NEW Painting - An Amazing Journey

An Amazing Journey. Original (SOLD).
Prints available in my shop.

This is the November project for my online course SERENDIPITY - A Year In Mixed Media.

SERENDIPITY is all about overcoming creative blocks and strengthening your own unique style, so with every project I try and push my paintings in new directions and share just what inspired each piece. 

So An Amazing Journey came about after I'd been inspired by my friend and artist Efi Kokkinaki. 

by Efi Kokkinaki. 

by Efi Kokkinaki. 

I just love the dreaminess in Efi's work. But when I tried to let her imagery inspire my paintings, I froze. 

I had been trying so hard to repeat Efi's beautiful four-legged creatures in my own way, that I lost the beauty I felt while looking at her work. So I gave up. I set my expectations aside and decided to let go of any idea of what I wanted to paint. 

I grabbed a background I wasn't liking and decided to cover it up. 

I was looking for something new and remembered an image Efi had shared with me of one of her fluid backgrounds. So I repeated the motion I saw in her background. From there, I started having fun again.

I found a way to incorporate something from her work into my own. I let go of trying to push my artwork in a new direction and allowed what was inside of me to be set out into my own painting. 

And immediately I saw a horse running in the paint. 

An Amazing Journey. Original (SOLD).
Prints available in my shop.

I titled this piece An Amazing Journey as a reminder to keep letting go, allowing new inspirations and revelations to lead me just where I need to be. 

Happy painting!

xo,

...............

ps. If you're interested in seeing An Amazing Journey in progress and painting lots of different characters together for the entire year, find details on SERENDIPITY-A Year In Mixed Media and register here.

Your Eyelids Flutter - A New Painting

YOUR EYELIDS FLUTTER. Prints available in my shop.

Sometimes I doubt myself as I paint.

Because I'm so used to covering things up in my work, I've noticed I cover up things that are new and original because they feel too awkward and weird.

I think they're not finished. But really, it's not the painting. It's the feeling it gives me inside.

This piece just sort of happened.

I'd covered up a painting I had never liked, leaving the only part I loved... the layers of collaged monarch butterflies.

However, when I stepped back, I thought it can't be done. It looks too strange. This is not something I've ever painted before and it was too easy.

YOUR EYELIDS FLUTTER. Prints available in my shop.

Well, sometimes that just happens. 

And I've learned that it's not that it's too easy... I paint as often as possible. 

Each piece leads me to the next.

Since this painting fell into place, it's only right that its title came right to me too... it's based on my favorite ee cummings poem: since feeling is first.

It's a little reminder that while "the best gesture of my brain is less than YOUR EYELID'S FLUTTER," whatever it is that makes you most unique, maybe say your antlers, is even better.

............

ps. If you'd like to paint together, watch a few video snip-its and find my online courses here.

A New Mixed Media Painting: ACCEPTANCE

ACCEPTANCE. 8x8" on wood. Original Available Here.
Prints available in my shop.

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."

-Leonardo da Vinci 

...................

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that whenever I am stuck with my artwork and feeling really vulnerable with my work, I paint an owl.

Well, sometimes I paint a bear to get back into my comfort zone.

This little bear came out of a lot of other frustrated paintings. I'd been feeling like I wasn't pushing myself enough, so I tried to do something different, which inevitably made me dislike my paintings... because I was trying something I'd never done before AND I'd stopped having fun.

So I dragged out an old painting I'd never liked and painted over it. 

I wanted to paint something I knew I'd love, so after I'd covered the original up with my favorite supplies (tissue papers and inks), I started painting a bear.

And out of all of the other frustrated attempts I'd been painting, this little bear fell right into place... 

ACCEPTANCE. 8x8" on wood. Original Available Here.
Prints available in my shop.

And I ended up experimenting with a few new techniques and colors... which is what I had been wanting all along.

Sometimes it just takes returning to what you're most comfortable with and having ACCEPTANCE in the journey of the creative process.

Happy painting!!!

xo,

............

ps. My newest online course SERENDIPITY - A YEAR IN MIXED MEDIA just started. If you've been wanting to paint and become part of an incredibly supportive and positive creative community go here for more details and to register.

You Are Where You Need To Be

YOU ARE WHERE YOU NEED TO BE. Original (SOLD).

Painting this BIG painting was really a reminder to not hold back. 

Whenever I paint big, I feel like I am wasting paint. Because my process is so full of layers, a LOT goes into each piece. 

And this bear started off as a flower then evolved into a very elaborate lion before it got its crown and transformed into a bear.

I am so happy I decided to be bold and take chances with this painting. All of the layers really gave this bear his character. 

I had been so set on making this a flowering lion with an incredible mane made up of layers and layers of this incredible vintage wallpaper I'd just gotten from my sister-in-law.

I cut and pasted in all of these glorious colors and patterns. But the lion just was not fitting together.

He was cute. But I just wasn't attached. So I went ahead and covered up most of what I hated with black acrylic. 

And that left me with the bear's face and a piece of the background that I just could not cover up.

YOU ARE WHERE YOU NEED TO BE. Original (SOLD).

The bear's crown has layers and layers of meaning.

In 2011, I took class with Jesse Reno. It was an incredible journey that included a roadtrip to Big Sur, California. Completely life changing as I was able to plot out and plan my very first ecourse along the way. From there How To Pant An Owl was born.

And within what became this bear's crown, I'd added a little scrap from a painting I did in Jesse's class. 

In that scrap are the words "Little Owl." 

This painting is a reminder... You Are Where You Need To Be.

.................

ps. If you're interested in painting together, find all of my online mixed media classes here.

New Mixed Media Painting: FIREFLY & Letting Go

This was one of those magical paintings where everything just fell into place.

Sometimes I find that the character's disposition, eyes, background story or color just fits.

But every once in a while I'm in a groove, not thinking and just following instincts and a new character emerges, seemingly perfectly.

So often for me that falling into place has to do with painting outside.

It is seriously my very favorite thing. To drag out all of my art supplies onto a sheet of canvas on our backyard patio and paint all day is absolute bliss.

And that happiness and ease always seems to get transferred into my paintings.

Now I must say, this girl did start out as a lion. But it wasn't the kind of painting where I pushed to make it a lion.

It simply was a lion, then I didn't like the papers I'd added or the face, so I ripped it off. And from out of the torn paper, I found the girl. And she came back with lightening bugs streaming from her head.

And so she got her story...

With past, comes layers of beauty inside. Share and shine them bright like the light of the FIREFLY.

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo,

...............

ps. If you've been thinking about having fun with mixed media, my new online course SERENDIPITY begins September 16, 2013.

This is the class where we'll be painting a little bit of everything for an entire year... owls, girls, imaginary creatures and so much more!

Find details and register here.