Up, up and Away! (Blogpost and video)

Hi Beautiful Creators!

My first blogpost of 2014! :-) And off course a little video of my Art Journal page! (for the video just scrol down)

Here's the how and why of this page and some info on the materials I used. Enjoy!

I stumbled upon a post on face book last week titled, Journal52. It is a free art journal workshop with, as you probably already guessed, a prompt for a journal page once a week.

As I have no classes planned to take just yet I joined their face book group and happily made my first journal page with their prompt of this week. I had so much fun! :-D

The prompt was called;” Up, up and away”, and the idea was to make a journal page with flying as a theme. As I was pondering this idea I could feel myself breaking free and flying towards the sun. In my mind I was dancing with the clouds and having a blast playing with the wind and soaring through the sky!

I decided to express all that I was feeling so I started creating a sort of fence-like background from which I could literately break free on the paper. I used a homemade stencil and gesso to keep it a bit transparent.

I then went back to that free feeling of flying and playing in the sky and went completely wild with acrylic paints and stencils. Gosh, how I love making a happy mess! Lol

After a couple of layers of color-fun I drew the birds. I used acrylic white paint with some pouring medium an a little bit of water to get it to flow from my bottle. I used a bottle instead of a pen to stay away from to much control, I just wanted to stay with that delicious feeling of freedom.

That is also the reason why I wanted to finger-paint the next layer, not to much control just play with the colors like playing with the wind.

To outline the birds I diluted some black acrylic paint with water and used a dropper to draw around them. Then I added a few details with a black pen and wrote my text with a thick black marker. The outlines of the lettering were done with a white gel-pen. Et Voilà, the first prompt from Journal52 is done!

I'd like to thank Chelle Stein for creating this free workshop! I'm sure I will go back often to be inspired, get ideas and prompts I would never come up with myself. A beautiful opportunity to expand my creativity, share it with like minded people in a face-book group where we can learn from each other inspire and be inspired!

Happy Creating!

~Monique

Intuïtive painting ‘Rainforest’

Hi soulful creators!

She is done,  WHEEEEE! J I’m  soooo happy with this painting and everything I’ve learned along the way!

Remember this post? 

Well, the story continued as I revisited this painting again and again.

I’ve had to set my fears aside and leave them at the doorstep of my temporary studio every day.

And learn to ignore my inner critic… Let me tell you, it does become easier and easier every time you do that!

I now feel I have some sort of pact with my inner critic. I’m glad she’s there to warn me when I’m about to make a stupid mistake. However, I don’t immediately agree with her anymore. 

I listen, give her room to ventilate her opinion and then decide for myself. She sometimes will throw a tantrum when I disagree but at that time I’ve already decided to go my own way. She now knows I am grateful she’s there to keep me safe. All is well with us.

Really beautiful creators, make friends with your inner critic instead of fighting her! Talk to her, tell her you’re glad she’s there but you are in control of your actions! Make a deal with your inner critic. 

Heck, you could even write out a contract and put it on your wall in your studio to help you remember you are friends and have an agreement! J

Anyhow, I happily painted away the last couple of days. Along the way the changes became smaller and smaller. The painting grew into being finished while I added littler details. A little more white here, a bit of shadow there, a different color for her eye, and so on.

Then all of a sudden I simply knew there was not much to do anymore, a fine line here and there and she was finished.

But guess what….that’s where my inner critic forgot about the contract and started to tell me I could not put this painting out in the world! No Way! To embarrassing!

This is what I said to my inner critic:

My dear caretaker, I know you only want the best for me and I thank you for that. I appreciate you want to protect me from harsh critique and embarrassment. I want to put my art out there the way it is right now, pure, raw and without hesitation. I can only learn from critiques or at least not take them personally. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine because I am proud of my creation and of me!

*swirls through the studio in a frantic confidence dance*

I then signed my painting,  took it outside for a picture in daylight and made this little video for you beautiful souls to watch the process. Enjoy!

Here are some specifics about the video and the painting. You know, the how and why and materials and such. If that’s to boring for you just scroll down for the video!

Materials used:

• A wooden panel I found in a shed here in Germany (we work with what we have right?)
• Sanded and cleaned off course! I must be honest, my sweetheart did that for me! Gotta love my man! <3
• No preparation, I started out with fabric spray paints and acrylic paints immediately.
• Stamps, stencils and markers galore!
• I also pasted on paper napkins with the ever so necessary matte medium. Who could live without it hey?
• I used charcoal to make sketches.
• For the elephant and goddess I mainly used portfolio wax crayons because I just loooooove their transparency.
• Some metallic and iridescent paint here and there.
• I stamped, stenciled, painted with brushes, my fingers, sticks of wood, bottle caps and so on.
• I wrote when I felt like it. At one point these phrases just drifted in….
  “All of you is the truth of you”
  “Say yes to you and the Universe will answer the same”
  “Every layer adds to the whole, without them it would be incomplete. So would you”
  “We are multidimensional in more ways than you can imagine”
  
  

She now awaits a nice finish, probably a matte varnish of some kind but I want to let her dry completely first.

For the video I took the pictures I had taken every now and then and made them all the same size in Photoshop. Because I worked with this painting at different times of the day the lighting isn’t always the same. That’s why in the video the colors seem to change back and forth. The last picture in the video is the one I took in broad daylight. Just watch her shine! LOL

Now you go and create something without fear and make a deal with your inner critic! She’s actually not hard to talk to, really! :-)

Happy Creating

~Monique

Ow, and beware of drastic changes! I followed my muse with the most trust I could muster up so there were some drastic changes happening to my ‘Rainforest’ while she was growing up! 

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!

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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