Sharing my completed art journal page for this week.

Last week was coloured pencils (right up my alley) in the “Supplies Me” workshop I am doing with Jane Davenport.

This whole thing is about letting go being free and experimenting with different materials and learning new skills and hence the “Be Free” in the drawing. We learned about drawing faces and backs and bottoms and all about pencils. It’s so fun just enjoying the creativity these aren’t supposed to be works of art just a bit of fun.

I love this girl though I think she will be popping up in a few of my future works.

For those who are interested in the technical stuff

…

I mainly used coloured pencils on my page which was primed with medium.
It doesn’t allow me to get on as many layers as i am used to with the coloured pencil but does allow me to use other materials like the inktense pencil and a bit of watercolour in the backround. I used Zest-it to blend some of the pencil which was interesting normally the Zest-it blends all of the layers and kinda soaks right into the layers of the paper. As I had the medium on it really just kinda stayed on the top of the paper and didnt blend in as much went to more like paint. The love heart under the works you can see went quite vibrant. I also noticed a difference on the pages on the left where i had Gesso on the previous page to on the right where i didnt, you can see the difference in the way it blends and how many layers i could get on.

Heaps o fun, this week is watercolour week and I already have found a new way of working that I have been searching for, that is quick and easy and vibrant and absolutely loving!!!

If your interested in doing one of Jane’s Workshops she holds a variety of them please checkout her website at: www.janedavenport.com

FYI, At this point I am just playing around with videos, and materials to see what works for me I will not be doing video of Jane’s techniques you will need to go to do her workshops to find out for yourself!

Already I am feeling wonderfully inspired which is what I had hoped for, and I am really looking forward to someone else guiding me and getting my creative juices flowing.

So in the spirit of it all, I recorded a breif video talking about it (excuse the kids in the background and the Um’s) hopefully the more I do of these the better they will get! and see the start of my art journalling process.

Life is a difficult thing, none so much as I have found out in the past few years. As I have progressed through my life I have also progressed through my art and my business.
In these areas I am not entirely sure how things are ever going to turn out. I have gone from step to step sometimes unconsciously and then realised that I have achieved what I was planning  to do and other times I haven’t.

The beginning is often fun and exciting.
It’s where you get motivated, feel  invigorated and alive! It’s where you plan where you are going to go and take action to get there.

The end result can be satisfying and disappointing.
Either you have achieved what you had originally envisaged or you haven’t and your feelings are often based on that result.

The middle is where the tension lies and it’s the hard bit.
In the middle you sometimes get frustrated and want to get to your vision quickly but you know you have to do the hard work to get there. It’s also where decisions can be made based on how you are progressing -Are you on track for your vision?

If you skipped the middle part it wouldn’t be as satisfying when you get to the end and how would you know if it was the correct result if you haven’t been through the process? The middle is important!
If you give up in the middle which is easy to do,  you will never get to the end and I ask you this -  Where does that then leave you ???

Furthermore, if you haven’t envisaged  your desired result  in  the beginning  how do you know when you get to the end ? You will be in a never ending battle of endlessness. YUKKK! its awful .. trust me I have been there!

So, at the moment I am in the MIDDLE, in the middle of multiple things!
I am doing the hard work, my motivation is that I MUST continue I have no other choice.
If I don’t the artwork and *insert XYZ* will never end and there will be no result good or bad.
No satisfaction, no scope for learning on the next thing I undertake.

The middle is hard but it is necessary, I think the key is to try to appreciate the middle for what it is and KNOW that through the middle you will come to the end.. your vision will evolve and it WILL become a result….  and then maybe the key is to stop thinking about it and push on!

Enjoy!

Here are a few flowers I created this afternoon.

This obviously is not supposed to be a work of magnificent art and its not particularly useful for anything.

It is what it is and it’s a creation.

We can look at a piece of artwork and find it hard to justify how can that 1 peice be worth so much money.

I admit it’s true art is not particularly a necessity in life like food or water we CAN live without it.
In saying that though artwork  challenges emotions – sometimes thoughts an opinions, sometimes just reminders -  for example Having a picture of a beach scene in your house might remind you of a family holiday or person you met at the beach or maybe a location you want to travel to.

Seeing an artwork can provoke a response in people that will mean different things to different people. Same in business having a particular colour, style as your branding or logo  or artwork on your product may also encourage your customers to buy your product over another.

For the person who creates, living a creative life means that you have many experiments and challenges that leads you to the 1 you maybe putting out into the world.

For the customer what you are investing in is all the years the person has invested in themselves to acquire that skill it doesn’t just come without commitment and work despite however talented  it takes work.

For the creative its hard but VITAL that you remember that everything you create leads you to the next, the creation exists because you have created it – it is not YOU nor  can it be your only investment of your skill. You must push on.

This not only relates to artworks but to systems, processes, projects other things you may also create in your life – i think it particularly relates to cooking myself.
If you like to cook you know sometimes recipes work sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes you might experiment and add a bit of this or that it might be great, next time you might try to add those again, or omit them depending on how it turned out. Doesn’t mean your going to stop cooking, next time in another recipe you may try the same ingredient in that to see how it turns out. That is the creative process.

So here are my flowers for today, what you see is the result of an experiment of trying new process and papers that didn’t work out how i wanted, so rather than push on and continue with the whole flower I stopped at one petal then turned it into a flower digitally and  then manipulated it by changing its colour and then I  added a leaf I created the other day.

Is it a masterpiece NO, is it a creation in itself – YES.
Is it less creative than if i had pushed on and created the whole flower? Will leave you to answer that one…

It is what is and tomorrow is another day and so there will be another creation.

During the past 4 years this blog has a been a source of expression, inspiration, direction, healing, therapy, connection with those on the outside as well as many other things.

During the past 2.5 years, I have been reluctant to post “too much” information on my blog on what is happening in my personal life,  i have shared some stuff regarding my kids, my family breakdown which has resulted SOOOO many life changes, decisions and basically uncertainty of who and I am what I stand for and what the hell am I supposed to do now?  - this isn’t at all what i had planned.

Part of my reluctance to share has been hurt and numbness, depression as well as thinking that the people coming to my blog wouldn’t not be coming to hear all this guff.. they would be coming to see my art and I do admit it was nice to have a “place” where I didn’t have to worry about all the other stuff and was just more or less positive when going through a personal crisis –I needed that.

As time and life has moved on,  I have continued to unconsciously  filter myself  it has become a habit, maybe in order to keep up appearances or more likely the only way I could tell myself that I was holding  it all together – i don’t know… WHY doesn’t matter ….  BUT it has suddenly occurred me that in doing this I may have lost the “essence” of WHO I am and why I started this blog in the first place -  which was to share – share my journey – so, yes Belinda this means ALL  the journey not just parts of it!!!

As  have been looking for I guess  a “purpose” or a “way” of making it all work, i have realized that “filtering” myself or being careful does not work it doesn’t push me or move me forward but has been necessary during the course of gathering the strength (see the story behind that piece) to move forward.

I have decided that  I HAVE to give it my ALL  for others to understand the full picture both on this blog and in life . It is necessary in order for me to push forward on the “journey” and thus doing what was originally intended which was to help others on their “journey”.  If i can do that – then it has a purpose and I am on the “right” track regardless of the fact that I don’t know where it is going, it is in iteslf “right” without need of clarification. It just is. Finding Courage.

If you have a few moments go along and check it out at the moment she has a wonderful challenge about asking a friend: http://blog.rachaelstott.com/2010/04/a-challenge-ask-a-friend/

Over the holiday weekend I was able to get stuck into a project that has been on my list for a while now – a  stylish new filing cabinet, doesnt it look lovely in its new spot ?

Here are some before and after shots of the work, as you can see it was covered rust and pretty ordinary looking and has been sitting in my office earmarked for a project for quite some time.

I love it, it really brightens up the office and i am happy to file I love that its recycled as well how awesome is that ?

]]> http://www.belindalindhardt.com.au/wp/index.php/1568/inspiration/feed/ 3