Sneak peek! (ow, and some growing pains and an elephant)

Hi Beautiful Creators!

I just had to share this sneak peek with you lovely art lovers.

I am on such a wonderful journey with this painting. She teaches me that it is all about intention, trust and surrender.

My intention for these last days of my stay here in Germany was clear, I wanted to spend most of my time in my temporary art studio and paint the days away.

I set out to embrace my intuition more while creating beautiful pieces of art.

I started two paintings at the same time after reading Flora Bowley’s book: ‘Brave, intuitive painting’. In her book she suggests to work at more than one painting at the same time so you can keep the flow going while one of your layers is drying. So I did that.

I thought of one painting as an in between project to keep that intuitive flow going so I could practice responding to it and listening to my muse and being brave and all that stuff.

In the end, ‘Hope’ emerged from that playful and trusting place much easier that the painting I thought was going to be IT.

Another lesson in letting go and trusting the process instead of having expectations about the outcome!

At the same time my perception of the world around me shifted. More things seemed to light up so bright I couldn’t ignore them! Although I often didn’t know what to do with them they were there for a reason. I could feel it!

One of these ‘things’ that showed up everywhere I looked was an elephant.

It started with watching a YT video of an artist who painted a lovely elephant. Then more and more elephants walked into sight (thank goodness no one has shown up in my front yard!).

BUT, I thought an elephant didn’t fit in my painting….yes I THOUGHT that….. I was not feeling but thinking.

Today I gave in and did some research on how to paint an elephant as I have never done that before and I just gave it a go. You should have heard my inner critic. Pew! J But I didn’t listen, just followed the elephants path.

And guess what?

I can paint elephants!!!! WHOOOT!!! And this little guy fits perfectly, he is right where he belongs. I think he’s so cute! He he it’s a good thing that elephant was quite a pushy fella! J

Well, there you have it my lovelies, I guess I’m still not done with learning to trust my intuition, my muse and my inner artist.

Intellectually I know I can trust them all for 120% every time, but something still seems to be in the way of me fully surrendering en going with the impulses they give me.

Is it fear?

If  so (off course it’s fear silly!) what am I afraid of?

Am I still afraid of critique? Am I still worried about what others might think of my work? Or even worse, don’t think about it at all? AAAHHH!!!

Heck, I don’t like this feeling and I want to change that!

NOW! Ummpff

So, what do I want to feel?

I want to feel happy, bouncy and joyful while creating.

I want to be cheerful and make beautiful uplifting art.

I want to put positive energy in my work as an artist so others can benefit from it.

I want to be radiant while creating, I want to receive and give through my art.

I want it to feel like breathing…in and out….

I want to feel deserving and giving and…..

I also want to keep learning, growing and expanding.

I am a very, VERY grateful artist while writing this blog post. I feel more secure, more worthy and more… Artist! WHEEEEE! J

I give thanks to my many muses and to myself for taking that leap of faith!

It’s funny actually, taking a leap of faith because of fear of what others might think of my work while I’m creating a painting that nobody has even seen yet!

O boy, the mind does crazy things with a girl hey?

In the end I’m still loving this journey called life and everything in it!

I think of these last couple of days as simply growing pains and now I’ve overcome them. For now at least….we all know fears stirs it’s ugly head every now and then. Well my fear filled friends, you are welcome! You help me grow and evolve to a better version of me and I thank you for it!

Here are some sneak peek snap shots I promised at the beginning of this post. She is not done yet and that is just the way it should be. I will love her and work with her more the coming days and I will share her beautiful wisdom and radiance when she is ready for it.

Until then I wish you many, many happy creative and blissful growing pains! *chuckle*

~Monique

                        

Intuitive painting 'HOPE'.

Hello there Beautiful Creators!

I've been hiding away in my temporary studio in Germany for a couple of days to spend some time with me, myself and art. ;-) After reading Flora Bowley's book: 

‘Brave, intuitive painting.’ I was so inspired to spend some time alone with my muse! 

It's a delicious book about letting go, being bold, en letting your art unfold.

 Although I am no stranger to intuitive painting, reading somebody else's view on it is always a good idea in my opinion. The vision on painting intuitively in her book is very close to mine but some of the prompts, ideas and techniques are new to me.

This opened up new possibilities to go deeper, trust more, be braver and let go more. 

It felt fantabulous!!! :-)

I have no pictures of the process of this painting. She wanted privacy to grow and unfold, and so did I. We spend many beautiful hour together!

In the meantime I started a second painting (Flora encourages you to paint on more than one painting at a time) of which I did take pictures of the stages the painting was in. 

It is not finished yet but I will share the whole process with pictures with you as soon as she’s done!

Here’s a slideshow with some close ups of the finished painting called Hope.

It is a mixed media painting. The materials I used are painted papers, acrylic paint, pens, markers, charcoal, pastel pencil, fabric spray paint and inks.

Enjoy!

Happy Creating!

~Monique

AEDM (Art Every Day Month)

Hey there beautiful creators!

I have just joined up for AEDM|. It's a challenge to do some kind of art every day in November and post about it. If you would like to join me and (so far) 187 other creative people here's where you can do that!

Hope to see some of your creative adventures!

Happy Creating

~Monique

This is what I created today: another page in my BOPA (Book Of Positive Aspects)

You can read all about it right here.

Yopu can also go to my facebook fanpage:

www.facebook.com/lifestruecolours

Welcome to my JEMM!

<div class="fb-like" data-href="https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/" data-width="The pixel width of the plugin" data-height="The pixel height of the plugin" data-colorscheme="light" data-layout="standard" data-action="like" data-show-faces="false" data-send="false"></div>


Hi there beautiful creators!

I wanted to explore today so I picked up one of my journals and I declared it my JEMM:
Journal for Experimenting with Mixed Media.:-)
The making of the journal itself was an experiment of it's own. The pages in it are an eclectic bunch of classes, experiments with papers, fabric, touchdrawings and so on. So I thought I would dedicate the last pages that needed finishing to this journey of experimenting.

Today I wanted to experiment with inks and paint.
The fact that most watersoluble inks bleed through the next layer and/or activate when you put another wet media on top always annoyed me.
I ususally fixate the layer of inks before continuing. With a fixative, or even with a spraybottle with water and a medium, just to stop it from bleeding and/or activating again.

I never liked the feeling of being annoyed by a material.
I mean, the inks can't help doing what they are doing right? They are what they are so I had to change something within myself.
I decided to play and experiment with the bleeding instead of working against it et voilà!
I looooved the effect of it!

It is not exactly where I want it to be but I am on the right track.
YES, no more irritation but a lot of fun!
The best thing I was reminded of again today is that working WITH a situation always works better than against it! I helps inspiration to flow and more ideas wil come to you. :-)

Off course the camera was rolling so here's a video with voice-over, I wanted to explain what I was doing for you. Enjoy!

Happy Creating,
~Monique

Exciting times!

How exciting life can be!
Once you get on the 'good-feeling-thoughts' train miracles start to happen. I can not even begin to tell you about all the good stuf that is flowing into our lives, really, really amazing!
I feel good and better every day.
Yesterday we took a little break from everything we are doing here, spent the whole day on and in the water.
Gosh, the underwater world is sooooooo beautiful!
Amazingly colorful and tranquil and very alive at the same time, what a blessing to be a part of that.
Here's the page I made about the last few days.

Although I don't want to be going home I also can't wait to be back in the studio again and make more art and videos!
Somewhere this week I'll be back in youtube-land! See you then!
In the meantime,  don't worry, be happy and create your dreams,  I know it's possible!

Half way through making this page a figure showed up. Wonder what message she has for me...

Happy creating! 

Monique

Nobody pops my balloon!

Hi there beautiful Creators!

Do you sometimes get thrown of your path? I do...
Or, better said, I let myself get thrown of my path.
Last week was a rollercoaster for us. Up and down we went from ecstatic to disappointed, from enthousiastic to right out angry!
For me it all had to do with my reaction to other peoples behavior. At first I blamed them for my mood and my disappointment.
Then I realised it wasn't them, it was me. I got caught in their vibration and forgot to take care of mine.

So, time to clean it up and get my vibe back! :-D

Good to know that this process takes less and less time for me. I can get my vibe back fairly easy now and I know I am responsible for it.

Funny, while writing this I realise this has happened big time twice during the last two weeks.
Good practise! LOL

Here's how I journaled about it...

Enjoy and happy creating!

~Monique

The Spanish Lady Spoke (or did she?)

Hello to you!

Remember the Spanish Lady from my tutorial on Touchdrawing?
At the end of filming the tutorial she hadn't 'spoken' to me yet, I wondered if she was camera shy... :-)

This is what she looked like at the time:

My sweetheart and I went on a short holiday with friends and when we came back I thought I'd find the message she was hiding from me.

Wrong! She remained silent so I put her aside and decided to wait...

In the meantime life went on, some things happended that were difficult for me to deal with at the time until I heard some dreadful news about a young boy who had tried to commit suicide. 

All the things I worried about, were difficult to talk about and had me going in circles for a day or two now seemed so ridiculousl, infinitly small and insicnificant! 

My thoughts are with the parents and siblings of Ewan. 

Ewan, I hope you are going where you realy want to be, I wish you wisdom and happiness wherever you are.

Now the Spanish Lady's message was very clear:

Humbled I am...

~Monique