work you get done when you (have to) create every day. It's so much fun to see them all together at the end of the month.

Here's my first face: slightly sulky girl with wild hair:

I won't post every day on my blog, but on Friday I will post an overview of all the faces I did in that week. I will however, try to post on Facebook every day. Not sure whether I can keep it up, but I'll try :-)

And Soul Food started today!!! There's still time to sign up, the videos are downloadable so you can sign up after it's started. Two videos a week for 3 months, from 20 different teachers! My lesson will be somewhere near the end, in April. So looking forward to it :-)

Okay, that's it for now! Thanks so much for visiting. I hope you'll have a fun and inspiring week! ♥

Full of plans .....

I have a big room in my sister's house which I can use solely as a studio. A big luxury for me, since I never had my own studio. When I first started painting I had a really small place where I could paint, but when we lived in Australia our house was very small and I had to use a corner of the kitchen table to work.

So now that all my art materials have arrived I had a blast setting everything up as convenient as possible, and today my friend came over and we art journaled in the midst of all my materials and paintings. And I didn't have to clean up afterwards! I could get used to this ... :-)

I made another journalpage, although for now I'm not sure how many more will follow. Yesterday I sketched a lot and tried out some ideas for a new painting, and there are so many things I want to start now that everything has arrived.

I have been wanting to participate in the 100 faces in 365 days challenge, and now I figured I can just as well use the faces I paint every week in my artjournal. In this spread there are 3 already :-)

I had fun making this spread. All my favorite colours. Such a great medicine against the bleak winter days.

And guess which challenge is starting in February? Yes, one of my favorites: 29 faces! I couldn't participate in September because of our move, but now I can and I will. Looking forward to it! Might be a bit of a challenge because I also need to start recording my lesson for Soul Food. Mine will only be in April, so I have a bit of time left, but still. Don't forget: Soul Food also starts on February 1 !!

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, the weekly blogparty where you can link up to if you created something this week. And if you don't want to participate, it's always worth a visit to take a look at the wonderful art on display there.

Here's my funny for this week:

Oh, I can so relate to that cat ;-)

Thanks so much for visiting! I wish you a wonderful end of the week, and a  warm, relaxing weekend!! I'll be back on Sunday for the start of the 29 faces challenge :-) See you then ♥ ♥ ♥

Finally .....

I'm back again.... Phew, really hope this time I can go back to posting at least once a week. The past few weeks flew by in a haze. Even though I'm getting quite experienced in moving houses, it still takes me by surprise how much work it takes to get everything sorted out again. I didn't touch a single paintbrush for more than two weeks :-(

Until yesterday .... :-)

Journaling again. As compensation for not being able to paint on a canvas, I've taken to painting in my artjournal in the same way I would do on a canvas. Just painting layers until I see figures emerge. Love this kind of journaling. Even though, or maybe just because, the figures sometimes look really weird.

But I love bringing them out. They're like visitors from my subconscious, sometimes telling me things I didn't realize (yet). After I've finished a page I start going through my stash of quotes and lyrics, until I find one that I feel fits perfectly with what the image means to me.

Softness. Kindness. Innocence. Loving each other in spite of our differences. In spite of our weirdness. I guess I needed to bring that out after another few weeks of horror all over the world.

This is the entire spread:

I only have one in-progress picture. Can't believe how difficult it is making pictures in these dark days.

I saw the two figures right away, but it took me some time to see the other ones. After I saw them I just kept going and didn't even think about taking pictures anymore :-) I'll have to remember it next time.

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, and will be paying everyone there a visit this weekend, since I didn't manage last week. Our things are more or less unpacked. Today I'm going to hang my paintings all over the house. Don't want to leave them in bubblewrap all the time. They all arrived safely, thank goodness :-) So nice to see them again, they're a bit like my babies ...

Three more things:

- on the first of February the fun starts in Soul Food!! If you didn't sign up yet, but want to know more, you can find all the information here.
- my calendars are now 20% off until the 26th of January!! If you don't have one yet, you can find them here! Just enter the code NWC20 at checkout to receive your 20%.
- and last but not least: there's free worldwide shipping in my Society6-shop this week!

That's it for now. Wishing you a wonderful Friday, and a warm and cosy weekend! Thanks for visiting! I'll leave you with my funny for this week ;-)

lol

Happy New Year !!

Never thought it'd be the 7th of January before I would write my first post of the year. It has only just started and already it's flying. Before I go any further: hope you had a wonderful celebration of the start of the year, and I wish for each and every one of you that 2015 will be the most creative and fun year ever!

I have managed in the past weeks to finish another journalpage. It might be the last one for a while, because tomorrow our container will arrive! YES! So instead of painting, I'll be unpacking boxes, looking for places to put stuff, trying to make this place a home for the time we'll be here (we are living in the house of one of my sisters for now, until we find our own place). 

I wonder how (and IF!) my paintings have survived the long 10-week-journey from Australia all the way to Belgium, on raging seas and in stormy weather.... At least that is how I imagined it these past months ;-) Can't wait to see everything again...

I made this journalpage somewhere between Christmas and New year, feeling a bit down because of the cold and the grey skies, and missing the light of Australia. And I guess it translated into these kind of sad figures. I love how my inner turmoil turns into images on my pages, without me  having to try. They just appear, and I recognize my feelings in them. Fascinating process I think ....

This is the complete spread:

I was painting at my friends' house and forgot to take my camera. So no in-progress-shots this time. 

Here's a great picture to start the new year:

haha, love these women!

Also: don't forget! Registration for Soul Food is now open!! Can't wait! Starting February 1st, it goes on for three whole months, with 2 mixed-media lessons a week from 20 different teachers (including moi ☺). All videos are downloadable, and the class stays open till the end of the year. And on top of all that: every teacher shares her favorite recipe :-) And all this for the price of $65 USD! (with a 10% discount for 2014 alumni). Can you say no to that!?? More info here.

I will be linking this to Paint Party Friday, and hope to find the time to visit more blogs this week. Might be next week before I get to it though. 

Thanks so much for visiting! Wishing you a wonderful day, and let the weekend be relaxing ♥ ♥ ♥