The adventure continues in painting and my art journal.
Sweets and Lola
In my “Let the Paint Speak” class, I worked on a canvas board about 16”x20” I think. This one was a little bit of a challenge and I’m still not sure it’s done. The background was coming along nicely.
I’m really drawn to these blues and greys. The brayer really pulled things together for me.
I love the iridescent gold deep paint by Golden. It’s such a gorgeous, rich color. She’s starting to appear here but I’m not really happy with her yet.
This is where “Sweets and Lola” are now. We’ve decided to just hang out together for a while. I think we need to spend a little more time together before deciding where this is going.
Sallymandala #1
In my Wanderlust class, I met for the first time ever a delightful soul named Mary Ann Wangerin. She shared with us a very inspiring and challenging lesson in making “magic”. One of my most difficult challenges in art is learning to acknowledge and enjoy the process. So many times I get stuck on trying to preserve the bits I love that it hinders the process of creating.
There were so many times watching Mary create that I would say to myself, “no! don’t cover that part!” She taught me to enjoy the beauty as it comes. And let it go, if it needs to be covered. It’s not wasted. I saw it. It was beautiful and brought me happiness.
From an early age, I have loved rocks. My art table is often littered with crystals and minerals of all shapes and sizes. They make the energy lighter and more free. I was waiting for some paint to dry and had a little play at gridding the mandala. I totally forgot about the paint drying and some of my rocks came away with a little “decoration”. Oops!
Mary’s lesson really helped me in not thinking too much about my choices and just doing what felt right. For instance, I really hate the color red. I have no idea why but I’m rarely drawn to it at all and I don’t use it that much. But I found myself using it in the mandala circle and, normally, I would have stopped myself and chosen another color. It was very satisfying to just let things happen.
Let Your faith be bigger than your fear
Something I’m endeavoring to learn about art this year, so it seemed appropriate for this lesson. So much in life is about letting go and putting faith in someone – yourself or another. Allowing life to happen – not forcing things or hiding from others. Here’s to learning a few things this year!
