Sunday Weekly Wrap-Up

Time to share artistic endeavours from this past week. I joined in two more challenges and had fun with both. As well, I worked more on Chapter 1 of the Artist's Way.

The Artist's Way

Paula of "Happy Snappy" is leading a group of us in working through the Artist's Way. I much prefer this slower pace. The past 2 weeks we have focused on Chapter 1.

Rereading it this time, I was struck with the affirmations more this time and less on the negatives.

I chose these affirmations to hold onto when those negative beliefs rear up:

I am willing to learn to let myself be creative.

I am allowed to nurture my artist.

Creativity is the creator's will for me.

I am still not writing morning papers every day but I recognize the need for it. When I do, I really feel the negativity being released.

My artist's date this week was by accident. I had to wait for my husband to pick me up downtown and as I wandered around the block, I discovered a new gallery. I had a lovely talk with the owner and she stated that she is always looking for new artists. I loved many of the pieces there and fell in love with, and bought, a gorgeous ornate cross necklace. I will return, maybe with some of my own art.

I did several of the exercises - champions, enemies, imaginary lives and they proved interesting, if a bit of a challenge.

I am looking forward to Chapter 2.

Summer of Colour / GPP #53Exploring colour through the "Summer of Color" has been fun and a learning experience. This week red was the focus. It is one of my favourite colours.

I completed a colour collage with pictures from magazines:

Then I did the tints of red - I loved the colours created.

Michelle Ward's GPP #53 challenge was termed "Mad Scientist and I have been creating colours through the "Summer of Colour". This week I took one of the pinks I created and named it primrose pink:

I also created a small abstract using red, gold and a bit of blue. Really enjoyed this. I'd like to try a bigger piece next.



Inspiration AvenueI have seen this challenge site a few times but hadn't participated. When I saw the theme was Picasso, I knew I wanted to take part.

The flowers are one of my favourite Picasso pieces. All through university I had this work on my wall.

This couple I based on my husband and myself - note the beard, not in the original!



 

 

Photography

This week flowers and skies were my favourite subjects once again.

During my walk downtown, I got a shot of the river.

Full Moon Dreamboard /Weekly Wrap-up/ GPPChallenge

 

"Stirring up memories" was a bit of a surprise as well - memories of the accident and but also of my father. The anniversary of his death is tomorrow. But memories can be healing and the need to balance past with present is present here as well.

 

Weekly Wrap-up

This week I have been struggling with illness and finally got medication. Hopefully, I am now on the mend. Even tho I was home 2 days, I did not get much done creatively. Looking at and appreciating other's artwork was an enjoyable past-time. Lots of inspiration out there!

I created one set of collage cards for an ATC swap and that was easy and fun.

I also did 2 collages in my AEDM journal.

One was just playing with papers

and the other was of smiling children. Thought this look at children around the world would be uplifting.

I am continuing work on a large zentangle. It is coming slowly tho!

I continue to take part in the Photo a Day. These are a few of my favourites this past week.

GPP Challenge "What's your Hang -Up"

The only artwork I have framed so far is this pair of flowers I did in oils, in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe and Helen Lukas.

The challenge now is to frame more of my work!

Be sure to check out the other participants here.

Sunday Weekly Wrap-up/ Month's End

October is coming to a close and as I look back I can see that I am creating more regularly and trying new challenges. Life has a way of getting in the way of having big blocks of time to create, but I try to slip in smaller moments.

Here is a look at some of the projects/challenges I have been working on:

GPP#45 Challenge Back to Back

I have been enjoying these challenges and this month we were to create with the scraped pages we created last month. I used one sheet to create Hallowe'en ATCs.

I hope to do more with this challenge in the coming month.

Photo a Day for a Year

This has been the most regular challenge. I love photographing skies, flowers, trees and have been doing a lot of this in October. Here are a few of my favourite shots:

Art Heart and Healing

I have recently signed up for this free e-course and am enjoying the lessons and the art. Tam gives so much and I love her approach. I am no where near finishing the first week's lessons but here is a glimpse of my unfinished portrait. I am looking forward to working through all the projects.

Art Every Day Month

November 1st begins Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day. I did the challenge last year and am looking forward to taking part this year.

My goal for this month is to create every day, a minimum of 30 minutes a day.

I love the idea of using a small journal and drawing something every day.

I also hope to work on some of the projects I have begun and not finished.

I will continue to work on my photography, on the TNC - The Happy Book and the many other photo challenges I take part in. I have a number of ATC swaps to complete as well.

ATCs

This month I have done a number of photo swaps, as well as a couple of 1 to 1 swaps which were fun. Here is a swap for :


African animals:


In the style of Picasso:

Creative colour Challenge and GPP #43

There are two challenges that look at stretching your artistic abilities which I am participating in:

Creative Colour Challenge hosted by Louise Gale

and the GPP Challenge hosted by Michelle Ward.

With the Colour Challenge, a new colour is posted each Sunday. This past week the colour was Sunflower Yellow. Although I love sunflowers, I do not wear or use yellow much. So it was fun to splash away with yellow paint and work with texture as well. Here is my entry for the first week.

I hope to use this as a base for more artwork.

I can't wait to see what the next challenge colour will be on Sunday!

The GPP Challenge this month was "Text Messaging" (C#43) , using text, words or phrases to create a collage. I enjoyed this as I love words. I went through several magazines and had lots or words to choose from. At first, I tried to place them randomly but words seem top fit together so there is a bit of working together of the words.

The phrase at the became 2 poems playing off each other!

Using text is a lot of fun and can be the base of a journal page. I aim to photocopy my page, gesso it and build up!

GPP #42 - Strip Ease

Michelle Ward's new challenge at GPP, for July, is "Strip Ease"

What a fun challenge -tearing scraps of painted papers and gluing them down! Part of the process though, was to observe the tearing process and the effect of tearing different ways.

I created a journal page with several remnants of painted papers I had already created.

But, once I started, I couldn't stop! I started making ATC backgrounds.

The next step will be to take this backgrounds and add to them.

Be sure to check out the other participants of the GPP challenge here.

GPP: Crusade #41 Gridlock

The GPP Challenge this week is Gridlock. This will be my first entry in their challenges. I have visited Michelle Ward's blog several times and tried some of the challenges, but never managed to post my work. This week's challenge really appealed to me .

I had created a number of painted papers using junk mail and acrylic paints for the Artistic Mother group a few weeks ago. I wasn't as happy with the results, but with the instructions to use papers on hand I thought I would use them up.

I had plans to add hearts but originally I was going to use ones from wrapping paper for contrast. I did not like the effect though, so I used another painted paper instead.

There are a number of directions I could go to add to the grid:

- pictures of what I love

-people I love

-strong words

-favourite quotes

For now, I will leave it as is. I enjoyed creating this grid - I can see it would change with whatever material you use. Can't wait to try another one!

Be sure to check out the other participants here.