Day 6 - AEDM & Nablopomo - messy abstract & inspiration

hi everyone!

for some time now, my 12 year old son has been asking me to paint an abstract for his room. he wanted one like the one i did for my own room a short time ago.

my abstract

aaron's room also has a blue/green colour scheme but i created his with more drama than mine....and minus the purple at his request.

as you can see from the end result below, they are similar but different

i had a pretty bad pain day with my right arm so i think that showed through too

i managed to snap some of the stages to show you

it's 30" x 15" in size on gallery-wrapped canvas

finished and in place on my son's bedroom wall

to view the posts of other AEDM members for Day 6
click here.

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and look what happens when i stand still for too long

my dog, cody, comes over and parks himself right on top of my foot!
he's so cute ~ lol

~ love, light and peace ~

a bed of nails and a fun creative drawing exercise

it looks like the weather is settling in for a week of rain or so the weather reports say.  it has been a mostly cold, grey day with the sun trying to peek out here and there.

it seems like a day of movies for me as, mid morning, reece put on 'braveheart' and i couldn't resist being drawn into three hours of drama, violence and heart-wrenching emotion that had me sobbing away at several stages throughout.

earlier in the morning i had finished the third harry potter book - prisoner of azkaban - so we watched the corresponding movie after lunch and, yes, i cried in that one too.

after dinner tonight, we plan to watch 'city slickers 2' as we watched the first city slickers movie last night.  hilarious stuff!
 

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i've been dealing with painful hands and feet for some time now so i bought myself a pair of MASEUR sandals which i thought might help.  in my 30's, i lived in maseur sandals and wore out quite a few pairs. it would only ever take a day for me to wear in a new pair.

pencil-free sketch using ink pens and watercolour

in large moleskine sketchbook 

i'm now learning that my feet aren't quite the same as they used to be because, it's been over a week, and i'm still trying to wear them in.  sometimes, they feel okay and i think my feet are finally used to those spikes while, other times, it truly does feel like i'm walking on a bed of nails.  they aren't cheap so i will persevere a little longer before giving up on them.

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CREATIVE DRAWING EXERCISE

okay, so here's a fun and very simple drawing exercise that anyone could do.

get a piece of blank paper and pencil at the ready,

close your eyes....and, yes, keep them closed while you relax
and allow the pencil the freedom to go wherever it likes on the paper.

now, open your eyes, and gaze at the page.

just relax and try not to put too much thought into it.

do you see something among all the scribbles catching your eye?

take a darker pencil or pen and redefine it. add some new lines if needed,

then erase the scribble lines you don't want and....

VOILA!  you have created a fun drawing without even trying.

i did this one some time ago and left some of my scribble lines in place

and this one was after i'd done some redefining and erased the excess scribbles

both drawings were done in an A4 sketchbook

why not give it a go yourself?

~ love, light and peace ~

pyjama day, inspiration and mikayla

it's been a nice, relaxing weekend so far and, today, i declared it a pyjama day

so grabbed the opportunity to take this week's self portrait.

week 28 in the 52 weeks of me project

brad is joining me
i think he would stay in his pyjamas all day every day if he could...lol

i'm not normally a pyjamas all day person.
actually, this would be only the third time i've worn pyjamas ALL day long.

i'm wearing the bed socks i just finished knitting recently

with the medical issues, knitting, crochet and decorating projects over the past couple of months, i've barely touched the sketchbooks although i am beginning to feel the urge again.

especially after buying these two books for my collection recently
cathy johnson is truly an inspiration and a very giving and helpful artist!
her flickr albums are here
her art journal workshop blog is here

i've also been taking an AWESOME watercolour class here with another of my favourite artists, alisa burke. i've downloaded all the videos, just need to find time to watch them and put what i learn into practice. i am blown away by the inspiration out there on the net, particularly in blogland, so i guess there's really no excuses for me NOT to create.

hey, check out my gorgeous granddaughter!

michelle took this pic of mikayla last month.
can you believe she's 7 months old now?!!
it was a cold, windy morning so michelle rugged her up nice and warm.

~ our own little eskimo ~

have a blissful weekend, dear friends!!

~ love, light and peace ~

I WANT TO....

do this...


...and this

So, what is my problem?! I do all the prep work but then I seem to make any excuse under the sun to avoid getting into my studio to actually paint. The last painting I attempted was before I got sick and it just wasn't working out for me so I painted over it with gesso. Ever since, I've been avoiding the studio.

I'm reading books.
I'm knitting.
I crocheting.
I'm journaling.
Just about everything BUT painting......

Am I a lost cause?

I WANT to paint and my excuses are starting to wear a little thin with my patience. What is up with that? Is this period of stagnation here for a reason? Whatever it is, I know that it's bugging me and I sure hope it passes soon.

What do you do when you come up against periods of stagnation in your art/craft?

Love, light and peace

EDM challenge #45 - Draw something holdiday themed

Thanks to the warm and caring encouragement from my wonderful readers/friends, I took a step towards breaking my creative drought today. Hopefully, I will be able to keep it going. Thanks everyone for you support....it truly means a lot to me ~
Pigma Micron pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook - © Serena LewisClick on image to enlarge

MISSING - My muse! If you find it, please send it home.

I've been feeling so out of the loop the past week or so......I fear I have lost my muse. I just can't seem to motivate myself to paint or draw. The frustrating part is that I have lots of ideas for paintings swirling around in my head but even that hasn't motivated me to pick up a pencil or brush to get it all down on paper before I forget them. Believe me, if you have a memory like mine, you will definitely understand the need for me to do that. Admittedly, I have a ton of other, more burdensome, thoughts swirling around in my head too so maybe I need to clear the clutter of my mind first before I can free the creative spirit within. Any ideas? I do journal but I've even been lax there too. Note to self - I really need to get back into my daily meditations.

Maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed and one of the reasons may well be this monstrosity of a fishtank and stand. Can you feel the love? My darling son, Beau, brought it home a couple of weeks ago after an impulse buy because he decided he wanted to upgrade from the two smaller fishtanks currently taking up residence in his room.
Just take a guess at who is going to be painting the latest addition for him? Hmmmmmmmm....I hear ya....my thoughts exactly, I swear....but what could I say? He was so excited about setting it up....well, that was until a couple of days ago when, Xena, his favourite fish died. Poor Beau was not happy and now this massive tank could possibly be home to a turtle instead of fish. I did explain to him that turtles have an expiry date too but he said he's over the fish.

On the new fishtank stand, Beau wants me to paint the same crackled effect (black with cream cracks) that I did on the other stand in his room. It looks much better in reality than in the photo.
At least I will be painting again but it's not the type of painting I want to be doing. This job is going to be fiddly too! :( I do love my son, honest I do......this is the same son who wants me to do the painting of zebras for his room after I've done all this other stuff. I might add at this point that Beau is a fabulous artist in his own right and I feel quite honoured that he wants me to paint the zebras.... just not the other stuff. Love jobs - let's just say that I have a love/hate relationship with them. Of course, I do have the option of telling him to go ahead and paint the massive, monstrosity of a fishtank stand himself but, when he did start painting the 'other' stand in his room, I quickly took over the task because Beau seems to have an uncanny knack for spattering paint everywhere.....and I mean everywhere! I remember the clean ups all too well. Black, spattered paint all over my studio? I don't think so.

This and That ~

I've been very busy over the past week so sorry I haven't posted before now.

NEWSFLASH - We are finally getting some rain!!! It has even fallen in our dam catchment areas which means we are now given an extra week of grace before being hit with Level 6 water restrictions. I'm not looking forward to that.

This week, I decided to refurbish the desk in my room. This poor old desk has been through the mill as far as makeovers go......in its original state, it was a timber laminate look with black desktop (never got a pic so you will have to use your imagination). My sister was throwing it out because it had seen better days so I decided to take it and do what I could to give it a new lease on life.....it was then changed to purples and pinks for my daughter's room.

My daughter eventually relinquished it to me and I quickly changed it to whites and pinks when I went through my Shabby Chic phase......

In recent months, I refurbished it in greens but then felt it clashed with, more than matched, my room so I changed it yet again.

It's finally ended up like this to fit in better with the sea/beach theme of my bedroom.......

What do you think?

Today, I had one of my students over to paint and, unbeknowns to her, to celebrate her birthday which was yesterday. We had a lovely morning and feasted on pavlova! Angie also bought me a lovely bunch of tulips as a housewarming gift. Thank you so much, Angie!!!
Aren't they lovely?! I've taken lots of pics so you may well see them featured in a future painting.

Well that's all for now but stay tuned for my next post where I will tell you about the emu in the fence. ;) Admit it, you're dying of curiosity, aren't you???!!! Remember, patience is a virtue.....

From my sketchbook to you...

It's been a very busy week for me with my son on school holidays and trying to work on commissions so I really don't have much to show you. However, I've decided to post some drawings from my sketchbook. Even though I've been painting for over fourteen years, I'd never kept a sketchbook but, in 2002, I borrowed a book from the library titled - Drawing on the Right Side of your Brain by Betty Edwards - and I was so impressed. When the new, updated edition came out by the same author, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I just had to have it! If you're interested in reading an explanation and trying a drawing exercise for yourself, visit Betty Edward's web-site. Another fabulous book that is like a bible to me is The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Her book is more about developing your creativity, not actually teaching you to draw, and I have found it invaluable. It's set out as a twelve week course in which you are given weekly exercises to complete. I have read this book numerous times and highly recommend it especially if you are in the midst of the dreaded artist's block.


Border Collie puppy (charcoal pencil) - © Serena Lewis

Rose Study (drawn from life - charcoal pencil) - © Serena Lewis

My son sleeping (drawn from life) - © Serena Lewis

My daughter's hands - © Serena Lewis

Buddha (drawn from life) - © Serena Lewis