Art Journal Collage

Had a little time this afternoon to play with some journal pages, the hardest part is to wait for the gesso or paint to dry, and then actually finish a page!
I painted the background first, not that you can see it now, never mind its all a learning curve. Then collaged anything which I liked from old magazines I had lying around, glued them in with no thought to where or why. Then I gessoed, painted over that, and then gessoed some more, to tone the colours down. Then I went over the edges with some crayons, just to make the collaged pieces pop out!
Lastly I added another piece of paper, on which I had written a list of "How to Journal", I just wrote what ever came to mind, then glued that on and gessoed over it, painted on the back once it was folded to make it look like it was part of the collaged pieces.
It was messy and fun and quite liberating, just painting without any thought to an outcome.Hope you like my pages and maybe give it a try.





This is a tag from gorgeous Bev, I received in the mail a few days ago. Love getting mail, love getting arty mail especially.It is now hanging on a hook by the phone in the kitchen, so I get to see it and be reminded of how lucky I am every day. The "Spread The Love" give away is a tag giveaway. Once you receive the tag, it is then your turn to giveaway tags to 3 participants, plus one back to the previous tag/love giver.
All you have to do is leave a comment on my blog before the end of March.
So go on, don't be shy be part of it and let's all spread some love to one another.
Who knows how far the tags will go around the world? How very exciting!
Everyone is welcome :)
Meanwhile, I will be making more journal pages too, and tags. In between family visiting from Sydney.
Have a great weekend!

First Year of School/ Back to work for me!

Wow, so much has happened in the last couple of weeks!
The holidays are over, and my youngest has started her first year of school. Look at her, she looks all grown up. It is an end of an era for me, no more stay at home mum, now I go back to work.
I have mixed feelings about it all. But most of all I am excited about all the new changes coming up, a little anxious too, but mainly excited about what work will bring to all of us.
Firstly more money, less pressure for my husband to be the only bread winner, more independence for me, meet new people make new friends, and earn more money so I can buy more art supplies! (Last year I really had to watch what I spent my money on, most of it went into the art class.) So many positive things will come from it!

In the last few weeks I was also thinking about no longer writing my blog, giving up art, because I was feeling the pressure to conform, just concentrate on work and the family. But the weirdest thing kept happening, I kept hearing this voice saying "Keep the dream alive". So after more thinking, and hearing this voice in my head, I thought, no, NO. I will not give it up, I will not leave it till later, I will not forget about my dream, my spirit, I will not shelve it away till it gets all dusty and worn. Even though I haven't kept up with my blogging as I would have liked it too, some nights I am just too tired, blogging and its community has come to mean so much to me, I would miss catching up with all of you, I would miss seeing everyone growing and changing, also I would miss sharing my art with you, unfortunately in my circle of friends i have very few people who get what I do, who understand why it has become so important to me. So I am keeping the dream alive and as Oprah says, live my best life! ;)

So whilst going through all the turmoil of feeling a little down and blue, I made a journal page titled "What makes a house a home?" I felt that after so many years as a stay at home mum I felt very privileged to have had that opportunity, to make a home with my husband and children. And some of the words which came to me were; love, laughter, sharing a meal, cubby houses out of blankets, artworks displayed, music, tea breaks, acceptance, hugs, sanctuary.

I found this wonderful artist "Mystele" who paints lovely pictures in mixed media and she is doing a 2 week course which I have joined, very excited about starting it 1st of February, go have a look at her website and if you are interested in her class, I think she has a great presence.

This year for me I don't have a resolution as such but more a promise I have made to my self, to make art which resonates with me, more authentic, even if at first i may stumble and make ugly art! (quite a scary concept for me), but I just want to let go of my inhibitions and open my heart.
One type of painting or drawing I have been interested in is intuitive art/painting, where the artist allows the art to come from another place, inside of themselves.
Let's see where all this will take me!

Thank you all for coming on this journey with me, my blogger friends old and new, it has meant so much to me. Angie ox

Micro- movements, stillness and inspiration

In the past few weeks I have made more progress in my art than I have the whole year. Instead of sitting for big chunks of time, I have been taking snippets of it and quickly working away, stealing five minutes here and there depending on what is happening.
Moving slowly on each project, then working some more as time allows.
I always thought that doing it this way would lack passion or focus, but I have surprised myself that it actually makes more fun, and less pressure. I have made lots of journal backgrounds, with left over paints, fibre, materials what ever I had at hand. Soon I will fill these pages with collage, words, journaling, doodling and more paint! Fun-fun-fun!
Which brings me to my new years resolution! Fun being the operative word. When I did the art course I had to learn so much in such a short period, and a lot of focus on skill and technique, and for me it took away the fun of art and the spontaneity it can have when you are excited and exploring new mediums or projects. If I can find a different art course which encourages these values and beliefs I will enroll straight away!

This is a drawing of a girl from my imagination, (I have been enjoying drawing and sketching faces) I will transfer her image on to a painted canvas and then I will doodle some shapes around her. This idea was taken from Milliande's Channel on You Tube called "Mixed Media Painting Canvas - Combining Art" Lots of exploring and playing, so much fun!

A few weeks ago I met with Crissy at the Northey Street Markets, she is a wonderful inspiring artist who is involved in community and environmental art work. I went with my girls to one of her workshops, we made planter pots and covered it with recycled materials, Chrissy then gave us sunflower seeds to grow in our pots. The seedlings are growing beautifully, when they flower I will post a picture, we are all very excited to see them. Maybe I will be inspired to sketch them!

The new year will bring with it many exciting challenges. I will be starting work, after 7 years of being a stay at home mum (ohh my!). In late January I will be teaching as a Relief for the first few years as I am new to Queensland Education, I am originally from Darwin Northern Territory. So I need to make up points till I become permanent and then I can find work at a school, this is where I have come up with my wonderful idea, to make an Art Club in school time and do some sort of journal art, or canvas painting with kids that are interested in creative arts. Another idea I have been thinking of strongly is about doing more studies in Art Therapy, as you can see from most of my posts I believe art can heal us and bring peace and joy to our lives by allowing us to free our worries or burdens through expressing ourselves. But we will see what the year brings.

I wanted to thank you all for supporting and sharing your art and your hearts with me throughout the year, this journey has given me so much, a real belief that life can give you what you need at the right time. It has helped me grow and realise that we truly all are wonderful special human creative beings.

Merry Christmas to you all, love Angie. :D

Time for hibernation into the art cave.

This week has been slower and quieter, lovely really. As I am still recovering from a head cold.
I needed some time for self, so I have also had time for creating, some research (surfing finding new blogs, some great creativity going out there!), time with family.
As things have slowed down I have had lots of time to think and was able to really write in my journal, this is a book that I write my thoughts on art, things I want to make and how to work some projects, collections of pictures I like, brainstorming ideas etc...It really helps with having a clear mind on what I want to create, which of late I have not.
I have wanted to start an Art Journal and took on the Serendipity Compass challenge from "True North Arts".
I got half way and got stuck for ideas and kind of froze for a while, so then I took out my trusty journal and started writing out ideas, rough sketches and I am going to add to my compass some 'inchies', something I found out about whilst researching, they are one inch cardboard squares decorated and embellished how ever one wants, so I will try these out and post soon.
Didn't actually realise how small an inch was! (in Australia we work with cm)
Anyhows, I am going back to my art and finish those tiny inchies.
Here is a doodle I did a few nights ago, hope you all have a great week, Angie ox.

Let the beauty we love be what we do

Rumi