Rainy Tuesday

The day started with light drizzle and the kids wanting to be driven to school, but I’m “horrible” and made them walk, it stopped pretty soon after they left and they would have been fine. Hubby and I went for our 4 mile walk at the same time and there was no rain to speak of.

That said the rain did start mid morning and hasnt stopped yet, its been horrible across most of the UK today by all accounts, we have had flood warnings on our side of the country. I believe London has been badly affected, I hope everyone is okay.

I decided that today’s art work would be the zoom call I missed from Gezellig. This piece is showing Anyali and the pieces we have gathered on our journey. This piece has actually taken me most of the day, but I am happy with it.

I also made a piece for The Ugly Art Club prompt #Holey I didn’t really know what to do, but was inspired by leaking Derwent paint brush pens, and ended up just splodging all over the place.

The exciting news for today is @owlsowner has been saving his money for ages and has finally bought himself something. He is super excited to have this, and was so keen to get started on it after homework (yes again I’m horrible and made him do the boring stuff before the fun stuff!) This is a very grown up piece, and it will tax him, but I think he will be OK as long as he concentrates.

We all love Lego in this house, I’m from the generation that said “girls don’t have Lego” so I’m definitely finding some fun in it now. I have the Steamboat Mickey Mouse, and I really want the botanical sets but I’ve spent so much on art stuff I dare not buy it.. still Christmas is coming isnt it…. 🙂

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Self Care

Monday, kids back to school, hubby to work and I have a morning session for Crystal Healing.

It’s been lovely and sunny today, it’s obvious it’s September as there is a nice crisp start to the mornings. I love autumn, the changing seasons, the crisp mornings & warm afternoons and the slow turn of the leaves from green to yellow as the garden slows down and stores it’s energies to survive the winter. I know that feeling, that hunkering down and taking care of yourself to survive a tough time. My crystal session is very much about finding that hunkered down version of me and letting it resurface in a safe environment.

Anyway, art today has been a bit limited, I have completed a journal page, it’s not the sort of thing I normally do and I don’t know what it represents, but it’s the sort of thing I see all over Instagram so I guess it’s okay.

I also have taken a Karen Campbell class from the Fun Fab Drawing Club to draw in One Point Perspective sketchy/urban style and watercolour. This is an A6 postcard. I think I might look into making my own version so that I can make prints and get this sort of thing on my Etsy store.

I picked the runner beans and prepared them in to three batches, two for the freezer and one for tea. I also picked the last of the rhubarb and made a huge rhubarb and apple crumble, we had it with custard and everyone was very full at the end of the meal but very happy 🙂 Proper English comfort food.

I don’t have much to say today, Its been a nice day of healing and taking care of myself as well as looking after the family.

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Lazy Sunday

I’m gonna be honest today has been rather lazy, I had a rubbish nights sleep and I woke with a stinker of a headache that despite all efforts still hasn’t gone some 12 hours later. I’ve taken appropriate levels of paracetamol but its just not shifting.

Anyway enough of that, here’s what I have to tell you today.

Last night I attended the last Zoom call of the Gezellig summer art course I’ve been on. It’s such a lovely group of people, and it’s been nice to get to see each other on Zoom, all corners of the world are represented. Whilst I haven’t finished all the art work of the class, I have done about 90% which is pretty good for me! here is last nights work.

We were advised that they will be running the course again next summer, so I shall hope to get signed up for it again. If anyone wants details just let me know 🙂

Today I have done some organising and tidying of the art room; watched the F1 and been waited on by my wonderful hubby who cooked a fabulous meal for us. We had Yellow Thai Curry. It was super tasty, he did everything, including most of the washing up which I normally nab, but I was pottering around the garden for some fresh air and sorting out plastic garden pots to offload to a neighbour (some may come back filled with strawberry plants!). After dinner the kids dispersed to their own tasks, hubby went to play Xbox so I got a little time to art. I was definitely in the “I want to do it but don’t know what to do” space. I ended up doing this weeks Wanderlust piece. This represents my “haven” and me within it.

Lastly I remember I haven’t blogged, so here I am, we have a cup of hot chocolate and hubby is waiting on me to finish so we can watch some TV and have an early night as everyone has to get up early tomorrow.

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Homework day

A lovely weather day here today, it was nice to have the doors and windows open and just potter around the house and garden. We had a lazy start to the day, which included checking on the greenhouse and picking a “few” tomatoes, we may just have to have some everyday for now on!

tomatoes
home grown tomatoes

I have spent a good part of today doing my homework, I’ve been a good girl and I’ve done it all. I shall put the photos here. Hopefully its what the tutor wants, but I have to say I really enjoyed challenging myself to come up with a specific creative project, with a small design brief, and going through the planning stage.

  • Paint Effects
  • Collage planning page
  • collage planning page
  • collage planning page
  • collage planning page

And my final piece is here, I loved making this page, I didnt actually want to stop, I will maybe make another one, but for me.

Finished Collage

I have a zoom meeting later this evening for an online art class, the last one of the class, and I have 2 days of Sewtember to achieve, but I am as sleepy as Max so likely something will not get done.

Last night we watched the Denzel Washington film Flight. Its been on our list a long time, when we got to the end we were both amazed at how powerful a film it was, and how we are so often surprised by how great an actor Denzel actually is.

I’ve been catching up on podcasts this week too, Show up and Shut by Willa Wanders, Get Messy by Caylee Grey and Kick in the Creatives, These 3 are my favourite, I also listen to The Craftermath, 1 Scot 1 Not, and I dip into a few others sometimes too, Laura Horn, The Paper Outpost, TalkArt. Non art ones are Liz Earle Wellbeing, Newton Health My Menopause doctor, and Happy Place. I probably don’t have time for much else but I’m always on the lookout for good podcasts so please feel free to let me know your favourites!

Until tomorrow, thanks for reading 🙂

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

College Day

Yes its true, the day I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived and I enrolled at art college! I am taking a Level 2 Diploma in Art and Design, it was a long day and I am not going to lie, I am shattered!!

I arrived for a 10am start, after making my way through the roadwork hell that is Norwich. For some reason every road in Norfolk seems to have roadworks at the moment, well it feels that way anyway!

I arrived, got my name badges and found a desk to sit at. COVID restrictions are in place so appropriate spacing and single desks each. Two of my classmates were on the taster day I attended in August, so it was nice to see familiar faces. I managed to talk to around a third of the other students today, its a year long class so we will all get to know each other.

Today was all about the enrolment and an easy start into the class. We received the obligatory health & safety and course expectations talk then it was onto the day with our tutor. We received the materials pack that will get us started, it has brushes, paint tray palette & palette paper, acrylic watercolour papers, acrylics and watercolours as well as oil paints (new to me and I have avoided to date), pencils; in fact everything we need to get us going. Also within the pack is an A3 hardback ring bound sketchbook. This will become our main note-taking, course ideas and play book, it forms part of our coursework and therefore will be assessed at various intervals during the course. We were shown examples of other students books… and WOW we are going to be doing a LOT of work. All materials are from the UK company Seawhite, so I am appropriately impressed.

On to the work for today and our homework.

The course is aimed at everyone, regardless of experience, no assumptions are made as to our abilities, we are all starting at the same place.

Today is all about paint effects. Use two colours and make marks on a page, with 8 styles demonstrated and then for us to do it. I ended up making around 12 pages.

Painterly Pages

Once that was dry, its time to cut swatches from them, and stick them into our notebooks, with appropriate annotation. A bit like the “scraps diary” that I do with added wording.

Homework is to use whats left, and make a collage picture. But to also sketch ideas into the notebook with appropriate annotation again. For the picture I can use other materials and mediums to really go for it.

There is a theme here. Do some practice, sketch about it, annotate it. I can do that right?

Longer term our notebook will forge the basis for larger more complete art.

  • swatches in the A3 sketchbook
  • scraps I am determined to use somewhere!

I still need to plan the homework and finish the annotation, but that’s about it for today, I am exhausted and as its Friday night its film night, and I will try not to fall asleep!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.