Zentangles - A Sampler This Time

 As mentioned a little while ago I have developed a zentangle addiction.  Doodling has always been a way for me to stay focused (for example, in meetings I am able to concentrate a whole lot better if I can do a bit of doodling) but lately I have been doing a lot of doodling at home and it is really quite meditative and calming.

I bought heaps of Strathmore Artist Trading Card (ATC) packs when Jacksons had them on sale last year so I have a ready supply of blanks in my ATC tin.  I like to do a zentangle ATC as a creativity warm up exercise whenever I sit at my craft desk (although often I just keep going on the zentangles instead of moving on to something else) but over the last few months I have also been working occasionally on this "sampler".  I haven't got into shading yet but I can see that will add a whole lot more depth to the designs.

I quite like having the larger size page to work on - again it is a Strathmore product - this time it is the A4 size mixed media journal.  They have beautiful quality paper, strong covers and a spiral binding.  A couple of weeks ago I bought a tiny version of the same journal so I could doodle ATC size pieces when I am on the train (30 minutes each end of the day) - I usually read or do addoku or killer suduko puzzles, but I thought it would be fun top have another option.

So now I am noticing patterns everywhere and I am trying to expand my instinctive urge to do swirly patterns whenever I have a pen in my hand!

Flow!

My painting for Sue Ettridge for the Nanga 8 December Exchange (30x30cm)

Happy New Year!  

Let's hope we all have a wonderful 2012. 

I only managed 21 posts in 2011 so I am not making any promises to myself about blogging this year - it will all depend on how much creative time I get and how creative I am feeling at those times because that is what this blog is about!  I am, however, doing the wonderful Flora Bowley's online Bloom True painting course in February so hopefully that will provide me with heaps of creative motivation.  Look here for details if you think you might like to give it a go too.

Christine Kane promotes a "word for the year" concept to replace the traditional New Year Resolutions and it has worked really well for me over the last few years.  I have been mulling over my 2012 word for a few days now and last night, sitting on the beach, watching the waves as the sun went down and saying my goodbye to 2011 and welcome to 2012, I realised that my word is going to be FLOW. 

I want to let go of my desire to control (and fix!) situations, to be liked, to please others, to achieve specifics.  To let go of fear. I need to be like water - to just flow with it, to wash around and over hurdles and to accept that ebb is part of flow. I want to let my creativity flow too!

Ciao for now & enjoy this first day of a whole new year!

Zentangles - An Addiction!

Yes, I am officially addicted - zentangles are just so much fun!  This is a selection of recent ATCs I have made in the zentangle style.  So far I haven't tried shading them - just black and white doodles, some with borders, some without.  

My favourite pens at the moment are Faber Castell Drafting & Sketching Pens (Ecco-Pigment) - they are technical drawing pens and come in a pack of four with sizes ranging from 0.1 to 0.7.  Absolutely wonderful!

What I think I like most is that you can just work on these ATCs in very small bursts of time - there is no excuse when you only have five minutes plus they are so transportable!  All of these ones are on Strathmore Bristol Smooth ATCs.   

Let me know if you love zentangling - perhaps we could trade???

A Mixed Media Exchange

My houses for the swap

I recently hosted a mixed-media "hanging houses" exchange on the Aus_ArtSisters group following the wonderful results from earlier heart and bird exchanges.  We had eleven participants in total and we all ended up with one of each of the other participants houses, all of which were quite different in style, material and embellishment!  My dining table looked rather glorious while I was sorting all of the 120+ houses that had arrived here.  

The photo at the top is a group shot of the fronts of the houses I made.  I wanted to do "bright and cheerful" and decided to decorate them all differently (reduces the boredom factor!) and then I personalised the backs with the recipients name etc.  The hearts on the front are blanket stitched felt for a bit of textural contrast.  

And here are my houses from the other ten participants (not all have blogs unfortunately) - 

aren't they all wonderful? 

Sue Smith's "tea" house

Margaret Cullen-Erickson's house

Lucy Leatham's "bird" house

Judy Timmins house

Bevlea Ross' house

Celeste Santin's house

Jacky Williams' house

Vanessa Henry's house

Kasha Rolley's house

Gaye Todd's house

And now of course I must find somewhere lovely to hang them all! 

Something Different...

Well so much for my intention to do some catch-up posts a fortnight ago!  Time really seems to be flying by this year - I really can't believe we are only a little over three months away from Christmas.

This painting is something completely different for me.  I painted it on my weekend in Denmark recently with my wonderful friends Sue Smith and Jhodi Bennett.  We were sharing some inspiration and different techniques and Jhodi got us to paint on big wood panels using what I call a grunge-y technique - lots of bright colours, scribbles and handwriting covered with white paint scraped over the top, and stencilling and splashing and dripping and sponging and sanding back.  Although I love "loose" and "messy" techniques in other people's artwork I am not naturally comfortable actually doing it myself, so this really was a stretch for me.  

I loved it though and I think it was because I saw it as "play" - I had no expectations and no feelings that it would matter if I didn't like the result.  It was a damp weekend in the bush weather-wise so this has had ants crawling on it and rain drops land on it when I didn't get back outside quick enough when the weather changed!  I can't wait to do more - probably smaller pieces though as it will be a bit easier for me to work on inside - the wood is such a lovely firm surface and I love the idea of being able to hammer in nails and add texture without worrying about the impact on a canvas.

Next post I'll share the results of the little hanging houses swap that I really hosted - they are so cute!

Beautiful Art Received!

This beautiful piece of artwork is from Vanessa ("Ness") Henry - she made it for me in a one-on-one exchange (my little quilt for her was the subject of my last post).  I just love it - it sparkles and has lots of lovely details and arty touches (very Ness!).  I have it displayed in my bedroom as it looks perfect there and I can look at it every day that I am home!

I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged but life has been hectic - we are planning a trip to France (in 2012) and as a result I seem to spend every spare moment searching for apartments, reading about France or googling images!  Very addictive, I must say.  I had a lovely "long" weekend away in Denmark a week ago with two beautiful friends and although I have had a week or so of leave the time has just flown!  I've also been working on and off over the last several weeks on some small "hanging houses" for a swap with the Australian Art Sisters group so I haven't had anything much arty that I could blog about.  I am intending, though, to do a couple of catch-up posts this week (as soon as I edit some photos!!).

Mixed Media Fun

I joined in a one-on-one art exchange this month in the Aust Art Sisters Group and made Ness (who doesn't have a blog) this little hanging "quilt".

I guess it is a quilt as it has a front made of fabric pieces (and an image printed on acetate with a paper doily and an old book page trapped behind it), a layer of batting and a fabric batting.  It was a lot of fun to make and I added some beading, laces, buttons, ribbon and a metal embellishment that I painted and personalised.  I love recycling paper bag handles as hangers so that is what I did here with a white bag.

And this is a card (also made to hang) that I made for Alice for her June birthday.  It uses handmade paper, and lace, tape, buttons and rub-ons with machine stitching.  I really love making these collage style mixed media cards - I have a whole pile in varying states of completion.

I was in Albany again for work a week ago and here are some pictures of bird activity during my dawn walk (I actually prefer walking after work but it was too dark by the time we finished for the day so I substituted a very fresh and invigorating morning walk!).

Lots of seagulls flying from the left

They all landed a little further down on the jetty.

Virtually single file - and they were making a racket!

I've seen lines of birds on a wire before...

Amazing!