Art Journal Flip/Keep the flow going downstream

Hello beautiful creators, 

As with so many blog posts on the internet mine could start with: "it has been a while since I posted', but I won't.

Because there is no need to defend or justify anything creative we do in live. Like a journal, life is a journey.

A journey of discovering and formost of creating. It is a journey of being as happy as you can in the present moment and then.....get out of your own way and let inspiration flow in and through you. 

Life is like a visual art journal, we create our own. 

If we start defending what we do (or don't) to others, we stand in our own way of happiness. With defending or justifying we stop the flow of inspiration. It is like searching for inspiration upstream instead of going downstream, trust the flow, the inspiration knows how to get you where you want to be.

And it is way way way easier! :-)

I'm of now....of to to do some downstream flowing in another journal, or on a canvas.:-)

I hope this art journal journey inspires someone to explore their creativity and just go with the flow, enjoy!

Happy Creating!

New Beginnings!

Heythere Beautiful Creators!

Yes, yes, yes, I know, it took me quite some time to get back into making videos but here I am!
I started a new journal now that my sweetheart and I are setteling in a little bit after emigrating to Bonaire.
We are on a huge adventure here and it takes up a lot of time and energy.
But I always knew I'd somehow find the time and a place for my art so here it is! :-)

New beginnings, new surroundings, new climate, new views, new friends, new work and business and therefor a new journal!
New everything actualy! But we are very, very happy and you can tell from the music in the video, haha.
A happy bouncy piece of music (by Kevin MacLeod) because there's no audio and/or voice-over in this video.
I'm sure my improvised workspace will improve by the day so not to worry, soon you will be able to hear my soft voice again. LOL

Now sit back, enjoy my fidling and creating and the music! This will make you smile my lovelies!

Happy Creating,
Monique

Art Journal Flip!

Hello there Journal-Artists!

A short and sweet one for you today...A flip through of my latest finished journal. I did it! :-)

I usually have a couple of journals going at the same time but at the end of 2013 that sort of got
out of hand. :-)
I had taken some classes, started my own experiments and off course my BOPA journals.
And as the end of the year approached I felt I needed to finish some projects. I wanted to clear my head and my shelf from projects that were somehow not moving along, or simply waiting for some last finishing touches.
So I did, I picked up my JEMM (Journal for Experimenting with Mixed Media) and focused on finishing it.
I loved working on the finishing touches, it just felt so good to give it some more TLC and lovingly putting it on my bookshelf!

While flipping through and finishing it up it turned out to be a mixed media mixture of al kinds of pages.
There are pages from classes, mixed media experiments, touchdrawings and pages with a lot of journaling in it. Sort of a happy and chaotic mix of al kinds of things I did last year.
To be honest......that's quite fitting! :-)  I can be like that.... thank goodness I have the urge to clean up things every now and then.... LOL

Here's the Flip through...
If you have any questions about a page, I'd be happy to explain more in detail so ask away!

Happy Creating!
~Monique

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