Real work?

I ran another creativity class today and it went so well we lost track of time and will have to finish our project off next week. As I posted yesterday we painted mandalas onto a calico tote, using acrylic paints. The bags look brilliant, but I forgot to take my camera - aach - so I've taken a photo of my bag at home, and will hopefully remember the camera to photograph everyone else's creations next week.

We were all feeling somewhat stressed this morning when I arrived, associated with work, family, school runs - the usual busy lives we lead. So after Linda gave us a reading on the Aura-Soma bottles we'd chosen, I eased us into the class with some wet-on-wet watercolour - I have posted about this before; you simply wet a piece of watercolour paper with water until it resembles a mini swimming pool, choose 3 colours for your palette and then brush, splodge, flick, dot paint all over the page. Don't let your head lead - it's all from the heart! Then take a look at what you've done and you'll be surprised what shows up. Our symbols ranged from angels, starbursts, flowers to pebbles! It really relaxed us, and made us open to painting some of our favourite symbols into a mandala for our bags.

It's a real honour to be working with the 'girls' in the group. They are all very creative, even though most of them would deny it! And they inspire me - hopefully I do the same for them. I told my husband about my 'work' today and he teased me by saying that it couldn't be work because I enjoyed it too much. (He's just jealous!!) Maybe I should call it a blessing instead of work?

Preparation is important

I'm very proud of myself - I've managed to work out how to 'shrink' my photos so that I don't use up so much of my picture allowance. Now for you technically minded people out there it's nothing to brag about, but trust me it's a big thing for me! The added plus is that the photos are loading in seconds, rather than me having enough time to go off and make a cup of tea, have a chat with someone ...

Today we changed around the furniture in the kid's rooms and did other house chores. It has to be done I suppose, can't spend every moment of everyday doing something arty (if only ...) I have been thinking about my creativity lesson tomorrow though - I do actually have lessons planned, but as I go along during the week I'll think of a different way to approach an activity, or think of something else I can add to the particular activity. This week we're going to be painting a design on a shopping tote, and I've since last week decided we should make it a mandala design. Let's see what's produced tomorrow.

Oh well, had better finish now. I've got some homework to do - it's my turn to interview Violette on the blog tour next Wednesday and I have to get the questions to her today so that she has some time to prepare. The other blogs that have taken part so far have set the bar high, and I may have to re-think a couple of my questions. It's been great to see so many other creativity blogs whilst learning some more about a unique and lovely artist.

The photo above was taken by my son; we are standing on the beach at Mission Bay, and you can see Rangitoto Island (yes, it is a volcano!) in the background - it can be seen from anywhere in Auckland and is particularly distinctive in shape. It's featured in a couple of my paintings, and in a fair few more around the world I should think.

Creative Overload? Never!

Today was the opposite of yesterday! Then I was sitting and calmly cutting and piling up my hexagons - today I couldn't stop creating! As you can see from the photo above I've been painting some of my spirit dolls, getting them ready to sell in my Etsy store. I love the purple and orange smaller dolls, but there's more work to be done on the green doll. It's funny how our tastes are though, because my husband came in from work, and said 'hey, I like that doll'. They're just not my usual colours I work with that's all, but it's good to break out of my colour comfort zone, and not everyone is going to like orange and purple as much as me! I also painted another part of the larger canvas I shared with you a few weeks ago, and designed a bag that I will be able to produce quickly and then paint, again to sell on Etsy.

After this flurry of activity I made kumara (sweet potato) soup, and a lovely scrummy lemon meringue pie. I feel tired now! But that comforting sort of tired you get when you've worked/studied hard and feel you've had a good result!

Nearly forgot to mention having time to muck about and take photos of myself wearing my NZ necklace I bought in Raglan. Then editing them to give more attention to the necklace rather than the laughter lines on my face!! Quite a good arty photo though, and I like my smile! I was trying not to laugh a lot of the time, because my sister takes photos like this and we always end up with huge heads, or candid shots of our nostrils!

Now I'm going to sit down and watch an old episode of the UK series 'Teachers', whilst trying to needlefelt some heart shapes for an idea I've had about my creativity class on Thursday. I suppose you could call it work, but I love it so much ... I'll post the results tomorrow if it works. Hey I'll even post it if it goes terribly wrong, it's good to have a laugh!

Quiet Monday

To be honest I've been a bit off focus for the past few days because of some health issues - hormones - say no more. I'm being sent off for a few tests and am now feeling relieved to be taking some action, rather than sitting there imagining no end of awful scenarios. And yes, mum, I promise not to read any more medical manuals to try and work out what is wrong all by myself. :)

Today has been spent cutting out the 400 hexagons I drew yesterday. I like taking care to get the shapes perfect and piling them up into neat mountains on the arm of the sofa. It must mean something, probably not good, that I'm as fastidious as I am with a very boring and repetitive job!

I've also had a bit of a breakthrough with my guardian doll for the healing medicine doll course with Barb Kobe. I had a creative block for some reason, and it all fell away when I thought of a name for my doll. Can't wait to get her finished now, but I'd better start making her first before I get excited about that! I'll post pictures as the process happens.

So there you have it, a quietly meditative day for me, creating in a very understated way, but still taking steps forward. Enjoy the photo of the 'tiki' - it's from a monument on One Tree Hill in Auckland. I love the no-nonsense attitude it conveys.

Taking time out ...

Eastern Beach in Auckland - we used to walk along here every day to take the kids to school.


This hill is just amazing - like someone carved it. Too beautiful. (Raglan)


Must be because I'm English, but I just love clouds! (Raglan)

It's a Sunday, but with my 'writing every day in May' challenge (couldn't resist naming the challenge - too much rhyming to miss it!) I have to write on my usual day off. So, what have I been up to on this lovely autumnal Sunday? I've been sitting in the back yard drawing over 400 little hexagons onto quilting fabric with my cardboard template. Seriously. My husband was a little worried, but I actually found it very meditative and was away in my own little world for hours, until the magic was broken at twilight by a mozzie trying to have me for tea!

I've also found time to browse some of the blogs I follow, and today I was looking at the work of the unique and talented Alisa Burke. Take a look at her website - I love her work because it's so vivid and original. It has a real feeling of freedom, and makes me think that she has had the courage to step forward and follow her dream of making art with passion. Her whole attitude is inspirational to me - take a look for yourself.

As it is supposed to be a day of rest (ha, ha!) I've included some more photos of our New Zealand holiday. Still trying to maintain that lovely, relaxed feeling of not being obliged to do anything by any deadline - fading rapidly, but I'll cling to it for as long as I can!

Art from the heart becoming real!

Gorgeous colours


A 'birds-eye' view - creativity abounds - look at all that lovely glitter!

On Thursday I had my very first creativity lesson of 2009! A step towards my arty dream! The classes in this series carry on for another 4 weeks, so if you feel like taking some time out to nurture your creativity, meeting some great people and be inspired and inspiring, drop along to the Creative Seeds studio at 5/264 Kalamunda Road, Maida Vale - Thursdays, 9.30 - 11.30 am. Cost is $30 per session. I'm hoping to do some workshops over the next few months as well, so watch this space ...

Our first project was on the theme of nurturing our creativity, and affirming it visually. The first step was to felt an (empty) egg with wool fibres, build a nest for it and finally to write an affirmation to creativity! I had thought of getting each person to write a tiny letter to themselves with creative encouragement written on them, but had a brainwave the day before the class about writing the affirmation on a small mandala to place under the egg. Mine read 'I am living the creative life' in a decreasing spiral to the centre of my mandala, and on the bottom of the nest I wrote 'I am an artist - and loving it'. I've read in so many self-help books that if you want to become something, you have to act like that something. Between us we all produced some lovely nests to nurture our creative spirits. Isn't it wonderful how different each one is? That's the beauty of creativity, it's infinite in its possibilities.

Whilst I'm writing about creative people, I want to mention my mum who is a very talented writer, who's always been so busy looking after us all she's never found the time to indulge in her passion for creating wondrous worlds through her stories. I'm hoping now she's retired she'll be able to find time for her passion and write and create with abandon! She was (and is) one of the biggest encouragers of my creativity - thank you mum!! Now it's your turn!

I think it's vital we all follow the dreams we have, after all imagine if you didn't try - you'd never know what could have been ... so go on ... follow that dream.

Setting myself a new challenge ...

Now I know a few posts ago I wrote about not feeling obliged to write a blogpost, but I'm a bit disappointed with how little I wrote in April, so I've decided to give myself another challenge of writing each day in May. I think I lost my focus somewhere along the way, as does happen, so now I'm bringing myself back to the path (see last post!) and heading towards my creative goal again.

As we are on a creative note, check out Violette's blog for a list of tour dates for her book tour by blog - yes, the amazingly talented Violette has had her first book published, and she is promoting it by inviting people who have a regular blog to post an interview with her, which she will promote on her blog. The tour started on 29th April and the bloggers have asked some very interesting questions. I'm wondering how I can manage to live up to the ones asked so far, and am working on a list of questions right now. It's my turn to post my questions and Violette's answers on May 13th, so keep a look out. In the meantime, take a look at Violette's blog which is always very informative and also click on the links to the other blogs involved in the tour. The book is called 'Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash Your Inner Eccentric' and you can order it on Amazon.